Harvester (computer game)
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| Harvester | |
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| Developer(s) | DigiFX Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | Merit Studios |
| Designer(s) | Gilbert P. Austin |
| Release date(s) | August 31, 1996 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | BBFC: 18 (21774177 bytes removed) ESRB: M |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS |
| Media | CD-ROM (3) |
| Input | Keyboard, mouse |
Harvester is a gruesome and controversial point-and-click adventure computer game. It was designed by DigiFX Interactive and published by Merit Studios in 1996.
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[edit] Storyline
The game stars Steve Mason, who awakes with a case of amnesia in a strange town in 1953 called Harvest. He can’t remember anything from his past and when he tells the people that claim to be his family, as well as townsfolk, they all tell him what a kidder he is. All of the town inhabitants are extremely over eccentric and many appear to be more a satire or stereotype than real people. They all continuously stress to Steve that he should join the Lodge, which is a large building located at the center of town that serves as the headquarters of the Order of the Harvest Moon. Steve visits the Sergeant at Arms at the Lodge, who tells him that all of his questions will be answered inside the building, but in order to enter, he must first join the Order of the Harvest Moon. But in order to join, he must perform a series of tasks that range from simple vandalism to arson for his initiation.
While snooping around town, performing these various tasks and learning more about this bizarre and corrupt town, Steve visits the Pottsdam residence. Here he meets the overweight and perverted Mr. Pottsdam, who tells Steve that he is to marry his daughter in a few weeks. Steve meets his alleged wife-to-be upstairs and she explains that she has amnesia as well, and, like Steve, notices that something doesn’t seem right about the town. Over a series of days Steve successfully performs all of the required tasks and when he visits Stephanie in her room, he finds nothing but a mutilated skull and spinal cord. He takes it to the Sergeant of Arms and asks him if this is really the remains of Stephanie, to which the Sergeant explains that, inside the Lodge, he will learn the truth, and grants Steve access.
Inside the Lodge Steve visits three floors consisting of mayhem and murder. He must solve various puzzles along the way as well as visit different rooms, referred to as “temples” by their occupants, where he must take on several moral decisions. Eventually he makes it to the Inner Sanctum, where he talks to Principal Herrill of Harvest’s Gein Memorial School, who explains that he is second in command of the Harvest Order and is to be addressed as Vice Muck Herrill. The head of the Harvest Order, the Grand Muckity Muck, shares a few short words with Steve, and then attacks him. Steve successfully kills the Grand Muckity Muck and meets the Sergeant at Arms one last time.
He reveals Stephanie to him, who is alive but hooked up to a special torture device, which gave her pain whenever Steve climbed a rope in the Lodge. He releases her from the device and explains to Steve that everything in Harvest is created by a virtual reality simulator, which he and Stephanie are hooked up to. The Sergeant at Arms explains that this simulation was created in hopes of successfully turning Steve into a serial killer in real life. He then gives Steve a final ultimatum: Marry and live out the rest of his life with Stephanie in the virtual reality that is Harvest or kill Stephanie, where she will die in real life but Steve will be released and free to live in the real world as a serial killer.
[edit] Characters
The following is a brief summary of the game's more important characters:
Steve Mason: He is the game's playable character, who wakes up in Harvest one day with amnesia. He joins the Lodge in hopes of learning the truth about this strange town.
Stephanie Pottsdam: She, like Steve, wakes up in Harvest one day with amnesia and has no memory of her past. She is to marry Steve and is confined to her room by her parents to ensure that the plans don't change.
Sergeant at Arms: He guards the entrance to the Lodge and briefs the initiates, using telepathy, with the tasks they must perform in order to join the Lodge. He also explains the truth about Harvest to Steve at the end of the game and gives him an ultimatum that will effect Steve and Stephanie’s lives.
Mr. Pottsdam: The overweight, alleged father of Stephanie who keeps her up in her room to ensure that she doesn't call off her wedding plans with Steve. Mr. Pottsdam has a disgusting lust for raw meat and since Steve's dad owns a meat company, the marriage is his ticket to an unlimited supply. He is also a perverted man who spies on Stephanie through a peephole in the bathroom and kidnaps Karin, the daughter of restaurant owner Edna.
Mr. Johnson: An older man who spends most of his time maintaining and guarding his prized Tucker automobile and obsessing over Edna Fitzpatrick.
Col. Buster Monroe: A mentally unstable World War II veteran who is in command of the Harvest Nuclear Missile Installation. His lower torso was shot off in Dusseldorf, Germany by Nazi forces during WWII. He crawled all the way to England dragging his lower intestines behind him. He has access to a button, which if pressed, will launch a nuclear holocaust. He is an anti-communist who suspects the Lodge of being Communists. He will also accuse Steve of being one if Steve throws him too many suspicious questions or answers one of the colonel's questions wrong.
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[edit] Gameplay
Harvester is a point-and-click adventure. The player must visit various locations in Harvest, via overhead map, and speak to various townspeople and click special "hotspots" at each location to learn important information or to collect items to progress through the game. The items he collects will be shown on a special inventory screen, which can be accessed by clicking on Steve. The games progress can be saved through multiple savestates.
Harvester also features a fighting system which is rarely found in the adventure genre. The player can attack other characters by selecting a weapon item then clicking on the target character. Accordingly, the player's character also has limited health and can die.
The graphics in Harvester consist of 3D rendered backgrounds with digitized characters played by real actors.
The game also uses a Dynamic Dialogue System (DDS), with over 12,000 lines of spoken dialogue for all of the games unique characters.
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[edit] Controversy
Harvester contains various scenes of violence and gore; implied sexual intercourse, masturbation and S&M; profanity; cannibalism; prostitution; and stereotypes of homosexuals, Native Americans, and Italians. This naturally caused controversy even as early as 1994 when it was first introduced to the public at that year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). It made it on several television news programs like CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News about how games, at the time, needed a more established rating system.
The game was banned from being sold in Germany. It was considered for release in Australia, but the local distributor for the game later dropped it since it would probably be banned there anyway. The game was released in Great Britain, but numerous scenes were removed from the game by the BBFC. [1]
[edit] Trivia
- Gein Memorial School is named after American serial killer Ed Gein.
- Voice samples from this game are used in the song "The Hand (Violent Trance Mix)" by the industrial/gothic band Velvet Acid Christ.
