I always wonder what a lot of mobile games would be like if they stripped all the freemium content and just made decent games. There are a few developers who do this already but one game that would have been ripe for it was Rule With an Iron Fish by Kestrel Games. Instead, they packaged this game for a small price and eventually released it to PC. This is where I picked it up and gave it a play.
Simple but Entertaining
It's always nice to play a game where it uses a mechanic that is either rarely seen or not abused. Rule With an Iron Fish is a simple game that uses a simple click and drag mechanic in a way that feels unique. You can tell this mechanic was made for phones swipes but it isn't too terrible on a mouse. The core gameplay loop is picking a spot in the fishing area you want to drop your lure and then when you have attracted a fish there is a quick time even to catch it. 
Out of fishing the game is simple. You have a base that you will get quests from. These quests will mostly about collecting certain types of fish. There are also battles against enemies but beyond a few moments where you are aiming an attack, you are spam clicking the screen to make sure they don't get any fish they blow up with dynamite. These are a bit lackluster and I only found myself doing them when required.
Catching fish will get you money you can spend. This can be spent on 3 types of bait as well as several buffs that will help you catch fish or increase the money you get from selling them. The buffs really make a difference in catching some fish so it can be a little grindy at times working towards these. Outside of these buffs are recipes you can make from farming a small variety of plants. These can be helpful but it sometimes felt the effort outweighed the gain as you have to plant and wait 10 minutes for an ingredient to grow. Sure you can go fish and wait but I always forgot to harvest them.
The dialogue and flavor text are pretty endearing. The fish names are mostly puns and the conversations are full of quips. Some of them land better then others but its not cringy. There is a semblance of a story but it wasn't enough to keep me reading too deep but I did spend a lot of time reading the fish descriptions.
There are a few things that set this game back a little. One is the clunky movement on the island. This led to an issue I had trying to talk to an NPC in a certain location that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't click on. Somehow, while on the other side of the island, I was able to click on them. This started a necessary quest chain to move forward, which was just in time keeping me from rage quitting as I felt stuck. The other is it just can get repetitive. Over the time of playing, I would play it in hour spurts then get a little bored. Still, there was usually a desire to come back to it and I eventually finished the main quests.
I am not sure the full price of $10 on Steam is the best price but a few bucks on mobile or a 5 spot on pc would make sense. Then again, $10 isn't asking to much for a game that could keep you for a good 5 hours or so. You get some entertaining light-hearted gameplay from Rule With an Iron Fish even if it isn't perfect. The gameplay is simple but it's a fun little fish collection game that can keep your attention for a few hours and then let you move on. It's not a bad little indie game and will lead me to look more closely out of anything else coming from Kestrel Games.
TL;DR:
Rule With an Iron Fish is an entertaining little indie game with a bug or two. There is nothing game breaking and although the game is a little repetitive it's not bad.
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