Some of the games on the 1001 list are masterpieces, presenting gamers with the absolute best experience that the technological progress of the times could allow. They have a fanbase that spans across the world, they have genre-defining entries in their series, and have spawned entertainment outside of the video game, bleeding across into geek culture, and whathaveyou.
Then there's Body Harvest, which very few seem to know or care about, despite it being another milestone on the road to open world 3D games like Grand Theft Auto III - also developed by the studio behind Body Harvest.
What's it all about then, this hidden gem? Why is there a spaceman blowing up a huge bug in the desert?
Fun Times
Body Harvest is set in the distant future of 2016, where the Earth is in ruins, and mankind has been eaten by aliens, who, every 25 years, get hungry, come down and get their fill of flesh. We are Adam Drake, spaceman and time traveller, on a mission to return to Earth on the dates of the previous invasions and thwart them all, so that humanity - and the planet - can survive.
You are first dropped into 1916, in a rather empty and foggy town in Greece that seems to be completely normal until the alien menace beams down from the skies to abduct and consume the townspeople. Not good.
You can run around the map wherever you want and have a pistol infinitely full of ammo in order to deal with any threats you will find. In true open-world fashion, however, when you get bored of running and rolling around the map, you can traverse it from the comfort of many, many vehicles, and can shoot right out the front of them too.
With a handful of controls, you can basically turn every vehicle you find into a tank, and would be silly to not use them, whatever shape or colour they come in.
Frustrations
If you can control them, that is. Be it a fault of differences in sensitivity between original hardware and emulation or not, these vehicles are nippy when it comes to hard turns, some more than others (because, obviously, they have different handling attributes - why wouldn't they?).
These vehicles are prepared to hop onto two wheels without hesitation, and you'll do your best to keep up, perhaps by moving the camera, but its controls are backwards as far as I'm concerned, so it's best to just ride out your handling woes.
Not that they're woeful beyond all hope - just that they feel like toy cars rather than actual cars sometimes.
They, like most of the models in the game, have their share of clipping issues. Body Harvest is not a graphical powerhouse, especially when you really push things away from whatever the game thinks you should be looking at.
It was put forward as a launch title for the Nintendo 64 and saw a chaotic development that resulted in Nintendo dropping their support and refusing to publish it, as had been the plan. That might give you some indication that the game isn't all there for a reason.
Further Fun Times
For its problems though, you can see the start of something special under the hood. As the map opens up, you are prompted to explore it in certain ways through changes to your mission objectives, or through navigating around hazards.
A boulder blocking a path leads you to explore a mine, where you pop into an indoors area that allows you to light torches and candles, pull switches to open secret doors, and open chests to find weapons and other upgrades.
These indoor areas aren't anything terribly special, though, and the characters you find within them aren't anything to write home about. This chap just watched a spaceman barge into his home, had a one-sided conversation with him, and essentially said: "if you find a key to the hangar around here, just take it". Not "Could you find this key for me, I'll give you something in return." just, "Yeah, have it."
But hey, open world outside, modelled areas inside... how else does Body Harvest push the pace of technology?
It allows you to murder innocent civilians in any which way you can manage - although you will be penalised if too many of them are killed, either by your hand or by the aliens' claws. That Kill percentage isn't there to represent how many aliens were killed...
Final Word
Eventually, I have to say that I just got bored by Body Harvest. There wasn't anything making me care about these people, my objectives, none of it. It acted like a tech demo, showing off an idea that is sound, but whose execution isn't there yet. It reminds me of Pilotwings 64, in a way.
I am, of course, not in a position to actually say that, having developed nothing like this myself. I don't know how difficult it was to get this far, and I suppose it is quite far. It combines open-world adventuring with action, driving, some light RPG elements even... it's ambitious, but it's going to put people off because of how it looks.
I suppose I sort of belong to that camp. I can't say I was excited to play it, and knowing how it plays I can confirm I'm still not excited to try it again. Different time zones and locations should spruce up the scenery somewhat, but I'm not desperate to find out.
As a milestone, it's a must play, sure. As a finished game, I'm not so sure. That'll be down to you to decide.
Fun Facts
The Japanese team brought over by Nintendo to try and get the game up and running to their standards had to have a translator capable of understanding not only English and Japanese but also the accents of the Dundee development team.
Body Harvest, developed by DMA Design, first released in 1998.
Version played: Nintendo 64, 1998, via emulation.