To say nothing else of Iron Harvest, it's a world that instantly makes you pay attention. Based on art by Jakub Rosalski (where the Scythe board game world also originated), Iron Harvest takes rural post-war Europe and drops gigantic mechs right in the middle. Looking at the artwork and screenshots, you can't help but be sucked in curiosity.
Luckily, there's a lot more to this RTS than a pretty face. Iron Harvest has a pretty impressive real-time strategy skeleton under its veneer, with plenty of opportunities for players to adapt and outsmart their opponents.
Iron Harvest also provides hard enough counters that matches never feel totally lost; there is always an opportunity to build an army that can fight against a complacent opponent.
We got our hands on a preview build of Iron Harvest, and we like what we've seen so far.
Mechanical Monstrosities
Iron Harvest is essentially a skirmish-style RTS set in the "World of 1920+". It's an alternate reality based in post-World War I Europe, with factions loosely based on real-world countries.
The central powers of Iron Harvest are the Rusviet, Saxony and Polania nations. Rusviet is an amalgamation of Soviet powers. Saxony is a combination of Western European countries. And Polania is the somewhat disjointed underdog, sandwiched between the two massive empires.
It all sounds like pretty standard RTS stuff, but what helps set Iron Harvest apart from the rest are its mechs. It's a world where Nikola Tesla worked his magic and huge mechanical war machines roam the countryside.
Unlike the slick mechs you'll see in some anime, however, these mechs are big clumsy beasts. They look like combinations of repurposed farm equipment and walking tanks. The first mech you encounter in the game is best described as a barrel with legs.
Watching these wonky, clumsy weapons of war roll across the battlefield, wiping out entire infantry battalions, is immensely satisfying.
rock Paper Scissors
Even though the mechs are impressive, you won't wield huge armies of them. You have plenty of other tactical options to consider, and sometimes a massive swarm of infantry groups is more effective than a handful of forest brutes.
In general, your small troops have stronger tactical options, and their ability to maneuver and adapt to more situations allows them to be effective in the hands of a skilled commander.
Infantry units can serve different purposes, and each faction's troops have a few different details that help them stand out. For example, Polania's base infantry carry bolt-action rifles, while Rusviet infantry carry shotguns. In some situations, you'll find yourself wishing you had the troops your faction doesn't have, and a huge aspect of being successful in Iron Harvest is putting yourself in situations where your troops have the edge.
On top of that, troops can hide inside buildings, take cover against walls or in bushes, seek higher ground, and even lay landmines, barbed wire, and other obstacles . If you kill an enemy unit, it can drop weapons that an existing unit can acquire and use, changing your army composition on the fly.
Even an army of just a few engineers can seriously injure opposing mechs if you strategize correctly by laying traps, setting up an ambush, and avoiding detection in the open field. Brute force might defeat you, but shrewd strategy can trump superior firepower in Iron Harvest.
Economy 101
The economy and base building aspect of Iron Harvest is relatively simple, but it gets the job done. There are two resources to manage and a handful of buildings that allow you to create units and upgrades.
Having a strong economy is key to overcoming some missions, but Iron Harvest seems more focused on tactics and warfare than outsourcing your opponent's resources.
There are stockpiles of resources scattered across the various maps, and there are also buildings you can "control" that give you a set amount of resources over time.
Controlling more buildings will give you more iron or oil per second, for example, and those buildings can change hands easily if not properly defended. At the same time, stretching yourself out too thin on a map is just waiting to be ripped apart by an opposing army.
A winning personality
One of the trickiest things to do in a strategy game is giving each faction their own identity while still managing to keep them in balance. This is one of the areas where, as of now, Iron Harvest stumbles.
There are some small differences in faction infantry units, and each faction has distinct mechs and heroes, but ultimately they feel like reskins of each other. The difference between "shotgun infantry" and "rifle infantry" doesn't make much of a distinction. It's a stark contrast to something like StarCraft, where each faction is distinct.
On the one hand, this means you'll be able to trade between factions without too much of a learning curve. On the other, it damages some of the depth of Iron Harvest in the long run.
Hero units offer a bit of personality, although they don't change your strategies too much. Polania features a female sniper named Anna who has a pet bear named Wojtek; they're a great combo of long-range damage and close-range tankiness. Saxony has a massive AT-AT-esque mech called Brunhilde piloted by a salty commander named Gunter von Duisburg.
Nuts and bolts
Iron Harvest's production values are solid, though some aspects of it feel a bit fast and loose. Troops, especially infantry groups, don't always behave the way you think. Several times I ordered my assembled infantry to take cover behind a wall, to watch them jump over and take cover on the other side. That's fine, but the enemies are on this side. Hedging doesn't work that way.
It's easy to identify certain aspects at a glance, like weapons that hit the battlefield, once you know the icons that represent them. The maps are surprisingly detailed and the unit graphics look pretty sharp even at medium ranges. Get too close and you'll be able to make out the details, but that's why you don't zoom that far in real-time strategy games.
The voice work is not phenomenal. The Polania and Rusviet factions are a bit like asking a group of stage actors to mimic Soviet accents. And playing through Polania's opening campaign from Anna's perspective is also a little irritating, because just about every character just can't believe your hero isn't male. Yes, Anna is a girl. She can shoot. Isn't that crazy?!?!
time to play
There is an open beta version of Iron Harvest, free to download from Steam, which contains some of Polania's early missions. Definitely worth trying to get a feel for the game's systems if you're a fan of RTS Fair.
Our press copy had a bit more to it: some of the Saxony missions later in the campaign and the ability to set up skirmishes with those two factions and as Rusviets.
The campaign seems like a pretty solid exercise, but a lot of the value of RTS games comes from how the multiplayer works. If Iron Harvest is able to find that balance and personality in its factions, that's likely to be the deciding factor in whether it's worth buying. Keep an eye out for it, try the beta, and come back here for a full review when it's released in September.
