While The Iron's Hot is like a harder, chewier Stardew Valley where you're a blacksmith rather than a farmer

Keyart for While The Iron's Hot, showing the protagonist about to strike the anvil with his hammer.

The hidden gems of Game Pass

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We're checking out the hidden gems of Game Pass over the next few weeks, digging up all the obscure and esoteric games secreted away in our subscription and seeing how they play.

Stardew Valley is all well and good, but these smug farmers would have nary a field to furrow if it weren't for the true origin point of the global economy: blacksmiths. Without some guy with a hammer, agriculture wouldn't have any of the tools it needs to keep itself going. No scythes, no hoes, no ploughs, no nothing. Then again, without farming the blacksmiths wouldn't have food. Oh no, I just realised we're trapped in an endless and beginningless cycle of social reproduction. I need to lie down.