Headhunter

"A decent shooter spoiled by repetitive flaws"

Headhunter originally belonged to Sega. Developed by Amuze but published by Sega, it never made it here for the Dreamcast. It was released for the Dreamcast in Europe, however. But, Acclaim recently picked it up and ported it to the PlayStation2. So how does Amuze's stylish stealth-shooter fare in this world, littered in Splinter Cell's and Metal Gear Solid's? Read on.

-VISUALS: The visuals are dirty and not very clean. It's hard to believe this is a PlayStation2 port. The textures are very bland in the motorcycle sections, and the characters look incredibly simple in the CG cutscenes. But why oh why, did Amuze make the news hosts REAL people? Their acting is garbage. But the graphics do look pretty cool, and the character designs look bad to the bone, especially Jack Wade.

-SOUND: Now this is where Headhunter shines! The music was orchestrated by an orchestra, and fits the action atmosphere perfectly. The voice acting and the news hosts acting is pretty bad, even Jack Wade, the main character, doesn't seem too interested in his mission.

-GAMEPLAY: Headhunter is the perfect fusion of Metal Gear Solid's basic stealth gameplay, The Getaway's pop-out-and-shoot moves, the slow puzzle-filled pace of Resident Evil, and a bad motorcycle-simulation. Sure it's not very original, but it makes for some decent fun (it even has VR Missions which LOOK like MGS's)!

In the shooting levels, you have many moves. Crouching, flattening your back against walls, the infamous pop-out-and-shoot-then-go-back-for-cover moves, rolling, and ofcourse, shooting. The shooting levels are fun, but it takes about 20-25 shots to kill an enemy, which is long and repetitive, especially if you're surrounderd by 5 enemies.
Plus, many times you must do RE-style puzzles and using and collecting items. Sure, I like my Resident Evil and my shooting games, but I don't want them ANYWHERE near each other (Stay back!)

The motorcycle levels, (which are half of the game) are very annoying, mainly because the bikes steer like garbage and they're just not fun. Plus, when you go into reverse after hitting a curb (it'll happen. A LOT), your bike just turns around. Jack doesn't put his feet on the ground. Plus, its incredibly slow. This is what pretty much cost Headhunter from getting an 8.

-CONTROLS: While Headhunter controls good, its camera is tough to steer around. All you have is the SQUARE button, which puts it behind you, but the right-analog stick stays immobile for the whole game. Yes, the Dreamcast version didn't have a right-analog stick, but Amuze or Acclaim could've simply put it in,saving the gamer much un-needed trouble.

But it does control great, with every button allowing you to do cool moves.

-OVERALL: Headhunter would've farred much better with improved camera control, better graphics, and chopping out the awful and boring motorcycle elements. Still, the core of the game, the shooting, still steals the shoe, but just barely!

SCORECHART:
-Best feature: Cool gunplay
-Worst feature: Motorcycle levels
-VISUALS:6/10 -CONTROLS:7/10
-SOUND:8/10 -REPLAY:7/10
-ORIGINALITY:6/10 -OVERALL:7/10
-BOTTOM LINE: Rent it first

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/28/03, Updated 01/28/03