Iron Frontier: the retro RTS that delays its launch to charge up its superweapons

Iron Frontier was supposed to come out soon. It will come out on 3 February.

Studio Bibamus announced it this week, just as the game passed 20,000 wishlists: rather than ship a rushed version, it is taking time to add new visual effects, a reworked interface and controls, a New Game+ mode with elite enemies and exclusive units, new technologies, and superweapons. An updated demo arrives in the coming days.

What the demo already shows is an RTS chasing the thrill of retro strategy games without the micromanagement. You build a base, capture resources, upgrade your army, and command your troops to maximise damage and dodge enemy fire. The view is side-on, almost like an artillery game, and the battlefields fill with pixel-art explosions.

The game promises more than 60 types of infantry, vehicles, aircraft and combat robots, hundreds of upgrades to combine, and two styles of warfare: digging in behind your lines, or assembling a strike force to take a stronghold. Between missions, permanent upgrades strengthen your army.

The most intriguing element is narrative: in every mission, moral choices shape a non-linear plot and decide the possible endings. The question is what price you are willing to pay to win a war of attrition.

The foundations are there, and choosing to delay rather than ship a shaky game is a rather good sign. See you on 3 February for the review.

In the meantime, the demo is free on Steam. Tell us what you think on the InsertCoins Discord.