Harvester vs. Zombies Steam Demo Review
Verdict: Maybe
Harvester vs. Zombies is an arcade driving score-attack from FunJolly Games where you mill zombies with a combine harves
Harvester vs. Zombies is an Arcade Driving Score Attack from FunJolly Games. You mill Zombies with a combine harvester welded to the front of your vehicle, dodge obstacles across a road about five harvester-widths wide, and try to climb the leaderboard between runs. I played the demo solo for about fifty minutes. By the twenty-minute mark I was aware I would have stopped if I was not reviewing it. My verdict is a maybe.
My verdict is a maybe. Individually, everything the game is doing makes sense. The score-attack framework is solid, the vehicles are funny, the missions give you something to work towards, and the upgrade curve does let you mill freely once you get far enough into it. But the loop did not stick for me. Players who chase leaderboard numbers on an arcade driving score-attack may find this exactly their thing. Anyone who turned up mainly because a combine harvester milling zombies sounds fun should know the first twenty minutes are going to feel like the opposite of that.
Pros
- Vehicle progression from a starter harvester into an ambulance and then a police car with a combine harvester welded to the front sells the surrealism the theme is going for
- Score-attack scaffolding with a leaderboard, mission stack, and unlockable zombie types keeps individual runs from feeling identical, one run asked me to run over five cheerleader zombies before the harvester overheated
- Upgrades do eventually raise your mill capacity high enough that the fantasy lands and you can plough through a zombie pack without ending the run
- Colourful stylized look on the road and the physics of zombies flying off the harvester carry the promise on the surface
Cons
- The overheat mechanic combined with obstacle placement funnels you into swerving around zombies more than milling them for the first twenty minutes, and the ramp to the point where upgrades resolve that mismatch is long enough that motivation gets slippery. I reached the twenty-minute mark aware I would have stopped playing if I was not reviewing the demo
What the game asks you to do
You drive a combine harvester along a road that is not divided into lanes but is about five harvester-widths wide. Zombies are everywhere. Obstacles land at unpredictable spots, so some of your steering is dodging them and the rest is hunting zombie packs.
You mill Zombies with the front of your harvester as you go. Mill too many at once and the harvester overheats. Once it overheats, the run ends and you start again. That is the Arcade Driving loop on the surface.
Ambulances, missions, and money
Runs earn you money, and money goes into new vehicles and upgrades. I went from a starter harvester into an ambulance, and then into a police car with a combine harvester welded to the front. Upgrades include one that raises your mill capacity before overheating.
Missions sit on top of the Score Attack loop, and some ask for specific kills. One asked me to run over five cheerleader zombies before the run ended. You can also spend money to unlock new zombie types, which gives you more mission objectives to work through.
My biggest problem
The overheat mechanic combined with the road width and the obstacle placement means you spend more time swerving around zombies than milling them. That is the inverse of the marketed fantasy. If you swerve around an obstacle and get funnelled into a pack of Zombies you were not aiming for, that pack overheats you and the run ends.
I understand the overheat is there as the challenge, and I get where the game is going with it. The individual mechanics all make sense one by one. What I know is that by around the twenty-minute mark I was aware I would have stopped if I was not reviewing it.
Later in the demo, upgrades had raised my mill capacity enough that I could plough through a decent chunk of a zombie pack without overheating, and the game did start feeling cleaner from there. That moment arrived after my motivation had already gone.
The score-attack loop underneath
The Score Attack framework is what carries the demo once you get past the early ramp. Scores are logged, records get broken, and there is a leaderboard climbing in the background.
I could not confirm whether unlocking specific zombie types pays out more per kill, because the UI did not make that obvious in a fifty-minute session. The trailer and store page suggest maps change or you progress further along the road at some point, and I did not reach whichever one of those it is. As an Arcade game the pieces are all in place, and as a Score Attack loop the scaffolding is solid.
Developer: FunJolly Games
View on Steam
Watch the video review: YouTube
Tags: Casual, Arcade, driving, Zombies, Score Attack, Indie
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