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    Iconoclasts

    Game » consists of 6 releases. Released Jan 23, 2018

    A metroidvania style action adventure.

    Iconoclasts Impressions and Thoughts

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    chebbles

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    Hey all, I saw there was no forum post for this game yet so thought I would set one up to discuss it.

    I think I am about 4 hours or so into the game and...I'm a little underwhelmed, unfortunately. Starting positively, I think it's a really good looking game, particularly from an animation standpoint. What boss in particular early on that takes place underground requiring the use of some electricity really impressed me. I also really like the story somewhat, I am intrigued by the big bads and where it is all going.

    But...I am underwhelmed by the gameplay and general moment-to-moment feel. Some of the design feels a bit clunky, like swinging on the screws feels a bit off. The level design doesn't feel super interesting to me, the puzzles I am doing have made me feel clever but traversing and backtracking are already feeling a bit of a pain. It is reminding me of how I felt about Owlboy - good-looking with slightly disappointing gameplay.

    I am invested enough to finish it up, I want to see where Black's character goes later on, but not feeling as hot on it as I expected.

    What are y'all thinking about it?

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    Jonny_Anonymous

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    I've only just started it, not really done much just yet. Jeff seems real into it tho.

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    TheRealTurk

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    #3 TheRealTurk  Online

    I'm sort of lukewarm on it. I like a lot of what it's trying to do, but I keep running into niggling issues that distract me:

    1. The story seems to have things to say, but it feels like the game was mistranslated in a lot of spots. A lot of missing conjunctions, malapropisms that I don't think were intended, non-sequiturs, and just oddly phrased dialogue have left me really confused more than once. In addition, the game seems really inconsistent about how it displays dialogue. Sometimes you need to click through it, other times it just goes on auto. The problem is that when it's on auto, the display speed is so fast I have a hard time keeping up. What appear to be key highlighted terms fly on an off screen at warp speed. That would be fine normally, but when its messages telling me where I need to go or do next, that gets frustrating.

    2. No quest log. I don't need a blinking objective marker, but I need something that tells me "yeah, this is generally what you are supposed to be doing." This is doubly true due to the issues with the display speed.

    3. Movement feels off. Especially with jumping and hanging. I'm 5 hours in and I still don't have a good idea of what I need to do to grab ledges and ladders consistently. Sometimes it happens automatically, sometimes I'm right up against a ledge and don't grab on. It's frustrating.

    4. I like a lot of the mechanical ideas going on in boss fights, but the game isn't very good at giving the player tells about what you are supposed to actually do. A big part of the problem is that frequently the very objects you need to interact with get hidden behind all the other chaos going on on the screen. For example, I just had a boss fight where my companion needed to jam up a gear with a sword to stun the boss. After you did that the sword would fly off somewhere on screen and you need to shoot it back to your companion again to repeat the process. The problem is the sword gets covered up by projectiles and particles and you can't really see where it is, so you're just stuck randomly shooting until you happen to hit it.

    So, yeah . . . a lot of great ideas, but also a lot of questionable execution. Not sure how much longer I'm going to stick with it.

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    Bowl-of-Lentils

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    1. The story seems to have things to say, but it feels like the game was mistranslated in a lot of spots.

    The game was not translated, it was written in English to begin with, but the developer is Swedish and English is his 2nd language. There is a pretty interesting interview with the developer, Konjak, that was conducted by Tim Rogers over on Kotaku's Youtube channel where he actually mentions that he was worried that native English speaker might find his writing odd.

    I haven't played the game myself yet but I played the old Alpha demo for the title that was released years ago on Konjak's website and liked it. I was also a big fan of Legend of Princess, a freeware game made by Konjak, and hope to play Iconoclasts sometime soon.

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    development

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    @lentfilms: That alpha! I knew I've played this game before! Damn, that was awhile ago.

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    Bowl-of-Lentils

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    @development: Yeah the Alpha was like in 2012 I think and even before that he released a proof of concept freeware game in 2009 called Ivory Springs that eventually became Iconoclasts, which I also played. This game has been a long time coming.

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    SethMode

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    #7  Edited By SethMode

    I haven't touched it yet, but I look forward to giving it a shot. The only experience I have right now is the QL and that fucking hilarious post from the games Steam's Discussion page about SJWs.

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    Wandrecanada

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    #8  Edited By Wandrecanada

    I'm liking the game so far. Story is a bit of a muddle because you are essentially a mute bystander to a story you are only seeing maybe half the content to at any given time. This makes things precarious when you are trying to understand the weird motivations behind characters who have a lot more knowledge than you do.

    Mechanics are fun and the combat while present is less of the challenge. This game truly takes the concept of the "combat puzzle" to heart. Enemies are generally either a distraction to mobility or simply a barrier you must overcome through clever use of tools. This can be as straightforward as switching weapons to damage an enemy or as complex as stunning an enemy by powering a light source in it's path and maybe firing a grenade through and bounce into it's vulnerable point. One boss even required swapping characters and hiding them in bushes in order to track your target who was nearly invisible.

    My only true gripe with the game is the lack of signposting. There is a hint system in the menu that tells you where you should be looking next but as the game opens up it can sometimes be a pain to find that exact place that triggers the game's progression. In one instance I traveled to all five currently available areas of the game before I stumbled into a house I visited once at the beginning of the game over an hour and a half later. After this one event I then had to meet a person and return all the way back to the closed door where I started the original hint from. If they had simply added the name of the area I needed to search it would have saved me nearly 90 minutes of stumbling around for nothing.

    I'd say this is a decent metvania style game that focuses on interesting visuals with some very engaging combat (edit: the combat is more combat puzzle than skill shots), a story that you won't understand until the end (Lost fans may like this?) and a few issues with signposting. It's a great time if you enjoy 2D action platformers with some exploration focus.

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    Zombaholic

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    Having finished it I have to say it's a crazy goddamned (intended) ride!

    I felt the puzzles were fun, and kept me entertained for the most part. Combat felt alright but with some of the later bosses I felt like I was just eating hits and shooting until my cooldown meter maxed out then waited then started shooting again. The characters were the real draw for me for the most part. A lot of them I liked, and they were all a flavour of crazy in their own ways. The pixel art was fantastic, and the animation kept stunning me with how much original stuff they did every step of the way.

    Still raw on the whole ending so forgive me:
    So the bird I didn't get but I absolutely adored the pantamiming between him, and Robin was gold! Everytime there was a hug it felt earned. I hated the tower level because you had to remember where tesla coils were after you got your new ability after you've been going up and down various levels it was really disorienting. The level under the tower in the pitch black waters wasn't fun either. I wanted to save Royal so hard that I died a bunch trying to find some other way to save him. Black was pretty tragic given that I have the occasional constant migrane myself. To be born anew with it and told its a gift would absolutely be maddening. They didn't need to but I was fond of how the camera cut to outside the rocket and you saw the monster you faught earlier burn up in the atmosphere. Nice touch.

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    DoctorOdds

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    I think someone in the QL comments said it looked like Cave Story. That got me interested, as that's one of my favourite games. Thoughts on how it holds up in that regard?

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    Wandrecanada

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    @doctorodds: Nothing at all like Cave Story. It's not a high skill combat focus in that way. This is a game with a very character focused narrative that does a fantastic job at world building (through show not tell) and plays more like a puzzle game with some combat elements.

    While there is some 2D skill based mechanics most of it revolves around executing mobility tests and manipulating environments with an evolving set of tools.

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    Strathy

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    I've finished it, and I liked it overall. Looks good and plays well. Only real knocks against it are that the story (while fascinating) doesn't get fully developed, and the script is very clunky and 'English-as-a-second-language-esque'. The wonky script wouldn't be a problem but boy do the characters in this game like to go on massively long diatribes about anything and everything, so it ends up being one.

    Still an easy recommend though !

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    StingingVelvet

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    While there is some 2D skill based mechanics most of it revolves around executing mobility tests and manipulating environments with an evolving set of tools.

    @strathy said:

    I've finished it, and I liked it overall. Looks good and plays well. Only real knocks against it are that the story (while fascinating) doesn't get fully developed, and the script is very clunky and 'English-as-a-second-language-esque'. The wonky script wouldn't be a problem but boy do the characters in this game like to go on massively long diatribes about anything and everything, so it ends up being one.

    These two things are why the quicklook turned me off from purchasing. Seemed more puzzle-based than action, and there's nothing I hate more than endless story and dialog sections in games that aren't RPGs.

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    LegalBagel

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    I'm about 5 hours in at this point and generally agree with the sentiment that I like a lot about what the game is doing, but it hasn't grabbed me completely. I like the movement, moveset, and weapons, but I haven't felt all that motivated to explore or find hidden things the way you would want from this style of game - mainly because the chests are all filled with materials you use for mostly inconsequential upgrades, and the combat/movement isn't enough to just be its own reward. The maps also involve a lot of backtracking, combined with the fact that multiple times I've been confused about where the game wanted me to go or the specific thing it wanted me to do and wasted 5-10 minutes going across the map looking for the next story trigger, which has made every area seem to last a little too long.

    But I think the story and bosses are going to keep me going through. I've loved the bosses so far, a good combination of execution, pattern recognition, and puzzle solving in most. And the story is going for more depths and themes that you don't often see with an interesting cast of characters that actually seem like well-designed characters instead of tropes or plot vehicles. We'll see how well it gets carried out, but I do want to see what happens with the characters at least.

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    mostman

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    #15  Edited By mostman

    I finished it. Took around 20 hours. I can see where this game was trying to go. It gets very close. The story is about three quarters of a fantastic story. I was expecting a long “exposition” post credits that never came. I’ve read enough science fiction to “get it” but the story is really done a disservice by just leaving a bunch of loose threads and not bringing it all together.

    Also, some of the mechanics absolutely sucked. For a game this long in development, things should have been better. I was guessing every single time what the hit box on the wrench attachments was. Jump. Grab. Nope. Jump. Grab. Nope. The lack of a weapon quick select is inane. Especially since many fights require you to toggle between weapons. Things like that just made the game seem unfinished.

    I still plowed through the whole game, however, because the story was interesting and most of the combat and exploration was great. The Boss designs were superb, and only hampered by occasionally clunky mechanics, like those above.

    Overall. It’s above average. If you can pick it up on sale, do it. I would probably give it a 7/10.

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    deactivated-5b85a38d6c493

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    I'm 7 hours into this game and while some of the puzzles and bosses have been relatively fun so far, everything else feels lackluster or straight up bad. The controls in general are not responsive and tight enough which leads to a lot of frustration. The level design at times is kind of tedious. The writing is my main problem with this game, I think it's just not very good at all. The story is nonsensical and most of the characters are just annoying. I'm starting to skip a lot of the dialogue because it's extremely hit and miss and most of the time it misses for me.

    I'm feeling about this the same way some people on here feel about Owlboy. I get what it's trying to do but I'm having a hard time really enjoying it.

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