Snatcher

  It's been a while since I've actually sat down and finished a game. I'm not the type of person that usually dives into a game nonstop until it's over, and that's something I've been hoping to fix in the near future. Apart from the whole Night Trap fiasco that went on last week, Persona 4 and Uncharted 2 were the only games I've made the effort to complete recently. I don't know if Modern Warfare 2 really counts, since it really had to be done before taking the experience online, but you can throw that in there, too. So yes, that means that despite getting Bayonetta, Demon's Souls, and Heavy Rain on the release dates, I haven't actually beaten them yet.

 It's a lack of focus for me, really. It's not that I don't enjoy these games, but my mind is so ADD when it comes to games that I'm always trying new things, even if those things are completely outdated. So when a game manages to take me in and demand that I finish it, it's sort of eventful, even if there are better games out there. That's not to say I wasted my time with Snatcher, because there is a really good game in there, even if it isn't really a "game" and even if it isn't the end-all adventure you heard it was.

 It all really starts with Hideo Kojima, who is pretty much allowed to do whatever he wants, no matter how ludicrous his ideas may sound on paper. Snatcher was his second major idea after Metal Gear, and plays out in a way that's completely opposite of those games. It's an interactive visual novel that invites the player to explore the cyberpunk future of Neo Kobe. You play as Gillian Seed, a newly assigned "junker" in the city who has amnesia and is really trying to solve two mysteries at once during the course of the game. You visit locales, dig up information, and try to piece together the clues to stop the Snatcher menace and save Neo Kobe. There's your plot and game style in a nutshell.

 So you may have heard that this game is an unmissable classic that draws heavily on the intrigue of Blade Runner while also borrowing from several other classic sci-fi concept such as the Terminator. Well, there's the first problem, and also its greatest strength. The Blade Runner setting is borrowed from so heavily that it's hard not to scream "RIPOFF!" at the screen at times, but you never actually want to. That universe was so well done that it's difficult for anyone to say that they wouldn't like that world to be worked with more, and that's exactly the feeling that you get with Snatcher. For every blatant theft, and there's a million of them, you are left happy with the knowledge that someone creative put those beginnings to great use in an original story. Really, for all that is ripped off, it's more of an homage that happens to be unique and very capable of standing on its own. Kojima even rips himself off numerous times, sort of acknowledging that he's having a bit of fun throwing together concepts created elsewhere into something different. You are a "runner" that rides a spinner to hunt replicants that look like Terminators with your little robotic partner, Metal Gear. Yet, it still feels fresh.

 Where the problems lie really depends on how much you value Kojima's story ideas. I'm all for Kojima getting free reign, but even in this early work of his I can't help but feel a little repulsed as to how much effort goes into a tremendous game-world only to have it trampled on by an extensive, plot-heavy movie sequence that comes across as if someone were playing the plot-dart game again. I can't spoil it for you, but 90% of this game is truly compelling and immersing, and the 10% that ruins it all happens to be the ending that you take no part in for a good fifteen minutes. The entire explanation for what's going on in every plot-line gets thrown on you like a ton of bricks, and the effect is nothing less than jarring. It's jarring because I expected better. Instead, I got another Bond-villain ranting away about his master plan, which logically makes sense, but is so conveniently bad.

 How does this make the borrowing seem like a problem? Well, the ending alone erased anything subtle about the game's plot, and that's something that made Blade Runner great. Sure, that movie was a little slow paced, but even the deadest of moments carried a lot of weight while not shoving the plot down your throat. In Snatcher, you're given a chance to experience that world, but the ending makes the plot seem way too important and doesn't really give you anything to take with you. It really cheapens the whole experience.

 When I finished the game, I went straight to a couple of fan-sites to see if there was anything tucked away in the corners of the game that I may have missed and needed to find. Come to find out, the game was rushed in its original development cycle, so Kojima and his gang had to throw together an ending at the last minute. Well, that made sense! It seemed like they just said, "F*** it! Let's tie up these plot lines on the fly!" and crammed it all into the game overnight. Even better, I read that the intended ending was included in later ports of the game!

 Of course, my Sega CD version WAS one of those later ports, and Kojima meant to do that all along. Great. Really, if you think that the Metal Gear Solid universe can sometimes be a clusterf*** of nonsense, then you can pretty much guess why I didn't like Snatcher's ending.

 The second complaint that I had, which I'm not entirely sure if I forgive, is that the game is kind of short. Snatcher is split up into 3 acts, the first being your introduction to the main plot and your very first case. This leads to Act 2, where you follow up on the major leads you get from your first investigation and go to take a crack at the bigger picture. The third and final act is the climax, half of which is a long ending cutscene. My final time was somewhere around the 9 and a half hour mark, which is about right if you balance bathroom/food breaks in game and time lost due to reloading. I think my A-button is wonky, which got me killed about 5 times in the closing act. For a talkie Sega CD game, that sounds about right, and since the adventure was pretty linear I can't expect for things to keep going to ages. Yet, with all of the times that I was forced to go on what was clearly the wrong path to follow what was clearly a bad lead, I sort of felt forced into wasting time. Sure, it was all entertaining, but when I got to the end of Act 2 I was expecting to at least go on one more broad investigation before things started to come to a close. So, one part of me commends this game for grabbing me by the throat and making me very interested, but another part of me really wanted more out of it before having to put the controller down.

 OK, enough with the bad. As much as I've just harped on Snatcher, there's plenty to like, as well as many good reasons why it should be considered a classic.

 Until the ending, the story and concept are good. Really good. It may sound like a boring text adventure, but it's anything but. Maybe it was the impressive voice acting or the familiar scenery, but everything you touch screams with personality. There's plenty of information to dig up, and while it's not all pertinent to the investigation, it's certainly worth discovering. The menu system is also dynamic in its own right, as simply going down the list won't help you advance the game in the least. Investigating is a puzzle in its own right, as you have to not only pay attention to the information you are given, but put it to use when determining how to act. Looking around a room may reveal a key item, which your characters understandably become drawn to. Looking around the room again after that will reveal something else that your character never got a chance to see. Likewise, talking to someone once will give you the expected natural response of that NPC. Persisting will get the NPC to think a little harder, revealing a minor clue that can be cued up afterwards for you to ask about. It makes perfect sense and never really gets annoying, and sometimes the game's design actually expects you to get a little stumped and try to backtrack a bit before giving you what you need.

 Also, to the credit of the developers, this system works to divide up the glut of information into sections that feel very natural. If you're done with a section of the game, you are not asked to go back to that section again to uncover a key item or clue. The game teaches you early to be thorough and imaginative so that you know how to exhaust your possibilities in any given area, and it also forces you to solve the puzzles in front of you before even letting you move on sometimes. Act 2, for example, begins by cutting you off from certain items you've collected as well as locales you have discovered so that you're not hopping around aimlessly between areas for no reason. It's a very welcome method that keeps the player interested and focused while never really taking away from the exploration.

 I mentioned that Snatcher has a lot of character, and I'm not putting that lightly. Almost everything that you can investigate in the game has a ton of information attached to it. In Gillian's HQ, there is a computer system that allows you to search up information on characters in the game and also an extensive history on Neo Kobe and the rest of the world. It's easy to waste an hour just reading everything article in the computer to learn about the setting. Snatcher isn't just filled with information, either. It's filled with charm, and a fan of any sci-fi work the game is based on will find themselves laughing out loud to many of the little jokes sprinkled within conversation.

 Snatcher may just belong to a distinct handful of games that can call themselves "future-proof". There is no spectacular technology or innovation going on within it. It's just a really good visual novel, and that's the type of game that can be really hard to kill off. It can always remain interesting and fun regardless of the generation you play it in, and charm is something that just doesn't die off. Finally being able to devote more than an hour to it, I found myself engrossed in this world, addicted to the story and wanting to put off sleep to finish the experience. Sure, I wish there was more to do, but that doesn't stop me from recommending it to anyone else. Just ignore the ending. I see so many 9-10/10 reviews on fansites that I start to wonder how many of them actually beat the game. There's no way that I could give that much credit to a game with such a terrible ending, and it honestly ruined most of my impressions. This is a game that's all about story above all else, even if the little things are extremely entertaining. If story is the focus than the climax of that story shouldn't suck. Sorry, but 8/10 is the best I would ever give it. Extend the game a bit and throw out the ending for something a little more subtle, and you'd have your perfect score.





Spoiler below (to explain to Snatcher fans why I think the ending sucks):




It's way too convenient. Yes, clues are riddled throughout the entire game, but come on. Predictability isn't why I was bitching so much as that Bond-explanation in the end. Did all of the people in the game HAVE to be connected like that? This is why FFVIII's plot sucked. Not everything has to tie together perfectly. Sometimes, a character is just a character. It was a man behind the curtain that came out in the last moment and started saying that everyone was everyone's father while at the same time giving a reasonable, yet waaaaay out there explanation about how he did it all for love or wanting to be a God or some combination of the 10 worst cliches you can possibly get out of a bad villain. Really, I'm not apologizing for anything. The ending was terrible. Get over it. Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit