Be-the-bad-guy Darkest Dungeon-alike Iratus: Lord of the Dead is free on GOG

Iratus: Lord of the Dead
(Image credit: Daedalic)

The holiday season is over and the new year is upon us, and that means the abundant big sales and giveaways we've enjoyed over the past several weeks are rapidly winding down. There's still time to score one more freebie, though, and it's a good one—Iratus: Lord of the Dead, which you can now snag for free from GOG.

Released in 2020, Iratus: Lord of the Dead is a Darkest Dungeon clone in which you play as the bad guy, a necromancer ("very emo," apparently) who gets a bang out of killing intrepid adventurers and creating new monsters from their hacked-up body parts. We said in a 2019 preview that it "doesn't have much in the way of new ideas," but even so it looked promising and we found that its pieces came together very well when it left Early Access a year later.

"I'm only a few hours into my first campaign, but I'm enjoying Iratus a lot more than I thought I would," Steven wrote of his early descent into evil. "I miss the intensity of juggling my party's mental and physical health, and, compared to Darkest Dungeons' gorgeous hand-painted aesthetic, Iratus' art sometimes looks a little goofy and cheap. But unlocking new units and discovering all the ways they complement each other is really fun."

To give it a shot yourself, just pop around to GOG and scroll down the front page a bit until you see the button to claim it. Give it a click and Iratus: Lord of the Dead will be added to your account momentarily. The freebie will be available until 9 am ET on January 5, which is also when GOG's big Winter Sale wraps up.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.