Harvest is a tower defense game, a genre that began with a user create modification of the real time strategy game Warcraft3. The mod was so popular it spawned an entire indie game genre and we've had quite a few variations on the original tower defense idea. To summarize - the enemy units stream in on one side and attempt to exit on the other, it's the player's job to stop them. Usually this means building defensive towers (hence the name) along a fixed path or sometimes tower placement actually defines the path the enemy will take. Harvest takes a more direct approach and lets the player build anywhere he likes and then brings in enemies randomly from all sides that then attack the closest structure. The goal is to survive as long as possible while the threat slowly escalates with higher numbers of tougher enemies spawning in.

As soon as the game starts up it's obvious this is quite a large team of talented developers who've spent a lot of time on this game. It has that well built, polished feel normally associated with high street titles. The game play is deceptively simple, as it should be with a great game. Each map is littered with resources to mine and some have obstacles that prevent structure placement and force the incoming enemies to change direction. The player has access to a power generator, a mining structure, a laser turret and an artillery structure. There are no other structures and only the artillery can be upgraded and even then only twice. Very simple and familiar to anyone who has played an RTS like command and conquer. Structures cost resources to build, need energy to run and the nearby map resources can soon be mined out. This means you're constantly balancing your defensive potential with available power while keeping an eye on resource levels and trying to expand to resource rich areas of the map.

One of the most interesting elements is the distribution of power. The player has to build power nodes and energy can be seen flowing out of the generators along the nodes and into the buildings. The player can control the paths these little glowing packets of energy take as they flow around the nodes and they begin to glow and spark if too much energy is forced through them. In a large base it can take a while for the node paths to "fill up" with energy and when an attack comes you can see the energy draining into the weapons. It's obvious when parts of your base are becoming starved of energy and protecting the nodes can be vital to survival.

Initially, having just a single type of laser tower seems limiting, but again energy comes into play. Lasers can be slaved to other lasers which can create super powerful, long range "death star" type weapons. Having single lasers to deal with numerous fast-moving threats and slaved mega lasers to deal with long distance tougher enemies opens up endless base design possibilities.

There are three difficulty levels to choose from, denoted by three beautiful 3D planets on the menu screen. Within each difficulty level, or planet, there are different maps to play on with greater challenges. Each difficulty level can be played in one of five modes:

Normal - random enemies spawn in over time and the threat level just keeps increasing. How long will your base last?
Rush - starting with lots of resources you must survive one big attack.
Wave - you get to decide when the attack comes by selecting one of 10 predefined large attack waves. The objective being to build a base that can survive all 10.
Insane - similar to normal, but enemies are harder and come in faster.
Creative - you choose where and when enemies attack. This is a sand box for designing and testing base layouts.

Further stamping this as a quality game is support for Mac as well as PC, multiple languages and a well-supported modding community. The online high score system is one of the most advanced I've seen in an indie game with individual rankings in all game modes plus group rankings that allow players to form teams. There is also an achievement system reminiscent of the Xbox.

I was actually a little overwhelmed by all the different game play options initially and it took a few tries before I found wave mode. This is the easiest and most straightforward way of playing in my opinion. My only other concern is the time investment required to make solid progress. Once you have a rough idea of how your base should be made it takes a long time to build it up, because you have to mine resources to pay for the construction. As a novice it took me six hours to create a base capable of surviving all 10 attacks of the "easy" version of wave mode. I enjoyed it tremendously, but it would be nice to be free to just design, build and test large bases quickly. There is the option of speeding up or slowing down game time and although this is an essential feature it isn't enough. Luckily there does seem to be some interest in the modding community to provide a faster more free form game.



Graphics:
The menu screens and 3D planets are all very impressive. The game itself is 2D and initially seems well done but somewhat restrained. Later in the game this all changes. Your base can house hundreds of buildings and comes under attack by hundreds of enemies. The battles are truly a sight to behold, but slow down can be a problem.

Sound:
Well produced, but nothing special.

Game play:
The only thing missing is a quick free play mode so players could experiment more easily and a multiplayer option so base designs could be tested against player's enemy wave designs. I'm being really picky here though.

Value:
Even if you just skirt the surface of the game you're still looking at 10+ hours of fun. A real enthusiast should get a lot more from the game never mind all the community mods.

Concept:
They've found a new twist on an already popular game mechanic. They've then pursued that idea in almost every possible way they could. If only all indies had the time and resources to do the same.

Fun:
Good fun, but you need a lot of free time to really explore how the different structures interact if you want to succeed on the harder maps.

Overall:
If you're not a big tower defense fan you'll still get a good dose of fun, but if you are then you'll be playing the game for months. Just make sure you can spare a few hours to play with it.