Please hold your "ZOMG HE POSTED" comments until the end of the tour.
Sometimes when I reach into the good ol' backlog, I reach really far. But with finals coming up, I can't really get into a big epic of a game, so I decided to finally beat up on a game that's been tormenting me for years: Snatcher. And since I didn't see any translation patches for the Playstation version, I went with the only one with english voices: The Sega CD Version.
To be fair, if you're going to play a Sega CD game, might as well be this one.
A word of warning: If you're into fast action, guns-a-blazing, destroy everything gameplay...well, you'll get a bite, and no more. There are some shooting scenes, but they are few and far between. There's a lot of text and a lot of talk, and with good reason: Not only is this an adventure game (with a joypad, no less!), it's a Hideo Kojima game. Yep, from when he did things other than Metal Gear. So get ready for lots of story and occasional action scenes, with worse balance between the two than any trip Solid Snake ever took. Seriously, you'd be begging for MGS2's finale after this.
Note he isn't actively manipulating a joypad. You won't be either.
All the Halo players out of the room now? Good. Let's continue.
In an adventure game, the most important thing is the story. Sure, you need to have puzzles and traps, and usually something to at least threaten your life (Monkey Island being one exception). Here, you've got all three, but while the story in Snatcher is fairly good and not nearly as predictable as it first seems, it's not exactly original. There's a LOT of borrowed material in it- the game itself is a cyberpunk story a la Blade Runner, but there's also stuff borrowed from other Konami games. Your cybernetic partner is Metal Gear Mark II- you may know him from Metal Gear Solid 4, and he's introduced with the "ta-ra" theme from Metal Gear 2/MGS 1. Here, however, he talks, though it's not always a positive experience. It's kind of like C-3PO and the computer from M.A.S.K. had a kid. He also saves your game, totes evidence and is a phone, so at least he's useful. This is in addition to the numerous easter eggs, including a night club where Goemon, Bill and Lance from Contra, Sparkster, Dracula and Simon Belmont and even the boss from Lethal Enforcers show up!
Also, strippers. Feel free to make chauvinistic responses to that question.
You play as Gillian Seed, new assignee to the Junkers, a special detective unit. Some mechanized asshole Terminator wannabes are going around snatching the skin off of people (thus the name) and parading around as them. Since the rules state that such a thing is illegal outside of Mortal Kombat, you're required to go out and take them down, as well as find their hideout. Though like MK, there is a fair amount of blood/gore/yucky stuff because of their hobby. You do this by talking, looking, inspecting, using items and all the other wonderful things that you never, EVER get to do in real life.
Now, one problem with this is that you kind of need to understand how adventure games work. Thankfully, you're not fucking with a parser interface this time around- for you youngins, this is where you had to type in a sentence to get your character to do something and hope to god you wrote it the same way the pricks who coded the game did. Here, though, there are events that you have to take care of to trigger forward motion in the game. These aren't always clear, and sometimes, you end up doing things that you've already done multiple times just to kill time so that an event can happen. While I don't think there are any game breaking bugs here, it does add to your play time tremendously if you can't figure those times out. Thankfully, you're often given clues to help with the other parts, but I can also see people not knowing how to hit event triggers- they can be cryptic.
You ain't progressin' until she cheers up. And no, you can't shout "STOP FUCKING CRYING!" to speed it up.
To be fair, this is a good thing. Yes, I blew through this game in 8 hours, but I did it with a guide precisely because I don't have time to wait things out. Honestly, I don't think anybody would ever get stuck that bad- you'll eventually try everything and trigger it by accident if some other character hasn't flat told you what's going on. And really, games were bloody expensive back then. Maybe it's good that your $60-85 game lasted you forever.
So if getting stuck isn't that big a problem, what is? Well, we've got the shooting scenes. They're not really that hard, it's basically playing whack-a-mole with a joypad. You can use a light gun with it, but a) good luck finding one, b)I doubt you still have access to a Sega CD, Light Gun, copy of this game AND a CRT tv to boot and c)the light gun is actually harder to use. That's gotta be a first. These scenes are all pretty manageable, with the exception of the 2nd-to-last shootout where there's some shenanigans going on.
Most boring. Gun. Game. Ever.
But that's all an aside to the story, and I gotta tell ya: I understand the complaints about Metal Gear. I mean, at least with MG, you can shut the VA's up and just read the text for important info. Here, though, EVERYTHING is spoken. While the VA work is fine here, I really don't need the chief to reiterate everything I just did in the chapter prior. The ending is a fucking test of your patience, as you get to hear somebody drone on for 25 FUCKING MINUTES, all while your character, who is armed, sits there and lets him.
"GET TO THE POINT ALREADY!"
I find this actually hurts the game, since at least some of this could've been explained in the game. Thankfully, the soundtrack, while repetitive at points (Junker HQ is literally a 6 second loop) is still awesome overall, so at least that's one thing less to worry about. Overall, the atmosphere combines a bright neon future with a techy score, but still manages to keep a dark tone about itself through great graphics and a well drawn dystopia to interact with.
Besides, what other game lets you INVESTIGATE REMAINS? Pokemon Silver, sure, but besides that?
Snatcher's a fine game, and I would recommend playing through it. I doubt you'll play it again after your first instance, partly because adventure games are pretty much linear, and partly because you might want to keep your pulse up a little bit. Not the best game ever, but not horrible, and aside from Sonic CD, one of the only reasons the Sega CD should ever have existed. Just be aware that this IS a Hideo Kojima ADVENTURE game and you'll know exactly what to expect.
Oh, and get comfy when the ending starts. You'll be there awhile.
