Headhunter

"Banks closed asshunter!"

This is my review for the Dreamcast game Headhunter. Developed by the Swedish-based company AMUZE, this game had me looking forward to it since its announcement at E3 2000. But as many of the Dreamcast games got canceled for US release one-by-one, this game fell the same fate. Soul Reaver 2, Evil Twin, a kick in the head done by Shenmue II and Half-Life. Dreamcast was going down in the US. But that’s a totally different story in Europe as Headhunter and Shenmue II both released there just in November. Being the Dreamcast fan I am, I had to import it.

Headhunter takes place early in the 21st century, where LA is the capital of the world. Crime is a big thing in the future, with an agency called ACN or Anti-Crime Network, to help bust down crime and their elite force of bounty hunters, called headhunters. The headhunters look for members of the Syndicate, a group of terrorists and gangsters. But right when the ACN campaign is enforced, the millionaire founder of the ACN , Christopher Stern is mysteriously murdered at his desk. You play as Jack Wade, a professional headhunter. Angela Stern, Christopher Stern’s daughter asks you to help find out who killed her father and why. Being the pro headhunter you are, you take the job and your adventure begins…..

GRAPHICS/SOUND: 9

The graphics in Headhunter are great to sum it up. Nice shadows, textures, and the amount of detail put into these environments puts you right into LA. Cockroaches near toilets, flies flying around rotting garbage, rats running around that you can shoot, computers, soda cans ect most things can be destroyed, and to your advantage. This game combines FMV and real-time cut scenes really make this story something to be experienced. Another neat thing about the game is the news cut scenes, which include real people telling you about the world and progressing the story. Some are pretty funny and are neat to see, just like real news reports. Sound is also good with great voice acting and music really sets the mood.

GAMEPLAY/CONTROL: 9

If you have ever played MGS you will probably like this game. My best description of this game is, MGS stealth parts, Syphon Filter target lock-on parts and gun fights, and some Resident Evil type puzzles and menu layout. For example, you get the battery to get the coin, use the coin, get the key, use the key get the….. Surprisingly this combination of games works out great. You can use any way to get past your enemies, if you have a itchy trigger finger it’s like Syphon Filter, if you are a MGS fan you can go though most of the game hiding in the shadows. And unlike MGS when you get spotted only a number of guards come out, not infinite. Plus once you kill the guards, there gone for good, which is good as a guard with a sub-machine gun can really screw you over if you do something wrong. Another nice thing is when you die it lets you retry the last gunfight, so you don’t have to lose progress, or do another hard part again. Control works very nice also, allowing you to do many things in the midst of combat. Duck and sneak up and break his neck, dodge fire by rolling between boxes, hide behind a box fire a few rounds, hide, reload can be pulled off with ease. For MGS fans you can even throw shells to distract the guards to allow you to run by. When you first start out you get a motorcycle too, which you can use to get to different places in the city. Riding the motorcycle is very fun to spend time on, as the city is so damn big. Some of the city’s areas are restricted and you have to get a better license in order to get access to them. To upgrade your ranks you have to do many V.R. missions in a simulator. After completing 4 V.R. missions you get a new rank and some new toys, like a bulletproof vest, machine gun, shotgun ect. Which will definitely help you later in the game. Aside from all these cool features there is one big problem, too many glitches. Headhunter has crashed on me at least 4 times but you should be ok if you save frequently, thankfully it only takes 3 seconds to save your game. The game never crashed on me on Disc 2, and hopefully it wont on your copy too.

All in all this is a great game and I’d recommend it to fans of RE and MGS. I finished the game in about 11 hours but id say the money was well spent. Just for the story its worth it. Import it!

Final Score: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/01, Updated 12/26/01