I do like this game, but it has some very glaring flaws, and if you cannot enjoy a game through some rather annoying mechanics, then you may do well to avoid this one.

Iron Harvest is.. a very interesting, unique game, and honestly? The devs made something very interesting with what they had, but some mechanics just really needed tweaking before they left. Based off of the Scythe board game in which WW1 era humanity used gigantic dieselpunk mechs in place of vehicles like tanks and artillery, Iron Harvest focuses on fictional nations based off of real world counterparts in WW1 era Europe. You start with Polania, Rusviet and Saxony, later DLCs included expansions to these factions and even new air units with Ursonia (America) added later on.

The game has a surprisingly extremely robust campaign with a lot of missions, and one thing I really like about it, you can use these campaign missions to unlock skins and reward progress, all completely singleplayer! Even playing co-op with a friend if you wish. The singleplayer offerings are surprisingly very big and where most of the effort is put in. If anything, get the game for that, as the multiplayer is dead at the moment, skirmish with AI does exist, but it's not the same. Not bad, just not the same.

The main draw of the game's mechanics is it's inherently designed with a similar system to Company of Heroes in mind. Infantry are your main swiss army knife, but they can't do everything. Vehicles are your hammer and shield, you won't get tons and tons of them, but what you do call in is very powerful and tanky for when you need it to be. Cover is made with various things in the environment as well as structures made by player engineer units, and helps your infantry to last much longer in a fight.

Now, the negatives.. Sometimes the difficulty spikes in certain missions, and it spikes BAD. Some missions like the first Rusviet Revolution mission when it comes to defending the mansion can be extremely hard unless you know what you're doing. On top of that, the attack on Tesla's factory has units constantly spawning from the gates, in theory you're supposed to attack the gates until their health is reduced, but the units just never stop spawning. I ended up suiciding small armies into the gates until I eventually destroyed them through attrition.

Also, mechs seem a bit unbalanced still when it comes to effectiveness vs. infantry. Cover doesn't seem to make a large enough difference when it comes to infantry vs. mechs. Infantry vs. infantry is a noticeable difference, but the value of infantry tends to fall off late game once the mechs start getting spammed. Mechs can't capture points however, so there is an inherent use only infantry will have, but anything late game just slaughters them. This WAS fixed a bit later on down the line, when anti-mech infantry were buffed and mech damage to infantry was toned down a bit. Generally you want to try to avoiding mechs with infantry if you can, but it's no longer suicide like it was before.

Another annoying bit with mechs vs. infantry is mech attacks on infantry tend to "stagger" infantry, making them dive out of the way. While this fun bit of realism works in making battles more cinematic, it also makes infantry a lot more annoying to fight mechs with because, when staggered, they don't shoot back. If multiple mechs are fighting your infantry, or hero, they'll rarely be able to do anything because they'll essentially be stunlocked. Best to bring in as much support as you can in bigger fights.

Outside of that, and sometimes clunky controls like positioning mechs the way you want them, how fast infantry retreat from battle, and some pathfinding here and there, it's a solid game. Not a great or amazing one, but a "good" game.

TLDR: Pick it up on sale only if you're interested. If you're looking for something with lots of polish (pun intended) or tight, smooth gameplay, this won't be for you. Buuut if you're interested and like WW1 era humanity duking it out with big clunky mechs and don't mind jank, you'll have fun with the singleplayer options.

I do like this game, but it has some very glaring flaws, and if you cannot enjoy a game through some rather annoying mechanics, then you may do well to avoid this one. Iron Harvest is.. a very interesting, unique game, and honestly? The devs made something very interesting with what they had, but some mechanics just really needed tweaking before they left. Based off of the Scythe board game in which WW1 era humanity used gigantic dieselpunk mechs in place of vehicles like tanks and artillery, Iron Harvest focuses on fictional nations based off of real world counterparts in WW1 era Europe. You start with Polania, Rusviet and Saxony, later DLCs included expansions to these factions and even new air units with Ursonia (America) added later on. The game has a surprisingly extremely robust campaign with a lot of missions, and one thing I really like about it, you can use these campaign missions to unlock skins and reward progress, all completely singleplayer! Even playing co-op with a friend if you wish. The singleplayer offerings are surprisingly very big and where most of the effort is put in. If anything, get the game for that, as the multiplayer is dead at the moment, skirmish with AI does exist, but it's not the same. Not bad, just not the same. The main draw of the game's mechanics is it's inherently designed with a similar system to Company of Heroes in mind. Infantry are your main swiss army knife, but they can't do everything. Vehicles are your hammer and shield, you won't get tons and tons of them, but what you do call in is very powerful and tanky for when you need it to be. Cover is made with various things in the environment as well as structures made by player engineer units, and helps your infantry to last much longer in a fight. Now, the negatives.. Sometimes the difficulty spikes in certain missions, and it spikes BAD. Some missions like the first Rusviet Revolution mission when it comes to defending the mansion can be extremely hard unless you know what you're doing. On top of that, the attack on Tesla's factory has units constantly spawning from the gates, in theory you're supposed to attack the gates until their health is reduced, but the units just never stop spawning. I ended up suiciding small armies into the gates until I eventually destroyed them through attrition. Also, mechs seem a bit unbalanced still when it comes to effectiveness vs. infantry. Cover doesn't seem to make a large enough difference when it comes to infantry vs. mechs. Infantry vs. infantry is a noticeable difference, but the value of infantry tends to fall off late game once the mechs start getting spammed. Mechs can't capture points however, so there is an inherent use only infantry will have, but anything late game just slaughters them. This WAS fixed a bit later on down the line, when anti-mech infantry were buffed and mech damage to infantry was toned down a bit. Generally you want to try to avoiding mechs with infantry if you can, but it's no longer suicide like it was before. Another annoying bit with mechs vs. infantry is mech attacks on infantry tend to "stagger" infantry, making them dive out of the way. While this fun bit of realism works in making battles more cinematic, it also makes infantry a lot more annoying to fight mechs with because, when staggered, they don't shoot back. If multiple mechs are fighting your infantry, or hero, they'll rarely be able to do anything because they'll essentially be stunlocked. Best to bring in as much support as you can in bigger fights. Outside of that, and sometimes clunky controls like positioning mechs the way you want them, how fast infantry retreat from battle, and some pathfinding here and there, it's a solid game. Not a great or amazing one, but a "good" game. TLDR: Pick it up on sale only if you're interested. If you're looking for something with lots of polish (pun intended) or tight, smooth gameplay, this won't be for you. Buuut if you're interested and like WW1 era humanity duking it out with big clunky mechs and don't mind jank, you'll have fun with the singleplayer options.