Not every game needs to be an exciting and dramatic experience. This ethos is what drives the success of games like the highly replayable Stardew Valley, where fun adventures are based on the urge to explore and progress, but also on relaxation and carefreeness. The Iron`s Hot, from developer Bontemps Games and publisher Humble Games, is the latest game to offer this kind of experience.

While in The Iron`s Hot, players appear as a blacksmith who is stranded in the mysterious land of Elion. There, he must expand his blacksmithing business, explore Elion, and meet the various groups who call the land home and fulfill all his blacksmithing needs. The Iron’s Hot has a similar structure to games like Traveler’s Rest and offers a fun gameplay loop that is unfortunately marred by some design flaws.

A Vocation, Not A Profession

As far as direct comparisons go, While The Iron’s Hot fits well into the ever-growing subgenre of cozy games. While there are some relatively dangerous moments here and there, the overall tone and gameplay is a very calm experience. Players focus on their smithing skills, learning more and more templates to give additional items to the people they meet along the way.

It helps that the smithing itself is made up of a variety of mini-games, from smelting ore to crafting individual components to assembling the final item. When The Iron’s Hot basically takes Minecraft’s crafting system and expands it with more elements to tie it more closely with the blacksmithing itself. This pairs well, especially with the more unique items that appear in plot-specific locations.

Apart from that, other gameplay elements in When The Iron’s Hot are rather a matter of luck. Player controls are very simple and mainly involve moving across the map on a tile system or engaging in very basic 2D platforming, rather than the more diverse dynamics offered in other parts of the game. Aside from the forging itself, When The Iron’s Hot may feel a bit limiting.

A World To Explore

On paper, The Iron’s Hot gives the impression that there’s real drama going on here. Your ship is wrecked and you’re stranded on a mysterious land, where you have to make a new home in a world of forests, swamps, frozen tundra and deserts; building a life from scratch, but in reality it’s all a lot of fun. Most people are rather friendly towards the player, whether it’s the lord of a faraway secret city or a whispering thieves’ guild operating in secret. There are a few more dramatic moments after this, but even those are lightly revealed.

This means that When The Iron’s Hot offers a fun, relaxed adventure. Nothing is particularly deep, but for the most part there are enough interesting little niches to keep the game exciting, and there’s enough variety in the places and curiosities to discover to keep the player entertained. Bontemps Games wanted to create a light-hearted world, and overall it succeeds in that.

On the other hand, When The Iron’s Hot has issues with more character-driven interactions. Games like Stardew Valley and Spirittea don’t have as much depth in their character moments, but they do give the illusion of depth thanks to their design, giving the player a stronger sense of connection. Those hoping for a similar vibe here may be a little disappointed.

A Bad Workman Blames His Tools

While The Iron’s Hot will carve out a small niche of players thanks in large part to its charm, there are some serious caveats that need to be considered. There are some serious clumsy issues that need to be addressed that make While The Iron’s Hot feel pretty sloppy in its current form. Some of these issues are extremely frustrating, such as 2D platforming moments where you cut through the scenery and get stuck and have to restart the game, or sometimes finding side jobs that are interrupted and impossible to complete.

Additionally, there are smaller issues that may be overlooked on their own, but when they pile up they reveal a picture of overall sloppiness. For example, if the player has an important item for someone that they completed as a Radiant Quest, but they need to talk to that person about an important plot point, the Radiant Quest dialogue overwrites the other conversation points, leaving the player without an important conversation. One context for the action. It’s clunky and buggy, and pretty disappointing considering the simplicity of the game overall.

These are all issues that will hopefully be fixed over time in future patches. There is one major issue that will take even longer to fix, even if it could be fixed. On the other hand, The Iron’s Hot lacks depth compared to many of the games it emulates, both in terms of character and gameplay variety.

Our Review Score & Final Thoughts

Overall, The Iron’s Hot is a mixed bag. It has a lot of charm and promise, but a lack of variety, some unfortunate bugs, and sloppy design keep it from being a must-play. Anyone who likes laid-back games or is looking for light-hearted fantasy will probably enjoy it, but this recommendation comes with a few footnotes.