In my opinion, Iron Harvest has a fascinating universe, aesthetic and story, but basing it off of Company of Heroes probably wasn't the best idea. As an RTS, it seems like it's supposed to be a much grander scale than what the game engine and playstyle allows. They probably would've been better off basing the game mechanics off of C&C Generals instead, and making the factions with more radically different playstyles.
I say men of war than c&c and coh style. I voted for men of war route when they ask for survey to what type of rts they wanted to make it but majority chose coh
Yea I wish it could of been better like seriously iron harvest had so much potential yet because I love iron harvest as a writer I'm making a series based after it and because of how much better operation eagle was great and it shows that iron harvest still has a lot of potential yet I still have hope for the game but it might be too late sadly tho the game is still young
Thing that I expected when I grabbed Iron Harvest: -Mech can stomp infantry -Heal/repairing troop ability is any worth -Generic Mechs can at least do things that a normal tank cant do: melee combat -Unit can at least respond to the dude shooting at them 10m away -A patrol comand -"A" for attack move
I totally agree with the depth critism. It's an absolute shame. I played CoH again earlier in the year and it is absolutely amazing even 15 years later. IH is like someone described CoH to the dev team without actually understanding why CoH was fun. IH has a great asthetic but I found that lacking too, there are too few mechs and the infantry are copy/pasted. Initially I was expecting the scale to be much larger given the concept art and again was let down. Again it's just an absolute shame and filled with missed opportunities.
Yeah pretty accurate assessment imo. If they do a sequel I hope they expand it mechanically ALOT. Every time I go back to CoH it reminds me how good that game is lol
Iron Harvest really fails in capturing those feeling of awe you get from Jakub's painting. What happen to those skyscraper towering mechs in those early ads?
It's even worse when Kickstarter remember the promises they made. "Inspired by Dawn of War 1 and Men of War." they said... well I don't see anything of those games in IH. Still the Campaign is pretty good, so I was more willing to just accept the downsides. Maybe, an IH 2 will fix the first games downsides, but I highly doubt that.
@@TurKlack god, Men of War is the most complex RTS thats not a wargame/sim. Leaves Blitzkrieg, Sudden Strike and Panzers in the dust in terms of realism and is more fun than any Close Combat wanna be. CoH is basically Starcraft compared to Men of War.
Honestly, although it isn’t all that much, I quite like IH. It might not be very complex, and it’s a bit overpriced, but it’s still good fun, and you can tell the devs love the game and the universe. I’m just waiting to upgrade my pc so I can actually run it without it catching fire
I think the biggest problem of Iron Harvest is well...the infantry. They all feel the exact same no matter what faction they are in. Let look at COH 2 as an example of how they made each of the faction base infantry different. Rifleman: A good all-around unit that uses M1 Grands as their main weapon which gives them a massive advantage compared to Axis bolt action rifles. Infantry Section: Gain a bonus while in cover and can be really deadly, however, is the only base infantry that does not have an AT ability. Volkgrenadier: Cheap infantry that can hold on their own while in cover but can be upgraded to improve their firepower and can use incendiary grenades to burn out units in buildings or MG positions. Grenadiers: Elite infantry that only has four men, however, they can build buckers without a doctrine. Conscript: Very cheap infantry that depends on numbers but has the ability to spirit. and that is just the base infantry...I haven't even talked about the engineers or other units. Like, Iron Harvest needs to make the infantry feel...unique between the different factions as they currently feel way too the same. Also, Support weapons suck! Like seriously, who bright idea was it to make them slow as hell? Just...why?
I really want to see a Togawa Faction. Also, while I get that Usonia's gimmick was having a dedicated Airship Force, the other 3 need some unique Air Mechs.
@@Eothr do you play scythe? Crimea khanate hero is zehra and her pet partner is an eagle named Kar. Lorewise zehra shared the same vision for Kar the eagle. Both her and Kar were replaced by that Arabian princess character who do the same as zehra and Kar does
@@archravenineteenseventeen I do not. I only heard about Iron Harvest 1920+ late last year and got the base version on Steam, but I hit a wall during the first Saxony mission (after clearing Polania and Rustviet), and haven't played it since for months.
@@Eothr check its lore 1920 by jakub rozalski paintings. there are 9 factions in total: Polania Republic Rsuviet Union Saxony Empire Nordic Kingdom Crimea Khanate Clan Albion Togawa Shogunate Vesna (The Factory faction) Fenris (Main villain)
£46 is just way too high of an asking price when the multiplayer player base is 300-500 Then you add the DLC that costs £17 and you are already £63... Company of Heroes 2 is still a better game & I can buy it for £15. or wait for a sale and buy for £1... If the game had a lower price I would probably play it but at this moment way too expensive for what is offered.
I have supported IH on Kickstarter. It had potentional. Unique settings (alternate history after WW1). Devs was realy transparent about development - work in progress, which Rts games inspired them (CoH). They talk with comunity (we could named new mechs). Yet this game suffering by few things. Almost none player base. No one know about this game. And there is something missing. I cant explain but there is nothing that keep me playing. Its realy shame because another Polish rts game Ancestors legacy is almost perfect but still I feel there is something missing. Maybe thats because both games tried something new and unique but in the end it does not work that well like we could expect...
I bought Iron Harvest on sale for Christmas after playing the demo and liking it enough, and honestly it's alright. It's nothing groundbreaking or overly complex, but it's not flat out terrible. One thing I definitely love about it is the setting, when was the last time we got a strategy game with this aesthetic? However, as a strategy game player who's been a big fan of many RTS's since playing Warcraft 3 as a kid, here's my thoughts for anyone who's maybe interested in the game. Pros: They absolutely nail the art style to this game, it's unique, feels like the era and is a breath of fresh air from the bog standard modern/scifi/medieval era RTS games. The simplicity at times greatly helps if you just want to pick up and play a match or two. I would not recommend playing this game in long bursts though. The developers have been sticking with and updating the game. Credit where credit is due, they could of just taken the money and ran but they're still improving it! The cutscenes in the story mode are surprisingly.. really good! It's all in the games engine I believe and looks surprisingly quite nice considering your usually viewing everything at a distance. The factions are distinct from one another and you can easily tell who is who, the units have different designs and are quite honestly very cool looking and easily identifiable. Props to the modeling teams and character designers here. The cons: Not to disregard criticism, there is absolutely as many have said before a lack of variety, the units definitely look different and "feel" different, but they overall serve the same purpose with little varying differences. That's not to say everything is 100% copy-paste, but a lot of the units, especially infantry and some mechs are guilty of this. Cover doesn't feel influential enough, it definitely works and reduces damage from the direction it's protecting against, but it doesn't seem like it does "enough". The health of defending infantry seems to only be protected by maybe..10? 15? Percent of damage overall. In games like Company of Heroes the type of cover you use is very important, for example a stone ridge versus a wooden fence, you really felt the difference between the two and the battlefield was ever evolving. That is.. not really present in this game, it works, but it doesn't work enough. The voice acting can be, sub par sometimes. It's alright, nothing truly sounds horrible, but some characters especially in cutscene dialogue tend to not always be easy on the ears. There's not a lot in the way of base building. Base building in Iron Harvest is more equivalent to Company of Heroes in that you really only build production structures and sometimes bunkers. Honestly I'd like to see more fortifications like trenches or fixed positions, maybe even some stationary guns or artillery to make things more interesting for infantry? Mechs feel overpowered. Due to how cover works in this game, and how tiny it's bonus actually is, it often feels like mechs absolutely dominate the game, especially with infantry. Most of the time the infantry's only purpose once the mechs get into the field is to capture structures. This is where I have to commend the design of Company of Heroes, vehicles in that game were powerful, but not invincible and could always be dealt with with abilities and good synergies or strategy. Sadly in Iron Harvest I have never seen an infantry ever kill a mech, not once, even the anti armor infantry. The mechs are the focus of the game, yes, but at times it feels like the infantry are just useless. Overall Iron Harvest is a very unique strategy game that, at the time of writing, is a bit shallow but still fun for a few sessions if your looking to pick up and play. I would 100% recommend waiting for a sale though as the current asking price for what you're getting is a tall order. If you are looking for a deep, in depth strategy game Iron Harvest is probably not going to be for you, not yet. The mechanics and abilities are there, but still need a lot of work. However this is still a fun game by it's own merits, in a way, it's simplicity helps it keep a quick, pick up and play style and makes it easy to jump in, blow a few mechs up then stop for the night. TLDR: Iron Harvest is shallow right now, but is despite this, a good simple game to pick up and play for a few matches. If you want a simple strategy game with a very cool aesthetic, wait for a sale and grab it! If you are looking for something with plenty of depth and variety, you are not going to find it here, yet. However the developers continue to work, maybe that depth will come eventually!
Before Christmas there was update that made mechs cheaper. Devs probably wanted to focus matches more around them. Initially infantry faze of the game was very deciding, it wasn't so much fun. Cover is important for infantry combat only because mechs just destroy it by walking on it. People tend to don't realize this: cover protecion is based on physics, accuracy of weapon makes the difference. If you would order unit to hide fully ("hold" order and no targets in range) they will not take any damage.
I fully agree with the gameplay part. As one who helped Kickstart this game back when they promised to make a spiritual successor of Dawn of War and Men of War, i was very interested, and hopeful for the Infantry, equipping a Unit with various weapons for different Jobs, to suit your needs, was what made the Infantry is many tactical RTS important. I think the real problem is the Infantry, ignoring the Mechs lack of close combat animations, the Infantry is literally jsut a copy and paste version of different guns turned into full squats. "Dawn of War and Men of War" my ass.
Nice review!! I feel like this review was made for me. I see this game on Steam on sale. I was thinking about picking up the standard edition and later getting Operation Eagle.
If you are gonna buy the game i hope you have fun. Btw i did agree with Zades points about the game, but for some reason i still really like the game. The game has a great story mode that is replayable (in my opinion) and the updated difficulty setting actually changes the AI's mechanics a lot now. But for me the aesthetic of the game is just absolute gold. New mechs for factions would be nice tho. Sorry for the long text.
I was blown away by the artillery barages and the really sweet steampunk theme. Saw it on sale on GoG and haven't regretted my purchase. Mind you, I am basically in this for the campaign. I kinda wish that the map doesn't become this open plain when mechs start appearing in force. They just destroy everything they touch which includes the fortifications that keep having to be rebuilt. May give CoH a whirl at some point in the future.
Fair assessment. I'll still stick to wargame red dragon though. The whole game reminds me of battleship galactica deadlock in that the mechanics are samey and lack depth.
Great review as always Zade, very well done. Can you please confirm what you said, that it's a standalone? Here's what Steam says right now: "This content requires the base game Iron Harvest on Steam in order to play."
I tried IH a few weeks ago when it was on a free weekend on steam. Was really interested in the game when it was announced. But the first gameplay scenes i saw really turned me away and now that i tried i cant say i have missed anything mayor. The game feels kinda lame and i guess i wont buy the DLC either, so i rather play CoH. But gud vid fam
To be honest, I'm not too moved to play Iron Harvest. My favourite kinda RTS is more like what Supreme Commander is, or the likes of Rise of Nations and such. But I genuinely enjoy hearing Zade's opinion on any RTS game no matter whether I want to play it or not. So well articulated.
here, I have a big heart soft spot for diesel punk which is why I have secretly a series in the works rn based on iron harvest because while the game wasn't hugely successful as we wanted it to be, it captures my heart in terms of diesel punk
The DLC is too costly for me to justify, sadly. It's a shame because I backed it and loved this game, but I feel like I felt like everyone else - it just wasn't quite enough. I also nearly bought it hoping for unique air units for each faction. The fact their generic for 3 of the 4 factions is disheartening.
The setting alone sold me this game when it went on sale on steam. As a hobbyist, I enjoy toying around with mechs, soldiers and terrain. I also love the historical idea of the 1920+ setting/alternate history in general, which is why I always loved the red alert games for example. At least in my world, a good story and good design trump a lack of "hardcore" gaming 100% so it might be no surprise that I love this games depth of design (or lack there of). I'm gonna be honest, I was never great at rts. I played aoe2 a ton, nerded out on rome/med2 and empire and adored red alert, but never played any above "average" skill, if that. I am a rusty af rts-normie that loves narratives and as that, the games design is amazing. It tickles the brain enough to be immersive and fun, but is also not demanding to a point of exhaustion/hyper-focus, where you burn through game after game, just to optimize your gameplan (like in aoe2). Every other day, I'm up for one or two fun games of Iron Harvest and that is really all a game needs to do for me. More importantly, it inspires my hobby-writing and gives me new ideas for my hobby-work. Something that CoH never would have done, because let's be fair: I grew up on CoD1, MoH and BF1942. Legs make everything better.
Ive had Iron Harvest on my wish list since it was announced. Its still on my list... I keep watching the reviews and... Its a shame it doesnt quite tempt me into clicking the buy button despite being on sale. Its missing what MOW AS2 gives.
However MOWAS2 doesnt have a proper campaign. Soldiers had a great copied campaign from comandos. The GEM engine could make innovative mission designs ( there is a mod called STALKER, Its amazing). Hope MoW2 give us an epic campaign
I want to love this game but it just moves too slow. Getting anti-armor guns and mortars out to the field takes forever. Most of the mechs move too slow as well, and all the units still feel a bit too samey. They also need to add a co-op match making against the A.I like CoH 2 has. When I'm staring at the desktop icons for Iron Harvest and CoH 2, I can't ever find a reason to click on Iron Harvest.
the main issue i have with IH is the speed at which units move. infantry move way faster than most mechanized units, and the artillary/mortars are so slow that theyre almost useless most of the time. i want to love the game but the speed at which everything except infantry moves basically makes the entire experience degenerate into an infantry spam race to capture the objectives. hell half the opponents ive faced just spam masses of engineers and "backdoor" all my resource points. theres never really anytime available to use most of the mechanics and building options as the battles require rapid responses to infantry spam.
Let's be honest with regards to air units in RTS games. they usually suck. they don't care about terrain and are almost always feast or famine, the closest to doing them right is the C&C games with airbases, honestly.
Well, at the end it was another letdown. I had a lot of hopes for the updates, especially with the OA dlc. But come on... the same set of air units for every faction? That's an Activision level of BS.
I tried this game when it was made free. My biggest problem was how tight the camera was, is was hard to manage large forces because you just couldn't see them and had to move the camera to select units then move back to the action. But honest to God, I'm over base building, it was a cool mechanic in 1992, but it's time to move on. This why I don't think I'll even put any amount of time in this game. I want games that focus more on army maneuvering and combat which why I'm going to spend my time playing the Total Wars games, for all their fualts.
@@Zade_95 Are you planning on doing a retrospective on Bungie’s Myth series some point down the road? Also random unrelated question but have you heard of the Three Moves Ahead strategy game podcast? Keep up the work man your videos and analysis are always so well put together and channels focused on strategy games in general are so rare!
great video like always, and i am honst iron harvest look cool before realise but than i playd the public demo and all my hype was goen, know i am only watching campain video beucurse this is still cool, but also i am not the biggest fan of the company of heros gameplay loop.
i have the same gripes about the air units also don't like how Usonia had to sacrifice some ground forces to have their fancy airship why can't i have both mech and airships, why do i gotta pick and choose?
Just a question is halo war 2 on your list of games to review imo it's improved on basically every aspect of the first game leaders and leader powers add a lot of variety between factions the only part I think is worse is multiplayer if your not willing to shill out on dlc leader packs like Serena and colony your not going to have a good time
my main complain to this game is the sluggishness of the mechs, and how strong the artillery units are. i have played the main campaign, the mechs' snail speed really makes the game like a battle of attrition. the infantry can do little damage to the mechs (even the anti-mech infantry do less than decent and are easily killed) thus leaving the mechs to do most of the hitting. the team weapons like heavy MG and AT guns are great counter to its intended targets, but they are EVEN SLOWER than the mechs. however if you are about to lose an engagement, running away is almost out of option as the slow mechs are too slow, and the retreating infantry has no urgency to run away faster, making a rout more likely. in company of heroes 1 and 2, the infantry are not as helpless, and the tanks act like real cavalry. hard hitting, fast moving, but not near-invincible.
"It's as if the game released too early" hmmmm, so like an early.... access? Joking aside, I do agree that it was definitely overpriced for an early access game.
I think the arguement of it being expensive is unfair. People are comparing it to the competition, which are older games that are, yes more developed. But this game has so many great conceptual ideas built into it and a very nice campaign for an RTS. We need these devs to survive, People!. Otherwise, the genre will stay at its 2006 roots for a while more.
I disagree. If you ain't offering anything different from your competition or in this cause a worst product don't expect people to blindly throw away money at it. While the world of 1920+ is interesting, Iron Harvest fails to capture the feeling of awe from that world. Iron Harvest is basically a re-skinned Company of Heroes with non of the depth or fun. And that is with me ignoring all the bugs and clunky controls.
Its called "dieselpunk" not steampunk. There is no steam engines in the game. I got the dlc, I was dissapointed with the neutral air units. I dont think its fair to compare a big studio behind total warhammer with a indie developper for iron harvest, when it comes to mech animation expectations. I want more factions honestly, all of em from Scythe. I dont want dev time wasted on mech animations.
Yea I wish it could of been better like seriously iron harvest had so much potential yet as much as I was disappointed with the games wasted potential, I still love iron harvest as a writer I'm currently making a series based on after it because something like this that we rarely get is something thats somehow beautiful in a way woth diesel punk that we dont see as offen unlike steam punk and casette punk etc and because of how much better operation eagle was great and it shows that iron harvest still has a lot of potential yet I still have hope for the game but it might be too late sadly tho the game is still young. But I still hope it will get better and me making a series after it shows how I became attached to it, yes it has a lot of flaws and disappointments, but I still have hope for that mine shows that something like iron harvest on diesel punk is still good while I am combining other punks and genres just so that it's a bit more realistic as possible I still wanna keep it mostly diesel because of me having a soft spot for it.
Ok maybe I'm dubm or something is going with this game? I have ,i7-7700 and gtx 1080 8gb and it gives me 25 fps in large battles on 1080p resolution.am I missing something? Dawn of war 3 stable 60 fps total war and Warhammer stable 60 with huge battles.
Hmm, I think a sequel would be the best place to improve it. They've made a good start but it's problems are too ingrained in the core game - a sequel would give the freedom they'd need. They've proved they can make a competent game technically, so I think people would be receptive
I dislike the air units. They are too cartoony. While the mechs, if not practical, are still somewhat realistic and buildable, armored airships are not. I feel like cartoony airships take away from the immersion, which would be the main selling point here. Same goes for the space marine armor. Just feels out of place.
After I finish the campaing then follow by some skirmish make me feel developer can't decide to make the game play like CoH or C&c. In campaign the game allow me gather large armies fight against seemly never ending AI armies but meanwhile in skirmish the game so stingy on resource even I've capture an entire map still barely able to build a single mech which is not fun at all and AI didn't even try to put up fight. overall I quite enjoy the campaign even it's a bit too short but the presentation is quite good but for skirmish mode just down right unplayable.
1v1 Skirmish against Medium A.I. is practically the new Insane mode. The computer churns out Infantry right from the get-go, and you can't counter them quickly enough.
Was originally hyped for the game but saw bad trailers with pop music that completely just did not match the tone of the pre-rendered trailers and definitely not fitting for an rts. Just kinda turned me off it as a red flag.
this game is really fun... ...for all of 5 missions and then it becomes a shitty job with a horrible boss, no pay and no benefits. i already work full time, i was just looking for something enjoyable to do with my free time. this definitely aint it.
@@Zade_95 Iron Harvest is extremely bare bones. Yeah it looks pretty but, that's about it. Even then, it's just mediocre. I remember seeing this game's kickstarter and was so excited. It looked like it was going to take the CoH formula and take it to a steam punk setting, how awesome that would have been. Bought it at launch, played it for an hour, returned it right then and there. Didn't even stay for the 2 hour limit. I was done 5 min in but, stuck with it for an hour. It's just pretending to be something it's not and it's a shame. It would have been the next RTS that people would be playing daily but, instead, it relegated itself to obscurity. I see it on the same level as DoW 3. It's just a trash of an RTS trying to emulate greats but, taking nothing from those greats and relying on a gimmick, the steam punk setting, to carry it to the finish line. I wanted to love the game, I just can't. It's so unbelievably boring and as you stated in your video, mechanically under developed, and it's a shame. Maybe you will have better luck getting the message to the developers, they need to expand the mechanics. It needs to be closer to CoH2. There needs to be more unit variety. The AI needs to be fixed. etc.
Sounds like the game you want is Warfront Turning point. Youre comparing it too much to coh which its not trying to be. Its simplified for a reason. The updates and upgrades this game has got is immense, and also mech on mech combat from that era? What do you expect. Its already so epic it can be. Go play a gundam game if you want the smooth humanlike fights. This review makes no sense at all from a technical standpoint
Another lazy dev that seems disconnected from what the player base wants and over promised and under delivered? It's a shame that it seems to be commonplace these days. (See most devs.)
In my opinion, Iron Harvest has a fascinating universe, aesthetic and story, but basing it off of Company of Heroes probably wasn't the best idea. As an RTS, it seems like it's supposed to be a much grander scale than what the game engine and playstyle allows. They probably would've been better off basing the game mechanics off of C&C Generals instead, and making the factions with more radically different playstyles.
I say men of war than c&c and coh style. I voted for men of war route when they ask for survey to what type of rts they wanted to make it but majority chose coh
Yea I wish it could of been better like seriously iron harvest had so much potential yet because I love iron harvest as a writer I'm making a series based after it and because of how much better operation eagle was great and it shows that iron harvest still has a lot of potential yet I still have hope for the game but it might be too late sadly tho the game is still young
@Zade_95 4:19 what tv show is this PLEASE ?
Thing that I expected when I grabbed Iron Harvest:
-Mech can stomp infantry
-Heal/repairing troop ability is any worth
-Generic Mechs can at least do things that a normal tank cant do: melee combat
-Unit can at least respond to the dude shooting at them 10m away
-A patrol comand
-"A" for attack move
I totally agree with the depth critism. It's an absolute shame. I played CoH again earlier in the year and it is absolutely amazing even 15 years later. IH is like someone described CoH to the dev team without actually understanding why CoH was fun. IH has a great asthetic but I found that lacking too, there are too few mechs and the infantry are copy/pasted. Initially I was expecting the scale to be much larger given the concept art and again was let down. Again it's just an absolute shame and filled with missed opportunities.
Yeah pretty accurate assessment imo. If they do a sequel I hope they expand it mechanically ALOT. Every time I go back to CoH it reminds me how good that game is lol
Iron Harvest really fails in capturing those feeling of awe you get from Jakub's painting. What happen to those skyscraper towering mechs in those early ads?
@@BlueSpaceRanger Agreed
It's even worse when Kickstarter remember the promises they made.
"Inspired by Dawn of War 1 and Men of War." they said... well I don't see anything of those games in IH. Still the Campaign is pretty good, so I was more willing to just accept the downsides. Maybe, an IH 2 will fix the first games downsides, but I highly doubt that.
@@TurKlack god, Men of War is the most complex RTS thats not a wargame/sim. Leaves Blitzkrieg, Sudden Strike and Panzers in the dust in terms of realism and is more fun than any Close Combat wanna be. CoH is basically Starcraft compared to Men of War.
Honestly, although it isn’t all that much, I quite like IH. It might not be very complex, and it’s a bit overpriced, but it’s still good fun, and you can tell the devs love the game and the universe. I’m just waiting to upgrade my pc so I can actually run it without it catching fire
I think the biggest problem of Iron Harvest is well...the infantry. They all feel the exact same no matter what faction they are in.
Let look at COH 2 as an example of how they made each of the faction base infantry different.
Rifleman: A good all-around unit that uses M1 Grands as their main weapon which gives them a massive advantage compared to Axis bolt action rifles.
Infantry Section: Gain a bonus while in cover and can be really deadly, however, is the only base infantry that does not have an AT ability.
Volkgrenadier: Cheap infantry that can hold on their own while in cover but can be upgraded to improve their firepower and can use incendiary grenades to burn out units in buildings or MG positions.
Grenadiers: Elite infantry that only has four men, however, they can build buckers without a doctrine.
Conscript: Very cheap infantry that depends on numbers but has the ability to spirit.
and that is just the base infantry...I haven't even talked about the engineers or other units. Like, Iron Harvest needs to make the infantry feel...unique between the different factions as they currently feel way too the same. Also, Support weapons suck! Like seriously, who bright idea was it to make them slow as hell? Just...why?
Yup, absolutely
@@Zade_95 @Zade_95 4:19 what tv show is this PLEASE ?
I can't believe the devs saw that the game has struggled with all the factions being samey, and then made a DLC that made them even more samey.
:|
@Zade_95 4:19 what tv show is this PLEASE ?
I really want to see a Togawa Faction. Also, while I get that Usonia's gimmick was having a dedicated Airship Force, the other 3 need some unique Air Mechs.
Usonia literally killed crimea khanate faction. Just see their female Arabian hero. She literally took crimea khanate hero Zehra and kar
@@archravenineteenseventeen ? I'm sorry, but I don't understand your statement...
@@Eothr do you play scythe? Crimea khanate hero is zehra and her pet partner is an eagle named Kar. Lorewise zehra shared the same vision for Kar the eagle. Both her and Kar were replaced by that Arabian princess character who do the same as zehra and Kar does
@@archravenineteenseventeen I do not. I only heard about Iron Harvest 1920+ late last year and got the base version on Steam, but I hit a wall during the first Saxony mission (after clearing Polania and Rustviet), and haven't played it since for months.
@@Eothr check its lore 1920 by jakub rozalski paintings. there are 9 factions in total:
Polania Republic
Rsuviet Union
Saxony Empire
Nordic Kingdom
Crimea Khanate
Clan Albion
Togawa Shogunate
Vesna (The Factory faction)
Fenris (Main villain)
£46 is just way too high of an asking price when the multiplayer player base is 300-500 Then you add the DLC that costs £17 and you are already £63... Company of Heroes 2 is still a better game & I can buy it for £15. or wait for a sale and buy for £1... If the game had a lower price I would probably play it but at this moment way too expensive for what is offered.
Very fair - hard to argue with that. Since launch I've said its too expensive... disappointed to see it hasn't really come down at all :/
Cool picture
CoH2 is also a much older game so it have cheaper price , also received more patchs and even have mod support .
Its on sale rn
@@tylerstanley8303 yeah same reason I'm here it is 75 percent off around £6 the original price differs from country to country I guess
I have supported IH on Kickstarter. It had potentional. Unique settings (alternate history after WW1). Devs was realy transparent about development - work in progress, which Rts games inspired them (CoH). They talk with comunity (we could named new mechs).
Yet this game suffering by few things. Almost none player base. No one know about this game. And there is something missing. I cant explain but there is nothing that keep me playing.
Its realy shame because another Polish rts game Ancestors legacy is almost perfect but still I feel there is something missing. Maybe thats because both games tried something new and unique but in the end it does not work that well like we could expect...
This game remind how hard is to make a name in the rts genre. I hope they can make a 2nd one.
I bought Iron Harvest on sale for Christmas after playing the demo and liking it enough, and honestly it's alright. It's nothing groundbreaking or overly complex, but it's not flat out terrible. One thing I definitely love about it is the setting, when was the last time we got a strategy game with this aesthetic? However, as a strategy game player who's been a big fan of many RTS's since playing Warcraft 3 as a kid, here's my thoughts for anyone who's maybe interested in the game.
Pros:
They absolutely nail the art style to this game, it's unique, feels like the era and is a breath of fresh air from the bog standard modern/scifi/medieval era RTS games.
The simplicity at times greatly helps if you just want to pick up and play a match or two. I would not recommend playing this game in long bursts though.
The developers have been sticking with and updating the game. Credit where credit is due, they could of just taken the money and ran but they're still improving it!
The cutscenes in the story mode are surprisingly.. really good! It's all in the games engine I believe and looks surprisingly quite nice considering your usually viewing everything at a distance.
The factions are distinct from one another and you can easily tell who is who, the units have different designs and are quite honestly very cool looking and easily identifiable. Props to the modeling teams and character designers here.
The cons:
Not to disregard criticism, there is absolutely as many have said before a lack of variety, the units definitely look different and "feel" different, but they overall serve the same purpose with little varying differences. That's not to say everything is 100% copy-paste, but a lot of the units, especially infantry and some mechs are guilty of this.
Cover doesn't feel influential enough, it definitely works and reduces damage from the direction it's protecting against, but it doesn't seem like it does "enough". The health of defending infantry seems to only be protected by maybe..10? 15? Percent of damage overall. In games like Company of Heroes the type of cover you use is very important, for example a stone ridge versus a wooden fence, you really felt the difference between the two and the battlefield was ever evolving. That is.. not really present in this game, it works, but it doesn't work enough.
The voice acting can be, sub par sometimes. It's alright, nothing truly sounds horrible, but some characters especially in cutscene dialogue tend to not always be easy on the ears.
There's not a lot in the way of base building. Base building in Iron Harvest is more equivalent to Company of Heroes in that you really only build production structures and sometimes bunkers. Honestly I'd like to see more fortifications like trenches or fixed positions, maybe even some stationary guns or artillery to make things more interesting for infantry?
Mechs feel overpowered. Due to how cover works in this game, and how tiny it's bonus actually is, it often feels like mechs absolutely dominate the game, especially with infantry. Most of the time the infantry's only purpose once the mechs get into the field is to capture structures. This is where I have to commend the design of Company of Heroes, vehicles in that game were powerful, but not invincible and could always be dealt with with abilities and good synergies or strategy. Sadly in Iron Harvest I have never seen an infantry ever kill a mech, not once, even the anti armor infantry. The mechs are the focus of the game, yes, but at times it feels like the infantry are just useless.
Overall Iron Harvest is a very unique strategy game that, at the time of writing, is a bit shallow but still fun for a few sessions if your looking to pick up and play. I would 100% recommend waiting for a sale though as the current asking price for what you're getting is a tall order. If you are looking for a deep, in depth strategy game Iron Harvest is probably not going to be for you, not yet. The mechanics and abilities are there, but still need a lot of work. However this is still a fun game by it's own merits, in a way, it's simplicity helps it keep a quick, pick up and play style and makes it easy to jump in, blow a few mechs up then stop for the night.
TLDR: Iron Harvest is shallow right now, but is despite this, a good simple game to pick up and play for a few matches. If you want a simple strategy game with a very cool aesthetic, wait for a sale and grab it! If you are looking for something with plenty of depth and variety, you are not going to find it here, yet. However the developers continue to work, maybe that depth will come eventually!
Before Christmas there was update that made mechs cheaper. Devs probably wanted to focus matches more around them. Initially infantry faze of the game was very deciding, it wasn't so much fun.
Cover is important for infantry combat only because mechs just destroy it by walking on it. People tend to don't realize this: cover protecion is based on physics, accuracy of weapon makes the difference. If you would order unit to hide fully ("hold" order and no targets in range) they will not take any damage.
@@nmorek7004 Interesting.. Didn't know any of this, as I'm still fairly new to the game. Thank you for sharing this information!
I fully agree with the gameplay part. As one who helped Kickstart this game back when they promised to make a spiritual successor of Dawn of War and Men of War, i was very interested, and hopeful for the Infantry, equipping a Unit with various weapons for different Jobs, to suit your needs, was what made the Infantry is many tactical RTS important.
I think the real problem is the Infantry, ignoring the Mechs lack of close combat animations, the Infantry is literally jsut a copy and paste version of different guns turned into full squats. "Dawn of War and Men of War" my ass.
Nice review!! I feel like this review was made for me. I see this game on Steam on sale. I was thinking about picking up the standard edition and later getting Operation Eagle.
Thank you
If you are gonna buy the game i hope you have fun. Btw i did agree with Zades points about the game, but for some reason i still really like the game. The game has a great story mode that is replayable (in my opinion) and the updated difficulty setting actually changes the AI's mechanics a lot now. But for me the aesthetic of the game is just absolute gold. New mechs for factions would be nice tho. Sorry for the long text.
Btw it was my first RTS game. And it is very simple to learn
BTW I know this is very late and you have noticed, but the game is now permanently discounted so you can get it for less now.
@@Zade_95 @Zade_95 4:19 what tv show is this PLEASE ?
I was blown away by the artillery barages and the really sweet steampunk theme. Saw it on sale on GoG and haven't regretted my purchase. Mind you, I am basically in this for the campaign.
I kinda wish that the map doesn't become this open plain when mechs start appearing in force. They just destroy everything they touch which includes the fortifications that keep having to be rebuilt. May give CoH a whirl at some point in the future.
Fair assessment. I'll still stick to wargame red dragon though. The whole game reminds me of battleship galactica deadlock in that the mechanics are samey and lack depth.
Coh2 has focused on listening to the community and because of it they got a lot of old players coming back along with newer ones
Hahaha it's because the developers and balancing team was replaced by internet modders
Great review as always Zade, very well done.
Can you please confirm what you said, that it's a standalone? Here's what Steam says right now:
"This content requires the base game Iron Harvest on Steam in order to play."
Thanks mate! yeah the steam page is confusing, there's a separate item on the main Iron Harvest page which is where you buy it :)
Thx for the good review. I considered getting this game, but now, imma just play more CoH.
Appreciate it mate!
It's 17 bucks now, so I'm thinking about it a bit
I tried IH a few weeks ago when it was on a free weekend on steam. Was really interested in the game when it was announced. But the first gameplay scenes i saw really turned me away and now that i tried i cant say i have missed anything mayor. The game feels kinda lame and i guess i wont buy the DLC either, so i rather play CoH. But gud vid fam
Thanks mate :)
they also still haven't delivered on the physical kickstarter rewards yet :/
Didn't know that - bruh
1920 lore: 9 factions in total
Iron harvest: released Usonia( not.part of the 9 faction and only has one painting)
sequel? :/
@@Zade_95 nope. there will be none
To be honest, I'm not too moved to play Iron Harvest. My favourite kinda RTS is more like what Supreme Commander is, or the likes of Rise of Nations and such. But I genuinely enjoy hearing Zade's opinion on any RTS game no matter whether I want to play it or not. So well articulated.
here, I have a big heart soft spot for diesel punk which is why I have secretly a series in the works rn based on iron harvest because while the game wasn't hugely successful as we wanted it to be, it captures my heart in terms of diesel punk
The DLC is too costly for me to justify, sadly. It's a shame because I backed it and loved this game, but I feel like I felt like everyone else - it just wasn't quite enough. I also nearly bought it hoping for unique air units for each faction. The fact their generic for 3 of the 4 factions is disheartening.
yeahhhh it's a pretty big shame. hopefully they can up it later!
@@Zade_95 I hope so! I'm just hoping AOE4 encourages a massive increase in new RTS games.
well CoH tank combat is the same as IH mech combat can't really fault one and not the other
The setting alone sold me this game when it went on sale on steam. As a hobbyist, I enjoy toying around with mechs, soldiers and terrain. I also love the historical idea of the 1920+ setting/alternate history in general, which is why I always loved the red alert games for example. At least in my world, a good story and good design trump a lack of "hardcore" gaming 100% so it might be no surprise that I love this games depth of design (or lack there of).
I'm gonna be honest, I was never great at rts. I played aoe2 a ton, nerded out on rome/med2 and empire and adored red alert, but never played any above "average" skill, if that. I am a rusty af rts-normie that loves narratives and as that, the games design is amazing. It tickles the brain enough to be immersive and fun, but is also not demanding to a point of exhaustion/hyper-focus, where you burn through game after game, just to optimize your gameplan (like in aoe2).
Every other day, I'm up for one or two fun games of Iron Harvest and that is really all a game needs to do for me. More importantly, it inspires my hobby-writing and gives me new ideas for my hobby-work. Something that CoH never would have done, because let's be fair: I grew up on CoD1, MoH and BF1942. Legs make everything better.
Ive had Iron Harvest on my wish list since it was announced.
Its still on my list... I keep watching the reviews and... Its a shame it doesnt quite tempt me into clicking the buy button despite being on sale.
Its missing what MOW AS2 gives.
However MOWAS2 doesnt have a proper campaign. Soldiers had a great copied campaign from comandos. The GEM engine could make innovative mission designs ( there is a mod called STALKER, Its amazing). Hope MoW2 give us an epic campaign
I was disappointed because I thought it would play like Men of War, but I'm still fascinated by the potential the universe has.
Me too, I definitely think a sequel could fix it's problems and be something truely special.
I now want a shirt that says “Nothing to sneeze at”. Where’s that merch store Zade!
So unfortunately what I’m hearing is stick with CoH or DoW2?
100k subs, once skillshare sponsor comes in right after RAYCON
I wish they would add a better way to look at the 3d models so people like me who wants to draw them have it easyer
I want to love this game but it just moves too slow. Getting anti-armor guns and mortars out to the field takes forever. Most of the mechs move too slow as well, and all the units still feel a bit too samey. They also need to add a co-op match making against the A.I like CoH 2 has. When I'm staring at the desktop icons for Iron Harvest and CoH 2, I can't ever find a reason to click on Iron Harvest.
Now it has Co-op
@@bobthebutler
For match making against the A.I?
Yes
Actually looking when this commen was posted it would have literally been implemented 1 and a half months ago. So a wish come true
Wait so story mode or the normal Skirmish/practice
I just want command and conquer or a game like it on CONSOLE!!!!!!!
the main issue i have with IH is the speed at which units move. infantry move way faster than most mechanized units, and the artillary/mortars are so slow that theyre almost useless most of the time. i want to love the game but the speed at which everything except infantry moves basically makes the entire experience degenerate into an infantry spam race to capture the objectives. hell half the opponents ive faced just spam masses of engineers and "backdoor" all my resource points. theres never really anytime available to use most of the mechanics and building options as the battles require rapid responses to infantry spam.
Let's be honest with regards to air units in RTS games.
they usually suck. they don't care about terrain and are almost always feast or famine, the closest to doing them right is the C&C games with airbases, honestly.
Empire Earth did It best.
Well, at the end it was another letdown. I had a lot of hopes for the updates, especially with the OA dlc. But come on... the same set of air units for every faction? That's an Activision level of BS.
I tried this game when it was made free. My biggest problem was how tight the camera was, is was hard to manage large forces because you just couldn't see them and had to move the camera to select units then move back to the action.
But honest to God, I'm over base building, it was a cool mechanic in 1992, but it's time to move on. This why I don't think I'll even put any amount of time in this game. I want games that focus more on army maneuvering and combat which why I'm going to spend my time playing the Total Wars games, for all their fualts.
Question. Could you Review the 5 Nation?
Looks interesting! I'll add it to the list :P
@@Zade_95 Are you planning on doing a retrospective on Bungie’s Myth series some point down the road? Also random unrelated question but have you heard of the Three Moves Ahead strategy game podcast? Keep up the work man your videos and analysis are always so well put together and channels focused on strategy games in general are so rare!
anyone else get firelord ozai vibes from the flamethrowers on the USA command ship? at 7:45
Yeah 😎
great video like always, and i am honst iron harvest look cool before realise but than i playd the public demo and all my hype was goen, know i am only watching campain video beucurse this is still cool, but also i am not the biggest fan of the company of heros gameplay loop.
Thank you:))
Still waiting for my Kickstater physical rewards, they've been so slow / not caring on that front
Didn't realize they hadn't gone out. Don't love to hear it :(-
I'm in the same boat.
Bro you got scammed
Lol
i have the same gripes about the air units
also don't like how Usonia had to sacrifice some ground forces to have their fancy airship
why can't i have both mech and airships, why do i gotta pick and choose?
Yeah exactly. Felt a bit cheap to me, lacking, you know?
So just stick to DoW2 or CoH2 then... good to know I didnt waste the money over an interesting aesthetic
Or play the Board Game Scythe.
Fully recommend, scythe is fantastic
Coh 1 and Act of War
Just a question is halo war 2 on your list of games to review imo it's improved on basically every aspect of the first game leaders and leader powers add a lot of variety between factions the only part I think is worse is multiplayer if your not willing to shill out on dlc leader packs like Serena and colony your not going to have a good time
That 'like' gets hit before the video even starts. Good stuff as always! Thank you.
Thank you David! Appreciate ya
my main complain to this game is the sluggishness of the mechs, and how strong the artillery units are. i have played the main campaign, the mechs' snail speed really makes the game like a battle of attrition.
the infantry can do little damage to the mechs (even the anti-mech infantry do less than decent and are easily killed) thus leaving the mechs to do most of the hitting. the team weapons like heavy MG and AT guns are great counter to its intended targets, but they are EVEN SLOWER than the mechs. however if you are about to lose an engagement, running away is almost out of option as the slow mechs are too slow, and the retreating infantry has no urgency to run away faster, making a rout more likely.
in company of heroes 1 and 2, the infantry are not as helpless, and the tanks act like real cavalry. hard hitting, fast moving, but not near-invincible.
"It's as if the game released too early" hmmmm, so like an early.... access?
Joking aside, I do agree that it was definitely overpriced for an early access game.
Too bad it wasn't labeled as such LUL
Kinda sad these games that have great potential just fall flat cuz of how bad the marketing team are
I think the arguement of it being expensive is unfair. People are comparing it to the competition, which are older games that are, yes more developed. But this game has so many great conceptual ideas built into it and a very nice campaign for an RTS. We need these devs to survive, People!. Otherwise, the genre will stay at its 2006 roots for a while more.
I disagree. If you ain't offering anything different from your competition or in this cause a worst product don't expect people to blindly throw away money at it.
While the world of 1920+ is interesting, Iron Harvest fails to capture the feeling of awe from that world. Iron Harvest is basically a re-skinned Company of Heroes with non of the depth or fun. And that is with me ignoring all the bugs and clunky controls.
Mmm, looks like a maybe since it is standalone DLC. Wasn't aware of that.
Yeah, think it's a good reason to give it a go!
Just got the full game with DLC in the Xbox store for $15 🤙
Still buying it on ps5. With mouse and keyboard of coz
This game have a lot of modding potential .
just buy it when it is on sale. it is good when the price is right
Good advice :)
Eeyup.
From what film/series did you take that clip from?
24, Season 1 ;)
Its called "dieselpunk" not steampunk. There is no steam engines in the game.
I got the dlc, I was dissapointed with the neutral air units.
I dont think its fair to compare a big studio behind total warhammer with a indie developper for iron harvest, when it comes to mech animation expectations. I want more factions honestly, all of em from Scythe. I dont want dev time wasted on mech animations.
I’m confused, does operation 🦅 have skirmish or multiplayer?
Yes, both. It's standalone so can play with people who don't own the DLC, or do
have you played "grey goo"? could you do an analysis of that game?
I have not, but I will cover it this year. It's been asked about for a while!
Have you seen the upcoming Starship troopers Terran comand? I have high hopes for the game, reale expecting to have a blast with it
Just briefly, will keep an eye on it when it gets closer to release!
Do you think this is worth picking up for just under £10? It's on sale on Steam.
Ya that's a good deal, would recommend
Yea I wish it could of been better like seriously iron harvest had so much potential yet as much as I was disappointed with the games wasted potential, I still love iron harvest as a writer I'm currently making a series based on after it because something like this that we rarely get is something thats somehow beautiful in a way woth diesel punk that we dont see as offen unlike steam punk and casette punk etc and because of how much better operation eagle was great and it shows that iron harvest still has a lot of potential yet I still have hope for the game but it might be too late sadly tho the game is still young. But I still hope it will get better and me making a series after it shows how I became attached to it, yes it has a lot of flaws and disappointments, but I still have hope for that mine shows that something like iron harvest on diesel punk is still good while I am combining other punks and genres just so that it's a bit more realistic as possible I still wanna keep it mostly diesel because of me having a soft spot for it.
Ok maybe I'm dubm or something is going with this game? I have ,i7-7700 and gtx 1080 8gb and it gives me 25 fps in large battles on 1080p resolution.am I missing something? Dawn of war 3 stable 60 fps total war and Warhammer stable 60 with huge battles.
Yeah performance can be a bit of dog sometimes I've heard on older hardware
Do you think IH can improve in depth over time? Or is it a dead end for the game?
Hmm, I think a sequel would be the best place to improve it. They've made a good start but it's problems are too ingrained in the core game - a sequel would give the freedom they'd need. They've proved they can make a competent game technically, so I think people would be receptive
This is now on xbox game pass for pc.
its dieselpunk, not steampunk
Straight OOFDA
This game isn't steam punk
I dislike the air units. They are too cartoony. While the mechs, if not practical, are still somewhat realistic and buildable, armored airships are not. I feel like cartoony airships take away from the immersion, which would be the main selling point here. Same goes for the space marine armor. Just feels out of place.
Can mechs finally step up small ledges? 😩
a little bit! but often still not lol
nice vid
tyty
The game did not deliver on Its promises. The dev surveys pointed to a revolutionary game. Instead we got COH2.5
standards are dead
Care to elaborate?
The AAA game standards have dropped so low they would have not survived in the 90s and early 00s with their poor quality.
Any plans to review unification mod or ultimate apocalypse for dawn of war?
Maybe one day ! No plans yet atm though :)
Also, technically you made a mistake, there's now 17 maps, because this week's update added another one.
After I finish the campaing then follow by some skirmish make me feel developer can't decide to make the game play like CoH or C&c. In campaign the game allow me gather large armies fight against seemly never ending AI armies but meanwhile in skirmish the game so stingy on resource even I've capture an entire map still barely able to build a single mech which is not fun at all and AI didn't even try to put up fight. overall I quite enjoy the campaign even it's a bit too short but the presentation is quite good but for skirmish mode just down right unplayable.
Wish this was for ps4
Oh it's PS5 only isn't it? :(
sad, guess im sticking to sc2
They reviews say that the Ai has gone nuts. It this true?
1v1 Skirmish against Medium A.I. is practically the new Insane mode. The computer churns out Infantry right from the get-go, and you can't counter them quickly enough.
Harder and smarter, I wouldn't say nuts though personally
Was originally hyped for the game but saw bad trailers with pop music that completely just did not match the tone of the pre-rendered trailers and definitely not fitting for an rts. Just kinda turned me off it as a red flag.
Hey! I enjoyed Iron Harvest. How can you say it's still terrible?
I didn't say it's terrible - there are parts of it I like a lot. And don't let others tell you shouldn't enjoy something, if you like it, you play it!
Iron Harvest *ISN'T* steampunk. It's so obviously dieselpunk. People mislabel dieselpunk aesthetics and settings as steampunk way too often.
As much as I love the graphics, music, theme, and setting of iron harvest; the core mechanics is just too clunky and lackluster to enjoy.
Yup, absoluetly
i bought the game for just 4$
COMPANY OF HEROES VIETNAM
yo that would actually be sick
I dont think ive ever enjoyed company of heroes this game is much easier to get bakc into and still has a resonable skill ceiling
Story was also Meh.
Just should have been better with Rise of Fenris.
They hiked the regional pricing (in India) few days after game went on sale.
I won't be buying it, just for publisher being scummy.
Dang, that sucks :(
Have been looking at this for years, just get my hand to it at Black Friday sale. Coming from Company of Heroes, this game is a big downgrade.
this game is really fun...
...for all of 5 missions and then it becomes a shitty job with a horrible boss, no pay and no benefits.
i already work full time, i was just looking for something enjoyable to do with my free time. this definitely aint it.
The game is garbage. Avoid it. Zade is just being nice.
Buy CoH 2 instead. Trust me.
I wouldn't say it's garbage (truthfully!) - but I do agree, CoH 2 is better and you''ll probably like it more :P
@@Zade_95 Iron Harvest is extremely bare bones. Yeah it looks pretty but, that's about it. Even then, it's just mediocre. I remember seeing this game's kickstarter and was so excited. It looked like it was going to take the CoH formula and take it to a steam punk setting, how awesome that would have been. Bought it at launch, played it for an hour, returned it right then and there. Didn't even stay for the 2 hour limit. I was done 5 min in but, stuck with it for an hour. It's just pretending to be something it's not and it's a shame. It would have been the next RTS that people would be playing daily but, instead, it relegated itself to obscurity. I see it on the same level as DoW 3. It's just a trash of an RTS trying to emulate greats but, taking nothing from those greats and relying on a gimmick, the steam punk setting, to carry it to the finish line. I wanted to love the game, I just can't. It's so unbelievably boring and as you stated in your video, mechanically under developed, and it's a shame. Maybe you will have better luck getting the message to the developers, they need to expand the mechanics. It needs to be closer to CoH2. There needs to be more unit variety. The AI needs to be fixed. etc.
Still a schizophrenic poolack nationalist power fantasy, still giga cringe.
Sounds like the game you want is Warfront Turning point. Youre comparing it too much to coh which its not trying to be. Its simplified for a reason. The updates and upgrades this game has got is immense, and also mech on mech combat from that era? What do you expect. Its already so epic it can be. Go play a gundam game if you want the smooth humanlike fights. This review makes no sense at all from a technical standpoint
Dont get this game, AI is gamebreakingly stupid.
Another lazy dev that seems disconnected from what the player base wants and over promised and under delivered? It's a shame that it seems to be commonplace these days. (See most devs.)