Harvester is a very well known one, never missing from top 10s of disturbing games, a game that even thought I have seen lets plays of, I have never actually played myself, until now.
Before we start, I am compelled to give some warnings, this game does in fact live up to its M rating, with not just the gory imagery, its also on the sexual imagery, so, if you decide to give the game a go, you better be 17+ aight.
Another thing I believe I should warn you in advance if you want to play this game yourself, keep in mind the following trigger warnings, this game contains:
Depictions of cannibalism, implied animal abuse, depictions (both shown and implied) of violence against children, depictions of suicide, stereotypical depictions of multiple groups of people, and presented opinions on real life social, economic and political ideologies.
There are probably more, these are from the top of my head, and which I am sure may make some people uncomfortable, so, final warning, if you wanna play the game, player discretion is advised.
Finally, some screenshots will be censored by yours truly, in order to abide by the forum rules, while still giving a very tame taste of this game to you.
So, lets get on with it.
Story & Setting
You are Steve, you wake up in the town of Harvest, a quite quaint town somewhere in rural US of A, you have no memory, neither of yourself nor of the town you just woke up on.
In this town, everyone behaves in quite the odd manner, common sense does not exist in the town of Harvest, and, you are the only seemingly normal individual.
No one believes that you have amnesia, you were always a kidder after all.
Yet, amnesia or not, you have 2 things coming your way, you are getting married to the cute girl next door, and, the annual blood drive is on the horizon.
Marriage is whatever, the blood drive is our real worry, in the town of Harvest, everyone must participate, and, they don’t use syringes in Harvest, don’t worry, there are more efficient methods of getting blood out of you, your survival is optional.
But, you can save yourself from that fate, all you have to do, is to join The Order of The Harvest Moon, all members are exempt of the blood drive, but joining ain’t some turnip planting, oh no.
You will need to get your hands dirty, in more ways than you might think.
In this town, everyone behaves in quite the odd manner, common sense does not exist in the town of Harvest, and, you are the only seemingly normal individual.
No one believes that you have amnesia, you were always a kidder after all.
Yet, amnesia or not, you have 2 things coming your way, you are getting married to the cute girl next door, and, the annual blood drive is on the horizon.
Marriage is whatever, the blood drive is our real worry, in the town of Harvest, everyone must participate, and, they don’t use syringes in Harvest, don’t worry, there are more efficient methods of getting blood out of you, your survival is optional.
But, you can save yourself from that fate, all you have to do, is to join The Order of The Harvest Moon, all members are exempt of the blood drive, but joining ain’t some turnip planting, oh no.
You will need to get your hands dirty, in more ways than you might think.
Presentation
Artstyle wise, is all over the place.
Most of the sprites are made by digitizing pictures of the actors playing the characters, there is also use of claymation for supernatural creatures, they use CGI for backgrounds and as backdrops for cutscenes, the use of FMV cutscenes, pop, pixel and regular art to fill in for details.
The game has 3 CDs after all.
All in all, as chaotic as it is, together, it gives a very surreal and unique look and atmosphere, making Harvester quite memorable just for that.
The game tries to parody 1950s americana, and, it can be quite over the top in the way it does it.
Sprites can be a bit wonky, but it does add to the charm, the same can be said about the CGI and claymation, even though they do make the game show its age, they still serve to maintain that bizarre and surreal atmosphere.
The most memorable aspect of this game, is the FMVs, ranging from extremely cheese, to gross, the problem with them, is their resolution, there is only so much upscaling can do.
Here, have a taste of delightful cheese:
Most of the sprites are made by digitizing pictures of the actors playing the characters, there is also use of claymation for supernatural creatures, they use CGI for backgrounds and as backdrops for cutscenes, the use of FMV cutscenes, pop, pixel and regular art to fill in for details.
The game has 3 CDs after all.
All in all, as chaotic as it is, together, it gives a very surreal and unique look and atmosphere, making Harvester quite memorable just for that.
The game tries to parody 1950s americana, and, it can be quite over the top in the way it does it.
Sprites can be a bit wonky, but it does add to the charm, the same can be said about the CGI and claymation, even though they do make the game show its age, they still serve to maintain that bizarre and surreal atmosphere.
The most memorable aspect of this game, is the FMVs, ranging from extremely cheese, to gross, the problem with them, is their resolution, there is only so much upscaling can do.
Here, have a taste of delightful cheese:
Sound wise, it has a few instances in which you can hear the microphone pop as they speak, or, how you can hear the click of a recorder start, sometimes its very noticeable, in others you have to actively listen for them.
The game is fully voice acted, most actors play themselves, there isn’t much stand out, the kid actors are pretty bad as usual, some of the adults like to go very over the top, Steve is pretty hit or miss depending on line delivery, there is only so much they can do with what they are working with, overall, its pretty acceptable.
Music wise, there isn’t much, its mostly used for ambiance and give a little more personality to the scene, I did like the theme that accompanies the cutscene of going to sleep.
The sounds enemies get can get in your nerves, as they like to scream or make high pitch noises while they are on scream, thankfully, it isn’t that common… Until end game.
There isn’t much else to say sound wise, is there, does its job, and for the most part, it doesn’t get in the way, doesn’t have to be anything else really.
The game is fully voice acted, most actors play themselves, there isn’t much stand out, the kid actors are pretty bad as usual, some of the adults like to go very over the top, Steve is pretty hit or miss depending on line delivery, there is only so much they can do with what they are working with, overall, its pretty acceptable.
Music wise, there isn’t much, its mostly used for ambiance and give a little more personality to the scene, I did like the theme that accompanies the cutscene of going to sleep.
The sounds enemies get can get in your nerves, as they like to scream or make high pitch noises while they are on scream, thankfully, it isn’t that common… Until end game.
There isn’t much else to say sound wise, is there, does its job, and for the most part, it doesn’t get in the way, doesn’t have to be anything else really.
Mechanics
Its a point and click, you point with your mouse and click, maybe double click if you are feeling daring.
This is a more simplified version, you don’t pick any kind of action (as you would on something SCUMM based), the game will pick the action automatically, most of the time, you will have to examine an object first, before interacting with it in some way.
You can move your character with the arrow keys, but you still need the mouse for interacting anyway.
When it comes to dialogues, you are given keywords, which you can either click on, or type in the box for the NPCs to talk about said topic. Bear in mind, that there are a lot of dialogue options which may either be harmful to you, or prompt one of the many bad endings.
Puzzles wise, we are dealing with a situation in which the designers understood something simple, if the puzzles were logical, they would be too easy, so, most of them aren’t.
Save early, save often, and rotate saves, as this game does indeed have dead man walking situations.
Mercifully, there isn’t too much pixel hunting.
Most of the puzzle require you to use things from your inventory, which doesn’t have a max capacity, sometimes combining things, you can still brute force puzzles by trying everything on everything.
This is a more simplified version, you don’t pick any kind of action (as you would on something SCUMM based), the game will pick the action automatically, most of the time, you will have to examine an object first, before interacting with it in some way.
You can move your character with the arrow keys, but you still need the mouse for interacting anyway.
When it comes to dialogues, you are given keywords, which you can either click on, or type in the box for the NPCs to talk about said topic. Bear in mind, that there are a lot of dialogue options which may either be harmful to you, or prompt one of the many bad endings.
Puzzles wise, we are dealing with a situation in which the designers understood something simple, if the puzzles were logical, they would be too easy, so, most of them aren’t.
Save early, save often, and rotate saves, as this game does indeed have dead man walking situations.
Mercifully, there isn’t too much pixel hunting.
Most of the puzzle require you to use things from your inventory, which doesn’t have a max capacity, sometimes combining things, you can still brute force puzzles by trying everything on everything.
You can travel around Harvest, and each area is pretty unique and quirky, there is also a day and night cycle, which triggers depending on how much you have progressed through the game, and some locations do change according to time of day, as well as some locations changing and even becoming permanently unavailable as you progress through the story.
Finally, for some reason, they decided to add combat to this game, is as jank as you would expect.
You can equip weapons, and attack, you can crouch, and that’s it, the strategy for all enemies is pretty much rushing them before they rush you.
Later on you get firearms which have limited ammo, but that’s as deep as the combat gets.
There are unavoidable combat sections, so get good at spamming right click.
You can see your health in your inventory screen, just looking at how beat up Steve’s portrait becomes.
There is a lot to explore, and even secrets (like getting a get out of jail free card which allows you to freely kill 1 NPC without getting the electric chair ending), there is a lot which isn’t even related to progression, so is quite easy to get lost exploring the insanity that is Harvest.
Finally, for some reason, they decided to add combat to this game, is as jank as you would expect.
You can equip weapons, and attack, you can crouch, and that’s it, the strategy for all enemies is pretty much rushing them before they rush you.
Later on you get firearms which have limited ammo, but that’s as deep as the combat gets.
There are unavoidable combat sections, so get good at spamming right click.
You can see your health in your inventory screen, just looking at how beat up Steve’s portrait becomes.
There is a lot to explore, and even secrets (like getting a get out of jail free card which allows you to freely kill 1 NPC without getting the electric chair ending), there is a lot which isn’t even related to progression, so is quite easy to get lost exploring the insanity that is Harvest.
Final Thoughts
This game is quite notably, a product of its time.
Tone wise, is all over the place, in one moment it will offer some actually interesting piece of social commentary, in another it will kill the levity with some gross or cheesy FMV. There is an extremely awkward to watch softcore sex scene at one point.
There was no need to add combat, its jank actively hurts the game.
I like that you can explore areas which aren’t relevant to the “main quest,” and you can indeed loose yourself exploring the weirdness of Harvest. Even though the game does like to push you to do the quests for The Lodge.
Puzzle logic is nonsensical, but, there is a method to the madness, if you have played multiple Sierra games, you are already prepared enough to deal with the nonsense of this game.
Something I did dislike a lot, is once you enter The Lodge, you must go through with your initiation, in which you are forced to go through a gauntlet of the worse the game has to offer, bad obligatory combat sections (with almost no healing items may I add), nonsensical dialogue puzzles, time limits, multiple dead man walking opportunities, and confusing room layouts.
The Lodge section alone will take away points from this game.
As for the different subjects and social commentary, they were fresh for the time the game was released, I do appreciate the irreverence and no holds barred attitude with the comedy and grossness, I will give it that, but, it can get old playing it today, as those are talking points which have been covered to death, this will not be reflected in the final score, is more of an observation.
At the end of the day, Harvester… Is a game.
Tone wise, is all over the place, in one moment it will offer some actually interesting piece of social commentary, in another it will kill the levity with some gross or cheesy FMV. There is an extremely awkward to watch softcore sex scene at one point.
There was no need to add combat, its jank actively hurts the game.
I like that you can explore areas which aren’t relevant to the “main quest,” and you can indeed loose yourself exploring the weirdness of Harvest. Even though the game does like to push you to do the quests for The Lodge.
Puzzle logic is nonsensical, but, there is a method to the madness, if you have played multiple Sierra games, you are already prepared enough to deal with the nonsense of this game.
Something I did dislike a lot, is once you enter The Lodge, you must go through with your initiation, in which you are forced to go through a gauntlet of the worse the game has to offer, bad obligatory combat sections (with almost no healing items may I add), nonsensical dialogue puzzles, time limits, multiple dead man walking opportunities, and confusing room layouts.
The Lodge section alone will take away points from this game.
As for the different subjects and social commentary, they were fresh for the time the game was released, I do appreciate the irreverence and no holds barred attitude with the comedy and grossness, I will give it that, but, it can get old playing it today, as those are talking points which have been covered to death, this will not be reflected in the final score, is more of an observation.
At the end of the day, Harvester… Is a game.
Pros
- + Unique blend of artstyles.
- + Very memorable.
- + A paradise of Surrealism and Absurdism.
Cons
- - Tone all over the place
- - Extremely bad later half.
- - Noticeable sound issues.
6
Gameplay
If it was just the point-n-click, it would be a higher score, but, the combat is so atrocious it drags the whole game down with it, even the pixel hunt is forgivable.
7
Graphics
Upscaling a game this old can only do so much, the blend of all the artstyles sell the vibe and makes the game memorable.
6
Story
The story is whatever, simply to go to The Lodge, the fun of the game, is on exploring around town and seeing all the nonsense and grossness.
7
Sound
The voice acting is hit or miss, but when it hits is great, the sound mixing for creatures is bad, there are noticeable audio errors, and the music can get repetitive, still, it gets the job done.
3
Replayability
If it wasn't for that absolute horribly designed slog at the end, it would be a higher score, yes, is THAT bad.
6.5
out of 10
Overall
Harvester is a well known game, mostly for its grossness and over the top presentation, is not a must play by any means, but it is a quite unique experience which encompasses the irreverent spirit of the 90s, filled with social commentary and very dark comedy, its bound to turn some people away as it touches upon trigger topics. All in all, playing through Harvester is an experience, if you are willing to put up with some of its worst aspects, you will be met by quite a fascinating game.
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