Body Harvest
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| Body Harvest | |
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| Developer(s) | DMA Design |
| Publisher(s) | Midway Home Entertainment (USA), Gremlin Interactive (Europe) |
| Release date(s) | October 20, 1998 |
| Genre(s) | Action Adventure, Racing |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64 |
Body Harvest is a video game for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It was released in October 1998 by DMA Design (later renamed Rockstar North after the highly successful Grand Theft Auto III). The GTA series has much in common with Body Harvest, including gameplay that lets the player take control of sixty-plus vehicles, or exit them and fight on foot.
In Body Harvest, players assume the role of a genetically engineered soldier, Adam Drake, who must investigate and eliminate an alien attack force who possesses the ability to travel through time. Possessing this technology himself, Drake must battle in four areas over a 100-year period that covers World War I-era Greece, World War II-era Java, United States in the 1960s, Siberia in the 1990s, and the near future. The game is well-known for being open-ended in which players go anywhere and do anything according to game's boundaries. Because of the game's overall design, its been believed by many to be a predecessor to the popular Grand Theft Auto III.
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[edit] Plot
The opening text tells of how an alien force has harvested the population of earth over a 100 year time period. Every 25 years they would land and imprison whole areas in shields that prevented anyone from leaving and any outside help getting in. The aliens would harvest the population of the area within a time limit of four days before teleporting back to their homeworld, an artificially created comet. Greece was the first targeted area, followed by Java, U.S. and finally Siberia. All of the Earth's armies came together in the plains of Central China where they were then annihilated by over a million alien invaders.
The opening cutscene shows Station Omega, an orbital space station containing Earth's last survivors, the year is 2016 and the aliens have returned to destroy the last remnant of the human race. The aliens attack and board Station Omega and begin chasing Adam Drake, the game's only playable character, through the corridors. Even though Adam defeats the initial invaders he is wounded in the process. He is ready to board Alpha I, the time traveling vehicle developed at Station Omega, when more aliens appear and try to force their way into the boarding chamber. The monitors show his colleague, Daisy Hernandez, telling Adam to get into the Alpha I without letting the aliens gain access to it. As the aliens force the door open, Adam dives through the air lock and firing a single shot into the control panel, which closes the door preventing the aliens from pursuing him further. As they escape the station in the Alpha I, they are pursued by Alien fighter craft, but open up a time portal and escape. Meanwhile, back on Station Omega, an Alien is shown holding a drop of Adam's blood and eyes it strangely. Which is a subtle hint as to where Adam's arch nemesis, known only as 'Black Adam' due to his Black coloured armour, appears from.
[edit] Weapons
- Pistol. Your standard sidearm which you have in every level. Ammunition is generated from within your backpack (which has 6-Dimensional properties) so has unlimited ammo.
- Machine Gun. Found in all levels (Comet) an automatic weapon which has a storage capacity of 999 rounds.
- Sunshield: A weapon found only in Greece. Draws in sunlight and turns it into a powerful 'sun-beam' capable of incinerating a target, so it has unlimited ammo.
- TNT: Found only in Greece. You can carry up to 3 at a time.
- Shotgun: A short range weapon with ammo that spreads out over a wider range. Ammo limit 100. Found in all levels except Greece and Comet
- Rifle: A long range rifle with an ammo capacity of 50 rounds. Found in all levels except Greece and Comet.
- Rocket Launcher: A 25 shot rocket launcher. Found in all levels except Greece and Comet. Kills almost everything in a single hit.
- Hand Grenades: Found in Java. You can carry up to 20ndsd at a time.
[edit] Special Weapons and Alien Artifacts
Each level, with the exception of the comet, contains 3 'Weapon Crystals' and 3 'Alien Artifacts' by collecting a level's weapon crystals you will obtain a special weapon unique to that level. By collecting the levels Alien Artifacts you will unlock the ability to replay the Stage Boss from that specific level. If you collect every Artifact, you are able to replay the final Boss. All Special Weapons have an ammo capacity of 100 rounds.
- Greece: Tri-Spinner. A triple barreled rocket launcher. Rockets rotate in a spiral as they travel.t
- Java: Starburst. Fires a burst of explosive space rock.
- United States: Lightning Gun. Fires 3 Lightning Bolts in a similar fashion as the Death Star Super Laser from Star Wars. Has an immense range. Unlike other projectile weapons, the ammo from the Lightning Gun hits it target instantaneously.
- Siberia: Disruptor. Fires a cluster of multi-colored circular laser beams. Easily the most powerful Special Weapon. Second only to the Rocket Launcher.
[edit] Enemies
- Flea: A flea the size of a small mammal. They self-destruct when they are near enough to the player. They also control Snipers. Encountered in Greece and Java.
- Drone: A 6 legged creature that looks like a spider. Fire laser bolts at if player is in a vehicle, if out of a vehicles it uses its facial claws to bite the player. Encountered in all Levels except Java and Comet.
- Goliath: Large 6 legged creature which charges at buildings to force people outside, making it easier for them to be harvested. Either charges at or tries to bite the player. Encountered in every level except Comet.
- Scout: An airborne alien which fires laser bolts at buildings to mark them for attack by Goliaths. Shoots laser bolt at player. Encountered in every level except Comet. Scouts encountered in Siberia have a longer range and a better laser.
- War Scout: Scouts equipped with Heavy Lasers. There are 5 forms of War Scout. The standard War Scout has a laser attached to its underbelly and fires a continuous laser stream when over the player. The second type is a War Scout mutated with Earth Helicopter Rotor Blades. Fires hevaily damaging plasma bolts at the player. The third type is more well equipped version of the 2nd. It has Plasma Bolts and a rapid-fire version of the standard scout. The 4th is an immensely well equipped version of the 2nd type. It has Plasma Bolts and Immensely Destructive Laser Miniguns. The last form is like the original War Scout but has 2 lasers similar to the 2nd type of Standard Scout and are much faster. Encountered in all levels.
- Battle Drone: Also referred to as 'Warriors' There are 6 versions of Battle Drone. The first is a larger version of the Standard Drone with a larger mounted Laser. The second and third versions are immobile but immensely well-armoured and have incredible range and destructive power. The second version has laser minguns like the ones used by the 4th type of War Scout. The 3rd version is less armoured but has a slightly longer range and has rapid fire versions of the laser used by the second version of Standard Scouts. The 4th Version has the appearance of a large Jelly and fires bolts of electricity at the player. The 5th version is an armoured version of the 1st. It has 2 lasers, a laser like the ones used by the 2nd version of Standard Scout and a fast firing Plasma Bolt launcher. Ths latest type, hovers and can traverse across any terrain. The 6th version is a more heavily armoured more version of the 5th with more destructive firepower. Encountered in all levels.
- Mantasaur: A large alien with a fast firing laser like the one used by the 2nd version of Scout. The other 4 versions are Scorpion-like in appearance and are heavily armed, 2 have rocket launching capabilites, making them one of the most formidable enemy yet.
- Harvester: Large, beetle-like creatures that send globs of jelly that ensnare civilians and slowly take them inside the Harvester. If they make it back to the Harvesters jaws, they are killed. Harvesters only appear where there are civilians and only at certain points in the game, always with a wave of other enemies that protect the Harvester.
[edit] Gameplay
Each level in Body Harvest requires the player to stop the aliens from slaughtering everyone in the shield area. The player will nagivate the map, usually coming across towns where aliens will teleport in to attack the town.
There is a meter at the bottom of the screen that represents civilian casualties. If too many civilians die for any reason, the aliens will destroy the area. Only Harvester aliens will deliberately kill people, so the player must destroy Harvester waves as they progress throughout the level.
The goal of each level is to destroy the Shield Generator that creates the shield that surrounds each level.
[edit] Trivia
- DMA, the British developer of Body Harvest, also developed the critically acclaimed game Grand Theft Auto III. DMA was acquired by Rock Star after the success of GTAIII and renamed Rockstar North.
- This game was originally supposed to be published by Nintendo as a launch title for Nintendo 64, but Nintendo withdrew from publishing the game because of delays due to Nintendo's demands to make the game more friendly to Japanese gamers (although unmentioned in the press, this is likely because of Shigeru Miyamoto's Chabudai Gaeshi call to make a game better, aka. the Miyamoto test). DMA design still credits Nintendo EAD in the special thanks column.
- The ice cream truck in Grand Theft Auto III plays the same music as one found in this game.
- A mission in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, in which the player controlled character steals a combine harvester, is named "Body Harvest" in reference to this game.
- There are numerous references to pop culture in this game, such as the abduction of Jed Clampett by the Men in Black, and the Bates Motel from Psycho.
