History VideoGame / Harvester

* BrokenAesop: Averted. [[spoiler:The game’s {{A|nAesop}}esop might ''seem'' to be that exposure to violent media can lead people to become violent themselves, but he actually thinks the opposite - that any and all censorship is bad, so that isn't the true message of the game.]]

''Harvester'' is a graphical PointAndClick AdventureGame with LiveActionCutscenes, developed by Texas-based [=DigiFX=] Interactive, written and directed by Gilbert P. Austin, and released in October 1996.

''Harvester'' is a graphical PointAndClick AdventureGame with FullMotionVideo elements, developed by Texas-based [=DigiFX=] Interactive, written and directed by Gilbert P. Austin, and released in October 1996.

* EvilSoundsDeep: The Sergeant-at-Arms speaks with a [[WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget Dr. Claw-like]] voice. Interestingly, his voice acting was done by Ryan Wickerham, [[TalkingToHimself who also dubbed over Steve's lines.]]

* ADateWithRosiePalms:
** After you've given Deputy Loomis a porno magazine and leave the evidence room, a cutscene will play of the sheriff catching him...red-handed. What follows is the least violent scene in the game of the sheriff hitting him with a newspaper, yet it's all shown in shadow.
** [[spoiler:Mr. Pottsdam masturbates to his daughter, Stephanie, by watching her through a hole in the bathroom wall.]]

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Trying to help the townsfolk like saving Karin or stealing ledgers from Moynahan that prove he's a murderer will only result in them chiding Steve [[spoiler:as those who are running the simulation wouldn't care about him helping people.]] In the case of the latter, showing them to the heriff will get Steve arrested for theft regardless of them being evidence.

* AllJustADream: Parodied during the bad ending, in which Steve, [[spoiler:after murdering a victim after successfully becoming a serial killer]], is shown playing ''[[CelebrityParadox Harvester]]'' [[PostModernism in the real world]], only to be subverted in the end as [[spoiler:he actually did kill the victim. And ate her, too.]]

* TinCanRobot: A robot that shows up near the end looks like a can and makes beeping noises. Fitting, considering the game takes places in the '50s.

* TradeSnark: Steve's mom mentions the Reynolds Dishwasher with their patented Auto-Dry Process (TM), with the last part also getting voice acted.

* NonStandardGameOver: Killing anyone (with a couple of exceptions like Tetsusa or Jimmy) outside the lodge without a Get Out of Jail Free Card or specific orders to kill them lead to Steve's death by electric chair. There are also many other that may stem from wrong dialogue choices or actions.

* RefugeInAudacity: '''Everything'''! The whole point of this game was to piss off the MoralGuardians. [[GoneHorriblyRight It succeeded.]]

[[EasyAmnesia The only thing Steve knows about himself is that his name is Steve, and he's really just taking that on faith.]] Otherwise his memory has been gone ever since he woke up. He soon discovers that he is apparently a citizen of the Midwestern farming town called "Harvest", and that the year is 1953. Initially the neighborhood may appear to be a perfect StepfordSuburbia, but with [[CrapsaccharineWorld even more things wrong than usual]]. Mom is baking (thousands of) cookies in preparation for a bake sale that's still a week away. Of course, they won't be good then, so she's shovelling them into the trash. Steve's baby sister lies screaming in her crib, neglected. Steve's [[MiddleChildSyndrome brother]], Hank, is immovable from in front of the television, where he watches a disturbingly gory and realistic show about cowboys killing Native Americans. There's not much of a plot or anything, just killing them over and over, with the "special effects" making it disturbingly real.

Mom informs Steve that when the big day comes, the town's Lodge will have a big blood drive, and [[{{Foreshadowing}} everyone has to give blood]]. [[HintDropping Well, except for Lodge members.]] [[ShameIfSomethingHappened Steve should consider joining the Lodge.]] [[ButThouMust Steve decides]] to join the Lodge, if he makes it past the paper boy that is. See, times have been tough around Harvest since the newspaper building burned down, and a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do, right? Well, if there aren't any newspapers being made, then our lad has decided to pick them up. He'd really appreciate it if you could help him out, just leave a newspaper for him outside every day... or there might be some consequences.

* CorruptHick: Sheriff Dwayne - Big on pie eating, light on crime fighting. [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin Unless it’s Steve that’s breaking the law.]]

* ExtremeOmnivore: Downplayed. [[spoiler:In the bad ending, Steve catches a ride with a woman, before killing and cannibalizing her. The last scene shows her finger in his bowels... with a ring still on it.]]

* DepravedKidsShowHost: Range Ryder, star of a kids western wherein he brutally and bloodily kills Indians (and apparently cusses on-air as well.)

* BrokenAesop: Averted. [[spoiler:The game’s {{Aesop}} might ''seem'' to be that exposure to violent media can lead people to become violent themselves, but he actually thinks the opposite - that any and all censorship is bad, so that isn't the true message of the game.]]

* EnemySummoner: One of the last rooms has a guy using a TV remote to make a cowboy and a robot appear. Once Steve kills them both, he goes own as well.

* AxCrazy: Almost everyone, but special mention goes to [[spoiler:Miss Whaley, Mr. Pottsdam, Jimmy James and Steve's mother for trying to outright hurt/murder someone.]] Everyone else is just ordinary crazy, weird people. [[spoiler:Steve becomes AxCrazy in the bad ending as well.]]
* BadEnding: [[spoiler:Steve killing Stephanie as a ticket to freedom and then becomes a full-fledged serial killer from there on in.]]

* BigEater: Sheriff Dwayne. In fact, he doesn't mind eating pie [[NauseaFuel while observing a corpse.]]

* {{Bowdlerization}}: As mentioned under PaintedOnPants, Mr. Pottsdam was originally in his underwear during his final appearance, but a pair of trousers was added on over his sprite. It's anyone's guess why the devs drew the line here with all the other horrific things the game freely depicts, but there you have it.

* ButThouMust: You will join the Lodge, whether you like it or not. Oh, and you will commit crime after crime, all because some guy in front of a door keeps telling you to. Failure to do so ends in [[spoiler:the Lodge coming for ''your blood'' in the "blood drive." Even if you get and do everything you need to become a Lodge member, but go home instead of to the Lodge on the final day, Steve is forced to [[DeadlyEuphemism donate blood.]]]]

* CassandraTruth: Absolutely no one will believe that Steve has amnesia (or so they say.) At the very least, though, they're willing to play along and [[AsYouKnow give you information anyway.]]

** Found during a LetsPlay that was experimenting with curse words in the text parser. It turns out, asking Steve's mother to [[spoiler:"FUCK" will cause her to [[{{Squick}} seriously consider the offer]].]]

** Typing "LODGE" while visiting [[spoiler:Marv]] triggers a dialogue that indicates that [[spoiler:Marv knows about Harvest's true nature.]]

** In the transition between days, Steve dreams of [[spoiler:a man's eyes coming out of their sockets. Turns out it's a [[GuideDangIt bonus cutscene for a specific weapon kill on a specific character.]]]]

* KnightOfCerebus: [[spoiler:The Sergeant-At-Arms]]. While ''Harvester'' is consistently a dark game, before visiting the lodge, most of this darkness is centered around how "off" the residents of the town of Harvest are. Once [[spoiler:the Sergeant-At-Arms]] starts assigning tasks, though, the game gets even darker and [[spoiler:characters begin to get killed off]]. Of course, there is still plenty of black comedy, but the overall tone of the game still becomes much more sinister.

* MoonLogicPuzzle: Deliberately invoked with the Temple of the Mystery of Religion (which is also a TakeThat at [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalism]],) where Steve has to answer multiple choice questions about God to prove that he's a true believer and not a heathen. They start out simple enough ("Does God exist?", "Where does God dwell?") and then quickly get more and more ridiculous ("Does God bounce on a spring, or frolic with the wombats?") to the point that it's impossible to get the right answers without just guessing. Fortunately, Steve doesn't ''have'' to pass the test; He can always just kill everyone in the room.

** It's revealed later that [[spoiler:Mr. Pottsdam masturbates to his daughter by watching her through a hole in the wall.]]

*** Then again given what she considers "intimacy" with her husband...

-->'''[[LetsPlay/DIabetus Diabetus]]:''' Is this ''Film/TheTrumanShow'' now?

* RuleOfThree: If you don't put out the paper for Jimmy for three days straight [[spoiler:he'll shoot you down with a gun (if you don't kill him first).]]

* ShootTheShaggyDog: The whole game is an escalating series of these, culminating in [[spoiler:Steve’s rescue of Stephanie.]]

-->'''Mr. Pottsdam:''' This town won't be the same without DNA's diner. [[LiteralMinded Or DNA, for that matter]].

* TakeThat: Both endings are a '''huge''' one toward a particularly popular assumption that was growing in the media (specifically, [[spoiler:that video games are leading to real-world violence]]). The Good Ending has the antagonists [[spoiler:lamenting that since the simulation ends in failure, they'll just have to go to the old fashioned way of creating serial killers by way of genetics]], effectively criticizing the argument itself by means of referring to something that actually has scientific support instead of something based largely on circumstantial evidence. In the bad ending, where Steve's mother sees him playing a video game and tells him that it's going to make him violent, Steve simply responds with a succinct "That's bullshit, mom".
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: Range Ryder gets all his responses to Steve's questions off of cue cards (which even include Steve's name in them.)

* YouALLLookFamiliar: Many characters in the Lodge look like the residents of Harvest. Not to mention that Steve's mom, Mrs. Pottsdam, and all the moms at the Bake Sale are all played by the same actress and dress pretty much the same.