If matching is not free, cooperation is meaningless.
September 21st. “Robbery simulator” “Harvest Day 3” on Steam platform officially released. The “Harvest Day” gang, the most powerful criminal gang in the previous game, had saved up enough money for their pensions and were ready to quit, but they were framed by unknown forces, their assets were wiped out, and they were forced to regroup and come back.
After ransacking the small bank in the Beta, they go on to commit seven more major crimes in New York City, making a lot of money while getting revenge on the people behind the crimes.
We explained the general gameplay mechanics in our previous Harvest Day 3 beta experience article, and given that they’ve largely been carried over to the official version, this article focuses more on showing the overall experience of the official version with the new heists.
“High-tech criminality is a common theme in all seven heists, with both the security team and members of the Harvest Day gang utilizing modern technology and equipment.
The modern norm: swiping your cell phone into oblivion
Sneaking through doors and picking locks is a must for jungle thieves, but electronic locks are usually impossible to pick, swiping cards, swiping faces, swiping eyeballs, and asking for passwords, just to name a few. There are also locks that want QR codes, which require the player to make a copy from the employee’s cell phone. Unlike physical key cards, QR codes are able to be shared among team members in real time, which is obviously a security design, but it’s a flat-out convenience for robbers.
The back doors of the trucks are more securely locked, but the Harvest Day gang is just as good at it. They paralyzed the truck with an electromagnetic pulse device (EMP), then used a hacking device to transfer the vehicle, and finally drilled under the chassis and removed the cables controlling the door locks - the whole process was seamless and seamless.
The moment of the EMP explosion
The level of technology has advanced, and what the gangs are trying to rob has evolved with the times. The main story of Harvest Day 3 can’t be separated from the two lines of “data” and “cryptocurrency”, and the robbers didn’t miss out on stealing hard disks and servers containing important information.
High-tech designs such as these not only fit the 2023 setting and give Harvest Day 3 a unique look, but also serve the gameplay.
The combination of mechanical and electronic locks is the complete leveling system of Harvest Day 3. Newly arrived gang members will basically be able to properly deal with non-surprising situations during an infiltration simply by learning how to handle each type of lock.
High-tech security is also asking players to have fewer accidents. Once an alarm is triggered by a failed infiltration, the electronic locks lock up completely, and the gangsters have to use traditional crafts to force their way through the physical blockade, such as aluminum thermite or drills. Cryptocurrency wallets will also self-destruct when the alarm is triggered, destroying the bandits’ American Dream.
In theory, accidents can be avoided. Of the eight heists in the current version of Harvest Day 3, all of them allow players to infiltrate solo and take most (or sometimes all) of the map’s loot, except for the second case, the “Road Rage” hijacking of a truck, which can only be attacked by force.
The option to vote to restart the level in this game does not change the randomized layout of the level, and relying on the backplates to achieve the perfect infiltration is just a matter of time and patience.
One more reliable teammate can even reduce the chance of accidents. In the official version of the game, the design of setting up three security levels for specific areas is still glowing, “wearing a mask or not” is always a question worth pondering.
Players who don’t wear masks are ignored by civilians in most areas, and even if they’re running around with loot on their backs, only the guards in private areas will protest, and then only by politely sending the player back to a public area. As a price, they are unable to jump, which prevents them from going over obstacles and drilling ventilation ducts, limiting their infiltration paths considerably.
Guards aren’t interested in the contents of the player’s backpack
Once the mask is on, it’s impossible to take it off and weapons must be drawn, and while being able to take unusual routes and use weapons to control crowds and kill security guards, they are also more likely to set off alarms, at which point polite guards will pull out their guns and shoot, inducing a bloodbath against law enforcement.
Ventilation ducts make excellent infiltration paths
But you have to wear a mask to get in.
The most ubiquitous infiltration strategy, obviously, is to split up into two groups, one wearing masks to deal with security and the other unmasked to transport the loot. The AI teammates in the infiltration are just as bad as in Generation 2, and still won’t actively pick up loot packages, so the only way to use the above strategy is to find real teammates to work with. Regardless of how hard it is to find reliable teammates, just the right amount of assistance can double the fun of an infiltration.
Even if something goes wrong, it doesn’t mean the game is completely over, and raids are an integral part of Harvest Day’s gameplay. Harvest Day 3’s strong attack can’t be as cutthroat and open peerless as the 2nd generation’s. The player’s resource supply and weapon power are limited, and team members need to look out for each other in order to retreat from the police’s man-to-man tactics.
However, with the new engine, the player’s running and jumping and sliding and shoveling and other movements are completely unrestricted, and the feel of the weapons has been optimized, plus there is a new mechanism of holding hostages as a meat shield, the raid experience is very good.
Shotgun’s unique flesh and blood effect.
Taking hostages as a meat shield is a tried-and-true tactic.
There’s also the “Gunslinger” weapon, which is similar to a big move, and you can call in airdrops to get it when you’ve built up your rage bar. The grenade launcher, which appeared in the beta, has been enhanced in the official version to clear the field. When you reach a certain level, you can also unlock an anti-material sniper rifle with smart sights, which is a powerful weapon that can be used against heavily armored soldiers.
There are frames you don’t fight?
The growth mechanic outside of the heist also encourages players to head for Plan B without looking back. Much different from the Gen 2 idea of leveling up by infiltrating and accumulating capital, in Gen 3, it takes a lot of high-profile actions to unlock enough low-profile capital.
The leveling system has nothing to do with how much the player earns from heists, and only has to do with how many built-in challenges the player does, a large portion of which require the player to clean up the bars with a particular weapon, which can only be accomplished in Stronghold.
Furthermore, a gunsmithing system was introduced, which required the consistent use of weapons and increased proficiency in heists (as opposed to the random card draw of Generation 2) in order to unlock the corresponding accessories, including the most important accessory for infiltration, the silencer. The weapon balance issue in the beta was once criticized, and it was only when it was put into the official version that it was realized that it was intentional, and that higher level weapons were just going to be stronger than lower level weapons. However, with the design of challenges and unlockable accessories, weaker weapons also have a chance to appear.
Such a growth mechanism has a certain degree of hepaticity, and the degree of acceptance is a matter of opinion. Road Rage”, which can only be cleared by raiding, has become the easiest heist to match with passersby and successfully clear the level. The whole process is simple and brutal, with a lot of bars, fast clearance, and fast money and experience. And hell, since there’s no shooting range in the current version of Harvest Day 3, Road Rage is also a great place to test your firearms.
After about 20-30 hours of “fine tuning,” players will have unlocked enough weaponry and skills to start building their loadouts, and the game will have just begun.
Harvest Day 3’s skill tree is a cyclical system, where players need to acquire three basic buffs, “Cool,” “Valor,” and “Excitement,” through a specific gameplay method, and then use other skills to consume these three basic buffs. The player needs to acquire the three basic buffs “Coolness”, “Valor” and “Excitement” through a specific gameplay method, and then use other skills to consume these three basic buffs, converting them into powerful buffs or resources that are beneficial to the battle. This skill tree is not as complex as the 2nd generation’s, but it’s also absolutely magical, so you can greatly improve the experience of infiltrating and attacking by pointing out a few core skills.
For infiltration, the Infiltrator and Fraudulent skill trees are useful, allowing you to quickly pick locks by approaching passersby or guards for a brief moment of arousal, or steal in broad daylight without raising any alarms.
Take it, take it all
Most skill sets are better suited for strong attack play. For example, the first skill in the “Harvester” line requires only 35 consecutive splashes of water to attach a chill status. The subsequent skill in this line, “Ammo Funnel,” allows the player to auto-load the magazines with ammo dropped from the bars, creating uninterrupted firepower output.
For the hardcore raider, there’s also the “Engineer” line, which lets the automated turret do the dirty work for you instead.
Escorting a transport target
A strong loadout will help players tackle higher level heists with dignity. There are significant differences in the infiltration experience on higher difficulties, not only in the number of guards and surveillance cameras, but also in the map design. For example, the Art Museum heist will have a higher infrared density, and the nightclub will change from being open for business to a private party where no one is allowed in.
On the highest difficulty, the floor is hot to the feet
In the case of the high difficulty Strong Attack, it’s not just the damage inflicted by enemies that’s elevated, either, but also the chances of an unlucky rig malfunctioning. Even with the lower difficulties memorized, the high difficulty heists require a bit of re-acclimation, boosting the playability of the later stages of the game.
Overall, the official version of Harvest Day 3 goes back to basics, aiming to restore a more hardcore crime experience that is more akin to the unpretentious Generation 1 than the magical Generation 2. The game’s infiltration and strong-assault gameplay each have their own highlights, and some of the more modernized mechanics add to the gameplay.
Although the current version of the game heist content is on the low side, the main story and more complex gameplay mechanics are not fully rolled out, the official version of the beta version of the conclusions reached in the beta can be fully applied to the official version: Harvest Day 3 is more like a game in 2023.
According to data from the SteamDB website, on the day of Harvest Day 3’s release, 77,900 people were online and ready to commit crimes at the same time on Steam alone, which is a promising result.
– But two days later, that number began to drop, and so did the positive reviews on Steam. There was no other reason: the servers were having problems.
Compared to the beta version, the game’s frame rate has improved somewhat, perhaps as a result of the production team’s determination to remove the D-encryption before the release. But the constant internet connection to get into the game hasn’t changed, and the server jerking problem is still there. There’s still no offline or single-player mode in the official version, and setting the room permissions to friends-only has to be matched for a while.
Due to the lack of Quick Match and Generation 2 Crime Network features, players are limited to specific heists and difficulties when matching, and with 8 heists and 4 difficulties, there are 32 options to divert players, and the amount of time it takes to get into the game has been lengthened.
Server and matchmaking issues are the highest priority for the production team to address over the next few days, prioritizing even the four content updates that are expected to take place over the course of the year. Harvest Day 3 has hit the ground running as a hardcore crime simulation, and filling it with content won’t be hard. Whether it’s adding an offline mode, switching back to the P2P connections of its predecessor, or buying two more servers, it’s expected to win back gamers.
