It’s still in early development, but Iron Harvest sounds like an RTS with promise. It’s not just the tactical, real-time combat, or the way environmental destruction feeds into encounters, XCOM-style – Iron Harvest’s alternate 1920+ history setting is intiguing, too.
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The Iron Harvest gets its name from a post-WW1 gold-rush, but with weaponry and ammunition replacing the valuable mineral. “After World War 1 farmers found a plethora of unexploded ordnance, barbed wire, weapons, shrapnel and bullets while ploughing their fields,” says the official site. “They called it the Iron Harvest.”
1920+ is an alternate version of Earth created by Polish artist Jakub Różalski. Here humanity is fascinated by technology, iron, and engines, leading to the creation of “powerful walking machines”. These mechs are used as part of everyday life, as well as on the battlefield. In this timeline they were used extensively in the Great War.
In-game, this means you’ll be leading squads of these mechs, along with soldiers and hero characters, ordering them into cover and through flanking routes. Be careful though – plonk a soldier down near a brick wall and bullets might ping off, but don’t expect it to protect from enemy mechs.
That’s all we know for now, but you can follow the game on Facebook and you’ll be notified when they reveal more in the coming months. It’s due out in 2018.