Game: Harvest Island
Genre: Simulation, Indie, RPG
System: Steam (Windows)
Developer | Publisher: Yobob Games
Price: US $24.99 | €TBC | £TBC
Release Date: October 10th, 2023
Review code used with many thanks to Vicarious PR.
Are you enjoying the spooky season? Harvest Island is labelled as a horror farm sim, and it is out now just in time for some of us to be embracing scary movies, pumpkin-flavoured treats, and sweater weather. I personally love a good dose of creepy in my video games all year! Don’t worry, though; there won’t be any jump scares in this review.
Okay, How Scary is It?
LadiesGamers doesn’t cover a lot of horror games, so I want to start by revealing what to expect from the atmosphere. Harvest Island does a great job of slowly unfolding ominous vibes without relying on startling you or treading into dark topics. There’s visual evidence of animal violence, complete with pixelated blood, that’s as bad as it tends to get.
The plot is spent exploring, looking for answers about who you really are and what’s out there beyond your farm besides what the children protagonists have been told by their dad. Harvest Island is much lighter on the horror elements than I expected from the store page. I really enjoy the setting of playing as a child, adventuring in the woods, caves, and beaches. There’s a natural sense of suspense there, disobeying your parent’s orders and questioning everything you discover. It isn’t as cosy and lighthearted as many of our reviewed games here, but it’ll be a good fit if you’re into secrets and mystery.
Life on the Farm
There’s a lot of Harvest Island that will be familiar to players of farm sims, with some tweaks that may or may not interest fans of the traditional mechanics. The most remarkable difference is you don’t get a standard shop; no one is going to buy your excess inventory from you and let you buy whatever you happen to want. You start the game with cows, chickens, sheep, and goats. There are options to upgrade around the farm, but there’s no working your way up from just a handful of seeds to a whole collection of livestock.
This is very convenient for anyone who is mainly interested in the story. But you’ll notice a different feel from your other farm experiences. There are “god statues” to access, which offer daily requests for various items you can farm or forage. In return, they give you “bless”, which is used in crafting and exploring and can be exchanged for a limited stock of seeds and animals. It’s an interesting way to make the player work on their farm to accomplish the story goals.
Struggles of Island Life
The player “rucksack” inventory and a storage chest have a storage limit based on item stacks so that you can gather many different supplies. In a game that boasts so many different items, this is a challenge that I didn’t always welcome. Storage upgrades cost time and supplies that I wanted to spend progressing the story. Menu navigation is clunky like the original NES game menu is clunky. Once you get used to what to expect, you don’t have to think about it, but it is initially confusing. I appreciated that there’s a warning that there is no autosave. There are many save points, many of which are also conveniently fast travel spots. You’ll want to save every chance you get, though, because now and then, the visuals completely freeze up, requiring you to reboot the game.
The concept of some places being accessible or not depending on the level of the tides is a really cool idea, but you can get stuck with no tool to advance the time or be rescued, and having to wait out that real-time was irritating. Especially with a stamina system that automatically gives you less energy to spend the longer you’re awake, consuming items to restore your stamina can end up being pointless. This means sometimes you can’t even fish or do other activities to help you wait out the day.
Sights and Sounds
Much care has gone into creating a world to draw the player in. I am pleased and impressed by the amount of detail. Yobob Games is a solo developer, and credit is due for the presentation here. My favourite parts are rainy days and all of the different creatures with which to interact!
Also, caves. I’m a big fan of caves and mining in games! There’s such beautiful texture and detail on Harvest Island. The background of the UI even changes depending on the time of day. Aside from the pixel art, characters are shown in a drawn style during dialogue, and even with limited expressions, they have richness. I love a good brother and sister dynamic in a story, and Harvest Island delivers.
Conclusion
Harvest Island is a horror farm sim that is light on horror, and it has a mode for players to minimize the farming… Harvest Island certainly isn’t what I was expecting! It plays almost more like a narrative adventure, but that’s not a bad thing. I had a lot of fun foraging for what I needed and making new discoveries so frequently. There are enough side quests and optional upgrades to focus on whenever you want a distraction. The characters feel surprisingly fleshed out without heavy exposition.
Updates have been coming regularly to patch up any issues. The various ways to unlock new areas and the ways areas can change really keep the game fresh. As long as you’re prepared for a focus on exploration and quests, not expecting too much on the farming or horror side of things, it’s a delightful experience! I’ll be keeping an eye on Yobob Games now, for sure.
Final verdict: I Like it a Lot
