GENRE
	Action
	DEVELOPER
	DMA
	PUBLISHER
	Midway
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1
	CONTROLLER PAK
	yes
	RUMBLE PAK
	yes
	RAM PAK
	no
	BUY NOW AT

We, the human species, are alien food. Apparently, alien farmers planted us on this planet long ago with plans to return and harvest us. Unfortunately for them, the crops they planted have brains. While the world might have been devastated after the initial alien harvesting waves, the human race still had one ace up its sleeve. YOU! In the distant future, the human survivors plan one last ditch attempt to save the world by sending specially equipped warriors back in time to stop the aliens at crucial moments in history. You play the role of Adam Drake, humanity's last line of defense.

visuals

The graphics in this game aren't necessarily on par with Banjo-Kazooie but it does the job. Texturing, while not extraordinary, is well done. The much talked about fog isn't as bad as I thought since it doesn't hinder players from spotting aliens (aliens often warp well in the visible area). However, one of its biggest problems in this department is the inconsistent framerate. Framerate in the game, for some odd reason, seems to run slower than it should be. Clipping is also a constant annoyance. I guess this is the price we pay to have a free roaming camera that can provide almost all viewpoints a player will need, but clipping indoors is especially ugly. The developers should have moved the camera a lot higher to prevent walls being cut off prematurely, leaving half an overhang or floating cabinets with the walls behind it missing.

audio

What the game lacked in the controls it made up for in the music department. Imagine Mark Snow's spooky X-files soundtrack and you get the music in Body Harvest. I've heard reviewers call it 'ambient music' but readers shouldn't confuse it with the environmental type of ambient music. The music is more orchestral and movie-like in quality. While not fully interactive, the music does switch into a fast paced battle theme once players are within range of alien units. In contrast, the over world theme is a rather moody composition based on a piano score.

The Sound effects in this game are about average, although the alien death screams sounded really great. Other notable mentions include the realistic ambient sounds in the game.

gameplay

Body Harvest features a very straightforward control scheme. Even when switching between vehicles, where controls tend to vary, it is often very easy to learn all the minor controls for the many types of vehicles once a player has learned the basic control layout of the game. However, the game struggles with responsiveness as the controls have a rather stiff feeling. There are times when a car or the main character would almost stand still and wait a half a second before executing a move. The lack of fluidity in movement hurts the gameplay as it breaks players off the mood of the game. One of the well done aspects in the game is the Zelda like targeting system. While it is obviously not as refined as Zelda's, they both serve the same purpose. By pressing down on the R button, a player can essentially forget about his bearings and just aim and shoot. This is a good solution to the problem of aiming and shooting at objects in a free roaming world. Trying to keep the camera stable while shooting has always been a problem, especially in the busier levels.

The puzzles in Body Harvest provide a good challenge to any gamer. They tend to follow a certain logic and the map screen will help a lot as it tells the player where to go next. While not very apparent at the beginning, there is in fact some fundamental strategy that must be mastered in body Harvest. For example, the importance of arriving at towns being besieged by harvesting waves is quite important because if one too many humans are killed, it is an automatic game over. Equally important is the player's need to prioritize which alien to kill first, as some aliens tend to run the whole attacking wave, take them out and the rest disperse in disarray. The need to complete secondary tasks while tending to the needs of the townspeople and fighting attacking alien waves moves this game along quite nicely and gives it an exceptional sense of action and urgency.

The RPG elements never go pass item swapping and helping people out with small tasks. Being DMA, the developers added some rather fun/sick (depends on how you see it) stuff in the game. In addition to modest amounts of blood, gamers can also run people over with cars and shoot them. The fun part is when the people start to run (they'll know when weapons lock onto them) and they become the player's target practive.

Character design in the game is solid. Don't expect to shoot down fragile aliens with big heads and tiny bodies. Instead, the developers cleverly borrowed from the hit sci-fi movie Starship Troopers and gave the aliens in Body Harvest, which also happen to belong to the bug species, the same menacing characteristics. The alien hierarchy is so well defined players will have to know that to properly stop a harvesting wave, they must go for the harvesting bug, not the defending units around it. At the center of all alien activity in each level is the alien processor. Much like the 'Brain' in Starship Troopers destroy it and you disable the alien's presence in that level.

multiplayer

N/A

overall

Body Harvest is a very ambitious game and would have been a SPECTACULAR title if it was on a larger cartridge and more time was put into tweaking it. What Body Harvest does well however is setting the mood. At its best, the game makes the movie Aliens look tame. Graphics, enemy design and music all come together to create a spooky world. However, The game is not without its shortcomings. Animation and controls in the game is average at best, while clipping and a choppy frame rate hampers the game's speed and enjoyability. This game will give a lot of gamers exactly what they want. An action game that leans towards a more mature subject matter and lots of alien bashing. Every teenage male who's ever seen Starship Troopers probably thought it would be kind of cool to be in the movie. This is as close as it gets on the N64.

8.6/10