Published by Deep Silver and developed by KING Art, an award-winning independent developer for Bremen, Germany, Iron Harvest 1920+ has blown the RTS genre out of the water. It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen or played an RTS that felt so clean and well thought out at release.
Iron Harvest 1920+ delivers Company of Heroes or early Dawn of War vibes and KING Art has even said it likes the Company of Heroes approach for future DLC. With the current intention to release small updates with new maps and maybe mini campaign’s for free and also sell the big addons with new factions and story missions.
Also announced for future release is further graphic setting and a level editor for custom maps and game modes.
Iron Harvest 1920+ Review
Iron Harvest 1920+ is set in the world of an alternate 1920 onwards. This alternate version of our own world was created by Polish artist Jakub Rozalski, much like the board game Scythe. There are a few differences here to give the game a unique feel. In this rendition of the early 20th century, tradition clashes with progress and the world is still full of mysteries and secrets. You take control of three playable factions; Polania, Rusviet or Saxony. There are also nine heroes to choose from and over 40 unit types to decimate and conquer.
There are three single player campaigns with an overarching story split between 21 missions. If that’s not enough there are also single-player and co-op skirmish matches and challenge maps. These challenges include defeating a certain encounter with only so many units, escorting a hero across a war torn landscape and more.
The control system of Iron Harvest is very much like a typical RTS, with left click to select units, drag clicking to select multiples, ctrl and a number to place units into groups and the corresponding number to hot select them units, moving the mouse around the edge of the screen will move the camera, and holding alt will rotate the camera; not that I had to use that outside of the tutorial. Certain letters on the keyboard will correlate to skills that a selected unit has, making the use of abilities on the fly super easy, although micro-management plays a part in Iron Harvest its not overly convoluted.
Competitive multiplayer is available in both ranked matches and leagues with the announcement of free DLCs and updates. On top of that, there’s an in-game achievement system which gives players coins that can be spent on cosmetics so if you’re a collector there is going to be plenty to do.
The art style and graphics of Iron Harvest are absolutely stunning. The grass on the maps has a painted look to them feeling as if your playing through the art the game is inspired by. The models of the infantry and even the mechs don’t feel out of place contrasting very nicely to the underlying map. Terrain stands out enough that the depth it coveys looks as if it provides cover to your units. The cut scenes look great too. The motion and facial movements are really impressive.
Sound in Iron Harvest conveys a very atmospheric vibe, with nice background music. Gun sounds and combat noises aren’t over the top and add scale to foot troops and big chongus sounds as mechs stomp around the battlefield further conveying their size.
The voice acting is well done with accents portraying the factions well. Troops talk and react as battles play out which adds to the feeling that you’re overseeing a battle and issuing orders.
Iron Harvest 1920+ is available now on PC via Steam, GoG and the Epic store and will be available on Xbox and Playstation early 2021.
Iron Harvest 1920+ was reviewed on PC using a digital code provided by the publisher.
