Gift of Parthax
Gift of Parthax
Game
Game2015
Ironcast
Developer Dreadbit
Ironcast is a British turn-based strategy video game developed by Dreadbit and was released for PC platforms in March 2015, PS4 and Xbox One in March 2016, and Nintendo Switch version in August 2017. The game has individual missions played through a match-three system, and features procedurally generated missions, permadeath, and staples of the roguelike genre. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
196 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 19, 2026 · last updated Oct 20, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
54
Mixed
100 positive · 86 negative
95% range 47–61%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 100 | 86 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 4 | 0 | 6 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
551 of 758 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Split audience: some love the strategy, others hate the RNG.
Many players praise Ironcast's blend of match-3 puzzles and steampunk mech combat, calling it a solid roguelite with tactical depth. One player calls it "absolutely phenomenal" and "a solid Rogue-lite, and a solid match-3 game" (R6). Another notes it's tense and personable and clever per critics (Wikipedia). [6][7]
However, many criticize the heavy reliance on random number generation, which they say makes skill irrelevant and leads to frustration. One player states "this game does not respect your time" due to RNG (R20), while another calls it "95% pure luck" (R27). Some also complain about difficulty balance and lack of meta-progression. [20][27][24]
Praised Match-3 gameplay · Steampunk theme · Tactical depth
Criticised RNG dependency · Difficulty balance · Lack of meta-progression
Summary drafted by an AI model from the 36 reactions it cites ([n] links open each post), then checked by code: every paragraph cites real posts and every quote is verbatim. Written Oct 9, 2026. Method
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Ironcast sits at 54% positive across 186 opinionated reactions from 2 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Critics, per Wikipedia
The game received a positive critical reception on PC and Xbox One, with Metacritic scores of 75/100 and 78/100, respectively, and a mixed reception on PlayStation 4, with a Metacritic score of 70/100. Christian Donlan, reviewing the game at Eurogamer described it as "tense and personable and clever". John Walker at Rock, Paper, Shotgun found it "much more tactically thoughtful than a match-3 RPG has been before", though found the game's presentation dull.
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 196 · most liked firstIt took too long for me to come to this conclusion: this game does not respect your time. It's well presented and fun on the face of it but however well your run is going whether it continues is always down to chance. That's true to an extent for all roguelikes but here its compounded by the tiles you are being handed to match being randomly chosen themselves. In effect the same mission can be either a walk in the park or a gruelling struggle depending on what tiles are available to match.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →68 / 100 Falls *well* short of Puzzle Quest The store page describes Ironcast as "Puzzlequest meets FTL". I've never played FTL, but I have finished Puzzle Quest twice and loved it. Puzzle Quest has about a 50 hour campaign, with multiple game modes, huge diversity in quests, a story that continues all the way through, and plenty to keep you interested. For the first two or three hours I thought Ironcast was really cool. You are duelling against opponents that are roughly your level, and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Starts out fun. Then it quickly becomes apparent the developers didn't care about difficulty balance. Your ability to attack or defend depends on matching nodes in a tiny grid. Usually, the grid is flooded with other crap. This leads to fights constantly becoming unwinnable. You find yourself with no ability to shoot back, while the enemy hits for massive damage practically every turn. And if the enemy doesn't kill you, the turn limit (often ridiculously limited) will tick down and give you a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played for a few hours. Walked my mech around and crushed the dirty French!. It was great, cool steampunk mechas, fun weapons and a neat connect grid. I found some weapon, shield, and drive upgrades. I worked towards the first boss, buying upgrades and making my mech stronger. Now it's the last battle before the boss fight. I had a mission that I started. Then I had a RL mission. I had to stop the game and go do RL. Today, I started the game again and found that ALL my progress was gone.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For a rogue-like, this game's RNG can kill you way too easily despite good equipment management. A bad node grid will kill you even if you have good items and weapons. The game relies way too much on the node grid for there to be any good strategic depth. The difficulty on enemies spikes way too quickly. I've gone through about 10 or 20 playthroughs and, in most rogue-likes, enough skill would be developed to make you feel like you are progressing well. This game shuts down any skill…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun at first, but soon reveals itself to be very shallow for even a match-3 game. There are easily match-3 games of greater gameplay depth than this as free browser games. Small variety of everything makes every run feels same-y. Wouldn't recommend unless it is on huge sale as i got it on. (-80%, 2.5 eu)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is rigged to an ungodly degree. You are CONSTANTLY missing on important rolls, over and over, every single ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game. The game makes you fail everything important, you wont ever get the gems you desperately need in the most important moments over and over again, and at a point you realize there is no point in playing because the game is rigged to screw you over and make you fail even when everything seems to be working well. I'm just straight annoyed at this. It's such a shady…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →HELL NO! it's a match 3 game. with a ton of stuff slapped onto it. but at the end of the day it's still a match 3 game. however this game's single biggest problem is: it's 95% pure luck and (mostly rotten) RNG. player skill plays hardly any role at all. luck (or distinct lack thereof) rules this game from start to finish. the developer insists it's all legit and fair but it feels very differently when playing. but even if it's all legit and fair: it's just no bloody fun at all! and for a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ironcast is a game that needs to be approached with a very specific mindset. You must accept things will often be outside of your control, and skill alone will not always constitute a win. It’s a core tenet of stoic philosophy - you're at the whim of random number generation deciding whether or not you get to act this turn at all. If you can accept that, you'll come to know Ironcast as the best Match-3 game on the market, that is not yet another dating sim or smut. The premise of Ironcast is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'll preface this by saying that I love traditional roguelikes, mystery dungeons, and rougelites/roguelikelikes. RNG is something I can live with in a game, if I know to expect it. I also love puzzle games, very much including the tile-matching type. Ironcast... falls short, especially in the first category. The Victorian steampunk setting is neat, the art and music get the job done, and the tile matching, especially in the early stages, is pleasant enough. Although each of the characters has…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There is too much randomness and too many annoying interface quirks which undermine the game. Game annoyances 1/ in theory it's strategic because you have to plan your moves in advance... except you can't really because you cam't see what pieces will replace the board, so you have to try and reserve what you see and hope that the replacement pices will be useful 2/ but the board is woefully small and there are too many piece types that it just seems to rely too much on randomness, especially…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Skill helps, but it's too much RNG. Some people can win in the first run if they get good RNG, I'm 16 hours in and have only seen the final boss once, couldn't do anything because of the RNG. Lose frequently in the middle of runs that take a few hours just because of RNG. You can't beat the boss unless you get good equipment, which is all random. You can't complete a stage if the nodes that keep spawning are owns you don't need. If you lose, you restart, there is a global level that carries…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Groundhog Day game design: 30 minutes worth of content, that you play over and over and over again. Your game ends either by bad luck with the random number generation or by not being able to keep up with the increasing odds against you. Only small rewards, tied to XP, will allow you to inch forward with each retry. Player skill might speed up the progression, but the grind is real. It's a shame, art direction, presentation, core gameplay are all top notch.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game was designed in such a way that you cannot see it's biggest flaw until you're outside the refund window. The algorithm for the game board is broken. I thought my first run was a fluke; I wound up starved for energy because no energy blocks would spawn. Then, in my second run, the same thing happened but for ammo. In my third run, it was coolant. For whatever reason, every run you do there will be one resource the game just won't give you, and it will be your downfall. Every time.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A gem-matching game with mechs set in steampunk England? Sounds amazing! What could go wrong? . . . Make it absurdly hard and tedious without any meta progression and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rng. This here is a prime example of why most indie devs fail even when they have a great idea - they're too far up their own auteur asses to even consider concepts such as fun, relaxing or aproachable
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Would be okay as a mobile game, but this game uses over-bloated graphics for a pretty lame gaming experience. The game hides a lot of important enemy information for no reason, which - in addition to the randomness of the jewels - makes any strategizing difficult. The music, sound, and story are really annoying, and the gameplay is slow and repetitive. Lots of animations have me waiting, and the battles are simply the same thing over and over. I bought this game for $3 to play on my ubuntu…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Buggy game was abandoned a few months after the kickstarted release in 2015; new publisher released a bug-fixed version on switch which they never back ported to PC. If you're buying it now, or getting it free on Epic, you're wasting your time and money just like I did back in 2015. :(
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is really close to being enjoyable, but the RNG aspect just spoils it. You feel like the game punishes you at random and even if you pull off a exceptionally good combo you will not be rewarded for it. I wish there was a mod to change the randomness and the game balance just a bit. Now you just feel frustrated and cheated at the same time while grinding away wishing your luck will not run out. Btw. the atmosphere and the steampunk setting is just awesome and there has been put quite…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Could have been pretty great, but ruined by poor balance and design. No thanks.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Randomness of equipment ruins it. Due to bad luck with RNG you may never get drives, shields or weapons you need to progress while your opponents tech up steadily. You can also get worse equipment you already have or impractical equipment for your current build. For match 3 game it has very few levels, 17 in total. While there is some variation and types of missions are random (outside of 2 bosses) each time, from gameplay perspective roguelite elements adds very little to the game other than…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At only ninety eight minutes in, I thought it seems really fun. Eight more hours have shown me all the flaws. The bells and whistles are pretty nice, it looks good (though with limited variety sadly) and the music and sound effects are top notch. Sadly the personalities of the various people you can play and interact with are cookie cutter at best. You have a handful of Pilots you can unlock, with different backgrounds and bonuses, but they all have identical dialogue, which seems a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I hate perma-death, but that's my fault for not thoroughly reading the description. Though, for a gameplay element like that, it should be in the short description up-top. Something like, "Puzzlequest meets FTL in this Steampunk Victorian era perma-death roguelite." Everything else is good. Perhaps the devs could add two modes. The existing Perma-Death mode and another takes you back to the garage with no rewards, but it also heals up your machine to full HP for the next battle. I would prefer…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ironcast is a game I constantly find myself returning to YEARS after being given a code for it. Its the perfect game to play when your mind needs a break from endless walls of text or heavy involved action games. You can easily play it casually or spend time creating different strategies and play styles for each commander and ironcast combo. I would highly recommend picking this hidden gem up and giving it a try yourself.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is so close to being good. I want to like it and how it brings itself together but it is, in a word: unbalanced. Due to the RNG nature of a match 3 game they were close to getting a balance but ultimately failed. To have gotten it right they had so many different game mechanics that they could tweak ever so slightly. From the power up progression, the board size, the amount of 'scrap' (money), health, damage, you name it! All of it is ever so slightly below where it needs to be. You don't…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like the concept, but it's WAY too random. RNG dictates EVERYTHING. That kind of tones down when you get further in a run, but way too many things can't be planned. Chance to get the pieces you need on the board. Chance for them to be near each other. Chance for you to get the stronger and necessary overcharge/link pieces. Chance to hit shots based on evasion. (Especially irritating when you can fail a mission based on turns spent, but RNG can have you miss over half of your shots on a 20%…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I got this on a Steam sale after giving up on Marvel Puzzle Quest. This is a different take on the match-3 game, instead you draw a line between matching tiles, but you can't cross yourself. That makes the board interesting to deal with. The problem I have with the game is that it's too hard to play casually. The 'final boss' has 4,000 health, compared to your 800-900 - so you get wiped out. Then you're told that there is a 'global xp' system and that after each failed game you'll gain…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is designed no matter what you do to loose, until you do boring and same stuff again and again to earn xp playing same missions 20-30 times and more...Could be more stuff here...Graphics are none-necessary for this minimalistic and primitive gameplay...it's more like a phone game..Still it was lagging hard on my tablet. It's kind of a good idea...but probably they need to make it better..Waiting for ironcast 2. PLayed it again after some time because it was almost only game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty good game! However at this time I can't support a dev that has acknowledged a bug regarding his background telemetry job failing and causing the game to pause every 5 seconds, forcing the community to come up with an unofficial patch for it. May change my review someday if he decides to fix it and make telemetry optional, but until that happens, I won't support developers like this.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like almost everything about this game. It's a fun take on a match three type game with some rogue-like elements and a very nice aesthetic. It can be quite rng based as you don't know what your options are going to be when you level up, don't know what blueprints you're going to get, and of course the combat is percentage to hit etc. The game is fairly short though so even when things align against you and things go horribly wrong there's not much time lost. The game has one glaring…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the games fun at first but repairs take all or most of your cash and dying resets your progress. it's fun managing your resources and matching for the stuff you need to fire guns or put up a shield but like any match 3 game do to rng there will be times you can not get what you need and getting a game over do to this is frustrating more so that your progress is deleted. any time devs pull permadeath out they are hiding a shallow story or lack of content. yes i know about the carry over items…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to like it because it has a fun theme and sense of humour. Unfortunately the dominant strategy is to grind XP in easy fights, and if you don't it becomes frustratingly hard. Also lags quite badly for such simple graphics on my laptop.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TIPS TO START ON THE RIGHT FOOT :) - Early on you'll want to focus more on shields than your evasion, Even when the enemy comes with high damage energy weapons having high shields will mitigate a good percentage of that damage. Also taking out said high damage weapon is a good way to render the enemy unable to do damage to you. - Drawing out the fight as long as you can so you can get extra matchs from the board, more matches leads to more scrap and XP which means you will have more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game makes me profoundly sad. The presentation is superb, the theme is fantastic, and the story itself is excellent. In terms of story pacing, it's a masterpiece, with incredible execution on the "you thought this was going to be the final boss?" genre. In terms of game pacing, it's a horrific mess, and it truly does upset me every time I find a game that would only take a few minor tweaks to be functionally perfect. I overall enjoyed the game through to the actual ending, and on that…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →{ Reported time of playing this game is nonsense. I spent dozens of hours playing it (at least, I tried), offline } OMG! I am absolutely mad at the people who created this MESS OF A GAME! Why? Because it is one of these games that COULD have been totally outstanding, fantastic and enjoyable. But, in the end, is just a TRAGIC FAIL! I am SO sorry. TL:DR? ------------------------------- "Dear game devs on earth, the universe, the multiverse: if something feels to be utterly idiotic nonsense -…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ironcast is pure RNG. It's fun despite this and although you'll almost certainly lose your first few (or more) campaigns, you still get access to better machines and some permanent bonuses with each new game thereafter. There are abilities granted through gaining XP during the game although the random nature of what you get each game just continues the RNG theme. There is no planning to be done or strategies you can try except on the fly as you work out which one of three bonuses to choose…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game sadly have to much rng, boring, and balance is not quite good. Intresting concept, but is too boring for me at least
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ironcast has a splendid campaign and takes its Steampunk genre as seriously as is productive. It is also among the rare titles that afford a good german translation - a preciously rare feat! Both the puzzle layer and the battle theme go well with one another, blending into a rather special game. That combination is probably how the game manages to be both casual and challenging at once, which is commendable indeed! Although it pains me to say it there's also a few flaws to mention.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolutely phenomenal game. A solid Rogue-lite, and a solid match-3 game. Plenty of different builds and there are some challenging fights. One can sink many hours into this game very easily. I wish their was some form of multiplayer versus mode where you, perhaps, had a certain amount of points to build an Ironcast or Steam Tank and then could go up against a friend or whoever, though seeing as the game is at this point quite old, I don't see that happening any time soon unfortunately. There…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The concept is cool, the execution isn't. It's very much luck based and when the RNGenerated ressources limit your actions, the tactical part of the game is basically nullified, as you can rarely take the strategically seen smartest action. Give it a shot on sale, it might give you some joy for a couple hours, but don't expect a game you're going to want to finish.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Worth a dollar or two for an hour of fun but not more. As other negative reviews have said, the RNG is brutal. You will always die simply because the exact resource you need will simply not generate at random or be so far apart you cannot complete a match-3 on them. A waste of time to play this game as skill and effort will not keep you alive. You cannot make a positive contribution to your outcome, it's all up to fate. A pity as the presentation, theme, UI and gameplay is all top notch, but…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →could be a very decent game but impossible to play and win without good rng I dont want to spend huge amount of time just to grind good build by depending on luck
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yes, there is a lot of RNG. Yes, it is a bit grindy. However, if you are a fan of Match3 or just want a little twist on your turn based Steampunk mecha battler, check it out. The game should be cheap enough now that you'll get your money's worth and then some.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought the game a long time ago and often find myself coming back to it. Sure, the RNG aspect can make things challenging, but there are ways to prepare for and work around it. Hint - select skills that can help you get out of situation when RNG makes you stuck, since RNG may have you killed even with best equipment. And having the best equipment isn’t essential in the beginning. However, if you manage to survive, you’ll have the opportunity to acquire it later turn or two before bosses.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sounds good, doesn't entertain. The mechanics are different from the classic Match 3. You don't have to move the tiles but trace a path. Honestly I would have preferred the classic and widely appreciated mechanics.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Why is this game so fun lol its pretty hard too but surprisingly a very good time very glad i tried it!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Thumbs up! There are some flaws, but it’s worth taking a look at. I liked the steampunk setting. Ironcasts are giant robot mechs and the game is mostly mech-to-mech fighting. Gameplay is a combination of match-3 puzzles and turn-based combat. For example, if you collect enough ammo in the match-3 puzzle, then you’ll be able to fire your weapons. If you collect enough energy, then you’ll be able to raise your shields. As you advance through the battles in the campaign, you’ll be able to get…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →it's a matching game. decently nice skin and mechanics. But the scope is disturbingly broken. I'm being given "mk2" quality items while the enemy is using 'mk5' stuff. When I even get a mission "salvage the enemy's weapons" and I defeat them while they have two mk5 items, I still only get a mk2 item for beating them. It makes it very difficult to feel like you're actually making progress or getting stronger when your 800hp mech with mk1 stuff and maybe a mk2 item is facing off against a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Should You Play it? Recommends, see full review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwpOTXF1fas
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a routine console ported match-3 puzzle game where you draw a line between matching jewels to boost various resources to progress each match-3 challenge. There's a huge, weird steampunk mecha plot wrapped around the whole core match-3 engine that seems incredibly superfluous. Did you ever buy something online and get a huge package, with heaps of packing material, only to dig through it all and find the tiny little thing you bought? That's Ironcast. It's a Bejewelled ripoff with…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a neat little steampunk-themed matching game that I find to be a good stress reliever. It's pretty laid back when it comes to game play, which also makes it easy for me to lose track of time while playing it. The Ironcasts, your steampunk mechs, have some interesting designs, and the backstories of the commanders you can unlock are quite nice. You can choose missions similar to FTL, and it has a global progression between campaigns like your typical Rogue-lites. As for the combat, you have…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is meh, just get titanfall 2
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →RNG to win gameplay with little regard to actual strategy as everything from dodging and picking up gems to mission rewards is basically just a roll of the dice and when you can game over from pretty much full health to dead in a single turn because of bad gem placing makes the game tedious to put up with. Even skills and abilities are based on percentage chance to activate meaning an ability is more then likely just going to activate uselessly instead of when you need it. An over-reliance on…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While the concept itself may be nice, the execution becomes stale very fast. Success in the campaign is almost exclusively based on RNG luck, be it for tiles, equipment drops or enemy equipment. Missions become repetitive very fast aswell. Unfortunately, can't recommend.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I like the idea, I just didn't have fun playing this game. I feel the learning curve is too steep, and I didn't have enough time to learn a proper strategy before perma-death, which I hate. If I had a few easier levels to learn the ropes and there were no perma-death, I might actually continue to play this. The playing field is also extremely limited. Three out of ten stolen cheese wheels for presentation and controls.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Match 3 rougelike. I had my fun, but to see the story you have to grind a lot...or cheat :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wasn't sure I would like this, but after playing it for just a few minutes, I love it! Turn based battles between steampunk mechs you can upgrade, You can unlock characters that have unique skills. Add in jewel matching to fill your ammo, energy, coolant, and repair levels, and you have a really fun game that is a little different each time you play it. Unfortunately, after many hours of play, I have to alter my review. The excitement of the game quickly disappears and it becomes…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting match-3 game, the first time that I tried it, I couldn't get into it, I can't really put my finger on the reason why. It might have been the graphics, which are nice, but in a very particular style. Trying it again after a few months, I found myself liking it more and more. A match-3 with steampunk mechs, if that gets you excited, I'm pretty sure you will enjoy this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Having originally discovered this on the Nintendo Switch I was happy to re-purchase it for my laptop, classic game with some original ideas, if they ever updated it to introduce online multiplayer it would be perfect :) p.s. I picked it up on Kinguin (Steam key) for €1 !
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the best "Match-Three-Plus" games out there, next to quality games like Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes. There is a layer of tactical depth added by manipulating an energy-hungry mech, and another layer where you must use specific weapons and abilities at key moments to tackle other mecha and trains. Use light machine guns on unshielded opponents, heavy weapons to penetrate shields, etc. Then there is a management minigame between matches, where you need to balance your money between…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →🧩 Ironcast (2015, PC) What happens when you mix mech-combat, roguelike strategy and match-3 puzzling? An addictive and surprisingly deep game, that's what! www.thepixelempire.net/ironcast-pc-...
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