Harvest Island has 30 hours of gameplay and I cannot cram it all into a single video so enjoy the official trailer instead!

I’ve loved farming sim games since Harvest Moon on the N64. I’ve played many and stumbled across Harvest Island while searching the horror category. A “farming sim game with a spooky twist” is the pitch and I figured why not.

Things I liked

The game starts as any other generic farming sim game, only it contains an atmosphere of unease. Weird dreams, loud noises, warnings from the NPCs. It only spirals from there.

I invested 30 hours into the game with the last 10 hours being completely story driven. The gameplay was so much fun I was easily distracted by improving my farm, filling my rucksack, and exploration of the island. The storyline was lurking in the shadows and only when I started paying attention to the clues did it pop.

The characters (Will and Samantha) are a bit annoying as first, as one would expect from children, but they grew on me towards the end. Watching their development and relationship was wholesome enough to get me to tear up on stream during a cutscene.

The story had me hooked beginning to end. What started out as “enjoy the farm!” quickly turned into “figure out the truth” and, without spoiling, had me guessing until the very end.

Things to improve

While a great game, it isn’t flawless. The NPCs have a way of body blocking you as the main character which grows frustrating quickly when playing. Additionally, the menus are cumbersome and there’s no hotkeys to smooth gameplay. Overall, I would have appreciated voice acting for the characters, as reading their banter became dull when the story wasn’t in focus.

Overall

However, these can all be easily overlooked as the game is lots of fun and worth the investment. After completion, I went back and played through different endings to see the full story and hit some achievements on Steam. Highly recommend for those who want a new twist on a cozy game or for those who love horror.

The development team is one person and they did a great job on the story and gameplay. I appreciate the pop culture references!