Iron Grip: Warlord (RTS/FPS)

Crispy

<div class="IPBDescription">Full game released, demo also out</div><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><a href="http://igwarlord.isotx.com/" target="_blank">Official website</a><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->

<a href="http://www.moddb.com/games/iron-grip-warlord/news/war-is-here-warlord-releases/" target="_blank">Release Post with details on full game <u>discount</u></a>

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->In IRON GRIP: WARLORD, the first commercial game from Isotx, the player plays as an Atelian warrior from Warlord Sahrab's army. The nomadic state of Atelia is being invaded by the imperialistic Confederation and everything from their religion to their independence is being threatened. Due to its own internal weakness and fractured city-states, Atelia has struggled and largely failed to fight the movement. It is now up to you and a close-knit of rebels--either AI controlled or fellow players--to repel the invader and save Atelia.

As a Warlord, you must use all of your skill to defend the city against the Confederate attacks. In an innovative blend of RTS and FPS gameplay, you will employ urban guerrilla tactics to fight off the hordes of soldiers. You must protect your city at all costs, by building defense structures, setting traps, and taking the enemy on yourself.

Based on the Quake 3 engine, this project is the latest offering in the Iron Grip Universe.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Yes, that's idTech3, so <a href="http://igwarlord.isotx.com/index.php?page_id=15#price" target="_blank">very low system specs</a>. Maybe the ideal game for the person who can't run or afford any of the big mainstream releases (the Moddb deal means you can get it for around $17!).

I am downloading the demo as we speak. I always liked the steampunk style of the IG mod but the gameplay wasn't very tight. Hopefully this will be better.

If anyone wants a game, <a href="http://www.steamcommunity.com/id/Crispy" target="_blank">giving me a shout on Steam</a> is probably the best option, even if the game doesn't use Steam for its multiplayer.

<b>Demo download links:</b>
<a href="http://igwarlord.s3.amazonaws.com/IGWarlordInstaller.exe" target="_blank">Isotx</a>
<a href="http://www.moddb.com/games/iron-grip-warlord/downloads/iron-grip-warlord-demo" target="_blank">Mod Database</a>
<a href="http://www.fileplanet.com/194121/190000/fileinfo/Iron-Grip:-Warlord-Demo" target="_blank">FilePlanet</a>
<a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/irongripwarlord/index.html" target="_blank">Gamespot</a>

Svenpa

Awesome artwork.

Meh trailer.

locallyunscene

It looks interesting. I'm always disappointed in these games because they're never the same blend of FPS/RTS as Natural Selection.

TychoCelchuuu

I played/am playing the demo. It is fun. Not fun enough to buy but enjoyable.

Retales

I tried it and it's pretty good. We should get on a server and play sum

Zaggy

<!--quoteo(post=1693465:date=Nov 14 2008, 12:34 PM:name=Svenpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Svenpa @ Nov 14 2008, 12:34 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1693465"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Awesome artwork.

Meh trailer.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I agree with Svenpa, might try the demo though.

Crispy

I tried this out for a bit. I haven't played as the Warlord, but I played 3 or 4 rounds as a Rebel. I haven't tried out making structures yet, so there are parts I'm missing. In general I'd say it needs polish; not on the art side, which is fine for idTech3, but on the design side.

<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>The Verdict</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->

You automatically generate resources plus any bonuses you get for kills and other stuff. You spend this on <i>an extra</i> 9 or so weapons and another 9 or so upgrades. The weapons you can add to your collection, so you can pay to unlock a Rocket Launcher AND SuperShotgun AND Heavy Machine-gun. This results in virtually no role customisation, little required teamwork and scrolling through all your weapons to get to the one you want (they're not even assigned to number groups from what I could tell).

Some of the upgrades are pretty overpowered, even if you take into account you're against AI. You can increase max HP 3 times, you can add health regeneration, decrease reload times 3 times and increase damage 3 times (one unlock) and some other stuff. This might work if you had to make choices, but you don't really because you're constantly receiving resources. You kinda have to choose which gun is gonna help you kill the most AI, who are generally crappy and have way less HP than you, but that's about it.

Another big issue with having no role customisation is that you can't immediately tell what weapon a player has in their inventory by looking at them. Forget about character silhouettes, everyone can have any combination of weapons. So if, say, a tank is rolling towards you and you don't have any anti-tank capabilities, you will run to safety even if the other guy has a rocket launcher or mines, simply because there's no way to tell. Then he'll get cut down by grunts while trying to aim his bazooka because he thought you were giving him covering fire.

The vehicles you have to take down are nice, especially the quadruped tank, which you really have to keep out the way of. But the actual troops are rubbish and their only use I can imagine is a buffer to keep the human players busy until the tanks get closer.

The map the demo is on seems similar to one I played on the Iron Grip Source mod, and my original complaint with that one is echoed here: there is very little in terms of landmarking to aid map navigation. You have a minimap (and an animated map item that looks cool but only really serves to clog up your inventory), which helps find the enemy, but when you respawn somewhere else it's difficult to find your way back to where you were before. Since the enemy attacks on multiple fronts, you would think it important to help players return to their original positions so no gaps are left in the defence, but this doesn't seem to have been a consideration by the level designers. Even a simple 'uphill/downhill' mechanic would have made a vast improvement to map navigation, but anything on that score is sorely lacking. The minimap itself would be much better if it showed the major streets in a prominant colour, as it is it suffers from the same problem as the map in Insurgency, except Ins had more linear maps, and some had memorable landmarking. These are very simple additions that would make the mod a lot more fun to play.

Another issue with navigation and team cohesion is that there is no objective other than "kill the AI". So you are really left up to your own devices as to where to go. Running towards big concentrations of blue dots seems to work best but it doesn't seem as satisfying as narrowly defending a Control Point or sneaking a hostage out the back door, or making it to the second Hive.

All in all I think the game could have really benefitted from a better-advertised and longer Beta. It did keep me entertained for a while on the same map, but my gut feeling is that this is mostly because they have a lot of character in the art style that makes you want to try out all the weapons and peek a look at every tank crashing towards you. I would try out an Iron Grip: Warlord II, but for an update of this game I can't see the upgrades system being overhauled as much as it needs to be for the game to be my kind of fun. Then again, if you just want to shoot stuff in a cool environment without fear of getting pwned, the <i>co-op versus AI</i> experience in Warlord may be just what you're looking for.

spellman23

Bah, one person gets a anti-tank loadout, one gets heavy machine gun, rest make turrets.

Nothing could go wrong with this. =]

But seriously, we did a round on max difficultly with this role setup, and we pwned them hard. But, there were two machine gunners. And eventually they had enough cash to all get anti-tanks so the walker died in 2 volleys. Just camping the bridge with a resupply behind them, and a couple of lv3 turrets to defend against rouge infantry and the officer.

lolfighter

Rouge infantry is overpowdered.

Crispy

I forgot to mention, all the rounds I played were on 'Hard'. While we lost 2 and won 2, I had no idea how we managed to do so. One time we won it was because I killed the Commando/General/Warlord unit thingy. The times we lost I don't exactly know why, I think it's because they made it to the 'house' icon on the map, but because there are no intermediary objectives and no landmarks you don't get warnings.

Think of how it was done in Episode 2: in the bit where you have to defend against the Strider attack, how damn difficult would it be to do that without being told where the enemy was attacking from. The reason the level works well is because (A) it has landmarks -the cabin, the this, the that- and (B) you are told where to go find the enemy. Because the level I played on had neither of these, it would have probably taken another 6 goes just to learn the basic layout of the map. If the rest of the gameplay is strong enough to keep people playing a demo for that long then it's not a major issue, but I found that I was being given far too much freedom to gather every weapon possible. There's no sense of trying out different play styles like in TF2, because you can try almost every weapon in just one round of the game.

TychoCelchuuu

Trying out Rebels without structures is like trying out Marines in NS without structures.

Crispy

<!--quoteo(post=1693838:date=Nov 19 2008, 02:37 PM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TychoCelchuuu @ Nov 19 2008, 02:37 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1693838"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Trying out Rebels without structures is like trying out Marines in NS without structures.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Not really, Tycho.

I didn't build any, others did. I saw what structures did, so it's not the same. Not to mention the Rebels in IGW are just grunts, they don't have a Commander class. In NS we know that only one unit can deploy structures. I don't really see the validity of your comparison.

Not to mention the structures in IGW are quite limited compared to NS.