Harvester arrives with a slightly sinister pedigree and a lot of hype. You may have heard about, or seen ads relating to, its "controversial" nature. In actuality, that is just so much taradiddle. While the game is hardly worth bothering about, the attendant publicity makes some coverage necessary, so here it is.

Our hero, Steve Mason, wakes up in what is apparently the year 1953, with little or no memory. Yep, we start off with the tired old amnesia gambit, and it's all downhill from there.

Steve has a Mom who is forever baking cookies, and a kid brother forever parked in front of the TV, watching Range Ryder blast an endless succession of hapless American Indians into bloody puddles. Steve's Dad is secluded behind a locked door, with a mysterious illness.

Wandering around the town of Harvest, Steve becomes acquainted with the inhabitants, many of whom have distinctly unpleasant personalities. The closest to normal are Edna, the widow who runs the local diner, and Stephanie, the girl Steve is supposed to be marrying soon.

Stephanie, it turns out, is in the same predicament as Steve: she has no memory either. She's also the only one who doesn't urge Steve to join the "The Lodge", which is the Order Of The Harvest Moon. No one can really say much about it, except that it's the most important thing in town. For the game to progress, Steve does have to join the organization.

First he has to obtain an application from the postmaster, who happens to be a closet arsonist. Steve manages that by stealing police evidence and trading it for the application. Then he has to prove his worthiness by completing several tasks assigned by the Lodge's Sergeant At Arms.

These tasks begin with simple vandalism and conclude with torching the town diner. Except for the vandalism, all these acts lead one way or another to the deaths of several people.

Having proved himself, Steve now goes through Lodge initiation. Up to this point, there has been little actual violence. That changes here, as the Lodge is three levels full of hostile people and critters, which Steve has to fight his way through, using whatever weapons he can find. It is this section of the game that has the majority of the unpleasant graphics.

At the end of his journey through the Lodge, Steve is in the Chapel of Love, along with Stephanie. Now comes the explanation: except for the two teenagers, none of this is real. Steve and Stephanie are "enjoying" the very latest in VR technology, courtesy of the Order, whose purpose is to turn people into serial killers. Really.

Steve has to make a choice here. He can kill Stephanie (who will really die) and return to the real world. Or, he can "marry" Stephanie, and they will appear to live out a full life in Harvest while the techs disconnect life support and kill them both in a matter of minutes. These are the game's only endings.

My general impression while playing Harvester was of something concocted by a couple of bright but immature high school students trying to gross out their elders. The game has little merit, as either an adventure or a story. The premise is ludicrous, the graphics are mostly pedestrian, the voice-overs distinctly amateurish, the puzzles unimaginative, and the ending quite unsatisfying.

This mediocre product - and that's being charitable - would certainly sink from the shelves without a trace, except for the inclusion of some blatantly offensive material and several nasty pictures.

So that's what we have here: an undistinguished game trying desperately to sell itself on the basis of nothing better than cheap shock value, parading around as "controversial", when it's really just silly and unpleasant. Any way you look at it, Harvester isn't worth anyone's time or money.

Final Grade: D

System Requirements:

• System: 486/33
• RAM: 8 MB
• CD-ROM speed: 2X
• Video Mode: SVGA
• Hard Drive Space: 20 MB
• Operating System: DOS, Windows 3.1/95