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Harvester, the bizarre and ultraviolent adventure arrives on Steam [NSFW]

SJRB

SJRB

Gold Member
I was browsing the new releases on Steam and was shocked and surprised to see that Harvester got released today. I'm not entirely sure how or why this happened, but given the extreme nature of the game I thought it could be thread-worthy.

Harvester is a 1996 point-and-click adventure game, and I guess you could consider it a cult classic. It's an awful game, but also an extremely bizarre and therefore intruiging game. It features the classic FMV-style graphics, animations and cutscenes. It's ultra-violent, bizarre, unsettling and deals with a lot of darker themes like murder, incest and physical/mental abuse. "Sex" is basically a core theme in the entire game. It's a descent into madness with situations getting more and more bizarre as the game progresses and sanity spirals totally out of control. I'm not sure if the game tries to convey social commentary through extreme satire and shocking violence or that it's simply completely fucking insane.

Why is it an awful game? The controls are wonky and somewhat unresponsive, and some of the quests are damn near impossible without a walkthrough. It's a 1996 game so it takes a bit of.. adjusting to the horribly low compression, poor animations and stuff like that.

It's 6 bucks on Steam. Please don't consider this post a recommendation. Anyone else played this game?


7uWEPMR.jpg


You wake up one morning to a town full of strangers and inexplicable sights. You share your home with your not so perfect family and your supposed fiancee lives next door. Then you are plunged into a nightmare! Your fiancee is missing and you find a hideous bloody skull and spinal chord draped across her bed! Is it hers? What is going on? The only clue left behind is an engraved invitation for you to enter...

THE ORDER OF THE HARVEST MOON

...a mysterious organisation that controls the town in way you don't (or can't) understand.

Is the order behind this gruesome execution? What are their motives?

One thing is certain, you're going to get to the bottom of this killing, or die trying.
Click to expand...

cXhkcKg.jpg

LUgHwla.jpg

5r7IQyB.jpg

4yAJJXD.jpg

QBc2hpL.jpg
Click to expand...
 
B

BinaryPork2737

Unconfirmed Member
Everyone should experience this game to find out why Steve always was a kidder.

The Retsupurae series of Harvester videos were so good.
 
Vlaphor

Vlaphor

Member
One of the greatest adventure games....one of the greatest games...one of humanities greatest achievements ever. Bought it ages ago for a Lets Play on SA, bought it again on GOG...probably won't buy it again on Steam, but still awesome that it's on there.
 
F

Ferrio

Banned
You were always a kidder Steve.


edit: Are there actual nude scenes? I know dan censors it during his playthrough, not sure if he's just kidding or there's something really there.
 
S

Sho Nuff

Banned
This game is SOOOOOO GREAT

The ending is super boss too

If HELL: A CYBERPUNK THRILLER came out on Steam my life would be complete
 
V

vocab

Member
heckmanimation said:
from the screens alone, I want to play this. shame it's bad.
Click to expand...

You don't play these kinds of game for their quality. There's not many good fmv adventure games. I can count the number of good ones on one hand. You play these kind of games because they are so fucked up (content wise) and are from a long forgotten era of gaming.

I'm about to play it for the first time my self. Looking forward to it.
 
R

reptilescorpio

Member
It's been up on GOG for about a month now so maybe they helped get it up and running again on modern machines, would explain the one month exclusive I guess.

Anyway, it's a real trip. Still pretty enjoyable today, especially after a few drinks!
 
indigo-cyclops

indigo-cyclops

Member
Damn on Steam now too? Feel the need to double dip. This game is not one to miss for any adventure an!

Sho Nuff said:
This game is SOOOOOO GREAT

The ending is super boss too

If HELL: A CYBERPUNK THRILLER came out on Steam my life would be complete
Click to expand...

I'm hugging my CD copy and giving a thumbs up right now!
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
I think I've seen Dan (dansgaming) play through this on one of his horror month marathons.


It was certainly... something.
 
SJRB

SJRB

Gold Member
I'm quite surprised at how many people seem to have played this game.

But then again you always were a kidder, Steve.
 
indigo-cyclops

indigo-cyclops

Member
Haunted said:
I think I've seen Dan (dansgaming) play through this on one of his horror month marathons.


It was certainly... something.
Click to expand...

Yea he did a few years ago. Still replays it. It's most people's favorite stream of his.

Having this on GOG/Steam is truly a blessing. It's hard to find and just a fucking weird, but funny game. One of the better 'FMV' games.
 
T

TraBuch

Banned
Any good Let's Plays of this game? I'm not a big enough fan of P&C games to play this, but like with Phantasmagoria (Vinny and Dave) and Phantasmagoria 2 (Spoony), I'm intrigued by the FMV scenes enough to watch it.

Edit: Wait..Was this the game Vinny played on Unprofessional Fridays where the paper boy shoots the main character and there was a legless soldier shooting guns and all that weird shit?
 
F

Ferrio

Banned
TraBuch said:
Any good Let's Plays of this game? I'm not a big enough fan of P&C games to play this, but like with Phantasmagoria (Vinny and Dave) and Phantasmagoria 2 (Spoony), I'm intrigued by the FMV scenes enough to watch it.
Click to expand...

DansGaming (better than the links above and below!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XNHtsQFyAU&list=PLWKuyAKXafnLHP6LyW0tAo8dQempXntXr

Enjoy

Though the best part of watching the Dan playthrough is twitch chat. He streams it quite a few times during halloween, and actually streamed it this week (he's doing an adventure game 24/7 week this week)
 
H

halfbeast

Banned
Ferrio said:
You were always a kidder Steve.


edit: Are there actual nude scenes? I know dan censors it during his playthrough, not sure if he's just kidding or there's something really there.
Click to expand...

can't remember, there may have been a nip slip. but it's mostly old women in kink gear (and your supposedly fiancee stripping).

haven't finished it, though, maybe the ending cutscene is full of p's and v's?
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
reptilescorpio said:
It's been up on GOG for about a month now so maybe they helped get it up and running again on modern machines, would explain the one month exclusive I guess.

Anyway, it's a real trip. Still pretty enjoyable today, especially after a few drinks!
Click to expand...

It's from Night Dive (guys behind System Shock 2's release). They do the same thing GOG does, fixing old games, but from a third party stance. They've been doing quite a few games lately.
 
K

Kageshinzo

Member
Hahah, I read about this back when I was still buying magazines for games in college. I remembered being very interested about this. Too bad I didn't find any copies from the, er, "usual sellers".
 
R

Rojo

Member
TraBuch said:
Any good Let's Plays of this game? I'm not a big enough fan of P&C games to play this, but like with Phantasmagoria (Vinny and Dave) and Phantasmagoria 2 (Spoony), I'm intrigued by the FMV scenes enough to watch it.

Edit: Wait..Was this the game Vinny played on Unprofessional Fridays where the paper boy shoots the main character and there was a legless soldier shooting guns and all that weird shit?
Click to expand...

http://www.twitch.tv/emptyapartmentgaming/b/475712604

Saw it live was very entertaining and the chat is on screen.
 
M

Maxathon

Neo Member
Vlaphor said:
One of the greatest adventure games....one of the greatest games...one of humanities greatest achievements ever. Bought it ages ago for a Lets Play on SA, bought it again on GOG...probably won't buy it again on Steam, but still awesome that it's on there.
Click to expand...

The game is... interesting. I have to give props to Vlaphor for his outstanding LP, which is available here from the Let's Play Archive. Greatness is among us, gentlepeople.
 
K

Krammy

Member
I started watching a Let's Play of this last year (I think because it was mentioned on GAF somewhere), and I was totally hooked after the eye wasp baby in the first 10 minutes. I stuck through it until the end, through the meat and the lodge and the Road Runner cartoons.

EDIT: As someone else mentioned, this is a game worth experiencing. It's one of the most stupidly unsettling games ever.
 
I

inm8num2

Member
Never played this game but have wanted to for so long as it's something of a cult classic in the adventure genre. I'll probably go for the GOG release when that's on sale but it's good to see the game possibly find wider audiences.
 
Z

zero shift

Banned
I just watched Dan's lets play on this. Yeah this game is terrible. It isn't even that violent really outside of like three seasons. It is hailed like some sick disturbing game but is more like if Raw Thrills (the creators of Target Terror) released an adventure game.
 
W

WhiskeyKnight

Member
I own this on CD-ROM, so let me warn y'all that Harvester is considerably less than the sum of its parts. Individual scenes are interesting taken alone, but the game as a whole is terrible.
 
E

Endesu

Member
Never had the patience to set up my copy with DOSbox, been meaning to snag a copy of the GOG version.

I've avoided watching much on it, but if it really is terrible, I look forward to actually playing it. Bad horror games tend to be charming in spite of themselves.
 
P

PKrockin

Member
If you want something just completely fucking bizarre and don't mind that many aspects of the game itself are somewhat incompetent $6 is a fair price. Or watch the Retsupurae videos of it.
 
P

PetriP-TNT

Member
Finished Harvester, here's some impressions copypasted from Steam thread and some more:

Like I have mentioned before on this topic, I am making some good progress on Harvester

Harvester_cover.jpg


So far there as been couple of Monkey Wrenchisms
Moving a shelf with the furniture dolly is pretty much impossible to find out with out a guide
and some pixel hunts, but otherwise it has been fairly sane for a point and click game! Sure it's very hard and some puzzles require you to visit tons of places AND it's fairly open ended (you can get items and solve some puzzles WAAAY before you need them) and I think that there are at least some optional puzzles and routes.

It's also fairly buggy (some events repeat if you leave the place early, some lines of conversations repeat when they shouldn't...) but those don't bother me at all. Also some lines of convos are missable for good but hey, that's replay value! The combat that I remember many calling dreadful actually works: just mash away right mousebutton for some intense combat scenes!

The story, characters and locations are EXCELLENT. The game, coming out in 96, touches all kinds of subjects that are pretty taboo for games even today such as homosexuality, suicides, child molestation, BDSM . Of course it does touch them in the least constructive way possible, but I guess that's better than nothing. Other than that, the story is silly fun, filled with all kinds of weird stuff happening ALL THE TIME and surprising you every second. Even the most mundane conversations are interesting!

I haven't finished it yet, but so far it has been pretty 10/10 experience for me. It's not for everyone, or even most, or even some, but if you like b-horror movies, point and click games, Deadly Premonition, Silent Hill and cheese this game might be just for you.
Click to expand...

I just finished it, and while the last section was kinda... different, I still liked the game very much. The ending
well both of them
were rather interesting (well, silly) but followed the games overall story very well. I really liked the game, it's not for everyone, but if even one thing in this post piqued your interested, I suggest you try it. It's pretty different from everything else and it sure isn't perfect but I loved it. And if anyone says that it's unplayable, they are bullshitting you: sure it's rough around the edges but the gameplay is up to a modern Call Of Duty game easily, nor is the game "terrible" as a game by any means.
 
petran79

petran79

Banned
it was an era where censorship on computers wasnt as great as on consoles, so there was still room for such a game.

today such a game would be difficult to produce, especially if you consider the big budget Harvester required. it had very good FMV and picture quality and HQ dialogues as well. I mean in sound quality, not content!

Something similar to compare would be Manhunt 2, but you saw the reactions that forced them to tone down the content, even on PC.

it was more disturbing because the actors were real, while Manhunt used CGI FMV.

today there isnt much difference between a computer and a console in games.
but in the 90s there were two types of gamers.

those that played Final Fantasy and those that played Harvester.
 
SJRB

SJRB

Gold Member
PetriP-TNT said:
Finished Harvester, here's some impressions copypasted from Steam thread and some more:



I just finished it, and while the last section was kinda... different, I still liked the game very much. The ending
well both of them
were rather interesting (well, silly) but followed the games overall story very well. I really liked the game, it's not for everyone, but if even one thing in this post piqued your interested, I suggest you try it. It's pretty different from everything else and it sure isn't perfect but I loved it. And if anyone says that it's unplayable, they are bullshitting you: sure it's rough around the edges but the gameplay is up to a modern Call Of Duty game easily, nor is the game "terrible" as a game by any means.
Click to expand...

Good review! This game is one of a kind, that's for sure.
 
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