Harvester (video game): Difference between revisions

[[Easy Amnesia|The only thing Steve knows about himself is that his name is Steve, and he's really just taking that on faith.]] Initially the neighborhood may appear to be a perfect [[Stepford Suburbia]], but with even more things wrong than usual. Mom is baking (thousands of) cookies in preperationpreparation for a bake sale that's still a week away. Of course, they won't be good then, so she's shoveling them into the trash. Steve's baby brother lies screaming in his crib, neglected. Steve's [[Middle Child SyndromeotherSyndrome|brother]], Hank, is immovable from in front of the television, where he watches a disturbingly gory and realistic show about cowboys killing Native Americans, not much of a plot or anything, just killing them over and over, the "special effects" make it disturbingly real.

Upon visiting the Lodge, the Lodge's Sergeant At -at-Arms informs Steve telepathically that the Lodge has standards Steve must meet in order to apply, and for today's task Steve must steal or otherwise aquireacquire an application to the Lodge. Each day, Steve is given a successively worse task. From stealing an antique barber pole from its shop (how was Steve supposed to know that the wires from the pole's light would land in a puddle of water, or that the shopkeep would be standing in that puddle when he went to go turn the pole on in the dark...) to outright arson (which provokes suicide), Steve finds himself becommingbecoming more and more the villain in his own tale, but he can't stop... he has to join the lodge before the blood drive. Everyone has to help with the blood drive, Steve.

Needless to say, considered one of the most disgusting games ever created. '''''Harvester''''' is a reaction to, and [[Deconstruction]] of, the idea that video games promote violence, taking it to it'sits furthest extreme in the idea that video games create serial killers. Steve is a normal boy who's been abducted and placed into an incredibly detailed Virtual Reality simulation, the ultimate goal of which is to turn him into a serial killer, essentially a boy put into a video game that will make him a killer, or kill him. Because of the game's graphic nature, it was banned in Germany, heavily censored in the UK, and never released in Australia at all, as the distributor felt there would be no point as the game would just get banned anyways. In the US, the game received heavy attention from [[Moral Guardians]] and [[Media Watchdog]] types. ''Harvester'' set out to offend the hell out of anyone who took it seriously, while simultaneously using a quirky sense of humor for anyone else. E.G., when asked about Edna, the owner of the local diner, Mr. Johnson announces that what "she really needs" is a penis. The game's goal is both to make you laugh at certain points and be horrified at others, it's a rare person that ''Harvester'' cannot make squirm at some point.

* [[Corrupt Hick]]: SherriffSheriff Dwayne: Big on pie eating, light on crime fighting. [[Can't Get Away with Nuthin'|Unless it’s Steve that’s breaking the law.]]

** Actually, when Steve reaches Stephanie, he has to either kill her or marry her. Marrying her is actually the better of two [[Downer Ending|Downer Endings]]s you can get. If you kill her, well... {{spoiler|Steve will be brought back to the real world alive and a full-fledged serial killer. He will play hitchhiker and go into a woman's car. He plays innocent long enough to take out a knife and kill her gruesomely. Later, he is playing the game ''Harvester'' on his computer, and his mother expresses concern that the game he's playing could make him violent. He just blows it off. As she leaves, she says something like "Why do you think people watch Roadrunner[[Wile cartoons?"E. (SeeCoyote [[Looneyand TunesThe Road Runner|Roadrunner cartoons]])?" Steve says "Roadrunner cartoons? Roadrunner cartoons?" He gives an [[Evil Laugh]], and we are treated to the sight of the inside of his stomach, where he evidently sliced off that woman's finger and ''swallowed'' it whole! Serious [[Squick]]! At least choosing to marry Stephanie essentially allows you to give the two scientists behind this sick project the finger. Although the two scientists did say about how they'll just make a serial killer the old-fashioned way...by giving him "good breeding", followed by the [[Evil Laugh]]}}.

* [[You Bastard]]: If you actually enjoy ''Harvester'' at any point, you are a monster. The game ''itself'' tells you this, and it's trying to entertain you!.