Iron Marines: RTS offline game Reviews

by THE Queen Bethy

I am a huge fan of the Kingdom Rush series, and was really looking forward to this release. I don't mind paying the $4.99 (some people really got mad about paying for it) because...that's how game developers make a living, right? I don't mind that there are still in-app purchases. The game is lovely, visually. Great graphics. The usual quirky, fun little hidden things you see in KR games. I like some of the weapons. Some of the baddies are pretty cool. Being able to change troops on the fly is nice...as long as you can find your troops (more on that later).

Here's the thing. This game is just not fairly balanced. Playing on casual, the lowest setting, should be somewhat doable. You clear an area and move on, right? Nope. You clear it but baddies keep coming from offscreen. The number of troops you get is way too small, if you leave some behind to guard the area then your hero dies. If you take the troops, you have to keep running back to guard the area. In the thick of battle, it's really hard to see where all your troops are, much less be able to move them quickly enough. It doesn't feel winnable, and tbh it feels like a chore to try to get through a level.

I'm glad I bought it, but it's not the game for me. Real life is hard enough. I thought it would be fun to be the victor on the battlefield of Iron Marines, but that ain't happening. If a game is too tough on the lowest difficulty, it's too tough.

by Ap0013j

So the game itself is pretty good. I'm a huge fan of the Kingdom Rush series and played the hell out of them. So when I saw Ironhide's new game, it was a no brainer. The gameplay is fun and I absolutely love the art style. My biggest problem I have with the game and why I only gave it 3 stars is the amount of micro transactions there are for a mobile game that costs 5 dollars. I would understand if the game was free, I mean they'd have to make money somehow. But you pay five dollars for the game and then they give you almost nothing in the game. There's a total of about 9 heroes I believe. But only 3 of them are playable from just purchasing the game. You have to pay for every other hero individually. And some of them cost even more than the actual game which blew my mind. There's a bunch of other micro transaction stuff that I'm not going to get into but the heroes are what annoyed me the most. I want to love this game like I did the Kingdom Rush series but to be able to do that it would cost way more than the price tag of the game. And for that I can't bring myself to rate it any higher.

by Mohammad Tohidi

Firstly, I don’t like the fact that there are in-app purchases on IronMarines . It takes unnecessary amount of money to spend, and the number of levels are very few. The last planet has multiple levels which are purposely meant to be aggressive just to waste my time for getting more resources. The number of units are also few, and changes in this game should be made regardless of the date IronMarines has been made. The heroes I have purchased though are mostly not even worth spending as a special pack, and most of them have no significant effects when playing on each level. I won’t invest my money on this game anymore, as I know for sure future models can do worse, and this especially goes for when a new free hero is out and maxing takes a lot of levels to do.

What I did like was the graphics, abilities units and unique abilities only some heroes can do, as well as tower abilities (some cost too much energy, which wasted my time just to get maxed out). There was also no cause of crashing.

by AmesMoore

I don’t normally write reviews for games that don’t deserve 5 stars but I felt it was necessary. The gameplay is ok or at least expected for the price...but the pricey IAPs do not add gameplay- only characters. After getting an update, we only got a few short new missions and...surprise!...we also get a chance to pay more money for 2 new characters. With all of these premium characters, you’d think that this would be a game that lasts more than a few hours but no...it doesn’t. The strategy aspect is minimal and it the replay value is next to nil. Granted, I was super happy to play this game...even it only lasted a day but when the update only sells more characters and only gives you a few minutes of gameplay- the wallet gouging outweighs game developing. Why not sell DLCs loaded with maps/missions!? I would have gladly paid for more game! Who wants to play the same game 5-6 times start to finish? If the focus wasn’t on making more $$$ by doing the least amount of work, it could have stood with RTS greats like StarCraft. It quacks like a duck but it walks like a car salesman. :( Sincerely disappointing.

by X Lyssa Baby X

This game has all the usual high-quality features of other Ironhide games, but for 5$ and a whole lot of expensive heroes and "coin packs", you'd expect a reasonable level of difficulty and obvious ways to start to counter other enemy strategies. That's not the case. Your best way to counter enemies depends on how much you're willing to spend. You can make it decently far, but if you even want to play on normal difficulty, it becomes apparent that the game is attempting to put up pay walls, and entirely too early. Other basic mechanics need some work as well. It's easy to lose your units in a sea of enemies, with no way to mass select all units and move them. And enemy onslaughts are entirely endless, even if you destroy what seems to be a unit production structure, endless waves of enemies will appear off-screen and continue to batter your weak defense on your own structures, forcing you to take the small amount of units you're using to complete an objective and constantly have them abandon the mission to save the base. You can give yourself zero breathing room which is why this is sort of failing as a strategy game. It's obvious that this would probably have faired better as another tower defense game rather than an all-out RTS style version of the same thing. Fun at times and feels decently well polished, but it needs some changes to really earn a 4-5 star rate.

by Nig Be Big Be

Love the Kingdom rush games, and honestly this game is just as high quality. It’s just... Idk... Not very fun? It’s fine. Just boring I guess.

That’s the short of it. The sorta longer version is that is visually and conceptually stunning. It’s well balanced and well thought out but the gameplay just simply isn’t very good.

The tower placements and upgrades are so basic and linear you don’t feel good about building them. The enemies seem infinite and there are no visible rewards for killing them so there isn’t much satisfaction to killing them.

The controls are a bit janky albeit not terrible. All you can do with your soldiers are tell them to move and then stand still. They can’t fire when moving , have no abilities, won’t attack enemies on their way to the target location, and won’t move to attack enemies once they are standing there. Which I guess isn’t the worst thing... It’s just sortve a hassle to do every little thing in the game. I never looked forward to doing anything, I just did the objectives because the game told me to.

It’s mediocre. Ironside, don’t be discouraged! You have so much potential and skill and I’m eager to see what you do next. This one just wasn’t it for me. I know you guys are much bigger than when you started all those years ago on Flash but, try not to forget the point of games! Fun.

by Djironic

As a huge fan of the Kingdom Rush series, I was super excited to see Ironhide release another game and downloaded it immediately. All I can say is that they did not disappoint. Same high-quality gaming experience I would expect even though they moved to a new genre (RTS as opposed to TD in the KR series).

I found the difficulty level to be similar to that found in Kingdom Rush. They create a nice balance between being easy enough to play casually and not get frustrated but challenging enough to keep me coming back and trying new strategies.

Their IAPs are very similar to the KR series - inexpensive but wholly unnecessary to enjoy the game. I could easily play through to the end without spending a dime, even though I did pick up a couple of the IAP heroes during a sale just to support them and add some variety. This is not your typical ‘pay to play’ iOS game.

As far as improvements, I miss the awards system found in KR (stars and difficulty level awards), and I find the lack of an encyclopedia puzzling. It’s hard to get a sense of the relative strength of each unit and enemy, so it’s hard to get a good perspective on useful strategies.

The game feels a little short, but I’m hoping they release expansions soon! But none of those cons detract significantly from how enjoyable it is overall.

Thanks for developing another awesome game!

by N.B.S.

Beautifully polished game. You guys did a great job of applying similar feel/mechanics as the Kingdom Rush series while making a fresh RTS experience. I've got a few small thoughts on the control scheme and the dizzying variety of enemy units but only one main comment I'd like to share:

What made the difficulty curve of Kingdom Rush work was the two additional challenge modes per level, which allowed you to get more stars for abilities which would help you overcome the tougher levels. In Iron Marines, there is no way to really "grind" towards upgrades than just replaying the levels again. You have the Spec Ops levels, but it's really not enough. Now I'm stuck on the last boss and have no choice but to replay previous levels in order to get more upgrades for my units. I know more content is coming eventually, but I think you could have gotten more mileage - and more fresh pathways for players to earn tech points - with additional challenges per level like in Kingdom Rush.

by The DNG

As much as I'll always welcome another Kingdom Rush game there are three of those so it feels right that they've tried something new. Not too new though, Ironside are known for taking well-tested game ideas and polishing them into an enjoyable experience. So this game has elements of tower defense, elements of real time strategy, and some levels like the commando missions from C&C. Also a solid challenge, and as expected, a nice look to it.

10 seconds of video was all it needed to convince me I would like it. That and the fact I've been playing Kingdom Rush on and off for several years and still enjoy it.

Look forward to the updates. If you're on the fence watch a video, but if you're even slightly leaning toward buying it, do everyone a favour and support one of the better developers out there.

by Nanaksl

Ironhide changes their mobile strategy approach with a new setting and new mechanics. Iron Marines seems to borrow from warhammer 40k and company of heroes by keeping some level of base defense, but implementing a new core element: squad based unit tactics. A new tech tree, heroes, and purchasable items (using in game currency that can also be bought with real money) are essential tools for completing this game, as mission difficulty is increased greatly. As an example, normal difficulty in the opening/middle missions is equivalent to trying for three stars on the late game stages of their previous kingdom rush series on the same setting. I've been able to get to the middle of the second world without spending money and with a surplus of in game cash for items. This is definitely a game leaning toward the hard-core strategy audience while still having some appeal for casual mobile gamers.

by Airhocky

I don't understand people's complaints about difficulty level? If you can't win change up your strategy. Have people not ever seen Starcraft played? While this is clearly no Starcraft or Warcraft (I mean this is a mobile game after all) it is by far a top of the line game. It is difficult yes, but you can go back and play any level to gain coins and xp for your heroes any time you want. If one hero isn't working on a level try a new one. For people who don't like that there are other heroes for purchase, well welcome to an ironhide game. They make quality heroes for free and then make some more that if you wanna give them extra support you can buy. If you don't wanna pay up it doesn't hurt your game experience. If your patient they always put them on sale on holidays and such. As far as coins I'm personally never going to buy coins but I'll watch videos that give me free coins and also support the developer. Remember the more support they get the more and the better games they will be able to put out!

by PlanetR

This is by far the best mobile RTS I have ever played. I'm an avid starcraft fan, and although I've only played iron marines for about 2 hours, I can already see the genius in the design. there are a few problems of bringing the classic rts system to mobile, mainly micromanaging without hotkeys, unit control, and commands. creating a squad system is a genius idea to both simplify unit commands, while still offering the strategic depth of choosing your own attack force. the ability to switch unit types mid fight is also an excellent and clever workaround, that really is just a unique feature to the game. group commands are excellent, the only changes I would make is adding an attack move.

the bases being pre constructed/fixed capture points is a nice balance between the freedom of a traditional rts to build literally anywhere (unless you're the zerg) and a tower defense. you still have options how to build your base, and most tower build zones are already strategically place. Bravo Ironhide, you are my favorite mobile developer by far!!

by TriscuitBiscuit7🤓

When I was young I used to play the crap out of the Kingdom Rush Games, my friends and I would battle to beat the levels and be ultimate victor. Each level of those games was hard, it was almost never a 1 and done.
I saw this game in the AppStore and thought hey, this looks good. For the most part it is. I love the game play but I think I am going to have to turn up the difficulty, it may be my amazing commandingship skills or most levels are just easy. Just keep that in mind.
The length in this game I hate to admit is short. Compared to other KR games I has about the same amount of levels, but the ones here are just so much easier so it feels way shorter than it should.
Now these two I would love to see but a multiplayer mode and a encyclopedia for enemies would make this game a great buy.
I love this game and keep replaying levels. Buy this game. And Ironhide, if you are listening. Please consider what I have to offer.

by Whiskey On A Sunday

First, this is NOT a tower defense. It is NOT Kingdom Rush. So if you are looking for a space reboot of their KR series, this is not it.

Second, this is NOT a pay-to win. You get 4 heroes for free and then pay for others, just like their other title and just like their other title they are NOT necessary to succeed. Yes, you can watch ads for free coins. That's the only way you see an ad, you watch it for free coins. Yes, there are packages for coins, however you can earn plenty of coins by doing the missions. There are ZERO pay walls. I finished the first campaign, on normal and NEVER used any coins to buy any extra items for the mission. And I am no tactical genius by far. I have plenty of coins from just playing. For $5 you get a complete game, there is no need to purchase anything.

Third, the game has a short tutorial and plenty of tips on how to do things. I did not find the controls clunky or difficult at all.

Fourth, I would definitely play on a tablet. There is a settings to lower the quality. On my older iPad mini I turned them down and had no issues. On my iPad Air it runs amazing at high quality. I really do not think this game would be as fun on the phone or an iPod, not enough screen real estate.

Overall a great game and this is version 1. Guarantee they will add content and fix any bugs.

Good job Ironhide!

by JRod11991

I have been anxiously anticipating this game since it was first announced. I scoured the internet for any and all information/videos I could find pre-release. Let me be the first to tell you that this game is well worth the wait and more! I see a lot of people saying the game is too simple, or that it requires no strategy. It is quite the opposite. The whole fun of the game is to try to find different strategies with different units to defeat all the enemies in a particular level. Yes, there may not be that many levels, and if you speedrun this game you will definitely “beat it” fairly shortly. But, it is not meant to be played that way. It is meant to be enjoyed, analyzed, and strategized. Trust me when I say that this is probably one of my top five favorite games of all time in IronMarines Store, hands-down. There simply isn’t anything like it. 10/10, 5/5 stars!

by RobotClouds

This game seems to have been designed with replayability in mind. That is to say:

For those of you who have written reviews complaining about difficulty: you need to replay missions. Try each level with different heroes. Grind out their levels. Doing so will not only get you more familiar with the mechanics (like double tapping will select a wide area and all units within the radius. It’s a trick they don’t tell you about, which is annoying, but once you find that mechanic you will have a much easier time manipulating large troops) it will also give you lots of free upgrade resources. I am heavily into the upgrade tree now from simply enjoying the replayability of the missions. And once you get those upgrades for your units the difficulty takes a massive drop.

I am currently working my way through the second world on highest difficulty and have only lost for the first time on mission 4 of 6. And you know what? All I will have to do is either replay some earlier levels to amass resources or simply lower the difficulty level back down. Easy peasy. All without spending a single dollar outside the initial price of the game.

The initial content is actual somewhat small for a Ironhide game. Twenty or so missions isn’t a whole lot- but the bright side is that the levels are extremely fun to replay trying different strategies, units and heroes.

Highly recommended.

by GAME HOMEBOY21

So I’m a huge geek and a long time lover of this entire game company and how they tie some things from some of there other games into this. With that being said, who knows if you have noticed this but the game has been out a year so you might have. So you all know the hero shatra and if you didn’t know he’s also in kingdom rush frontiers as a hero. What you might not know is that one of shatras ability is to use the crystal from Kingdom rush frontiers. But here comes the really geeky part, if you played kingdom rush frontiers and beat the original levels on the last level it will take you to this cutscene about the crystal being lost in this cave and this alien picks it up. That alien is shatra and if you go to shatras hero room, (in this app not kingdom rush) under the ability where it uses the crystal it says something about shatra traveling to another world and collecting this unique crystal from the world. Anything ring a bell? I’ve know about this for a while now but this is the first time I’ve shared it. Some of you may know about this and if you do then congratulations your as nerdy as I am.

by AV16mm

I have been a gamer since the early days of Atari, this is a fantastic game from iron hide studios. For five dollars you get a graphically rich incredible take on real-time strategy and tower defense rolled into one. Folks who are having trouble with the difficulty are probably not used to having to grind out levels or adjust strategy in wave driven games. This is absolutely necessary in a game like this. If you enjoy that sort of thing that this game is for you, if you want something that is not occasionally challenging and doesn't require you to adjust your strategy in order to win, then look elsewhere. Yes it is easier if you are able to purchase the higher level heroes, but it's more than possible to grind out boards in order to get all of the resources you need without having to pay for anything. I myself don't mind paying for the higher-level heroes, one because good game makers are in such rare supply on IronMarines Store these days, and two I remember all too clearly what it was like to pay $80 for a 16 bit game on the Super Nintendo. The gameplay is fine even in a repetitive fashion, the graphics are incredible, there are Easter eggs everywhere and the sound is fantastic. All the things we come to expect from iron hide studios. I happened upon this while replaying the original Kingdom Rush, and I look forward to the continuation of that series as well.

by Creepe123

I am a big fan of strategy games. I also know a game is fun if the challenge is big. That being said, I rate this game five stars due to its vast amount of variety. What I mean by this is even without spending a single penny on this game you are still offered a ton of hero’s and units to make a working strategy. Just like kingdom rush this game has a great sense of challenge and strategy, all though I do find this game a bit harder.

To address those people who say this game is impossible without spending money. I say to you, that when I say this game is a bit harder I mean that it took 2-4 tries to beat a level on impossible. Normally in kingdom rush I can do it first try or second if I’m unlucky. My point is that you scrubs who say this game is hard, you are simply incompetent, a strategy game, requires you to actually think and this game does a perfect job at that. If you lose it’s simply a mistake in your strategy. Improvise and retry.

I say that this game is not too hard or too easy for a reason. It’s not too easy in the sense that it doesn’t require effort to win and it’s not too hard due to it actually being beatable within 1-3 try’s. Hard for me would be taking about 6-10+ try’s to beat a level. In summary this game a good challenge that is easily beatable if you use your units and hero’s correctly.

by Ona7999

I have played all of Ironhide’s games and this is, by far, my favorite. The blend of tower defense/RTS is well executed, combining many of the best elements of each genre without some of the baggage, and while it may seem oversimplified upfront, trust me, it is anything but. The skill trees have depth and dynamism and allow for a lot of flexibility with how you choose to play. There are also, oddly, a crazy amount of passive boosts you can upgrade making various aspects of your armies and bases stronger. I feel like there are too many... kinda takes some of the challenge out of the game. It’s easily replayable, and often necessarily so. The side challenges are fun too and offer decent rewards for the work. I prefer Paragon as his abilities, when maxed out, can make a small group of soldiers basically invincible. The artistry behind the design is exactly perfect, both the graphic and audio elements. The only thing lacking is in the size of the levels that can often feel like they are too confined and wanting more room, and because navigation is well designed it could easily support larger levels that take longer to win without it negatively effecting gameplay. I am very eagerly awaiting more worlds because the last 4 levels released felt like a tease.

by In Depth Perception

Iron Marines is one of the best games I've played via iOS and the best RTS on mobile. I've played hundreds and hundreds of games of all genres on my iPad, and this one is right up there with the best of them. I do have a few minor gripes, but for the most part I'm a happy customer.
I didn't find the game too difficult. A few of the levels were tough, but starring up my hero made them doable. I'd rather a game be more on the difficult side anyway. Who wants a game of this caliber to be completed in an evening or two? This is a well crafted experience and do wish it were longer.
That brings me to my only gripes about the game: As I said, the game as it is is far too short. But it looks like more planets will be added at a future date. A few more units would be nice (expansion pack possibly?). The game also needs a multiplayer mode. What's an RTS without multiplayer? Maybe it's in the works and I just haven't done my homework. And lastly, (and this is a very minor gripe) I wish the color palette would change from time to time and give the cute, neon hues a small break.
In conclusion, this is a great game overall. It's got terrific gameplay, art style, humor and music. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up. It's worth the price and a whole lot of fun besides.