Harvester

Moby ID: 324
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

The year is 1953. When Steve Mason awakens in the quiet North American town called Harvest, he cannot remember anything. People claim to know him and even to be related to him, but he does not recall their names. As he explores the strange town, he encounters more and more eccentric people, whose behavior is difficult to explain. Everyone keep telling him that he should join the Lodge, the headquarters of the mysterious Order of the Harvest Moon. Steve is determined to find out the truth about the town and about himself, but he doesn't know that this truth is more horrifying than he could have ever imagined...

Harvester is essentially a point-and-click, puzzle-solving adventure game. Though a weapon-shaped icon allows the player to attack characters, this can only be done as a solution to a puzzle, in order to advance the game's plot at specific points. The largest bulk of the gameplay is dedicated to traditional adventure activities: talking to characters and manipulating inventory items to solve puzzles. "Hot spots" indicate interaction possibilities, as in most adventure games of that period. The game features video cut scenes with live actors; for gameplay portions, digitized animations of the actors are super-imposed over pre-rendered background graphics.

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Credits (DOS version)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 61% (based on 16 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 36 ratings with 3 reviews)

Despite being a bit cheesy, Harvester is a good, solid, warped adventure game.

The Good
I really liked Harvester's creepy plot, which deals with a couple of teens who wake up in a very strange town known as Harvest. With amnesia. It's up to Steve and his seemingly helpless fiancee Stephanie to figure out just what is going on. The interface and puzzles are, in most cases, standard adventure game fare. There's even a "give dog the meat" puzzle thrown in. The ridiculous, bloody deaths in the game are both funny and entertaining (well, to me, anyway). Voice acting is very well done, as is the music.

The Bad
Many small and annoying quirks are present in Harvester. Most of these could have been avoided had the programming been a bit less sloppy. The fighting sequences are bloody, but they play like crap. This is unfortunate, since the last portion of the game consists mainly of one fight after another. In the "Making of Harvester" video included on the CDs (which, by the way, seems almost like a big ad for the game), the game's producer states that there are a lot of moral decisions that will have to be made by the player. Okay, so why did I HAVE to burn down that poor woman's diner? In reality, decisions of right and wrong are few and far between. The game designers missed a big opportunity for some open-ended gameplay here.

The Bottom Line
It's creepy, it's bizarre, and it's gruesome. It's also a lot of fun. In some ways, the cheesiness adds to Harvester's appeal. A very different adventure game. Unfortunately, due to some sound card issues, it won't work on my new computer, which makes me fighting mad. If you ever see this in the bargain bin at your local CompUSA or Electronics Boutique, Harvester is worth the $10 you're likely to pay, and worth the risk of buying a computer game that won't work.

DOS · by Matt Dabrowski (218) · 1999

Very good, but it has some critical flaws.

The Good
- The setting. A 1950's American suburb. What better place to experience a horror story? - The sound in this game is incredible. I loved all the ambience sounds like a parade on the background, humming of a neon sign and the screeking sounds that you hear when the sign is turning. And then there is the music. The music really creates an atmosphere. In the slaughterhouse you have this eery toned down tune, and in the Pottsdam residence you can hear a 1930's science fiction movie tune. And then there is the voice acting, which was very nicely done (shame though that the acting in the video sequences is really bad). - What i loved the most was the story. One day you wake up in a strange bed, in a strange room, in a strange house, in a strange town, with even stranger people. This game gives you that fealing that you want to complete it, which is pretty rare these days. What your stay in Harvest all comes down to will be revealed near the end of the game.

The Bad
Well the acting in the movie sequences is incredibly bad. Especially the video that is shown when you get an invitation to the lodge. They should've put more effort in the acting. Just look at Phantasmagoria 2, never seen such great acting in a video adventure game. - The fight sequences are as funny as they are annoying. Fighting comes down to clicking your mouse as fast as you can, just hope you don't lose.

The Bottom Line
The main subject of Harvester is serial killers. Why are they behaving like this in the real world? Harvester contains the answers. I must say that games like Harvester are rare, they actually have something to say about events that happen in real life. I can highly recommend this game. Just don't pay any attention to the lousy acting and fight sequences.

DOS · by Goteki45 (323) · 2003

flawed, weird, not scary...but should the word 'bad' be associated with this game?

The Good
There is a certain genre that sticks out like a sore thumb in the video game society. To me, this very kind of games are among my favourites. I am of course talking about old and rare horror games. I don't know why I find these games so fascinating, but it was obvious that my addiction was fuelled once again when i saw this very game at the store, this game was simply known as Harvester.

Harvester managed to lure me into buying it simply because of the badass cover. I mean, it's a robed dark guy(possibly demon, i don't know) holding a sharp, gleaming SCYTHE. This may probably be the most really "scary" thing about the game. I believe that this game was one of the very first horror games to use live action characters and cutscenes. Although people from this new generation will probably laugh, but live action sprites in video games were actually very ground-breaking at the time.

But anyway, to get to the point, the main protagonist of the story, Steve has woken up in Harvest with a severe case of amnesia. Harvest is probably the most bizarre place I have ever seen in my life(YES, even weirder than Raccoon City from Resident Evil and that..town from the first Silent hill, i forgot what it was called). However, if you say the wrong thing to person, you will most likely get your head blown off by a random gun pulled out from nowhere... SERIOUSLY? At least you always have to read and consider your options very carefully; usually, with other games i would just skip all the dialogue, but its different with this game. But as the title of my review does suggest, there certainly are some noticeable flaws in this game. But overall there are also some very funny(but sometimes really twisted) people who live in Harvest, such as:

The over-abuse school teacher(bloody bat by her side even)

The military veteran who had his lower torso blown off in WWII.

and many more walking psychotic episodes

The Bad
Well the plot of the story just doesn't sound too original to me; the theme of the main character having amnesia has been used way too many times already. There even is an entire section of amnesia based games! One of the things that I haven't said anything about is the combat system in this game. Fighting monsters in a point and click game is just awkward and stressful and this game is no different. You have to equip you weapon first, it doesn't auto-equip like most good games do and you're probably wondering why a couple of seconds of changing a weapon is a big issue for me. Here is my reason why: I don't know if it's just my copy of the game, but nearly every time I enter a new area in a game, the game starts lagging.. when the lagging stops, the enemy has laid a couple of lucky shots on me! And a word of advice: if you want ANY weapon at al, try getting a long range weapon because short range weapons such as the bat or shovel really ARE short range! I have only managed to hit an enemy with the baseball bat about 50% of the time.

There is also some REALLY odd voice acting in the game; I don't know if the developers wanted to add this goofball "value" to the game or not, but oh well.

However the last and BIGGEST flaw(and that says a lot) is simply that it isn't all that scary. There are simply too many parts where I just laugh at this game rather than fear it! Although the majority of the scenes do get bloody, little to none of them seem to sink in as being painfully, nailbitingly unnerving.

However, the big question remains unanswered.. is this really a bad game?

The Bottom Line
Er...yes it is, But you see, THAT is part of the whole fun while experiencing this game! This game has all the errors that a relatively bad game has, but WHY do I like it so much? I don't see this game as being horrible; although it is bad, this game could probably be compared to a comedy made entirely of errors ... and the errors are clear and simple, so that the audience can laugh at or with them.

But still, this game isn't for the squeamish because of all the blood scenes, one of which(at the end of the game) even makes a few of the Mortal Kombat fatalities seem like harmless pranks done by 5-year old. I really am NOT joking, neither have I gone mad in this verdict.

Although this game isn't unknown to having errors and common problems, it just manages to make the grade of being a decent horror game.

DOS · by Arejarn (7353) · 2010

Discussion

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(Day 1)Dwayne doesn't disappear from police station john lee Nov 1, 2010

Trivia

Same moms

All of the moms are played by the same actress: Mary Allen.

Version differences

The UK and Australian versions were censored and miss the two cannibalistic cutscenes of children eating their mother. The in-game sequence and dialogues were left in the game.

It is also said to have the following changes, but those could not be confirmed after an examination of both versions by the German website schnittberichte.com which is dedicated to listing version differences: * a disclaimer was added before the game starts. * the main character's name was changed to Mike instead of Steve. * several gory scenes were shortened. * a removed scene in which the protagonist finds a murdered family. * most of the offensive dialogue about gays, Italians, and Indians was removed. * all verbal references to S&M were cut, but the S&M scenes themselves were not.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Matt Dabrowski.

Linux added by Sciere. Windows added by lights out party. Macintosh added by MAT.

Additional contributors: Scaryfun, Patrick Bregger, Filip Frackiewicz, Maner76.

Game added November 6, 1999. Last modified March 19, 2024.