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