Game: Snatcher

Let's begin this blog with something alot of you PS3 fanboys might find interesting....

With all the fan excitement and media hype surrounding the recent release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, it's hard to think of a time when Hideo Kojima made anything that wasn't attached to the colourful Metal Gear series. Snatcher however, developed by Konami, was also created by videogame auteur Hideo Kojima & is a fine alternative for those of you who enjoy his work and want to try something other than sneaking under cardboard boxes and throwing porn mags at mercenaries.

Snatcher was Hideo Kojima's second game and was originally released in 1988 for the PC-88 exclusively in Japan. Since then, Snatcher has been ported to several systems and re-released several times due to it's popularity. In spite of this however, Snatcher has been released only once in North America and it was for the relatively obscure Sega CD in 1994 .

Now if you aren't already familiar with Snatcher but are a Metal Gear fan you should know right away that this game is nothing like Metal Gear. Snatcher is more like a cyberpunk version of Shadowgate. Snatcher an adventure game drawing heavy influences from films such as Blade Runner, The Terminator, Alien, etc. The gameplay is primarily an interactive comic book where the player is presented with a screen representing a room or area in which he or she can interact with the objects within that area, talk to any people who may be in that area or move to explore a new area. This could be off-putting to some people but if you're a fan of the old point-and-click adventure genre then you'll feel right at home.

Although the gameplay is nothing like Metal Gear, the story is pure Kojima. Snatcher is filled with social commentary, plot twists, broken fourth walls & fleshed out characters in an immersive world with superfluous amounts of unrelated information for the player if he or she cares to look for it. In Snatcher, the player takes the role of Gillian Seed. He was discovered in Siberia along with his wife Jaime & neither of them have any memory of their past (a video game cliché, I know but it wasn't in 1988). They are taken back to Neo Kobe City where soon thereafter it is discovered that people are disappearing and being replaced with robotic copies so they are dubbed "Snatchers". Gillian Seed finds these Snatchers oddly familiar so he joins a special agency called J.U.N.K.E.R. which was created to hunt down the Snatcher menace. On his first day however, fellow agent Jean Jack Gibson is killed, leading the player to pick up his investigation and hopefully pick up the pieces of Gillian's past along the way.

As great as finding clues, questioning suspects unfolding the protagonist's back story is, there's a secondary type of gameplay which comes in every so often to add some action to this slow burning mystery. With the use of the Konami Justifier light gun, the player could play certain action sequences like a shooting gallery where the player has to hit attacking Snatchers and their drones. Believe me when I tell you, it starts off easy enough but further into the game it becomes very intense. You can however, practice your marksmanship at the J.U.N.K.E.R. HQ shooting range at any time. Or if you prefer, you can play these sequences with the control pad.

Now for its technical merits, Snatcher on the Sega CD does not disappoint. The many and varied locations Gillian visits are comprised of beautiful manga style artwork. Although most of the game is static, the visuals are colourful and detailed. Certain plot points will also include animated talking heads accompanied by voice acting far superior to most CD based games from the time. It's also important to point out that the in game music is top-notch. Sometimes jazzy, sometimes eerie, sometimes comical - the music goes a long way in helping to set the mood in the game.

So who would I recommend Snatcher to? Well fans of Metal Gear will love this game because it takes place in the same continuity as Metal Gear and references to such are everywhere. For example, the player is aided throughout the game by a miniature Metal Gear that follows along wherever you go - just as in MGS4. I would also recommend Snatcher to lovers of the old point-and-click adventure games because of its deep story and great puzzles. I would also recommend this game to lovers of manga, sci-fi or mystery as well for obvious reasons. I would not recommend this game however to people who like constant action from their games, people who get frustrated with games that don't give the player specific direction or children. For a game originally from 1988, Snatcher is incredibly violent, sexually explicit, complex and oh ya - damned fun.

For more information on the game Snatcher and it's spiritual sequel "Policenauts" visit http://junkerhq.net/index.php