Iron Danger - Superhot meets XCOM

Eurogamer checked out the tactical RPG Iron Danger:

What happens when Superhot meets XCOM?

Meet Iron Danger, a new take on a Finnish legend.

Finland has provided its fair share of classics over the years - from Resogun to Trials through Alan Wake and Angry Birds - but here's one of a different vintage; a game that draws upon a Finnish classic from the 19th century. Kalevala is an epic that's informed much of Finland's national identity, drawing upon Finnish folklore (and proving influential to Tolkien as he built his own mythology) - and all this without a voxel in sight.

It's ripe for returning to, really, which is exactly what upstart Helsinki developer Action Squad - a team who draws experience from seemingly every studio in the area, with Remedy, Rovio, Supercell and RedLynx all making appearances on the various CVs - is doing with Iron Danger, a tactical turn-based adventure with a few neat twists of its own. You're Kipuna, an everyday villager who is granted superpowers that place her in the middle of an epic battle for the city of Kalevala.

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Another game that might be good depending on the full entity but can someone explain how this relates to 'superhot' ?

Sounds good but the description makes it look like it has a lot of puzzle elements.

Wouldn't that make a good thing a better thing ?

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Sound good but the description makes it sound like it has a lot of puzzle elements.

Originally Posted by you
Wouldn't that make a good thing a better thing ?

Not good for me as I hate puzzle games.

Looks pretty interesting, I always intended to read "Kalevala" some day but it never happened. I´ll have to keep a lookout for this title.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Not good for me as I hate puzzle games.

In Soviet Finland, Puzzle game tries to figure you out
--
Qu'est que c'est, le Superhot?

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
In Soviet Finland, Puzzle game tries to figure you out

Old Russian jokes but yes I usually waste to many hours trying to solve them. I solemnly admit I've been casualized over the last twenty years with modern games.

Guess it is a good thing that most newer rpgs don't have very good puzzles. vaguely I think D:AO had some decent ones but i'm trying to think of something newer - divinity original sin had a few minor ones but nothing that interesting.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Old Russian jokes but yes I usually waste to many hours trying to solve them. I solemnly admit I've been casualized over the last twenty years with modern games.

Originally Posted by you
Guess it is a good thing that most newer rpgs don't have very good puzzles. vaguely I think D:AO had some decent ones but i'm trying to think of something newer - divinity original sin had a few minor ones but nothing that interesting.

Small puzzles don't bother it's the ones with little clues and no info that bother me. One example would be the Water Nymph quest form Drakensang - The River of Time.

By that trailer I don't see what this game has to do with Xcom. People need to stop using other games names to peddle their shit

Today, everything is called tactical RPG, for me, tactical RPG are games like Final Fantasy Tactics. Ok and XCOM but this, I would not think so.

Agreed doesn't look much like xcom, but could still be interesting. I don't really like traditional puzzles, but I like games with puzzle like elements, sort of like into the breach, where there isn't any one correct way to solve it. But I can't tell yet if this game will be like that or not.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Not good for me as I hate puzzle games.

One of the devs here!

I actually think the puzzle-like in there might not be what is commonly thought of a puzzle-like. For me, having puzzle-like combats in Iron Danger, is more comparable to situation where you have very hard encounter for example in DOS or XCOM that you just want to get through but you need to save/load numerous times before finding the good way. In a sense, that is actually solving a combat more puzzle-like.
Of course, in those cases there is also random factor that causes that you can just get lucky with some of your try and get it through.

However, at least for me, even though I'd have been annoyed by constant reloading and bit of a shameful feeling for "save scumming", those are the combats that I really remember and feel most satisfaction when I finish them. From my perspective, I've solved a great and challenging puzzle in the combat encounter itself. From my personal perspective, now that Iron Danger essentially takes all that as part of your usual game mechanics, it essentially turns things more puzzle-likes and can provide more of that experience.

Of course, time manipulation mechanics also allow to add very different kind of gameplay to the game otherwise as well. In a sense, you can give commands in precision of for example D:OS games (or any other traditional turn based game) but have the "action" feeling of games with simultaneous turns.

Originally Posted by Archangel
By that trailer I don't see what this game has to do with Xcom. People need to stop using other games names to peddle their shit

I'm one of the devs and I agree with you about not peddling our shit with names of the other games!

However, I think the reason why names of the other games easily pop out in any discussions (including interviews) is not due to the fact that people would like to use other games' names to sell their own, but instead that it is much easier to discuss about game by making comparison to existing ones.

The discussion would be much harder to go through if you first would like to start explaining for example some element interaction stuff as tactical element, when you can simply throw comparison to similar system in DOS.

So if you for example take a look at where the headline comes from, I think it comes from this "It's not so much an action - in playtesting we've had problems with people trying to play this like a Diablo, and the big issue is that this is actually a really intricate puzzle game where you've got to figure out what to do so that your characters don't get damage. There's all these knots you need to untangle, where your characters are in a difficult spot and you need to get them out of there. The closest thing is Superhot. Then mixed in with Braid. And you control it like XCOM."

With a limited time (and article space), that would be pretty much impossible to describe by purely describing all the mechanics.

Oh, and I'd have personally used comparison to DOS series instead of XCOM! and maybe picked Frozen Synapse instead of Superhot

Looks like a RealtimePause junk. They shouldn't have used the word XCOM. That means tactical turn based. This one doesn't appear so. Nice particle effects tho!

Originally Posted by mercy
Looks like a RealtimePause junk. They shouldn't have used the word XCOM. That means tactical turn based. This one doesn't appear so. Nice particle effects tho!

Xcom means more than tactical turn based. DOS means tactical turn based, Xcom is almost its own genre. It is why people need to stop using it to explain their game.
If you don't have a tactical and strategic layer in your game, if your tactical layer does not have expendable units that you can then replace with other expendable units, don't fucking compare it with Xcom.

@Archangel
I'm pretty sure you mean expendable…would be fun to see expandable units however!

Agreed on what you are saying. Xcom means tactical and strategic layer with soldiers that are disposable for the sake of the mission goal.

I find it amusing that you describe it as realtimepause junk when it is turn base. Makes me wonder if you have a clue what you are describing.

Anyway for those interested the steam link is here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/899310/Iron_Danger/

Originally Posted by mercy
Looks like a RealtimePause junk. They shouldn't have used the word XCOM. That means tactical turn based. This one doesn't appear so. Nice particle effects tho!

Originally Posted by Archangel
Xcom means more than tactical turn based. DOS means tactical turn based, Xcom is almost its own genre. It is why people need to stop using it to explain their game.
If you don't have a tactical and strategic layer in your game, if your tactical layer does not have expendable units that you can then replace with other expendable units, don't fucking compare it with Xcom.

I very much agree with you and as you can notice from article, nobody is saying that game mechanic would be XCOM. From article you notice the comparison be only about game controls, like in this sentence "And you control it like XCOM". And I'm pretty sure that we all agree that XCOM is pretty decent in tactical combat controls in any case..

So, even though article headline indicates such, it does not mean that we would be making XCOM game here and we are not stating to be making one