Iconoclasts is a platform game by Swedish developer Joakim "Konjak" Sandberg and published by Bifrost Entertainment. The game was released for Linux, macOS, Windows, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in January 2018, for Nintendo Switch in August 2018, for Xbox One in January 2020, and for Amazon Luna in October 2020.
Gameplay
Iconoclasts is a 2D platformer with metroidvania elements. Gameplay involves a mixture of exploring, fighting enemies, and solving environmental puzzles using Robin's tools. The game has a plot that plays out as the player completes levels. The game places a lot of emphasis on boss battles, and there are well over twenty different bosses in the game.
Robin gains several tools over the course of the game, each with both combat and puzzle-solving functions. The wrench is a melee weapon that is also used to turn bolts, grapple, and, later, electrify Robin or other tools and objects. The stun-gun can fire single shots and charge shots, and can destroy some obstacles. The roller bomb shot fires projectile timed explosives or charged missile shots, can destroy some obstacles, and can be electrified. The usurper shot fires piercing beams and a charge shot that causes Robin to exchange places with certain objects and enemies it hits.
The characters Mina, Royal, and Elro join Robin's party at certain times throughout the game; they may assist in boss fights or become controllable by the player.
By finding materials in treasure chests, Robin can craft Tweaks, which provide small gameplay bonuses such as increased melee damage, faster running speed, or unique abilities. Tweaks can only be equipped at save points; one Tweak becomes broken whenever Robin takes damage, and each Tweak must be repaired by refilling a gauge before becoming active again.
Plot
Setting
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 label her a criminal and a heretic, which forces her to escape along with her allies and fight back against the One Concern.
Ivory, a white liquid said to exist in all matter on the planet, is venerated by the One Concern as a holy substance. In addition to powering machines, it can grant supernatural abilities to select few humans through fusion with their blood. Those who survive but become mutilated in the process become Agents, legal enforcers possessing extraordinary strength, long lifespans, and a range of superpowers; those who flawlessly survive the process, such as Mother and her successor Royal, are extolled as Mediums, destined leaders of the human race, possessing telekinetic power over all matter containing Ivory.
A conflicting religion is practiced by the Isi, a people who live underwater thanks to excavated technology, powered by harvesting Ivory from the ocean floor through different means than those of the surface dwellers. The One Concern engages in armed conflict against the Isi, labeling them "pirates."
During the course of the game, it is revealed that Ivory supplies are dwindling due to exploitation by both the One Concern and the Isi; not only has research into replacement power sources failed or been regarded as a regression, but the planet's structure has also destabilized due to deprivation of Ivory, causing intermittent earthquakes believed to indicate the impending death of the planet.
Synopsis
Robin is a unregistered mechanic in her community, following in her father's footsteps despite the threat of the One Concern; her brother Elro is a Concern chemist secretly carrying out subversive research while raising his family. One day, Concern agents Black and White surprise Robin while she is repairing Elro's house. As punishment, the house is destroyed, killing his family, and Robin is thrown in prison where she befriends and escapes with Mina, a member of an outcast religious group called the Isi. On the run, Robin encounters Royal, the heir to Mother, leader of the concern. Royal helps Robin evade General Chrome, chief of the Concern military, and Mina takes them both to the hidden settlement Isilugar. They fend off a Concern attack, killing agent White in the process, and Black retreats after taking Mina's partner Samba captive.