"If ignorance is bliss... then slap the grin off my face."
— Solomon Torvus
Harbinger is an isometric 2D Action RPG released for PC and, released in 2003, developed by Silverback Entertainment and published by DreamCatcher Interactive.
The game is set on a large starship, the titular Harbinger, that is experiencing a large number of problems. It is up to the player to traverse the ship and keep it running. What begins as an attempt to fix broken systems eventually devolves into a fight for survival amid warring alien factions and a mass of bug-like creatures. Harbinger has three playable characters: A male Human, a robotic Gladiator, and a female alien known as a Culibine.
Unrelated to the Valiant Comics series, the 1996 mo-cap video game or the Mass Effect fanfic.
Harbinger provides examples of the following tropes:
- And I Must Scream: This is what happens to Smiley somewhat. A sea-serpent like space snake the size of starships having his brain harvested to solve a bunch of bugs' problems. Smiley was 'lucky' enough to be in the Overlord's services.
- Anti-Grinding: There's not a lot of enemies for you to farm off of. So every time you try to backtrack or explore previous sections of the level you are on, expect there not to be many bad guys about.
- Big Bad: Essentially the primary antagonist, the Overlord: A human warlord who controls the starship Harbinger.
- Glass Cannon: The Culibine. Her powerful energy blasts are deadly, but she's really fragile and easy to kill.
- Insectoid Aliens: The Cimicidae are meter-long, sapient, insecticide aliens, with designs on conquering planets.
- Long-Range Fighter: The human. He does have a melee attachment, but it's not as effective compared to the Gladiator's melee-based weapons and stats.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: The Gladiator: A scintilla's consciousness infused with the body of a machine after a life-threatening injury. Now he's a walking, talking killer robot.
