An excellent action title from the makers of Grand Theft Auto...
Graphics - The game has low resolution textures, low polygon characters, very bright colours (personally i like the style of the title), low framerate when there are many explosions and aliens on screen (especially when you are flying the framerate drops considerably). The title seems a bit rushed at times , especially in the indoor environments, where the camera comes out from the walls of your room (looks ugly). What i really enjoyed was the design of the alien monsters + the design of the vehicles. They look terrifying and cool. Each stage (Greece, Java etc ) has different colours and textures + stronger alien beasts as you progress through the game and that makes BH more appealing to your eye (enough variation to keep things interesting - looking).
Sound - The sound effects are OK and the music excellent. When an alien invasion happens the music dynamically changes having a more dramatic tone and causing more agony to the player. The music during the credits of the title is also memorable. For a cartridge based game the sound is very nice.
Gameplay - Adam's movement is a bit awkward. He is very slow, can't swim (when into water he takes lots of damage), and also strafes like a turtle. He has a good arsenal of weapons, however in order to survive he must use the more than 50 DIFFERENT vehicles of the title (airplanes, helicopters, jeeps, tanks, boats, school buses, trucks, motorcycles and everything else you can imagine). Each level is huge and you 'll need to use those vehicles in order to open new areas or to attack the aliens. When an alien attack happens the music changes and a red arrow appears on your screen pointing to the village/part of the town where the attack is taking place. Sometimes you'll need to use a very specific vehicle in order to approach this area or these areas (there can be multiple alien waves at the same time in different places). .
Each alien wave consists of different kinds of enemies, which have a very clever tactic in order to harvest humans and protect the Harvester (the bigger alien that harvests people - it can even harvest Adam (!)). There are the scouts that find the buildings where the people are hiding, offensive-aliens that destroy the houses and defensive - aliens that are looking for you (protecting the Harvester). There will be times when you 'll laugh with all these things happening at once... Most of the times you 'll be using the vehicles and their weapons -especially in the later stages. Keep in mind that every vehicle has a very unique feel to it, different control, some of them have one or more weapons + some will be needed in order to solve a few puzzles in the game or to open new areas as already said. .
The game isn't all about fighting and driving (flying, sailing etc). There are a few adventure elements in BH, some basic quests and subquests that you need to do in order to advance in the game.What's more there is a nice variation of submissions and things that you have to find or use that make the title more interesting to play (there are some really funny moments in this game). The last levels are mostly action oriented (you 'll be using only the Alpha tank) and more boring in my opinion. .
Value - Each stage is pretty long. The game is hard since you can't save mid-game and you have to finish each stage in order to save your progress (towards the end of each stage things can become very difficult ->many tough enemies that can kill you or force you to have a small accident with your vehicle -mostly taking a wrong turn and falling into the water- sth that is going to frustrate you very much in case that happens). You also have to pay attention to the number of the casualties (if there are too many people harvested the game will end and if a harvester eats 6 people it transforms into a mutant and that 's a very bad thing as you 'll discover). However the title will take more than 40 hours in order to finish it in the normal mode + there are the weapon crystals -if you gather them all you can have a unique special weapon in each stage - and the alien artifacts -if you gather them all you can fight the last boss of each stage through the "Replay boss" option from the menu- which extend the replay value of the game. .
Final comment - A very unique title that has many enjoyable moments. Body Harvest proves that graphics isn't everything in a video game. The gameplay of this little gem is really fun and intriguing. Add to this the excellent music and the variation of the vehicles, the aliens and the stages and you have a truly worth buying title.