Review for Iron Harvest. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 01/09/2020
It is not new that the RTS genre goes hand in hand with dystopia and alternate versions of our world, in which historical facts are intertwined with fictional and science fiction events. The most famous example is probably the Command & Conquer series in which the Second World War and, subsequently, the Cold War are reinterpreted and then created an original plot. So here's what for Iron Harvest the Germans of KING Art Games wanted to start from the end of the First World War to delve into the 1920+ World conceived by the mind of the Polish creative Jakub Różalski, known to lovers of board games for the graphics made for Scythe. In addition to the diesel punk plot and the common graphic style, Iron Harvest shares a similar gestation with the aforementioned boardgame, with a successful kickstarter campaign, which ended about two years ago, and a development phase in close contact with the attentive community.
Reapers of War
Iron Harvest narrates the events involving three fragile nations for different reasons but all united by a thin peace reached after the sufferings of the great war. And that's how it is we will meet Anna Kos, a young and petite girl from Polania who hides a greatness of principles and unrivaled courage. The Iron Harvest campaign is divided into three parts, equal to the number of factions we are going to use, and starts right from Polania to then move on to the Rusviet and, finally, to Saxony.
It is not difficult to guess the historical references and the nations that are represented here and it is interesting how the plot reconnects the events between the various playable characters in the 21 total missions (7 per faction) of which the title is composed, a bit like it happened in the Warcraft III main campaign. Each faction features a stable hero or heroine who is accompanied in the course of events by other heroes, each with their own unique abilities and characterization. Here we find one of the strengths of the KING Art Games work: a well-structured and elaborated plot with a valid interweaving, in which we will get to know characters of a certain depth and that refer to the real history of those years, albeit reinterpreted in a 1920s perspective. +.
As far as gameplay is concerned, Iron Harvest is configured as a modern Real Time Strategy that brings together everything a player has learned about from the titles of the past, albeit with certain limits. Thus, the construction of the main buildings will be limited to three choices: headquarters (buildable only once per game, so forget about the double bases), barracks and workshop. In addition to the main buildings we will have the opportunity to build fortifications for our camps and defensive positions in order to protect us from massive enemy waves. The title shows all its richness in the mammoth mechs and in the many infantry units that we can create, based on the level of our barracks and workshops. In fact, as Blizzard tradition teaches, Iron Harvest features a growth system for units, able to unlock new peculiar abilities and, relative to buildings, able to allow the creation of advanced units. At the same time, the heroes will also be able to increase their level and unlock their innate ability, also going to increase their resistance to enemy attacks. However this great variety of human and mech units has limitations: each faction will have the same type of infantry units (riflemen, engineers, doctors, machine gunners, etc.), recognizable only by the different uniform worn, while the mechs will be slightly differentiated by more detailed skills, proving once again the flagship of the production.
The title has a not too linear learning curve and several missions will be required before learning the game system perfectly and being able to adopt, consequently, a more effective strategy to achieve the various objectives. In all this it does not help the choice of the developers to equip the enemy armies with a very high number of units from the beginning of the mission compared to the player who starts his campaign with a small number of soldiers. We will therefore be forced to collect the resources scattered around the map, or the scrap of the mechs, quickly and then conquer refineries and metalliferous mines, all with the few soldiers available, in order to be able to expand our army as soon as possible and therefore be able assault the enemy.
Apart from this, AI does not prove adequately competitive and therefore, with a healthy dose of patience, it will not be difficult to defeat the enemy on duty, especially since it will hardly go to repair or build new buildings. In fact, it seems that in Iron Harvest the enemies proceed exclusively to the creation of new units to patrol the various areas in search of the firefight, making use of the greater initial power and replenishing only any defections of units. Therefore, on a tactical level, the AI-controlled units will be almost exclusively intent on conquering or stealing our raw material extraction points even if, on several occasions, an ambiguous attitude will be evident with a neglect of the same positions attacked previously.
Unfinished
As we said in the first few bars of this review, Iron Harvest has come into our hands following a Kickstarter campaign as well as a conspicuous beta phase in which KING Art Games has taken all the suggestions of the attentive community. However, the title is currently incomplete especially at the multiplayer level with the lack of a matchmaking and a ranked mode. Even being able to face a quick game (1vs1, 2vs2 and 3vs3) will become difficult, since there are few active online players but, perhaps, the situation will improve in the coming months, also in view of the launch of Iron Harvest on Xbox. One and PlayStation 4. In the meantime, after the campaign of the three factions in about 15-20 hours of play, we will be able to try the upcoming co-op mode and test ourselves with the classic Skirmish modes (still exclusively against AI) and Challenge.
There is a reason why we wanted to conclude the technical aspects of Iron Harvest and it is that among them there is a truly original element and cared for in every detail.. These are not particularly original or explosive graphics, although the good work done by KING Art Games with the unity graphics engine is evident, especially in the attention to detail that characterize the units (although the mechs present significant drops in frame rate in their movements), in explosions, in particle effects and in general in the fluidity of the game. The reason is not even to be found in the intermission videos between the various missions, certainly a good job even if it could be disappointing compared to the trailers released in the past years and months (think for example of the recent Cinematic Trailer).
So here we are at the flagship of the production: characterized by an enveloping beautiful soundtrack and a corollary of high-level audio effects, the most original element of Iron Harvest concerns the sound sector and specifically the Native Mode in which it will be possible to take advantage of the original dubbing based on the nationality of the faction in use (basic Polish, Russian and German). An element that stands as unique in the panorama, compared to the generic dubbing in English in which the various national teams differ only in the accent (and available as a base also in this title). In support of this we will obviously have menus, suggestions and subtitles in various languages.
Iron Harvest has two big aces up its sleeve: the first concerns the Diesel Punk concept of the 1920+ universe created visually by Jakub Różalski, while the second concerns a well-woven plot characterized by convincing characters. With these elements, will the KING Art Games title set new standards for the RTS genre? The answer is probably no, due to some obvious limitations of AI and, above all, because the works on the German developer's yard are still far from finished. However, Iron Harvest has original elements and a high-level sound sector and is certainly among the appreciable titles for any RTS lover.
► Iron Harvest is an RTS-Strategy game developed by KING Art Games and published by Deep Silver for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 01/09/2020
