Harvester Review

8.3

Format PC

Developer Digifx Interactive

Publisher Virgin Interactive

Genre Unknown

Chris Anderson jumps into his time machine and goes way, way back to the days when adventure games were actually fun.

This is the game that caused quite a stir in gaming circles about two years ago. At that time, it looked very advanced graphically, and it stood out as one of the few games to use photo-realistic imagery as opposed to computer generated artwork. That was then and this is now. We have moved on. We have been plagued with poxy interactive movies for quite some time now, and so Harvester doesn't have quite the impact it would have done if it had been released two years ago. In fact, compared to the latest crop of interactive movies, Harvester looks decidedly dated.

In some ways, however, Harvester's failure to be released on schedule has worked to the game's advantage.

I can't remember the last time I played a 'traditional' adventure game with genuine puzzles and an engrossing plot. Despite the fact the game looks incredibly old-fashioned, I warmed to it immediately. It reminds me of games like Countdown (which to my mind is one of the best adventure games ever made) and Darkseed, the superb adventure which used HR Geiger's weird and wonderful artwork for its backdrops.

Perhaps the best thing about

Harvester is the fact that it doesn't use endless video clips to make up for a lack of gameplay, unlike some games I could mention but won't (oh, alright then, Phantasmagoria was poo for exactly this reason). Harvester does have video clips in it, but they're used to link up important scenes and it works very well.

All this aside, if you're wondering whether Harvester will be your kind of game or not, it really depends on how strong your stomach is. If you thought Phantasmagoria was stomach-churning in places (and let's face it, it was), you're in for a shock when you see Harvester. Let me explain...

Gore-tastic

You've probably guessed by looking at the screenshots that Harvester doesn't pull any punches on the visual side of things. I was genuinely repulsed at some of the scenes in the later stages of the game. The first two-thirds of the game are fairly uneventful as far as blood and gore is concerned, but when you get near the end, the whole thing goes pear-shaped, with yeuch-ola video scenes popping up almost everywhere you go. As I mentioned earlier, if you thought Phantasmagoria was a bit OTT, Harvester will probably have you puking up all over the shop, so consider yourself warned.

For the rest of you, Harvester is basically a horror movie starring you as Steve, a mixed-up young fellow who wakes up in the town of Harvester with a bad case of amnesia. He tries to explain to everyone that he hasn't a clue who or where he is, but nobody believes him. Everyone he comes across informs him that he 'always was a bit of a kidder' which, understandably, pisses him off no end.

You spend the first part of the game snooping around and generally trying to find out what the hell's going on, and it doesn't take long before you realise that something is seriously wrong in the town. For starters, any unsuspecting wino that wanders into the town ends up dead. Also, there's a weird bloke hanging around a lodge who keeps going on about the Order of the Harvest Moon. And this underground society of weirdos is the main focus for the whole game. You have to join this lot before you can get to the bottom of what's going on in the town. In order to do so you have to complete various tasks given to you by the weird bloke in the lodge, which eventually results in your initiation into the society. Matters are further complicated by, surprise surprise, the obligatory female.

Women, eh?

Everyone you meet in the game tells you that you're meant to be getting married to someone called Stephanie. When you eventually meet her you discover that a) she has also lost her memory and has no clue who you are and b) she's been locked up in her bedroom, so a great bloody help she's going to be. I've played the game most of the way through and the silly cow is still stuck in her bedroom, so the only reason I can see for her being in the game is to provide the tacky video clips starring our Steph in suspenders and stuff. She does make a contribution to some extent by telling you how crap you are every time you carry out one of the spooky society's gruesome tasks. She also tells you someone's trying to kill her but I'm afraid she's out of luck because at this stage I'm trying to work out ways of killing her myself.

Annoying girlie aside, Harvester is a very challenging and rewarding adventure game. Apart from the main plot (ie attempt to get to the bottom of spooky goings-on without getting killed), you'll also find many sub-plots to keep you busy everywhere you turn. The puzzles are quite tricky but not impossible, and the background graphics are impressive for most of the game, although the character animations are a bit, er, shite.

If you've been brought up on a staple diet of crap interactive movies that don't require you to do anything, ever, then you won't get very far in this game. On the other hand, if you remember classics like Countdown that offer a bit of a challenge and you're after more of the same, you can't go wrong with Harvester. Z