Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Ironheart

by Lee Williams

2020
Science Fiction
ChoiceScript

(based on 2 ratings)
1 review5 members have played this game. It's on 4 wishlists.

About the Story

Pilot and customize a giant iron war mech in this alternate medieval history! In 1182 AD, the Papacy, the Caliphate, and the Mongols are at war, and they all have mechs--hulking war robots, powered by energy from mysterious "skystone" meteorites.

Ironheart is a 250,000-word interactive novel by Lee Williams. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Our story begins in the far future, on a space mission to intercept a comet that can open wormholes through space and time. When your ship and the crew are sucked in and thrown backward through time, you awake from cryogenic suspension in 1182--at the height of the Third Crusade.

Trapped in the past, you must choose sides in the mech war between Saladin's Caliphate, the Catholic Papacy, and Genghis Khan's Mongolian Golden Horde.

Will you search doggedly for the rest of your crew or focus your energies on helping one of the factions in the war that rages around you? Do you seek to unite a divided land? Or use your advanced knowledge to gain wealth and power for yourself?

Along the way, you may meet historical figures such as Saladin, fight off attacks from the notorious order of Assassins and the secretive Knights Templar, or even take part in a grand tournament of mechs!

* Play as male, female or non-binary; gay, straight, bi or asexual.
* Pilot a giant medieval war machine! Choose how to equip, customise and decorate your machine.
* Take sides in the Third Crusade as a knight or emir. Rise through the ranks of your chosen faction or strike out alone.
* Hone your ability in a wide range of skills including warfare, diplomacy, medicine and engineering.
* Manage your own fiefdom. Decide how to govern, what to build and who to recruit.
* Entangle yourself with a wide supporting cast of characters, from fools and bandits to priests and princesses.
* Seek revenge, strive to build a better world or just live it up in the 12th century!

What new future will you forge now that the old one is gone?

Ratings and Reviews

5 star:
(1)
4 star:
(0)
3 star:
(1)
2 star:
(0)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating: based on 2 ratings
Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 1
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
An expansive alternate history mech game set in the Middle East, December 12, 2020
Related reviews: about 2 hours

This game was a bit different than I thought it would be, and I wasn't sure how some parts of it would work, but it gelled well together and I had a great time with it.

Specifically, I thought this would be mostly about a giant mech war. Instead, this is mostly about a 'fish out of water' scenario where you, an accidental time traveler, end up in the 12th century Middle East (Aleppo, Jerusalem, Jericho, etc.) in an alternate world where perpetual motion exists and powers giant mechs.

The game covers a lot of ground, from finding your place in the world (I became a squire) to dealing with intrigue and romance (I romance a knight named Ygrite) to mech combat and a surprisingly complex castle management simulator.

Each part felt just a bit thin, but as an overall whole it worked well. What's best is the way the stats tied in well with roleplaying. In a lot of Choicescript games I have to constantly check the stat screen to have any chance of succeeding. In this game, I just picked a character type I wanted to be and the options were so natural I didn't have to check the stat screen until the end. I failed a few times in reasonable ways, but was able to achieve most of my goals.

So I can definitely recommend this as an overall great experience. The combat isn't the best combat, the management isn't the best management, etc. but the overall way it comes together is some of the best I've seen.

As a side note, it includes several things I don't see much in Choicescript games, including a choice of religions and how religious you want to be and a variety of options related to drinking and food.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

Tags

- View the most common tags (What's a tag?)

(Log in to add your own tags)
Edit Tags
Search all tags on IFDB | View all tags on IFDB

Tags you added are shown below with checkmarks. To remove one of your tags, simply un-check it.

Enter new tags here (use commas to separate tags):

Delete Tags

Game Details

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page


This is version 1 of this page, edited by lunaterra on 1 March 2020 at 2:53pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page