Iron Grip: Warlord Review

Before we jump into the review, I managed to get an interview with Isotx, the developers of Iron Grip: Warlord. IG:W is a Co-op game where you try to survive against an onslaught of soldiers, using an RTS system which involves placing turrets and med-stations to try and hold forces off. Anyone can switch to the 'RTS' mode, but most of the game places as a first person shooter. As a winner of the 2008 MOTY awards, IG:W is a promising game with some unique concept and a clever game-play system.

Indie Devs: Can you explain the setting a bit to fill in anyone who doesn't know about IG:W?
Isotx: The world of Iron Grip: Warlord is a steam/dieselpunk universe where large Victorian-esque empires are fighting for control. In the specific IG:Warlord setting, the Confederation of Nallum has invaded the small neutral warband-nation of Atelia in order to outclass it's northern opponent. Small bands of Atelian warlords have banded together utilizing dubious methods to fight off the invaders.

Indie Devs: What inspired this idea from the start?
Isotx: Gameplay wise we were always interested in defense-type situations, where players would have to battle impossible odds holding out "the base". A lot of cool movies like Saving Private Ryan have the "last stand" scenes and we wanted to try and focus this game around such a scenario. We looked at the Art of Defense maps in Warcraft 3 and in C&C Generals and then to the tower defense webgames and slowly started piecing together the idea of converting such a setup to an FPS Title.

Indie Devs: What would you say was the most difficult part of developing this project?
Isotx: Technological limitations were the biggest issue, due to the heavy load of AI controlled opponents we had. We tried to bypass certain problems through choosing an older-school engine so we could custom-tailor it to suit our needs, though it proved a lot more difficult than we imagined.

Indie Devs: What plans do you have for Iron Grip: Warlord in the near future?
Isotx: We're concentrating our efforts on patching up some of the problems shown to us by the feedback we've received, and are working hard to improve the ramp-up of the game. One of the main problems we've had, is that there wasn't a proper tutorial and help-system thus we are working on improving this first, while at the same time implementing new features to help smooth out the gameplay and player-control, especially in single player.

Indie Devs: What about the distant future?
Isotx: Well we believe a project should never really die out, thus as long as we can do so, we will continue to add to Iron Grip: Warlord with new gameplay, badguys, battle-modes, and much more. There are only a few concrete things written up at the moment, but we're rapidly expanding not only with our own ideas, but also drawing from the overwhelming amount of user-feedback we've received so you'll see a lot of cool stuff coming your way.

Concepts of the Atelian Militia

Indie Devs: Overall, do you think this project has reached its potential, or do you think it has a long way to go?
Isotx: Considering the innovative nature of the setup, we definitely have some things to iron out, yet we do believe it has potential to become a cool arcade-like game, yet with depth.

Indie Devs: Players complained about many game-play elements, such as difficult RTS elements and hard-to-find captains. What are your responses to this?
Isotx: Well, we are smoothing out the learning-curve, so we are definitely working on improving the ramp-up to the game and improving some of the RTS mechanics, though regarding some of the difficulty criticism from reviewers; we are working on implementing easier difficulty settings, but this is not Maplestory; you need some steel balls to play this game, due to it's arcade-like nature, it's not meant for everybody.

Indie Devs: If you had to do this all over again, would you change anything during development?
Isotx: A bunch of things, mostly the technology backend, and possible try and go for a more multi-platform approach, though this is difficult even with the right technology due to the game's controls and pacing, and depending on what it would turn out to become, we'd be careful to not sacrifice gameplay or controls just to be able to put the game on multiple platforms.

Indie Devs: What is the art pipeline like? As this game is very artistically done, was creating characters from the concept difficult? Was it difficult to create the overall feel?
Isotx: Yeah the art-pipeline was fairly difficult since we upgraded the Quake 3 engine a lot to improve performance and optimise, which meant creating character art assets became rather painful though we got a descent pipeline setup eventually.

Concepts of the Atelian Warlords

To be more fair, and since this is a co-op game, I nabbed a few of my friends and got together on a match using the demo level: Spiral. Starting the server on a medium difficulty, we hopped into the map. The game has my kind of art style. Unique and creative. Right from the start you realize that this is much like one of those tower defense games, only with more FPS action. The concept is simple: Build up some sort of defense and take down tanks by hand to stop them from destroying your base.
You can go into an 'RTS' mode with a press of the 'G' button to upgrade, build, and manage defenses.
Though, you only have a limited number of things you can do while in RTS mode. You can build turrets, traps, a medical station and...? Honestly thats about it. When it gets down to it, that is all you need. It just feels like IG:W could have taken this one more step.

The shotgun and this anti-tank turret can really cripple enemy forces

Fortunately, enemies arrive by waves. Giving you just enough time to manage/rebuild your turrets before the next onslaught arrives. The first thing I noticed is this game is difficult. Our party struggled against the waves of tanks and masses of soldiers, only to be swarmed by flame thrower soldiers behind us. Enemy soldiers react differently depending on their class. The captains run and hide, cheering their team on. Rocket Launching troops sometimes sneak around and pelt your defenses. Most of the average soldiers walk blindly into the traps and line of fire, just waiting to be killed.

Although easy to kill by ones, the enemy soldiers easily out number and destroy your defenses when they get the chance. With the money income usually low, keeping your defense line intact is your only hope, and all it takes is a single tank to get by and lay your base to ruins.

Nothing like getting burned by the flame-thrower.

The unique guns have an odd impact on game-play. Its difficult to get an all around decent weapon.
Every gun usually does very well in a particular area, such as range for example, but where one weapon does well the others do not. It took me a few rounds before I got very comfortable using the single-shot musket. I then soon found myself picking weapons I never thought I normally would, and found myself very much liking weapons like the single-shot musket and the flame-bomb shotgun.

The upgrade system only compliments this. If you upgrade your attack and reload speed, the musket quickly becomes a one-hit-kill wonder. Choosing extra health and a rocket launcher makes you invaluable for taking down the amazingly powerful four legged war walkers. Since money is tight in multiplayer, you often find yourself setting up a 'class'. One guy will usually take charge of the defenses, while one guy will go scout ahead and shoot rockets at the tanks. One lucky individual usually gets to hunt the officers.

These nasty machines tend to ruin your day.

Needless to say, I was very impressed with Iron Grip: Warlord. I had a different sense of expectations, but found myself liking the universe, game-play, and the systems that go with it.
I still feel the RTS system and the upgrade system could have gone one step more. Every single type of weapon needed is in-game, and everything needed for RTS is in-game, but somehow it feels like Isotx could have taken this one step farther to really get some stratigical elements going.

For example, I would have liked to see something slow soldiers down, or some sort of new trap to deploy, or along those lines. The last thing I'll complain about was the maps. Once again, its well done for what it needs to be, but I still have this overwhelming urge that it could have taken an extra step. The urban maps are somewhat confusing and full of short cuts and surprises, but above all still confusing.

If you decide to take up the fight against the confederacy, I'd recommend playing a few rounds of IG:W to get used to the maps and the game-play. Mostly because this game has a learning curve, that can be very un-forgiving.

RTS system is thought-out, helpful, and works well.
Character upgrade system is helpful, yet costly to your team.
Music and sound is great, very enjoyable.
Unique art style that can be seen in the weaponry and characters and vehicles.

Steep learning curve. Not for the faint of heart, expect a few losses for the first few matches.
Maps are usually quite confusing, and will take some time before you really learn about each one.
RTS system/upgrade system could have used more expansion, and a little refinement.

Honestly, I really liked it. I could see this as being a great LAN game, and also a nice online game if the servers got more people.