Harvester (computer game)
| Harvester | |
|---|---|
| Studio | DigiFX Interactive |
| Publisher | Merit Studios |
| Senior Developer | Gilbert Austin |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1996 |
| platform | Windows |
| genre | Adventure |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | Mouse , keyboard |
| medium | 3 CD-ROM , download |
| language | English, French, Spanish |
| information | Indexed in Germany in 1997 |
Harvester is a computer game released on August 31, 1996 . The point-and-click - Adventure was developed by DigiFX Interactive developed and by the publisher Merit Studios released.
action
The game starts when the main character Steve Mason wakes up in the strange place Harvest in 1953 , with no memory of how or why he came to this place. Steve suffers from amnesia , but the people in Harvest don't believe him because Steve is known as a joker. The city's residents behave extremely eccentrically and sometimes seem more like caricatures or stereotypes than real people. Steve is asked by everyone in town to go to the box in the middle of town, which is the headquarters of the Order of the Autumn Moon. There the Sergeant-at-Arms welcomes him , who gives him several tasks for admission to the box. These tasks range from simple vandalism to arson . As the game progresses, Steve realizes that the city's residents are hiding a dark secret.
While spying around town, completing some of the assignments and learning more about the strange and depraved town, Steve also visits the Pottsdam family home. There he meets the overweight and perverted Mr. Pottsdam, who tells him that he has to marry his daughter Stephanie in a few weeks. Upstairs he meets his presumed future wife, who tells him that she also suffers from amnesia and that some things about the city are strange. In the next few days Steve successfully completes all tasks, when he then wants to visit Stephanie, he only finds a mutilated skull and spinal cord. He takes both to the Sergeant at Arms to find out if they are really Stephanie's remains. This explains to him that he will experience the truth in the box and grants him access.
Inside the box, Steve finds three floors of chaos and murder. While crossing it, he has to solve some puzzles and make various moral decisions in some rooms, called temples by the residents. Finally he reaches the inner sanctuary where he meets Rector Herrill of the local Gein memorial school. The latter introduces himself to him as deputy head of the order and is referred to as Vice Muck Herrill. Shortly thereafter, the leader of the order, the Supreme Muckity Muck (Grand Muckity Muck), has a brief conversation with Steve before he attacks him. Steve can successfully defeat and kill him and then meets the Sergeant at Arms again.
He brings him to Stephanie, who is alive but is connected to a special torture machine that has brought her pain every time Steve has changed floors over one of the ropes in the box. He then releases her from the machine and explains to Steve that the whole place only exists in a simulator as virtual reality . Steve and Stephanie were both put into this simulation in the hope of making Steve a serial killer in real life . He then gives Steve the choice of either continuing to live happily with Stephanie in virtual reality until her death or killing her, whereupon she would also die in real life, but he could return to real life as a serial killer.
If it is decided to kill Stephanie, Steve beats her to death and then removes her skull and spinal cord. Then he wakes up in reality and is taken to a taxi stand, where he brutally murders the taxi driver. He then drives home and plays Harvester on his computer, with his mother criticizing the violence in video games because she says that if you watch violence, you create it. Steve makes fun of it and laughs at her comparisons between media that glorifies violence and "Road Runner Cartoons" . At the end you can see the taxi driver's severed finger in Steve's stomach. So he has become a murderer in reality too.
Leaving Stephanie alive makes the Sergeant at Arms disappointed, but Steve says he'd rather die than become a serial killer. The Sergeant at Arms just says to enjoy life as it comes. You can then see that Steve and Stephanie are getting married and have a child. When they die in old age, this also happens in reality. However, because virtual reality passed so quickly, only a few minutes have passed in reality.
Characters
- Steve: The main character who wakes up with amnesia in Harvest town. Except Stephanie, however, no resident of the city seems to believe him. Actor: Kurt Kistler .
- Stephanie Pottsdam: Steve's neighbor. She and Steve are supposed to get married in two weeks, but her parents lock her in her room for unclear reasons.
- Steve's mom: A typical housewife who spends all day in the kitchen baking cookies for a charity event at the end of the week, even though the cookies will be inedible by then.
- Mr. Pottsdam: Stephanie's overweight father who locks you in her room so she doesn't block the wedding to Steve. Since Steve's father owns a slaughterhouse, he promises a free supply of meat from the marriage.
- Col. Buster Monroe: A mentally unstable World War II veteran whose legs were amputated. He guards the nuclear missile base in Harvest and, depending on the decisions of the player, can trigger the nuclear holocaust .
- Sheriff Dwayne: The obese law enforcers of the city, the more interested in cake than for crimes.
- Mr. Moynahan: A mysterious man who runs both the hotel and the local funeral home.
- Sergeant at Arms: The lodge guard seems to be aware of everything that is going on in Harvest. He sets Steve a series of tasks before granting him access to the box.
Game principle and technology
Harvester is a point-and-click adventure. From Sprites composite characters act against pre-rendered scenes. The player can use the mouse to move his character through the locations and use the mouse buttons to initiate actions that allow the character to interact with his environment. The player can find objects and apply them to the environment or other objects and communicate with NPCs in multiple choice dialogs . As the story progresses, more locations will be unlocked. All characters in the game are not drawn or calculated, but are based on film recordings with real actors in front of a green screen . An unusual feature of Harvester is the ability to attack and kill any character in the game. Only two people cannot be killed. In dialogues, the player is given meaningful topics to talk about, but he can also type in keywords using the keyboard in order to get answers to general topics.
development
Harvester contains many satirical references to the 1950s in the United States. Issues such as red fear and the pitfalls of the American dream , in particular the compulsion to consume and the wounds of the Vietnam War, are alluded to . In addition, the question of whether the media, especially games, can lead to increased violence.
The recordings of the film sequences took several months and were made using green screen technology . The script came from Gilbert P. Austin, who completed his work on the project in 1994. Nevertheless, the production was delayed due to financial and technical problems, so that the game was only released in 1996. In the meantime, Sierra released a comparable competing product with Phantasmagoria .
After the title was no longer available for a long time, the online distribution platform GOG.com released the game on March 6, 2013 as a download .
reception
Reviews
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Harvester received mixed reviews. From 8 aggregated ratings, it achieved a score of 53 on Metacritic. GameSpot rated the game 6.8 out of 10 points and rated it “fair”. On the other hand, the verdict of the tester Scorpia from the US magazine Computer Gaming World was devastating : “ Harvester parades around as 'controversial' when it's really just silly and unpleasant ” (German: “Harvester presents itself as 'controversial', it just is stupid and obnoxious "). The game is so lousy that not even the hype is worth it.
controversy
Harvester is notorious for depicting violence and sexual acts in the cutscenes. The game was criticized for this even before it was released. Harvester also quotes the kitchen scene from Dark Seed II , which appeared in 1995, which was criticized for its brutality . There the player met his mother, whose head exploded. This situation is trumped in Harvester with a depiction of children eating their own mother. This scene had to be censored due to the criticism.
In Germany, Harvester was indexed in April 1997 by the Federal Testing Office for Writings Harmful to Young People (BPjS). Such a ban was being considered in Australia, so the publisher voluntarily stopped selling in response. The game was released in the UK , but the BBFC imposed several cuts.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ gogcom.tumblr.com
- ↑ gog.com
- ↑ a b Harvester Review. Gamespot.com, accessed June 6, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Harvester. Metacritic.com, accessed June 13, 2017 .
- ^ Scorpia: Bad to the Bone . (Article scan) In: Computer Gaming World . 01/1997, No. 150, January 1997, pp. 145-151.
- ↑ lparchive.org
- ↑ movie-censorship.com
- ↑ schnittberichte.com
- ↑ findarticles.com