Iconoclasts
Robin just wants to be a mechanic and help people, but without a license she’s a sinner in Mother’s eyes. Ever since picking up her wrench, the world has been going nuts and she's wanted to bolt it back together. Now Penance is raining down on everyone she loves and One Concern agents are after her. But something big is going on – bigger than droughts of Ivory fuel and personal conflicts – and Robin’s in the thick of it. Hours of nut-twisting platform action-adventure Numerous densely detailed locations filled with fine-tuned action and puzzles 20+ gear-grinding, screen-filling boss battles stand in your way Three game-changing difficulty settings supported by a unique tweak system A heart-wrenching epic – can one mechanic fix the whole world? Iconoclasts is the masterwork of indie developer Joakim Sandberg, seven long years in the making. Iconoclasts delivers awesome action, hilarious hijinks and an emotional rollercoaster of deeply personal storytelling.
Steam User 15
The White:
In a broad sense, "yes". Iconoclasts gets the recommendation; it does a number of things really well. Visually, it's very well expressed. Sound design is decent. Musically, there are some high points, and it builds atmosphere and tone quite well. I enjoyed the movement and puzzling mechanics, generally. The sprite work is extremely detailed, and there's a ton of life and thought in the character dialogue (for most of the villains, anyway).
The Black:
I walked away from this game after blazing through ~70% of it back when it came out. I recall being ticked off about the stealth fight. I returned to it recently to 100% it. I offer some critiques with this in mind.
Turning boss fights into puzzles is an ambitious decision, and I respect it. The down-side, is that puzzle logic and combat logic often don't mix well. As a broad analogy, the best chess player in the world probably isn't all that great at chess if someone's taking pot shots at him from across the room with a 9mm. Having to split focus between survival and discerning an enemy's gimmick is a really quick way to test a player's patience.
The Gray:
For a while I couldn't figure out what Iconoclast's visual style reminded me of. It's very obvious, particularly late in the game when the sprite work gets massive and (intentionally) unsettling. It's Metal Slug. Once that piece "fit", a lot of the game-play and decisions started to make more sense to me. I still found a number of the fights frustrating for the sake of it, but I understood what I was working with.
I found most dialogue between the protagonists to be irrelevant. There was a concerted effort to use them to tell an interesting story, and there was a high note or two, but most of it felt pretty flat. (But that's just like, my opinion man.)
My penultimate thought is that Iconoclasts jumped on the bandwagon of adding a melee "parry" feature to their Metroidvania. It's incorporated well; it has a lot of versatility. Still, it's not a trend or a feature I enjoy, and I earnestly wish developers would stop doing it.
My final thought is that the boss rush is not worth your time, and I wouldn't bother with it unless you really want that last acheevo.
Steam User 14
The religious scripture in this game has a quote from Charles Manson lol. I went in expecting a metroidvania. I got that plus a puzzle platformer and a story about people taking religion too far. 10/10 would destroy the space worm again
Steam User 11
people saying this is a metroidvania are lying, do not go in with the expectations that this is what that is. it's an easy descriptor but doesn't match up in my opinion. a lot of the disappointment i see, to me, is because of misaligned expectations.
THAT BEING SAID. i'm a complete dweeb when it comes to "metroidvania" style games, but this game is a total blast and is welcoming enough that i was confident in seeing it through. appropriate for all skill levels, i'd say. energetic gameplay that picks up as soon as the game starts, interesting characters, fun boss fights, a well fleshed out story (that leaves room for very fun discussion!), and absolutely top tier music. CANNOT recommend this enough. i really suck at words and don't know how to articulate reasons for why i think something is Good in a concise way, but i love it so much that i want to leave a review. iconoclasts will be something that sticks with me for a long time.
i am royal and agent black's #1 shooters.
also, birbasaurus rex is a good final boss. change my mind. you cannot. one of these reviews needs calm down a little bit. the final boss also being a sort of universal mechanic is a fun theme. everything in this game is completely outrageous and over the top and there's no real reason the final boss couldn't be, too. it was fun anyways!
Steam User 10
This game will always have a special place in my heart.
Spoilers: Call me softhearted, but Royal and Black deserved a better fate. Also screw you Elro.
Steam User 5
Decent linear platformer with very slight Metroidvania elements. Puzzles and combat are based on electricity and magnetism.
Best description will be - Teslagrad but with combat (and with arcade-style physics).
Very good for a game that was done by one single developer, but compared to other games in same genre - just decent.
Steam User 6
An excellent MetroidVania-esque platformer, with more of a puzzle focus and less maze-like than other MetroidVanias. The bosses, for the most part, are peak boss design, imo.
Steam User 10
6.5/10
Contemplated a while if i should drop this to negative but i am more convinced it is just me that doesn't understand the finer points of this game as this cannot be treated anything like a traditional metroid game. It is quite unique to what i have played in recent memory but not necessary a better one than others.
First of all there is so much dialogue, events and weird encounters and even more weird bosses you fight than any average metroid-like game. And puzzles. The kind that are so weird that you sometimes don't know what to do, how to even start solving it. Do i need a item that i get later or do some weird trick with the grenade launcher or what. Sometimes you learn of mechanics by watching a YT video when you are so stuck and you go 'huh, didn't know you could do that'. Yes it is one of those games.
Game page lists these among it's features:
*Hours of nut-twisting platform action-adventure
*Numerous densely detailed locations filled with fine-tuned action and puzzles
*20+ gear-grinding, screen-filling boss battles stand in your way
Yeah there is a lot of 'nut-twisting' and 'grinding your gears' all right. Thing is this is the kind of stuff that attracts a certain type of people e.g. the kind that want a LONG game that makes you think and really try to absorb the rules of the world. Well i tried playing this in short stings here and there and it worked for quite some time until i realized i am just stuck and don't really have the energy to once again wonder what i have missed this time. It starts to add up as you progress even though in the end the advancement is quite linear. The problems and puzzles you need to solve to go forward in this tunnel though is anything but linear.
So a careful recommendation it is. Just don't expect this to be really casual in any way in the end. It has a relaxed mode to help with tough fights but puzzles can drain your stamina just the same so be careful what you wish for. It is the Pièce de Résistance of Joakim Sandberg so expect this to be quite an opus and not just a casual weekend snack regardless of which difficulty level you play it on.