Grappling through Iron Bramble's metroidvania platforming is clearly not my strong suit, yet its cyber-gothic megastructure world leaves me craving more.

Where It Comes From

Iron Bramble is the next project from the developers behind Rusted Moss, and the team isn't straying far from what worked before. Like its predecessor, it's a pixel art metroidvania built around a grappling hook that lets you swing across the map at high speed. The big changes are in setting and story: this time you're exploring a "cyber-gothic megastructure," playing as a story-eating demon (?) woman in a world where humanity's flesh bodies have died out and their souls now live inside metal, robotic husks.

The First Impression

Right out of the gate, the game is engrossing to look at. The pixel art is dense and crunchy — the kind of visuals you'd expect to see posted online as a proof-of-concept, not a finished product. But looks only carry a metroidvania so far. These games live and die by their traversal, and this is where Iron Bramble may become a Marmite situation: some players will bounce off it, others will be hooked.

How It Actually Plays (The Demo Experience)

In time spent with the demo, the grappling mechanic didn't click immediately. Here's how it works: certain surfaces allow you to use a sort of spell to hook onto them. You can swing a bit, but the real skill is timing your jumps and building the right momentum to maneuver through tricky platforming challenges. There's a buoyancy to the movement that takes getting used to — a potential turn-off for some players, or an invitation to mastery for others.

Early on, a gun enters the mix, and the game clearly wants you balancing zipping around with firing at enemies. It's a twin-stick setup, so simple enough in concept but tricky to pull off in practice.

Why This Might Not Be a Bad Thing

Importantly, the difficulty never blocks progress. The platforming is forgiving: if you hit spikes, you don't return to the start of the room — you respawn wherever you last landed. With enough time, the movement feels like something that could become second nature, and it's easy to imagine speedrunners finding a lot to sink their teeth into. The demo offers only a morsel of the mysterious world, which only sharpens the appetite.

Where Things Stand

Spoiler-free, demo only: the demo is available now on Steam, and the full release is set for 2027. If the "tough-but-fair traversal" hook appeals to you, Iron Bramble is one to have on your radar — and the demo is the best way to find out which side of the Marmite divide you land on.