Harvester

Best game ever made

may your fantasies be forever gory

If David Lynch made Twin Peaks the Game high on pcp while playing Mortal Combat at the same time, it would be Harvester.

Fun, disturbing and interesting even on modern standards. Combat isn't awesome but still enjoyed visiting the Lodge. Must play for an adventure game nerd!

Still throws some decent punches on American and whole Western society with the story & dialogue.

Too bad Steve was an actual kidder, sheesh.

Get it on sale, not worth full price. The only positives are the droll storyline, nostalgia in graphics and aesthetics, and vulgarity and gore. The puzzles are very non-sequitur. Its worth watching a playthrough and/or using a guide to play it yourself, but not really worth the money or time to invest as a real game.

What really bothers me about this game is that the NPC character's storylines are not fleshed out at all, which is a shame bc on the surface these characters are bizarre and interesting. Towards the end its explained away in the most predictable way possible. Hell, we dont even know who Steve and Stephanie were before they developed amnesia.

The soundtrack is pretty decent but it gets pretty repetitive.

GOATED

What a fascinatingly absurd and grotesque game. It falls into many traps that games of its era and style do, but Harvester still delivers a compelling story and mystery while never pulling a single punch, drawing you in with its utter strangeness. Highly recommend, with a walkthrough of course.

you always were a diddler, Steve.

10/10, crazy, absurd, at times it's quite "Twin Peaks" like. This game is a true "they don't make em like they used to!"
I did find the last 10 minutes of the game pretty hard health-wise. Also, I never figured how to reload ammo from the inventory. Just save often in multiple slots and you'll be fine.

When you press play on Steam, choose the second option where it says "play with dosbox with blahblah". This option runs smoothly and the video scenes play correctly. If you choose the first option, the videos are glitchy for me personally.

Worked fine in Windows 10.

You always were a Kidder, Steve.

It's buggy and archaic but still a weird and unique experience.

This was a good surprise, damn. First time I've ever played this now and damn I enjoyed it.
- Town/characters got nice twin peaks feeling and the overall game feeling is mystical/horror stylish.

- Good black humor sometimes and strange/funny characters and each of them feels different. the game has some current
themes of the time example communism, I laughed really hard at the missile guard dialog.

- There is so much to do and explore/find and different things to try in the game example one of my favorites was showing a romantic cleaning closet photo taken at school (Whaley and Herrill photo) to all the residents and seeing how they reacted to it, some reactions are very funny.

- I got same feeling like fallout 1/2 back in the days, It's sad that at least most modern games seem to lack anything similar wide range of different content/secrets etc.. things to do outside the main story.

- Music is very nice and gore (got little bit postal game feelings too because of black humor and gore/violence.)

- I liked it a lot so easily 9/10 one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a very long time.

This game is a real fun time. It's got some point n' click shenanigans here and there, but for the most part the puzzles felt good to solve. The atmosphere is eerie and offputting, the voice acting is top-notch, the soundtrack is great, and the writing does a good job at being really funny and really creepy. I'd recommend it if Roadrunner cartoons are too tame for you. Just save a lot. and look real thoroughly.

incredible. good luck beating it btw

with love
@dgraydtv

Delightfully Disturbing

Very buggy, at least on Windows 11. Sometimes starting up it would not take some keyboard input, which you need to bring up unlisted subjects in dialogue. Some cutscenes do not work, which is a terrible thing because the cutscenes are the only redeeming part of the game.

Bonkers adventure. Great fun.

Harvester is a game that features numerous types of violence that are hard to even describe in today’s world. However, my negative review isn’t based on the violence—it’s more about the game itself. I get that it’s from 1996, so I can forgive its basic graphics and clunky gameplay. But the puzzles? They’re a different story. Puzzles in this game are incredibly complicated and can completely kill the fun. The lack of clear guidance makes it nearly impossible to solve anything without turning to a guide, which feels like a major flaw.

The best Darkseedesque point & click, perfect atmosphere like a dream

Whoever made Harvester must have thought, Hey, why not add in every shocking and disturbing tag imaginable? I played this game out of sheer rubbernecking curiosity but now I’m forever traumatized by the experience and feel sick to my stomach just by thinking about this game. Story wasn't bad tho, The plot revolves around you being 'tested' to see if an average person can be turned into the next Charles Manson or some s***bag.

You always were a kidder, Steve!

It's gonna be a struggle replaying this but I'm so glad I finally have this on steam, it is a flawed masterpiece and is probably one of my favorite FMV horror games along with the Phantasmagoria games and Dark Seed!!

You were always a kidder Steve.

Warning: This game contains bloodshed, violence, grotesque content, sexual themes, even child characters.
Harvester tells the story of a man's gradual descent into depravity through bloodshed and murder in the most explicit and unhinged manner imaginable. It concludes by posing a question that remains unresolved even two decades later: "Do video games incite violence?"
The game distinguishes itself with FMV sequences and voice acting, accompanied by grotesque aesthetics and psychologically unsettling visual elements reminiscent of 1980s shock art. Gore, dismemberment, voyeurism, and eroticism form the unshakable pillars of this work. Even child violence--a redline even Rockstar and Postal dared not cross--is treated with disturbing nonchalance here.
The narrative masterfully guides players through Steve's moral corrosion: from petty vandalism that initially feels cathartic, to arson and murder. This incremental escalation of cruelty becomes profoundly unsettling. While effective for Steve's characterization, this "guidance" falters for players. The absence of meaningful agency--particularly the inability to challenge Steve's reprehensible rhetoric--creates narrative dissonance, as players must comply with plot demands that may contradict their moral judgment.
Ultimately, I cannot recommend this game--not due to its age, but because subjecting oneself to such a psychologically grueling experience serves no purpose for most. Even when compared to traditional Western AVGs during their golden age, this work stands out as exceptional--whether in terms of the core message the story conveys, its narrative techniques, or scene design.
To seek truth here is to embrace error.
You always were a kidder, Steve.
[hr][/hr]

Reviews: 10/10

I was expecting this to be much more disturbing than it actually was but it was still a good game and so lynchian stephanie is identical to laura palmer

You in fact were *pretty* serious, Steve.

Harvester: The 90s Game That Haunts Your Soul
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (for sheer audacity)

Do you like games that make you question your sanity, your morals, and why the developers thought any of this was okay? Then Harvester is the fever dream for you.

Released in 1996, this point-and-click adventure is often referred to as "the most violent game ever made," which is kind of an understatement. It’s like someone poured the darkest corners of a horror writer’s brain into a blender, hit puree, and smeared it across your screen. The result? A surreal, unsettling journey through a small-town nightmare that’s somehow both deeply disturbing and unintentionally hilarious.

You play as Steve, a guy with amnesia who wakes up in the idyllic town of Harvest, which immediately feels off. Maybe it’s the creepy neighbors, the cult-like lodge at the center of town, or the fact that everyone speaks like they’re in a poorly directed soap opera. Honestly, Steve himself isn’t much help—his personality is as wooden as the game’s dialogue trees.

The gameplay is your classic point-and-click: wander around, talk to NPCs, solve puzzles. Except the puzzles make no sense half the time, and the solutions often involve doing something heinous. Need a solution to a problem? Just set something on fire. Or kill someone. Harvester doesn’t care—it actively dares you to make the worst moral decisions possible, all while delivering its lines with the emotional range of a cardboard cutout.

But let’s talk about the real star of the show: the tone. Imagine Twin Peaks if it was directed by someone with a head injury. The entire game oscillates between being unnervingly creepy and laugh-out-loud absurd. One moment, you’re discovering a grotesque murder scene; the next, you’re chatting with a woman whose hobby is… aggressively baking cookies. The tonal whiplash is so intense it should come with a neck brace.

And the graphics? Peak 90s FMV weirdness. The digitized actors are both horrifying and hilarious, delivering performances that make daytime soap operas look like Shakespeare. The gore effects? Let’s just say it looks like the devs discovered a red pixel bucket and went to town.

The story builds toward a twist ending that’s as shocking as it is nonsensical. I won’t spoil it, but I will say this: it involves meta commentary about violence in video games. Yes, Harvester tries to be profound after spending hours forcing you to set orphans on fire and chainsawing your way through puzzles. The audacity is honestly kind of impressive.

Verdict:
Harvester is less of a game and more of an experience—a horrifying, baffling, occasionally funny, always unsettling experience. It’s not for the faint of heart or anyone looking for coherent storytelling. But if you want to see just how weird the 90s got, or you’re in the mood for a game that makes you go, “What the actual hell am I playing?”—then Harvester is your cursed cup of tea.

6/10 for gameplay.
10/10 for scarring me for life.

this game rocks

All jokes aside, this game is unsettling AF. If you're into unsettling, gory, and twisted video games then give this one a try. It's 90's point and click horror at it's finest.

god

They don't make games like this anymore.

Edit: changing review to positive after playing Noctropolis which has shown me what a bad FMV game really is. Harvester looks like a gem now!

I recently got into 90s FMVs with Phantasmagoria 1 and 2. Both were really good games, highly recommended. I searched for more FMVs and this one came up in some of the recommendations online.
I must say that the first 'half' of the game is really good, the plot thickens with every in game day, you want to know the answers, what's going on, why, etc.
Unfortunately the second 'half' of the game delivers a massive flop, with limited answers and mostly just pointless gore.

You always were a kidder, Steve.

Good game, maybe a little bit sick

Almost 20 years ago booted this up on the family e machine only to get the biggest bar of soap shoved in my mouth from what i learned.
Authentic game I'll come back til I look Loomis

i like old point and click games

This game was F#cked up. Yeah that's it lol.

silly and fun game, despite the jank, which actually adds to the charm of the game in my opinion. A good 7-or-so hour experience. Absolutely worth the money

Despites its age, it's actually a great game with a great storyline if you like the weird, eerie aesthetics of horror movies and stuff like that. You deserve a million bucks if you made it through without a walkthrough, but I can recommend doing it with a walkthrough since the game is old and it isn't really all that intuitive what you're supposed to do.

just buy it !!! you were always such a kidder steve!

is good you can kill

I miss the 90's.

The most horrific moment in all of video game history: Steve repeatedly shirtless

Though packaged as a horror it seems more like quirky comedy with horror elements sprinkled in? A little difficult to follow if you weren't playing point and click adventure games during their more prominent time, but still an interesting entry in that style of gameplay.

*insert sheriff line here*

A very unexpected adventure that can be even more appreciated with a second playthrough

This game is a fun and whacky point and click from the 90s, and i really like it, but it wont work properly which means i cant finish the game. After a certian point of having fun and playing when i took a picture of the corpse in the casket the video played and when i tried it again it fast-forwarded. Now all cutscenes do this. Oh well, i guess i wont finish the game.

Well, you always were a kidder, Steve.

hell yah

Despite having to rely on a guide for roughly 80% of my current play through I've been enjoying this game a lot more than I anticipated even with how insane some moments would get in the later half so far lol

Fun bit of horror history here. I enjoyed my time with the game, although it's dated, it makes for a good time especially with how creative it can be at points. (and the gore if you like that sort of thing) Oh also it's pretty funny to imagine the way people reacted to this in the 90s.