Iron Harvest is a refreshing title that stands out among a sea of RTS shortfalls, serving as a temporary reignition for the once-great genre. It’s also is a beautiful reminder of how real-time tactical games can still be shockingly good. KING Art Games has cooked up an impressive titan from a simple Kickstarter campaign, and now patient fans can battle with armies that are comprised of mechs reminiscent of The Iron Giant. Although unit pathing and control can be hit-or-miss, Iron Harvest largely succeeds in delivering🉐 its original promises to plaไyers.
A Thematic Gem With Meaty Gameplay
Bottom line: Iron Harvest is extremely cool. KING Art’s reimagined, post-World War I history feels authentic and immersive. Alt-Europe was littered with iron following the massive conflict, leaving the game’s factions to harvest those materials and race against each other for technological superiority. The result? Three badass armies f🍨illed with hulking, clunky🔜 mechs. The aesthetic and themes are executed masterfully, and controlling huge battles in this world feels amazing.
Based on , the development team set out to create an “epic campaign and strong characters” – and they largely succeeded. The campaign is a fantastic adventure with surprisingly good personaliti𒁃es introduced throughout. Speaking vaguely to avoid any spoilers, the moment a certain Rusviet officer creatively taunted Polania’s heroine Anna – I knew that Iron Harvest’s campaign would hold my attention. Continuing in the singleplayer vein, players can also battle AI in skirmishes (as expected) and toil over special challenge maps. These standalone missions offer a solid struggle – they just need to add more as time passes. At the time of reviewing, there ar꧃e only three maps. For a $50 game, I was expecting that section to be filled out a bit more. Nonetheless, there is plenty of content to keep solo players satisfied, for now.
Unit Behavior Can Be Frustrating
My main gripe with Iron Harvest is a series of unit behavioral quirks. To be frank, commands don’t feel quite as snappy as I’d hoped for. Most of this is by intentional design; units aren’t supposed to be easy to turn and reposition, but some of it just feels outright buggy. Pathing can be awkward, as is often the case with squadron-based “singular” infantry units. Even mechs don’t always seem to move the way I want, sometimes requiring a flurry of slightly a💃ltered clicks to get the desired result. Building barbed wire can result in similar frustration, as it is difficult to tell what is exactly “airtight” without a post-build test. Because it🍰s main use is to block infantry, one subtle leak can render a fenceline useless in multiplayer.
Playing Iron Harvest coming from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:StarCraft, I realized how much I wanted the former to be like the latter regarding hotkeys. I found it slightly annoying that I couldn’t put individual units into multiple control groups. I also prefer that the camera snaps to location hotkeys instantly, instead of scrolling rapidly from scene to scene. Lastly, ordering units using the minimap is a bit inconsistent. I could move units using the minimap, but couldn't attack-move them. All-in-all, the in-game performance concerns I have are extremely nit-picky, so I don’t imagine most players will be bothered by much of this. It plays very similarly to the Company of Heroes entries at the end of the day – which isn't bad at all.
Multiplayer Is Already Competition-Ready
Competitively balancing unique factions is a massive undertaking in the RTS genre. That said, it’s quite impressive to see Iron Harvest launch with the Rusviets, Polanians, and Saxony Empire each balanced reasonably well against each other. And I’m not the only one who thinks so; ESL sanctioned an and StarCraft 2 professionals and casters alike 🔯reached the top eight. HeroMarine, ToD, RotterdaM, a🉐nd DeMusliM each made strong debuts in the new RTS. All three factions were used at the highest level, though the grand finals featured two Polanian players.
Regarding my own experience, I’ve bee♓n in love with the multiplayer. There is no one path to victory, with the game allowing for plenty of strategic individualization. Infantry/h🗹ero rushing, late-game play, barbed wire cheesing – everything I’ve tried so far has shown potential. Coming from other competitive RTS games, I find the game to be equally addicting. The campaign is good and all, but multiplayer is where Iron Harvest shines.
Although I prefer more responsiveness, quicker movement, and greater control than the new RTS has to offer – Iron Harvest strongly delivers in its own way. It’s an absolute must-buy for fans of Company of Heroes or steam-punk aesthetic lovers. Even🍌 if you’re just a moderate fan of RTS games, Iron Harvest is a tough experience to pass up.
A PC copy of I𒅌ron Harvest was provided to TheGamer for this review. Iron Harvest is available now for PC, Xbox One, and Pla🎉yStation 4.
Iron Harvest puts you in the role of a mech pilot in an alternate 1920s history, in the midst of war between Polania, Rusvi🙈et, and Saxony. There are several different campaigns to play through, as well as multiplayer and skirmish options.