Post by A.G. on Jul 20, 2009 21:58:29 GMT -5
Well, I finally got around to playing the Sega CD Enlish translated Snatcher. A while back tried to go through the MSX version but that was just... a pain. This version is better, but I guess Snatcher is just not my type of game. So let's take it by the numbers.
Story
It's a Hideo Kojima game and the ONLY reason some give it a legendary status. The plot is a solid one and definitely has a lot of good surprises. Despite the tremendous amount of background story added in ACT 3, I was very dissapointed with the ending. VERY dissapointed. ACT 3 ends kinda the same way ACT 2 did... Gillian still has another fight ahead of him. So the story is not resolved as there is still a factory in Moscow that needs to be investigated. And since the game never got a sequel, that leaves things very much unresolved for a stand-alone title. However, the story is a solid one and I must say I enjoyed it and the characters. Very Kojimaish.
Gameplay
Gag! Seriously, really did not care for it at all. There are two things you do in this game and neither one left a positive impression on me:
Investigation
I understand that it's the point of the game... but it is a GAME! And this is just boring at times! There are times that you only have to LOOK and INVESTIGATE everything in the area once to move the game along. But there are others when you have to LOOK twice and INVESTIGATE say three times! In the mean time you don't know if you should leave the room and come back... or just reinvestigate everything... very annoying. Not to mention that it slows the game down to a crawl. Not a fan of this approach.
Shooting
The shooting scenes are hit and miss. I liked what they did with the Snatcher fights, especially when one is hiding behind Mika. Very clever and fun. In fact, this approch would've been great fo the Dirty Duck fight in Metal Gear 1. But the insect dudes were annoying! ACT 1 wasn't so bad, but 2 and 3 were just beyond annyoing. I had more fun with Snake's Revenge then with Snatcher in regards to action. If the bug are 1 or 2 at a time... not bad. But when it's 4 or 5... are you kidding me?! This game was in a bad need of a difficulty setting.
Layout and Presentation
The music and graphics are top notch. The voice acting was very well done, except for ACT 3. Elijah's voice actor just sucked... sounded like a cheap version of Adam West. The cutscenes were nicely done and I liked the style, especially given the time the game was created. What I didn't care for is really ACT 3. ACT 2 ends in an awesome fight. Great Snatcher fight! Lots of action and emotions. ACT 3 doesn't have that! It has virtually no gameplay, and what gameplay it has is very annoying! There was no big final showdown... the game just kinda ended. ACT 3 is very small by comparison to the first 2 and just seems very rushed and sloppy to me.
Overall
From the story perspective, I see why the game has a legendary status in the hearts of many fans. But from a gameplay side I don't think it measures up. The gameplay is either very slow and boring or very fast and difficult. There is no middle ground. The presentation is good, but the addition of ACT 3 actually hinders the game IMO. The game also has a very low replay value. It's a mystery... once the mystery is solved there isn't much to go back to in regards to story. Sure you can mess around with Jordan for more background info... but that's just kinda lame. Might've worked better if Snatcher was a series and not a stand-alone title. There is not gameplay that I can think of that would make me want to replay the game. And the story, while good, is simple enough to get in one playthrough.
Snatcher should be remade with the ability to play in 3rd person, like Metal Gear. The story is a solid one and would work very well if we could attach some enjoyable gameplay to it.
Story
It's a Hideo Kojima game and the ONLY reason some give it a legendary status. The plot is a solid one and definitely has a lot of good surprises. Despite the tremendous amount of background story added in ACT 3, I was very dissapointed with the ending. VERY dissapointed. ACT 3 ends kinda the same way ACT 2 did... Gillian still has another fight ahead of him. So the story is not resolved as there is still a factory in Moscow that needs to be investigated. And since the game never got a sequel, that leaves things very much unresolved for a stand-alone title. However, the story is a solid one and I must say I enjoyed it and the characters. Very Kojimaish.
Gameplay
Gag! Seriously, really did not care for it at all. There are two things you do in this game and neither one left a positive impression on me:
Investigation
I understand that it's the point of the game... but it is a GAME! And this is just boring at times! There are times that you only have to LOOK and INVESTIGATE everything in the area once to move the game along. But there are others when you have to LOOK twice and INVESTIGATE say three times! In the mean time you don't know if you should leave the room and come back... or just reinvestigate everything... very annoying. Not to mention that it slows the game down to a crawl. Not a fan of this approach.
Shooting
The shooting scenes are hit and miss. I liked what they did with the Snatcher fights, especially when one is hiding behind Mika. Very clever and fun. In fact, this approch would've been great fo the Dirty Duck fight in Metal Gear 1. But the insect dudes were annoying! ACT 1 wasn't so bad, but 2 and 3 were just beyond annyoing. I had more fun with Snake's Revenge then with Snatcher in regards to action. If the bug are 1 or 2 at a time... not bad. But when it's 4 or 5... are you kidding me?! This game was in a bad need of a difficulty setting.
Layout and Presentation
The music and graphics are top notch. The voice acting was very well done, except for ACT 3. Elijah's voice actor just sucked... sounded like a cheap version of Adam West. The cutscenes were nicely done and I liked the style, especially given the time the game was created. What I didn't care for is really ACT 3. ACT 2 ends in an awesome fight. Great Snatcher fight! Lots of action and emotions. ACT 3 doesn't have that! It has virtually no gameplay, and what gameplay it has is very annoying! There was no big final showdown... the game just kinda ended. ACT 3 is very small by comparison to the first 2 and just seems very rushed and sloppy to me.
Overall
From the story perspective, I see why the game has a legendary status in the hearts of many fans. But from a gameplay side I don't think it measures up. The gameplay is either very slow and boring or very fast and difficult. There is no middle ground. The presentation is good, but the addition of ACT 3 actually hinders the game IMO. The game also has a very low replay value. It's a mystery... once the mystery is solved there isn't much to go back to in regards to story. Sure you can mess around with Jordan for more background info... but that's just kinda lame. Might've worked better if Snatcher was a series and not a stand-alone title. There is not gameplay that I can think of that would make me want to replay the game. And the story, while good, is simple enough to get in one playthrough.
Snatcher should be remade with the ability to play in 3rd person, like Metal Gear. The story is a solid one and would work very well if we could attach some enjoyable gameplay to it.
