Harvester is quintessential FMV horror at its best

I’ve always loved full-motion video (FMV) games, which were at the peak of their popularity in the 1990s and early 2000s. Of the dozens of FMV games I’ve point-and-clicked my way through, one in particular holds the trophy for the weirdest and wildest: Harvester, a bizarre, extremely violent 1996 point-and-click horror title. And through the magic of preservation on Steam and GoG, it’s still a trip you can experience today.

Harvester‘s general premise is perhaps best explained by the error-laden, punctuationless description on the back of its box: “You wake up one morning to a town full of strangers and inexplicable sights. You share your home with your not so perfect [sic] family and your supposed fiancee [sic] lives next door. Then you are plunged into a nightmare! Your fiancee [sic] is missing and you find a hideous bloody skull and spinal chord [sic] draped across her bed! Is it hers? What is going on?”

What is going on, indeed? In Harvester, nothing is as it seems. The player-character, Steve, wakes up in what is apparently his hometown, Harvest. Harvest is very clearly inspired by Twin Peaks, complete with a 1950s-style diner, a mysterious (and possibly paranormal) lodge, and some seriously weird inhabitants. But poor Steve has mysteriously been struck down by amnesia, and doesn’t recognize the town itself, nor anything in it — including his own family. At first, things seem somewhat normal, but the gross-outs start early. If, after waking up in Steve’s bedroom, you go explore the attached bathroom, the game’s flavor text will inform you that the sink is covered in pubic hair, and the nearby wastebasket is full of tissues that are stuck to the side of the bin. Gross, but not exactly fear-inducing.

Things start getting truly weird when Steve goes downstairs, and encounters his little brother, Hank. Hank is clearly based on Mike TeeVee from 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, from his cowboy outfit to his “iPad kid”-esque addiction to violent television, and he is pissed at Steve, who has evidently spent the last few months ignoring Hank to spend time with his fiancée, Stephanie. This is news to Steve, who has no recollection of getting engaged. Oh, and the wedding is apparently in two weeks.

Venturing into the kitchen, Steve encounters his mother, who is in the middle of baking cookies for an upcoming bake sale, but seems to be dumping every batch directly into a nearby garbage can. Steve lets his mother know that he doesn’t recognize anyone, including her, to which she casually responds, “Oh, Steve! You’ve always been such a kidder.” This is a phrase you’ll hear repeated about 50 more times throughout the game.

Image: DigiFX Interactive via Polygon

One of the most interesting aspects of Harvester is the fact that, while it does feature typical pre-written dialogue options for the player to choose from, developer DigiFX Interactive also built a custom response field where players could type out whatever they want. Despite being a 30-year-old game, Harvester’s custom dialogue works surprisingly well. When Steve’s mother mentions that little brother Hank is staying home from school because he’s ill, Steve points out that the kid seems just fine, given the fact that he’s sitting about three inches away from the television, donning a cowboy costume, and doesn’t seem at all lethargic. Steve asks his mother if she thinks Hank is really sick, to which she replies, “Look at the show he’s watching. Wouldn’t you say he’s sick?”

Steve’s mom is clearly referencing a mental sickness here, pointing out that it may be unhealthy for her child to watch gratuitous violence on television, then lamenting she’s too busy to do anything about it as she’s currently busy baking cookies and dumping them into the trash. At this point in my most recent playthrough I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I selected the custom response field and typed the question I’d been dying to ask since the moment I noticed the disgusting bathroom upstairs: “What the fuck?”

Steve’s mother casually responds to his use of the expletive in the most unhinged manner humanly possible: “What a thing to say to your mother. Was that an invitation, now that your father is out of action?”

I’m sorry, what?

Image: DigiFX Interactive via Polygon

Per Harvester creator Gilbert P. Austin, the game is meant to be a work of satire, mocking America’s puritanical views on sexuality and hypocritical tendency to censor sex, while violence is largely seen as perfectly acceptable in most media. The game was in development right around the same time as the formation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which formed in 1994 after controversies over sex and violence in video games entered the cultural zeitgeist in the wake of controversies over games like Doom and Night Trap (the latter being yet another wild FMV game).

As a result, the game is extremely violent, but it’s also very self-aware. Even the local paperboy, Jimmy — who picks up leftover scrap paper from Harvest’s inhabitants, rather than delivering a newspaper — will pull out a BB gun and kill Steve if the player gets too lippy with him. Meanwhile, the town’s resident shopkeeper refuses to sell “nudie magazines” to married men, but will happily sell one to Steve, stating that it’s “healthy” for a young, unmarried man to look at pornography.

Image: DigiFX Interactive via Polygon

Harvester constantly mocks the idea that violent media will lead to real-life violence, and repeatedly pokes fun at the idea of nudity being too obscene for the screen, while blood and guts are largely considered fine. Steve’s mother refusing to stop young Hank from watching violent television programs is a clear indictment of parents who refuse to monitor the media their children consume, then have the nerve to point an accusatory finger at the creators of that media.

When Steve eventually follows his mother’s advice to apply for membership at The Lodge, he’s given a new task each day, and completing these tasks always leads to someone’s gruesome death (though not directly at Steve’s hands). On the final day, Steve discovers a Mortal Kombat-esque skull and spinal cord lying on his fiancée’s bed, and after making his way through the lodge, he’s faced with a wild plot-twist and an irreversible choice: Give in to violent urges, or continue to be true to himself and refuse to become the monster the town of Harvest seemingly wants him to be.

Image: DigiFX Interactive via Polygon

Ultimately, Harvester is a deeply weird game, but it’s also an unforgettable one with a meta-narrative that’s still extremely relevant today. Despite being 30 years old, Harvester is still available to play. You can find it on Steam ($6) and GOG (where it’s currently on sale for $1.74), and I highly recommend taking it for a spin — both for the off-the-wall storyline and the legitimately well-crafted analysis of violence, sexuality, and censorship in American media.