Brought to you by Villainous Games Studio and NeonHive Games comes “Harvest Hunt”. This single-player, horror survival had my heart racing as I tried harvesting as much as I could before being caught by what lurks in the darkness and having the life scared out of this reviewer. Here is why I believe Harvest Hunt is well worth your time.

Simply put, the farming village, Luna Nova, finds itself under the deadly curse of the ‘Devourer’ after a plague brings pestilence to its lands. Over the course of five nights, or the length of a “Harvest season”, the village appoints a ‘Warden’ to bravely don the mask and enter the swaying cornfields of which the Devourer roams. Your objective is to harvest as much precious Ambrosia as you can, which is key to the village’s survival, and escape.

Upon entering the eerie cornfields, I found the controls were very easy to get the hang of with your normal WASD to move and LMB to use items or harvest Ambrosia being the main two controls you need to survive the night. After a few nights, you do easily get the hang of things, but the game did feel a bit stale towards the end as the map does not change and did get repetitive.

Harvest Hunt allows you to choose how you play through with the use of different powers or abilities which affects the overall length of the game depending on your playstyle. Going too quick constantly had me getting caught by the Devourer while going too slow gave the Devourer enough time to infect the Ambrosia crops. Each night grants different rewards, such as new abilities, tools or lore entries.

You also have ‘whispers’. These whispers affect each night differently so you need to carefully read them before choosing. An example is you might have a “Blessing” which positively affects Luna Nova or your Warden or “Calamity” which negatively affects Luna Nova or your Warden.

Tools are also crucial items in order to help you fend off the Devourer. Tools are not just offensive items, some can provide information or protect you against dangers. Once you acquire tools, they appear at specific landmarks around the farmlands which you need to go to in order to pick up your tools. Before entering the orchards of corn, you can purchase your tools at each landmark using your health or “Vigor”, as it’s called.

Each landmark has different tools to acquire but there is always a weak pitchfork available around the map even if you don’t get any tools. Apart from escaping after collecting enough Ambrosia, you can also damage the monster which will drop a part of its body known as a ‘fragment’. Take this to the effigy using your Warden’s sight

and place it in the effigy to banish the Devourer which also grants you the “win”.

Additionally, there is also a card system in place that you can equip at the end of each night if you manage to survive, which also affects the gameplay. Inspired by Tarot readings, Warden Strengths are your Warden’s abilities and village fortifications which allow you to redraw cards or provide additional resources and tools.

Harvest Hunt’s hand-drawn graphics, in a way, reminded me a lot of ‘Deep Rock Galactic’. The images and scenes are very high quality and look amazing. The dark contrast of the field with thick black lines and pops of bright colour from the Ambrosia really helped add to the eerie feel of the game and constantly had me needing to go check my pants due to how terrifying the monster looked as he lunged from the shadows.

The sound work of Harvest Hunt is also very well done especially all the different terrain sounds depending on if you are crouching, walking or running. From running through water and over wooden planks to slowly walking over bits of broken glass or tiles; each stands out and is very crisp as they alert the monster to your position. I know for a horror game sounds are crucial to your survival but in this game, they are very well done and honestly surprised me which further added to the fear of being hunted. The soundtrack is also quite nice giving an eerie Eastern European feel which suits the folktale-like experience.

In conclusion, I highly recommend keeping an eye on this game. Apart from becoming a bit stale due to being the same map each night and not changing, I firmly believe this has strong foundations to be a great hit. From the use of different powers or boons to the overall look, feel and sound of the game I’m very excited for the future of Harvest Hunt and to see Villainous Games Studio’s further improvement on this title.

Written by: Larry