Warning this will have spoiler as well taking about some of the craziest, disturbing moments. Trust me if you have a weak stomach doesn't even consider playing this. Even it's very logic was designed to be that of a psychopath similar once again to Blackbay Asylum.
The very first thing I like about this game is the cover. Seriously isn't that putting chills down your spines or what. You play as a young man named Steve that's confused by a rather strange town. His goal is to escape with his girlfriend Stephanie. You could carry out tasks from Sergeant at Arms or flat out kill people.
You heard me correctly you could speed run a lot of the games by risking your life killing people. There's a small variety of enemies you will deal with. Thankfully the first two disc are worth replaying. Sadly the third final disc is a rather mixed experience which I will get to later. You get a map that's available until you finally get inside The Lodge.
This map can be a little confusing for a few great reasons. Very few places like Stephanie's home seems to be almost off either side of the screen. When you switch locations at night it can be difficult to read the locations. I am glad you can still see the name of each location during the night portions. Harvester may seem like a typical point & click game but trust me that's deception.
The truth is Harvester acts more like some kind of insanity test I'm not kidding. You do collect a lot of items & weapons in the game. But you don't really get to use all your weapons. In some encounters it is very important to have plenty of health as well as fighting with the right weapon. You could go in healed up with the wrong weapon to die quickly.
In the first two disc portions fighting isn't a huge part of the game. But in the third final disc portions it suddenly becomes majority. Beyond the entrance to The Lodge is disc 3 content. Speaking of multiple discs, when you load up your save. You have to hold both F4 and Ctrl button before pushing left mouse button.
Trust me this process may be simple but quickly becomes annoying. I do recommend a guide to help save you from doing stupid things especially during the final levels. You see you can take your time as well as explore in the first two disc with little to no fighting. Sadly for the final portions you have to fight a lot.
In two particular cases you either have to punishment people or the person will attack you. There is a similar case with a fat man eating while a guard standing nearby. It is a little different because if you kill the fat man this guard will quickly kill you. But if you allow the fat man to eat all the burgers instead.
The guard won't attack you unless you do while the fat man will come after you. I know it's confusing logic like some stuff in Blackbay Asylum. There's some puzzles that's so critical to not screw up because doing so will kill you. A great example of this is the boiler room puzzle. Shortly after entering by paying attention to the boiler's meter.
Over time it's moving towards the dangerous area that can cause it to explode. Your goal is to quickly fix the boiler before that happens. Thankfully the solution is one of the most obvious in the entire game. OMG this TV guy is such a pain to take out. All he does is stand up high a little off the ground. You have to face a gunslinger & a robot right after each other.
Thankfully the robot is much easier to kill. The gunslinger was surprisingly more accurate & firing quicker than the guard protecting the fat man I'm not kidding. I should mention the actual people are digital actors. Now back in the 90s a lot of games especially PC had a lot of digital actors in games. Probably because Mortal Kombat series popularizing the concept.
Every task you carry out for Sergeant at Arms will result in someone dying. Which brings up some of the most disturbing 90s footage I ever seen. For example there's a particular cut scene with the baby. It's so mess up because her eyes actually pop out of her eye sockets. Shortly afterwards following blood, her mom forces her eyes back in.
Let's be honest there's stuff I'm really surprised made it to the final game. Especially stuff like using animals as meat or a little girl involved in rather unpleasant situation. There is absolutely no way a game like this could exist in modern gaming. Harvester has one big surprise at the very end. Sergeant at Arms confirms only Steve & Stephanie are real in this virtual simulation.
I know what a lot of you are going to say after reading this. Harvester came out three years before The Matrix. Oh trust me it gets weirder because he also tells you of two possible endings. You can save on the final decision screen so you can do both endings. Regardless Stephanie will die a horrible death.
But in Kill Stephanie ending, Steve returns to the real world as a serial killer. The entire process was to transform Steve into a serial killer. This is oddly similar to Doug in Blackbay Asylum. He already was a serial killer yet by the end of the game he stops a powerful being while sacrificing himself. So basically these two endings are essentially opposites of each other.
In Marry Stephanie ending, you will get a fast forward of their lives before their bodies dies in the real world. This game was actually created to help save the company from closing down. It was a financial failure yet has a cult classic among gamers. Harvester has okay voicing with one actress playing almost every female character in the game.
I should mention like Blackbay Asylum & Postal 2 oddly enough. Each level except the final ones are named after days of the week. There isn't a lot of puzzles in the game. You do have to think of doing bad things to get far without a guide. But remember what I stated earlier. The combat itself isn't very good to begin with.
You have to right click on which weapon in your inventory you want to use. I haven't figured out how to reload a shotgun. Otherwise by default you're using your fists. I do need to say I wasn't expecting much on the gore. WOW this has some disgusting looking gore & blood. There's a particular room with a mom getting parts of her eaten by her dead children.
Although it is a game over the best cut scene in the entire game. You go to the missile base to talk to Colonel Monroe. If you response the wrong answer. A cut scene will play of him firing through your head. By accident he lends on the solo button to all the nukes in the world. The last thing you will see is one of them goes off.
This guy already loss his entire bottom half that technically isn't possible in real life. I would say he is among my favorite characters. Most of Harvester is a great experience that more people need to play. Unfortunately the final disc ends up playing like a different game that doesn't belong. Look I am fine with mini games that break up the game.
At the same time you won't get much healing items. Almost everyone you will meet is an enemy. Very few of them will constantly cheap shot you faster than you could nail some hits. Sometimes you won't get any hits in at all. Compared to the first two disc, you are in a more limited environment. It felt like they wanted to spice up the game.
Instead what we ended up with is a confusion in identity with most of what I loved prior gone. I actually like exploring around town doing bad things. Honestly I wish I knew more about the actual development because it clearly wasn't rushed out. There's a couple games that got rushed out during the 90s to early 2000s.
I think what happened is they intended to make it more of a horror game. I felt the gore prior to it was way better. Some strong twists are great with some like Stephanie's dad felt forced in. I know this is a simulation meant to drive Steve insane. It still bags the question why folks. I don't think there's a known limit for your inventory.
Which in this style of games I do like. Do you wanna know what I really didn't like? There's a optional sex part you could do. If you do, Steve will get a disease that eats at his health. It is similar to the acid that gets on your clothes except you can get that off. I never played a game where you can die by a sexual disease.
Overall the sound effects are a hit & miss. I do enjoy the sound track to a degree. As stated before the acting itself isn't worth writing home about. Even the original Resident Evil had more rememberable voice acting. I did like the jumping chainsaw wielding clown. I haven't got to experience that since the original Dead Rising lol.
No comments:
Post a Comment