First Impression: Iconoclasts

Welcome to my new section of reviews, titled “First Impressions”. I got the idea from Beneath The Tangles, where we write short articles on the new anime of the season after watching it for the first time. They are short and to the point, which got me thinking that I could do the same for video games. Sometimes I play a game for a short amount of time but never beat it, so a quick review on it would suffice. I hope these posts will help you decide if the game could be for you, or not. Also, if you have a recommended game you would like me to review, let me know! God bless.

Title: Iconoclasts
Genre: Action, Adventure, Indie
Developer: Joakim Sandberg
Publisher: Bifrost Entertainment, DANGEN Entertainment, Gamera Game, INTRAGAMES CO., LTD.
Release Date: Jan 23, 2018

I got Iconoclasts for free from PS Plus in December of this year, and it looked interesting to me since it has the artwork of a retro game. I’m a fan of these games that take the older generation graphics but make it modern, which is a very fun idea. Sometimes it’s done well, other times not so much. Iconoclasts though is a great game that has an interesting plot about faith and discovery.

The main character is Robin, a naive and helpful mechanic. She lives in a world where the sinister religious authority the One Concern, ruled by a being known as “Mother”, has taken over the government, and allows only licensed mechanics to handle the power source called “Ivory” that drives its machines. Due to her attempts to help people in need despite being a self-taught mechanic, the soldiers of the One Concern track down Robin and attempt to kill her, which forces her to escape along with her allies and fight back against the One Concern. –Wikipedia

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The graphics and music of the game are beautiful and fit very well. I was hooked from the start and glad the tutorial section was pretty quick. Enemies are simple to defeat so far, but I’m only a couple of hours of gameplay in. You fight enemies by blasting them with a yellow blaster or hitting them with a wrench. The wrench has multiple uses like opening doors or swinging around. It’s pretty fun to explore the areas and fight monsters. To get from one place to another there is often a little thinking involved but so far, it’s simple. There are upgrades for your weapons and character that you can trade for items you’ve found. I like that the game keeps everything straightforward and not complicated.

Robin is a silent protagonist which for an RPG I’m not the biggest fan of. I prefer to read what the main character is feeling throughout their journey, similar to another indie game like Dust An Elysian Tail. What I am picking up from interacting with the NPCs in the first settlement is that they are truly afraid of God, and do not want His wrath to fall on them. It seems their ideas of faith come from Roman Catholic teaching, but I could be wrong and it could all be from the religious perspective of the creator of Iconoclasts. One NPC comments that God killed his wife, and he wants to understand why that happened. Another person states that there is a city where no sin is permitted and all who live there do not sin.

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That statement is impossible, as there is nobody who has not sinned in the world. Only Christ, who died and rose again was sinless. Even if you break God’s law one time, you are equally sinful as someone who spent their entire life committing wrongful acts. I do like the fact that the game is exploring these ideas though. Few games like to talk about religious beliefs, faith, and all that even though it’s part of most of the world’s everyday life.

Iconoclasts show a people who are scared of making a mistake, instead of knowing that they are already forgiven. I hope the game elaborates more on this, instead of showing God as some horrible deity out to condemn us all.