Body Harvest

Body Harvest
Studio	DMA design
Publisher	Gremlin Interactive , Midway Games
Erstveröffent- lichung	October 20, 1998
platform	Nintendo 64
genre	Action-adventure , third-person shooter
Subject	Science fiction
Game mode	Single player
control	Nintendo 64 controller
medium	128 Mbit game module
Age rating	USK

Body Harvest is a video game from the Scottish game developer DMA Design (now known as Rockstar North), which combines elements of action adventure and third-person shooter . The game was released for the Nintendo 64 in October 1998 .

The protagonist of the game is Adam Drake, a genetically modified soldier from the future who travels into the past to protect humanity from recurrent attacks by aliens .

action

For the first time in 1916 in Greece , the earth was attacked by aliens, who hermetically sealed off a certain area for a few days with the help of a force field , where they all caught and eaten. This is repeated every 25 years in a different part of the world (1941 in Java , 1966 in the USA , 1991 in Siberia ), the intensity of the attacks increasing each time. It turns out that the aliens live on a comet whose orbit gets so close to Earth every 25 years that they can attack them for a few days. The goal of these attacks is to harvest as many people ( ger .: : Body Harvest ), which are considered by the aliens as a food source. Due to the success of the harvest, the aliens can increase their strength considerably after each attack and thus attack an ever larger area the next time.

Adam Drake is a genetically modified soldier and, in 2016, one of the last people still alive to leave Earth in a space station. It was specially created to return to the past using a time machine and to stop the alien attacks on the spot and thus prevent the annihilation of humanity. In each epoch he has to drive away the aliens, which ultimately succeeds by destroying the so-called shield generator, a machine that creates the force field that shields the area from the rest of the world. In order to get to the shield generator, however, several alien processors must first be switched off, which are huge aliens that each monitor a part of the shielded area and command all other aliens there. At the end of the world, after the shield generator has been destroyed, the level boss must also be defeated, the highest-ranking and most powerful alien in the respective area.

In addition, Adam has to protect the civilians living there from the regular waves of alien attacks. In this way Adam fights his way through all epochs until in 2016, when the comet approaches the earth one more time, he attacks the aliens directly in their homeland and finally destroys them for good.

Game principle and technology

The player can move relatively freely within the game world, but certain puzzles and tasks must always be completed to complete a level. At the beginning, the entire level is never freely accessible, but is only activated piece by piece after certain tasks have been completed. Again and again, the player has to fend off so-called attack waves, in which a considerable number of aliens teleport themselves and attack both the player and surrounding people (these people are non-controllable NPCs ). The more people can be saved from death, the more points the player receives. If Adam dies in combat or too many people are killed in the attack waves, the attempt is considered to have failed and the player must start again from the last save point.

The player is also able to mount numerous different vehicles and drive them freely. This ranges from simple, civilian cars to combat vehicles such as battle tanks to helicopters and airplanes . Boats can also be steered.

The game concept of a freely accessible environment, which the player can explore either on foot or in different vehicles, is reminiscent of the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) published last year, also by DMA Design . While this first part of the GTA series is a two-dimensional game from a bird's eye view, a full three-dimensional game environment has already been implemented in Body Harvest , as it was only three years later for the GTA series, with the 2001 Grand Theft Auto III , was the case. Hence, Body Harvest is sometimes referred to as the conceptual predecessor of the 3D parts of the hugely successful GTA series.

reception

The game was rated rather positively by the trade press. The free accessibility of the environment without too many linear restrictions was emphasized. The music was also praised as very successful.

One point of criticism was the outdated graphics. In addition to the poorly detailed surroundings, the severely limited view was particularly criticized, as distant objects are immersed in fog. This measure, known as fogging, is used by programmers to prevent too many objects from appearing on the screen at the same time. If this were the case, the hardware could be overwhelmed and the game could start to stutter. This is prevented by creating the fog, but it also makes a game look very dreary. Fogging affected many games on the Nintendo 64 because the texture fill rate was relatively low. However, it was particularly pronounced at Body Harvest.

Another point of criticism was the storage system. The player can only save at specified locations, which means that he either has to run regularly through the extensive levels back to the last save point or takes the risk of dying shortly before the end of a level and having to play through the entire section again, which takes several hours can take.

The multimedia news and reviews website IGN named Body Harvest third in the list of Most Original Nintendo 64 games of all time.

Ratings

Magazine / website	rating
IGN	8.4 / 10
N zone	84%
Bravo Screenfun	Grade 2

continuation

When the game was released, DMA Designs boss David Jones announced a 256 Mbit sequel, which, however, never appeared.

Web links

• Body Harvest at MobyGames (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IGN.com: The Top 25 N64 Games Of All Time. Retrieved October 6, 2018 . 
2. ↑ IGN.com: Body Harvest. Retrieved October 11, 2018 . 
3. ↑ cf. N-Zone, edition 12/98.
4. ↑ cf. Bravo Screenfun, issue 12/98.
5. ↑ Test Body Harvest at Total ; accessed on November 22, 2015