Sita, naturally, doesn't trust Westerners, and though the story does very much borrow from the obvious Lawrence of Arabia parallel, the Arabians are the key actors in their own fight for independence. The story of Mason and the revolutionary leader, Sita al Hadid, is an interesting one. It also gives more global context to the main campaign, making it clear that 1920+'s big bads, Fenris, are pulling the strings without giving too much away. Its leading characters are very literal embodiments of interesting American historical trends from that era, which included a struggle of isolationism against imperialism. The plot is strong, for what it is, with all the same melodrama and angst that drove the main Iron Harvest campaign. The second and third segments, in Arabia, see Mason become embroiled in that country's revolutionary civil war against the colonizing Saxonian Empire. The story follows Usonian Captain William Mason across three acts in two major locations: The first missions, in Alaska, are against Rusviet soldiers fighting in their country's revolution. It's got the same high quality of cinematics and mission design I enjoyed in the first campaign, with the added aerial twist for a bit of flavor.
Speaking of playable, the new Usonia campaign spreads a lot of story across about 10 hours worth of missions, and mostly succeeds at it. It's that kind of attention to detail that makes the world of Iron Harvest, and now Operation Eagle, so compelling. They also have the diversity you'd expect from the early 20th-century, immigrant-populated Americas-a potpourri of European accents from the melting pot. It's particularly great that various regional accents are represented among the Usonian units – the grumpy mid-Atlantic engineer, the Brooklyn-accented machine gunners, and the well-heeled ‘20s Harlem-accented Medics all spring to mind. Usonia's design succeeds in making an appropriately over-the-top alternate American culture to compete with the national caricatures that make up the existing Polanian, Rusviet, and Saxony factions. The bull-horned Stark assault mech that looks more designed for quarrying than fighting has a big, nasty flamethrower on its arm, while the gigantic aerial battleship hero can simply fly forward while unleashing a wall of flame. That's not even to mention Usonia's use of some pretty spectacular fire effects. Where some mechs in Iron Harvest feel like they take ages between shots, the Knox seems to never stop firing, transitioning seamlessly from four heavy machine guns to a barrage of five cannon to a flurry of dumbfire rockets in order, over and over, forever. As they transition into their middle stage, however, they become increasingly powerful, deploying an anti-armor mech that's a veritable walking stack of guns. Their early-stage tech lacks potent anti-armor mechs, meaning they rely on hit-and-run tactics from their aerial ranged units or ambushes with cannons and anti-armor guns.
Playing Usonia is a nice change of pace from the main campaign factions.
Iron harvest reviews full#
Read the full Iron Harvest Single-Player Review It's not an instant classic, but it's not a game you're likely to soon forget. Perhaps the biggest surprises are the writing and storytelling in its distinctive dieselpunk alternate-history world, which rank up there with the best in RTS. While the combat might not have the tactical complexity or strategic focus of the genre greats, it's still a campaign with stand-out missions. Iron Harvest promises a bright future for King Art Games, because actually fulfilling the promise of a classic RTS campaign in 2020 is easier said than done.
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