![]() Sharing a universe with the board game Scythe (also available in a virtual incarnation on Steam), Iron Harvest takes place in an alternate history version of post World War One Europe in which massive war mechs rule the day. ![]() Players control one of three factions as they vie for dominance. The Polanians (Polish) focus on harassment with an army of long range and high mobility units. The forces of Rusviet (Russia), meanwhile, emphasize melee and close range units, and Saxony (Germany) wields an army of very slow but very durable units. The three factions aren’t as distinct as you’d find in something like StarCraft (they do share some units between them), but they’re different enough to not just feel like reskins.Īs much as all three factions feel interesting in their own way, I do think it’s a bit of a missed opportunity to have them all be from roughly the same part of the world. Frustratingly, there are other nations from farther afield mentioned as early as the game’s tutorial - including a “Shogunate” - so clearly such options exist within the setting. Presumably these other factions are being reserved for DLC, and I don’t mind the idea in theory, but I think it would make for a better sales pitch if the base game options were more diverse. I just want giant dieselpunk samurai mechs, you guys. On the plus side, what is included in the game right now is beautifully realized. ![]() The graphics are astonishingly pretty - easily the best I’ve ever seen in a strategy game - and the developers have done a fantastic job of illustrating the brutality and bombast of war in this setting. Gunshots snap and crack, while explosions shake the entire field of battle. Mechs can simply walk through small buildings if they get in the way. In general it was a very polished beta experience, with few bugs or issues to speak of. The September launch date doesn’t seem like rushing things this game is ready. I did experience a bit of a steeper than average learning curve, but once I realized what the right approach to this game is, I started really enjoying myself. These days, most RTS games feel a bit like nostalgia acts. They’re mainly attempts to replicate the success of the RTS games of yesteryear. This is not entirely a bad thing, mind you there were a lot of great RTS games back in the day, and those are formulae that deserve to be replicated. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a delight to see a new game genuinely chart a new course. I kept trying to figure out what hole to fit Iron Harvest into. Is it more of a clone or StarCraft or Command and Conquer? Eventually, though, I realized it’s not really a clone of anything. While its core mechanics are largely familiar to any RTS player, the way they all come together doesn’t quite feel like anything that’s come before.īroadly speaking I would say that Iron Harvest is more of a micro game than a macro game. That is, it’s more about managing your troops in battle than about managing the economy. There’s only two resources to harvest and a handful of structures to build.
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