Iron Harvest

The mechs, the most advertised part of the game is underutilized. They have no special paths, they hold no extravagant tide turning weapons, and yet they take up almost as much manpower as a regular squad of men that can change to the situation at hand. Each one being a slight different from the other just by how fast they move, and what weapon they fire The squad of men aren’t even that helpful. Every class only really effects one type of other unit very well, meaning some of the most powerful units will be useless and just be a target if placed in a slightly different fight. Not only that but the selection on where to take cover is broken, as you have to specially, carefully pick the spot where a group of men will take cover, or they will just go over the wall and take all the fire without hesitation. These combined makes for a really weird, not so powerful optimized army, where if you make one mistake you have to rebuild everything right then and there. These are slights that cannot go overlooked. Built on top of all that, the maps are sad. As I said, the mechs have no special path, there’s no way to simply avoid a mech with ground units, and whatever land you gain you can just set up two gunners nest and take down any advancing mechs

To state it in advance: I only played the singleplayer campaign and hence cannot say anything about the multiplayer. After years, it was the first RTS I played and I must say that I, overall, really enjoyed the campaign. I think it tells a story that, in particular for a RTS, is quite interesting motivated me throughout a campain. This is also due to the fact that I really loved this alternate history scenario. The visual style is really nice and the overall graphics technically good enough to enjoy the game. Finally, I have to mention the very good and diversified mission design ranging from large scale battles with base building to missions with one or very few units. Hence, I would really recommend the game to anyone who loved to play good singleplayer RTS campaigns. And if you do so, I would highly recommed to active native voices for all characters/fractions (with subtitles) as it really supports the atmosphere.

First : I'd like to note that there were some significant scenario breaking bugs in the original release that rendered a certain campaign mission unwinnable. To my knowledge these have all been fixed! So, for people who don't know, Iron Harvest is based upon the art and Universe of the board game Scythe. In fact the heroes and factions are lifted directly from that game. That said, where Scythe is a strategic resource gathering game, Iron Harvest turns the dial way up on the action and is an RTS in the vein of Dawn of War/Company of Heroes. You command a small army of soldiers, heroes, and Diesel Punk inspired mecha as they build bases and lay claim to strategic points. Your order of battle consists of Infantry, cheap, plentiful, and flexible foot soldiers that can be outfitted on the fly with a variety of weapons and ordered to capture strategic resources or garrison buildings. Not powerful, but important combat enablers. The main attractions, however, are the Diesel Punk mecha that feature prominently. And they live up to their imposing promotional art! The largest mechs can simply wade through buildings while smaller more agile machines are still capable raiding units and flankers. And despite their power, anyone who has played Company of Heroes will appreciate how deft use of infantry, ambushes, and special abilities can allow even light forces to bring down one of these behemoths. However . . . The depth of gameplay leaves quite a bit to be desired. While there are an impressive variety of mechs, they all boil down to a 'ranged' type and a 'close combat' type in the light, medium, and heavy weight classes. Unless forced by scenario design, there is little reason to do more than rush to the largest mechs and deploy a mix of heavies supported by infantry. The game is still quite fun . . . But it is sad to see this minor lack of depth.

I only finished the first campaign (Polania) yet, but my impression of this game is excellent. It feels a bit like Company of Heroes gameplaywise, but has a very strong narration and excellent cutscenes, graphics are beautiful and very detailed, the units are diverse, mission design is varied and the atmosphere is rather unique and fascinating. If there is one thing I'd complain about it may be that there seem to be some problems with balancing in one or two missions, especially one mission was needlessly brutal and difficult and only with much luck and by decrease the difficulty to "easy" I was able to finish it. Other than that it's a very polished and pleasurable game experience.

I saw this game when it was in development and I was very interested in it based on the play style and the setting, especially since I'm a big fan of alt history scenarios and pickelhaubes! But, my initial impression of it's release was lack luster and I didn't buy it until recently. Here is a quick review: Gameplay 3/5- I love this style of game, RTS with strategic points. But, there's nothing to make Iron Harvest stand out amongst the competition. Terrain Detail 5/5- The game maps are beautiful and your mechs can destroy just about any building! I am also happy with the variety of maps, especially within the campaigns. Until Detail 4/5- Great uniforms for the troops and cool, if quirky, mechs. Pickelhaubes! Unit Variety 3/5- While each nation has it's own playstyle, unit types are similar between them all, there's few options for buildings, and there is not a huge variety. That makes the game easy to learn, but can be repititve. Stability 4/5- The game has been very stable for me. Just some lag during multiplayer. Music and Voice Acting 5/5- The music is awesome and really adds to the atmosphere of the game. So does the voice acting if you leave the national languages on. Campaign 5/5- This is what sells the game for me. I was not expecting such an awesome story with so many twists. The main characters are enganging and unique. The story is all sorts of sci-fi and alt history fun. I could read the story and enjoy it, so playing the story out is even more fun. This is a great game and I am happy that I played it! My son also really loves this game, so it has provided a bonding experience for us.