Just bought it even though I wanted to wait for a sale. I just wanted to show GOG some support.

Please sell more old adventure games like this

Really considering checking this out... Who wants to take a stab at convincing me?

:D

Okay that's pretty good, I'll bite... and thanks for not trying to actually stab me :D

Or if you're patient and are willing to reload your game save, you can pretty much take out everyone you meet! There's four people I remember offhand that can't be killed.

There's quite a bit of brilliant satire if you look closely enough. It also tackles a ton of topics in surprisingly thought provoking ways. Human nature and violence are the main things examined but things like religion and sexuality do as well. That alone is why the game is so great: it's very subtle interactive brain food if you can look past all the blood and guts.

hmm! very interesting. Not familiar with this game.. will definitely have to check it out when able.

This! It seems that most people only saw the violent visuals and missed the point of game completely. This game has a really intelligent story with a lot of cultural references that you have to "get" to really appreciate it. Despite its violence this is actually a game for thinking people.

Very true.

The whole game is, as I've found out, a very stealthy response to critics of violence, especially those against it in video games.

If you play it from start to finish and really look at what it's trying to get across then the real issue such critics should have isn't with video games like Harvester. The real issue they should be taking issue with is human nature. If Harvester has anything to show us it isn't perfect and can be very ugly and tragic if succumbed to.

The OTT Lynch-isms and gruesome horror camp do resemble the now vilified Darkseed 2 in a way. Darkseed 2 probably could have enjoyed a similar cult following (and not just as an Internet meme), like the first game has in a way, as it does have some great art design, a similar campy weirdness about it, and all with the obtuse puzzles involving invisible timers and dead ends of the first game being seemingly corrected, if not for: 1) being exclusively Windows 3.1 and with no DOS version at all (have ANY exclusively Windows 3 games survived in playable form in the modern age without jumping through multiple hoops of virtual machine hell?) 2. the terrible digitized animations instead of actual FMV (sounds weird to say considering the ill reputation of FMV titles, but as far as adventure games go they can be more immersive or just silly fun as opposed to a bad cut-out of an actor's photo with animations that make Tom Goes to the Mayor look like a Miyazaki film). 3. the transformation of Mike Dawson's dull but blandly pleasant straight man of the first game into the simpering asshole in the sequel. He's supposed to be the "normal" man to act as a foil to the weird neighborhood around him like Harvester's protagonist but ends up being less likable and relatable than the supposed "weird" or "evil" characters. 4. Retsupurae. They've pretty much sealed this game's fate like no other game they've done. It went from being a game almost nobody today even heard of to an adventure horror game that's filled with terrible writing, an awful protagonist and a full operational meme factory as we see it today.

What's unfortunate about this is that this destroys any remote attempt at a serious evaluation of any game, especially when they're as obscure as that one. It invites a flood of mindless idiots shouting catchphrases at you with their keyboards and telling you how much they think the game sucks despite not having any first-hand experience with the game themselves. For DSII specifically, I'll divide it into the "pre-Retsupurae" era and the "post-Retsupurae" era. In the pre-Retsupurae era information or reviews of the game were hard to come by. Though I think the long play of the game was used as the basis for the RP and made before then. Actual thoughtful critique too was hard to find. These were the best I found: http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/reviews/30/ and http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/darkseed/darkseed.htm and I think there was a positive review on GameFAQs but I'm not sure. Now the "post-RP" era. Any mention of the game's name would drive people to Pavlovian fits of meme and catchphrase-shouting and Mike Dawson this and that. Anyone remotely attempting to look at it with a balanced vantage point would be drowned out by this circus. One unfortunately timed attempt at looking at the game, oblivious to what it had become was Peanut Butter Gamer and his review of the title. About half, and that's a conservative estimate, the comments were references to the game they got from RP's video not featured in PBG's video which caused him confusion as to how so many people knew about the game without knowing anything about RP. I've seen some stragglers of course try to say he's ripping off RP but surprisingly they're not that common thankfully, having their heads dunked back into the idiot pool. Many games and other works of art become famous or infamous for some aspect or another to varying degrees but this incessant meme-ing of things that the Internet has wrought, whether it's for good or bad games, has set a very bad precedent. At least the first Dark Seed, considered a "better" game despite the more ridiculous puzzle logic, has been mostly spared. I guess it heartening to know that our education system is at least doing good in teaching our generation how to count.

....

Oh, what was this thread about again? Right, Harvester. I've not seen any full playthroughs of this game but I've been (mostly) spoiled by some video footage and reading about its plot. Nevertheless, this game fascinated me enough I had to get it. Instant first-day purchase for me. This honestly could end up being the weirdest game I've ever bared witness to. Not even some of those intentionally weird/f'ed-up Japanese titles like LSD: Dream Emulator, Yume Nikki, Boong-Ga Boong-Ga or the Cho Aniki series come close. I'm very interested in indulging in a product of some highly fractured and likely untreated and unmedicated minds.

Here's the best walkthrough you can ever find :)

Thanks and +1. Game bought!

Well, now that I finished it I wanted to thank you once again for letting me discover this game that else I would have probably overlooked.
I hope I'll be able to give something back next time!