Iron Harvest

The game works just enough to prevent you from refunding. Everything is totally bugged: Non-working save files at the start, which were later fixed by breaking the creation of new save files *facepalm* The profile is constantly being reset, problems with synchronization, non-working quests in the campaign, non-working achievements, units are terribly dumb and constantly blocking the path to each other, unresponsive UI, optimization sometimes turns the game into a slide show even on RTX 2060. The balance of units and factions is so bad that I don't even want to write about it. Therefore, in the online mode, everyone plays only with Polania because other factions is uncomparable garbage. Buy only with a big discount and only after a dozen of patches. I personally regret that I spent money on this.

I have a hard time rating this game. It's one of those games that if you want, you can nitpick it to death and you still won't cover everything. And I will be first to admit that I might be a bit biased towards this title, because it's the only title in history that allows me to command a battalion of Polish dieselpunk gundam during Interwar times and that's just metal as all hell. On one hand, it's a really fun RTS, with some very strong singleplayer aspect, good campaign with well put-together story and fantastic art direction. On the other, you can feel this is a budget title made by a small team and as such is very rough around the edges. If you were expecting the game that will dethrone Company of Heroes, curb your expectations. The pretty steep price is also a big turn-off for an indie title but with all the expansions you are getting your money's worth and the game is frequently on sale. But still, there is enough good in it to in my opinion still recommend the game, depending on what you want. If you are interested in a good singleplayer-focused experience with some really fun campaign set in some truly unique world, you may give it a try. If you want a more multiplayer-focused experience, I suspect CoH might be a more fullfilling choice. In the end of the day, during my 40 hour playthrough I had legit fun, therefore a slightly skewered 4/5 score. For the ambition alone. And the game has a pretty strong post-launch support from the devs, so that's nice.

This game has one of the best campaign to play in strategy games. Especially in the atmosphere and characters, whether its main characters that are controlled for multiple missions or a one off side character to be seen in only a single mission. But most importantly the campaign is not a pain to play like in many rts. Players are not placed in nigh-impossible scenarios and left to figure out the single intended solution like many game. Nor are players given three solders with two rifles to share and made to somehow defeat an entire tank battalion. But even at points were the campaign might feel a little frustrating the incredible story provides a driving force to continue playing. While the single player is great the multiplayer is generally pretty empty. Matches can be found mostly at peak hours but there is a sharp learning curve in the multiplayer. There are ways to find matches other than randomly waiting for a match, by joining the discord and coordinating a match there. Overall while multiplayer is possible it is not the main attraction of the title. For some crazy fun when not playing the story I would advise loading up a skirmish map with max ai and make population cap, then enjoy the chaos. There are also some smaller one off scenario maps. For example one is trying to hold a saxon fort until reinforcements arrive. Bugs and updates. I have played since launch and experienced three bugs overall. One bug just required saving and reloading to fix. Another was a crash, the final was the main menu showing the wrong artwork. None of these where that hard to deal with. The game has received many balancing updates and two dlcs since launch. One added new story missions and the other added Usiona as a playable faction. This dlc is a near must have do to the incredibly fun and different play style that it features. If there is any doubt remaining go watch the operation eagle launch trailer. It is increadible

I mainly bought the game as I was a fan of Jakub Różalski’s art that the game world is based on and so far I've completed the first campaign and a few of the second campaign’s missions and am pretty impressed with the game. The main features of game play is that infantry squads can change roles by picking up the weapons left behind from the squads you have destroyed (or found in weapons crates). Infantry squads can also crew field weapons like mortars, heavy machine guns and cannons that can be dragged around the map (slowly) which can mean a well-placed ambush by your infantry can take out some pretty big Mechs. If you buy a field weapon it will come with a squad of engineers to crew it. The retreat button makes units run back to the nearest base to reinforce for free, so you will learn to raid and retreat to keep your forces strong. There is a unit cap based on the how many recruitment building you have and most infantry take 3 points and normal size Mechs can take 5-7 points, so most of your army will be infantry with some Mechs to counter what the enemy is favouring. The Intro/Tutorial mission is a fun snowball fight to teach you about cover/flanking and how to complete the bonus objectives that get you perks for your player profile (profile pics, name plates etc and in game unit skins for your Mechs). As I couldn’t find a manual, the first few missions were a bit confusing working out the less basic controls, like I didn’t know you could change the facing of your buildings by click/dragging so in one mission all my bunkers were facing north and the enemy was coming from the east. There is no “Stand Ground” button, instead infantry auto move to cover when you click on the map (drag to control facing) and will go to ground if they are attacked in the open, so there isn’t really a need for it. There is also a cool walk backwards move (default hold C) so your Mechs can retreat without exposing their weaker rear armour and light infantry can keep firing.

Iron Harvest is an exciting game in a interesting alternative historie world. - Bugs are fixed. At least I didnt notice any until the end of the Rusviet campaign. - Cover System works. - The story is well writen. - Theres a great diversity in Mission design. - Like in Battletech it feels like commanding a giant mech