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0 Harvest Hunt is a first-person survival horror developed by Villainous Games Studio and published by Neonhive Games.
Reap What You Sow
This dark roguelike releases on May 22nd on Steam.
Gameplay
The Warden you play as is random, with a Strength and Lore unique to them. The overall goal of Harvest Hunt is to survive Harvest Season. To complete a Harvest Season, players must get through five Nights.
During the Nights, players must navigate the farmlands of Luna Nova and collect Ambrosia, which looks like a cluster of red fruit, with larger clusters taking longer to harvest.
The Devourer
It’s a race against the Devourer, who’ll taint the Ambrosia, making it useless and therefore unobtainable. The Devourer will find and attack you, either itself or through Fiends. Fiends will lurk around the map and alert the Devourer of your location if they see or hear you. The Devourer is more likely to spot you when you use your lantern. It’s wise not to stay in one spot for too long, or it will find you quickly.
The player can end the Night by escaping the farmlands by reaching the edge of the map or by Banishing the Devourer. Using different Tools, the player can attack the Devourer, and after three hits, a fragment of its body will fall off. Taking this fragment to an Effigy on the map will allow the player to Banish the Devourer. However, the amount of Effigies can differ each time, ranging between 1-3 Effigies/fragments required.
Whispers
Blessings, Calamites, and Mutation cards will affect how each Night in Harvest Hunt goes. Blessings have positive effects, while Calamity cards have negative effects. Mutation cards affect the Devourer, such as making it emit poisonous smoke. Unlike the other cards, the Mutation card applies for the whole Harvest Season instead of one Night. Additionally, Villager Fortification cards help you get more cards and Ambrosia. Strength cards help the Warden with movement and speed, such as gaining the ability to walk through crops without being slowed.
Tools & Vigor
Before you start a level, a map will display three landmarks: a church, a tree and a windmill. When you click on them, there is a list of Tools you can activate, which allows them to appear in the level.
Tools have different effects, such as a throwable hatchet used to attack the Devourer or a flask that allows you temporary regeneration of Vigor, which acts as your health and is also used to purchase Tools. You can replenish Vigor during the level by finding rations and eating them.
Masks
During the Night, you can wear a mask. The mask has a HUD that displays various things and highlights Tools, Effigies and fragments. Effigies and Devourer fragments are highlighted in green, while Tools are orange.
The mask also displays your Vigor, what Tools are available/you have obtained, which Mutation, Blessing and Calamity cards you have equipped, and how much Ambrosia is left.
Graphics & Audio
Harvest Hunt looks incredibly aesthetically pleasing. While the textures may not be the smoothest or most detailed, the lighting, cell-shaded art style and saturated colours pull the game’s whole look together. Though the levels are dark, the lighting present looks good, and the lantern works well. The glow on some of the Devourer’s body also looks great.
Some of the areas have a colour theme. For example, there’s a part of the farm where the overall colour tone is green, while another area is mainly orange. These saturated colours blend brilliantly with the lighting and cell-shaded art, making the three aspects an excellent stylistic choice. The artwork for the Lore pages, Cards, Whispers and in-game images are impressive, too.
One flaw that frequently bothered me was that while wearing the mask, the UI looked incredibly cluttered and awkward.
Longevity
The main reason to keep playing Harvest Hunt is to unlock lore by finishing the nights. You can unlock the lore by finishing a season with the required amount of Ambrosia and finishing a night. The length of each season can change due to what cards you pull. For example, I had one night wasted thanks to the Blight card, which removed the Ambrosia for the night.
There are cards (Whispers) to unlock as well while you play, but this wasn’t for me.
Final Thoughts
After playing Harvest Hunt for two hours, I got bored. The lore didn’t pull me in, and I found the game lacked any consequence for losing. The gameplay loop does get repetitive, and it didn’t seem to change much apart from the cards you picked. The UI when wearing the mask is too cluttered. I also found using the mask redundant, apart from when needing to locate the Devourer to banish it. The creature can grab you too easily, making it difficult to strike it with the pitch forks.
Though the game’s primary objective is to collect Ambrosia, I do wish that there were more tasks for the player to finish. I was not a fan of the Blight card either, as it can ruin a run easily for new players. Although the Harvest Hunt’s art style is beautiful, I found the gameplay and story didn’t captivate me. That’s why I’m giving it the Thumb Culture Bronze Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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