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Review  Body Harvest
- By Joe Ridino
Designed by Scotland-based DMA Design, Body Harvest is a Sci-Fi action shooter of sorts. The premise of the game is based around aliens; a new thing for N64 games. But does it deliver the goods? Read on to see.
Thousands of years ago, humans were planted on Earth for food for Aliens. The aliens are descending in different periods of time to snatch humans to fuel their appetite. By 2016 AD, most of the human race is gone, but a few scientists prepare some genetically engineered humans to go back in time to stop the madness and save the human race from going extinct.
Gameplay:
Body Harvest is all about the gameplay, yo. This is what DMA Design focused most of their talents on. You are Adam Drake, a genetically engineered soldier who is ready to kick some alien arse. You travel back in time and visit different periods of Earth's history to stop key alien invasions. There are five gigantic worlds each with sub-levels. You'll travel to these worlds: Greece 1916, Java 1941, America 1966, Siberia 1991, and Alien Homeworld 2046. Each world contains many aliens to blast, many puzzles to solve, and many vehicles to commandeer. Speaking of vehicles, there are a total of 60 cars, trucks, and boats to control. Any vehicle you see can be driven; be it a boat, a plane or a standard tank, you'll be able to drive it. But you'll need gas of course. Scattered throughout each level there are gas canisters in houses that you must retrieve in order to drive these cars, however.
Speaking of weapons, you'll encounter pistols, shotguns, rifles and even an odd sun reflector that burns the aliens to crisp. In the life-less houses, you will find ammo which lets you shoot the guns, surprisingly. The guns all have their own feel and sound effect accordingly. There is blood in the game but not to the effect which would make you gag. Most of the time you will find yourself without enough ammo, which is often a problem.
Your enemies are aliens that have beamed down from their home planet in order to eat all the humans. The aliens themselves look like they are straight out of a sci-fi flick. During each alien harvest, aliens beam down from the sky and land near key points in the level. You must follow the compass and find them (and kill them) before they eat all the humans. Each invasion contains one huge alien harvester which sends little jelly blobs out to collect the humans for the big harvester. Also, there are flying aliens and little alien critters littered around the big harvester trying to attack you. You must defeat the big harvester and if you don't you'll die because too many humans have been killed. It's harder than you think. In some cases, it's very hard to get to a harvest wave before any humans die.
Over the course of the game there are simple puzzles for you to solve. Be it pulling a switch to lower a bridge or finding a way to cross the waterway to get to a town, you'll have a pretty hard time solving some of the later levels. One of the coolest things in Body Harvest is in the America stage; you'll encounter zombies and you have to find a way to eliminate them because you can't kill them with normal firepower. To defeat these zombies you must find a harvesting truck which mows them down. There are also alien artifacts that you can collect and even alien weapons. Pure genius from DMA.
If you think Body Harvest is going to be an easy-to-beat game, think again. Each world is packed with aliens, objectives, and many vehicles that take some time to understand. The game, in itself, is very difficult. You can only save your game after completing a world. Completing a world only takes about an hour or so of game time but you'll be constantly restarting worlds because of the difficulty. Yes, there are bosses and they are pretty easy compared to the Harvest Waves. It's the dang harvest waves that kill you the most.
Aesthetics:
The biggest drawback in Body Harvest are the graphics. Most of the levels do contain massive amounts of fog. It gets annoying when you can't see 10 feet ahead of your character. And to add to this, the framerate is really low and sometimes it gets unbearable. Another bad thing is that the character and enemy designs are really awful. Is it just me or does Adam look really stupid in that orange space suit? Some alien designs seem low-budget, but overall they're not that bad. If you can withstand some of the fog and slowdown you will have a good time with Body Harvest, however.
Control:
Controlling Adam through various worlds can be hard at times but overall it's not that bad. Adam walks with the control stick, aims with R, blasts his guns with the trigger button, and changes the camera angle with the C-buttons. The controls are sometimes unresponsive because of some of the slowdown in the game, but you'll get over it. If you see a vehicle, you can hop in by pressing C-down. Pressing start leads you to the world map in which you can find your next objective and the locations of towns, etc.
Sound:
On to the best part of Body Harvest, the music and sound effects. You'll hear eerie soundtracks, crackling alien limbs, and unique gun sound effects. All of the songs are really moody and fit right in with the game's atmosphere. The guns sound like real guns and the vehicles sound like real vehicles. DMA's sound department has created some great sound and should be proud of it.
Multiplayer:
N/A
OVERALL:
Body Harvest is just one of those games; if you can overlook the weak graphics and framerate, you will enjoy this game. It's packed to the brim with tons of vehicles, weapons and towns to explore. There's plenty of bug-busting to do as well, so if you're in the mood for killing, it's all waiting for you in Body Harvest for your Nintendo 64.
The Lowdown on  Body Harvest
| Aesthetics: Average |
Control: Above Average |
| Gameplay: Very Good |
Multiplayer: |
| Sound: Very Good |
Innovation: 3/6 |
| Lasting Appeal: 5/6 |
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Overall: Very Good!
"A Must-Buy"
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This game is:
Very Good
A vehicle
Targetting an alien
Nice foggy environment
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IN A
NUTSHELL: |
| A title that shouldn't be overlooked. |
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