Headhuter review (European Dreamcast)
11-16-01, 12:29 PM
#1
DVD Talk Hero
Thread Starter
Headhunter review (European Dreamcast)
Headhunter is a surprisingly good spy game. Why “surprisingly”? Simply because with the great number of last minute cancellations and the debatable quality of most recent games on Dreamcast, it seemed to be a common opinion that the future wouldn’t be bright for the fans of the aforementioned system. But no, it’s not totally over yet.
Coming back from the store with my copy of Headhunter the very first day it was released, I wasn’t too excited anymore for some reason. You see, the game wasn’t exactly hyped by the media and was increasingly looking too much like a Goldeneye ersatz for my tastes.
But after putting the GD on my Dreamcast, I began to forget everything, immersed in a realistic and intriguing world. Ambience. Yes, that’s the word I was looking for. Headhunter has it in spades. To be honest, rarely a console game has put me in this slightly oppressed, almost paranoid state: if my memory serves me right, the last one was the famous Flashback, and strangely enough the two titles seem to have a lot in common.
Right from the beginning, all is done to create a believing universe and give you the impression that you are a part of this environment, as a strangely sarcastic and humorous news flash with real presenters plays as an introduction (note that there are more to come, regularly giving rhythm to the plot). Shocking is the general quality of the cut-scenes and the acting: a lot of work has obviously been put in Headhunter. After breezing through a very short training mode that appears to be a cheap rip off of Metal Gear Solid’s VR missions, the player is immediately thrown into a first action scene without any sort of explanation on the storyline. Although it gives you an opportunity to appreciate the rather tight controls, it’s also most disturbing, but can be explained by the fact that you play the part of Jack Wade, an amnesiac first-grade headhunter in search for his identity fighting the emergence of a crime organization with the help of a voluptuous rich blonde named Angela. Sounds familiar? Normal: the storyline isn’t original and is highly reminiscent of Mission: Impossible, James Bond, Total Recall and consorts. Nevertheless, it does the job nicely and shines by the amount of detail it displays and the cynical and distant approach the developers took regarding the fictive future of California. Furthermore, it’s probably the first multi-genre game with a scenario that’s well put together.
Hints about Jack’s past are to be gradually found here and there, while an interesting crime story develops and builds the tension to thrilling levels. Yes, Headhunter is an action game, but that’s not to say it doesn’t require any exploration. Headhunter’s exploration scenes are very classical and have a lot in common with Shenmue. For once, the puzzles seem slightly more complicated than in Resident Evil –which is not surprising since the game is destined to a mature audience- but you’ll rarely be stuck because of them. On the other hand, some of the boss battles are very tricky and require both quick reflexes and intelligence, as in most old-school action games.
The stealth theme, albeit not as important as in titles like Metal Gear Solid or Siphon Filter, is predominant here, and Jack’s impressive palette of movements comes in handy to trick the enemies. Alas, the controls are not always very responsive and you’ll often get a sight of the game over screen without even knowing what happened, thus ruining the most interesting aspect of the game. No doubt, Headhunter is no Tenchu.
In exchange of your special services -yes, the game is somewhat suggestive at times-, your beautiful partner will soon lend you her gleaming motorcycle to explore the outskirts of Los Angeles. Perfectly timed in order to break the monotony of the exploration scenes, these bike sessions are delighting despite their extremely frustrating nature. You see, they play a very important role in Headhunter: tearing through the often quiet avenues of the city will earn you some useful technique points, necessary to the obtaining of a hunter’s license (without which Jack can’t access neither sophisticated weapons nor restricted areas of L.A.). But each crash will result in a significant loss of points, occasionally pushing the player to the edge of the nervous breakdown since the bike is so hard to control.
These outdoor scenes are particularly well designed and are visually stunning, so much that they could have been the subject of a game on their own. The city is very elaborated and the detailed textures are almost on par with what you can see in Shenmue. Similarly, the buildings Jack must infiltrate all look realistic and varied, so that playing Headhunter never gets the least repetitive. Granted, the character models are somewhat basic and their animations are a tad slow and lumbering, which is noteworthy for a spy game. Even Jack himself looks terribly stiff, as opposed to his uber-cool attitude, and don’t count on the “graceful” Angela to make up for it. The pace of the action is also slowed down by the incessant loadings: their short length and the funny ads displayed in order to keep the player’s attention don’t make up for the fact that they shouldn’t be in there in the first place. Moreover, the game sometimes suffers from huge slowdown that is certainly not due to the power of the system.
The game has some awesome tracks that rightly sets the Hollywood-esque mood and entirely fits Headhunter’s futuristic world, although they do get repetitive on certain occasions. By action game standards however, some of the tunes are just downright fantastic. The quality of the music is emphasized by the top-notch voices, light years ahead of Shenmue’s. Even the most trivial enemies have dedicated voice actors, further developing the realistic aspect of their personalities.
Although Headhunter has a lot of content, its two GDs are not much longer than your regular action game: count approximately fifteen hours for an average player. Although this is a decent figure, it would have been more satisfying to see Jack Wade’s adventures last a bit longer. Contrary to a large part of the concurrence however, Headhunter is packed with gameplay scenes.
Headhunter turns out to be what ‘Omikron: The Nomad Soul’, released a few years ago, should have been. It successfully integrates various genres with the help of a fascinating scenario without ever giving the player the impression of being a melting pot. Consequently, it’s definitely one of the most entertaining titles available on Dreamcast –and soon to be on Playstation 2- even though its visuals are far from being flawless. Headhunter is a nice alternative to the linear yet spectacular Metal Gear Solid series and adds an interesting touch of irony to an already tired genre.
rating: 8.5/10
Coming back from the store with my copy of Headhunter the very first day it was released, I wasn’t too excited anymore for some reason. You see, the game wasn’t exactly hyped by the media and was increasingly looking too much like a Goldeneye ersatz for my tastes.
But after putting the GD on my Dreamcast, I began to forget everything, immersed in a realistic and intriguing world. Ambience. Yes, that’s the word I was looking for. Headhunter has it in spades. To be honest, rarely a console game has put me in this slightly oppressed, almost paranoid state: if my memory serves me right, the last one was the famous Flashback, and strangely enough the two titles seem to have a lot in common.
Right from the beginning, all is done to create a believing universe and give you the impression that you are a part of this environment, as a strangely sarcastic and humorous news flash with real presenters plays as an introduction (note that there are more to come, regularly giving rhythm to the plot). Shocking is the general quality of the cut-scenes and the acting: a lot of work has obviously been put in Headhunter. After breezing through a very short training mode that appears to be a cheap rip off of Metal Gear Solid’s VR missions, the player is immediately thrown into a first action scene without any sort of explanation on the storyline. Although it gives you an opportunity to appreciate the rather tight controls, it’s also most disturbing, but can be explained by the fact that you play the part of Jack Wade, an amnesiac first-grade headhunter in search for his identity fighting the emergence of a crime organization with the help of a voluptuous rich blonde named Angela. Sounds familiar? Normal: the storyline isn’t original and is highly reminiscent of Mission: Impossible, James Bond, Total Recall and consorts. Nevertheless, it does the job nicely and shines by the amount of detail it displays and the cynical and distant approach the developers took regarding the fictive future of California. Furthermore, it’s probably the first multi-genre game with a scenario that’s well put together.
Hints about Jack’s past are to be gradually found here and there, while an interesting crime story develops and builds the tension to thrilling levels. Yes, Headhunter is an action game, but that’s not to say it doesn’t require any exploration. Headhunter’s exploration scenes are very classical and have a lot in common with Shenmue. For once, the puzzles seem slightly more complicated than in Resident Evil –which is not surprising since the game is destined to a mature audience- but you’ll rarely be stuck because of them. On the other hand, some of the boss battles are very tricky and require both quick reflexes and intelligence, as in most old-school action games.
The stealth theme, albeit not as important as in titles like Metal Gear Solid or Siphon Filter, is predominant here, and Jack’s impressive palette of movements comes in handy to trick the enemies. Alas, the controls are not always very responsive and you’ll often get a sight of the game over screen without even knowing what happened, thus ruining the most interesting aspect of the game. No doubt, Headhunter is no Tenchu.
In exchange of your special services -yes, the game is somewhat suggestive at times-, your beautiful partner will soon lend you her gleaming motorcycle to explore the outskirts of Los Angeles. Perfectly timed in order to break the monotony of the exploration scenes, these bike sessions are delighting despite their extremely frustrating nature. You see, they play a very important role in Headhunter: tearing through the often quiet avenues of the city will earn you some useful technique points, necessary to the obtaining of a hunter’s license (without which Jack can’t access neither sophisticated weapons nor restricted areas of L.A.). But each crash will result in a significant loss of points, occasionally pushing the player to the edge of the nervous breakdown since the bike is so hard to control.
These outdoor scenes are particularly well designed and are visually stunning, so much that they could have been the subject of a game on their own. The city is very elaborated and the detailed textures are almost on par with what you can see in Shenmue. Similarly, the buildings Jack must infiltrate all look realistic and varied, so that playing Headhunter never gets the least repetitive. Granted, the character models are somewhat basic and their animations are a tad slow and lumbering, which is noteworthy for a spy game. Even Jack himself looks terribly stiff, as opposed to his uber-cool attitude, and don’t count on the “graceful” Angela to make up for it. The pace of the action is also slowed down by the incessant loadings: their short length and the funny ads displayed in order to keep the player’s attention don’t make up for the fact that they shouldn’t be in there in the first place. Moreover, the game sometimes suffers from huge slowdown that is certainly not due to the power of the system.
The game has some awesome tracks that rightly sets the Hollywood-esque mood and entirely fits Headhunter’s futuristic world, although they do get repetitive on certain occasions. By action game standards however, some of the tunes are just downright fantastic. The quality of the music is emphasized by the top-notch voices, light years ahead of Shenmue’s. Even the most trivial enemies have dedicated voice actors, further developing the realistic aspect of their personalities.
Although Headhunter has a lot of content, its two GDs are not much longer than your regular action game: count approximately fifteen hours for an average player. Although this is a decent figure, it would have been more satisfying to see Jack Wade’s adventures last a bit longer. Contrary to a large part of the concurrence however, Headhunter is packed with gameplay scenes.
Headhunter turns out to be what ‘Omikron: The Nomad Soul’, released a few years ago, should have been. It successfully integrates various genres with the help of a fascinating scenario without ever giving the player the impression of being a melting pot. Consequently, it’s definitely one of the most entertaining titles available on Dreamcast –and soon to be on Playstation 2- even though its visuals are far from being flawless. Headhunter is a nice alternative to the linear yet spectacular Metal Gear Solid series and adds an interesting touch of irony to an already tired genre.
rating: 8.5/10
Last edited by slop101; 11-16-01 at 12:41 PM.
11-16-01, 12:45 PM
#3
DVD Talk Hero
Thread Starter
I pasted the review from gamefaqs.
My copy of the game should be comming in the mail any day now.
- This looks like it may be the last good dreamcast game.
My copy of the game should be comming in the mail any day now.
- This looks like it may be the last good dreamcast game.
11-16-01, 01:06 PM
#4
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Thanks for posting the review. I've been lookign forward to this game. I want it so bad. I played a hacked copy without the movies and it was missing so much. I'm going to import it.
Anyone know if this is going to be ported to another console?
Anyone know if this is going to be ported to another console?
