Review: Snatcher

 Goutham Jayaraman

Ravencrow Game Review #27

 

Snatcher

 

Genre	Visual Novel
Platform	Sega CD
Developer	Konami
Publisher	Konami
Playtime	9 hours
Date Completed	22/6/2021
Date Reviewed	23/6/2021
Overall Grade	S*

 

Y’know, the future of humanity is such an alluring topic to discuss, isn’t it? What will the world be like 50 years down the road? How far would technology have advanced? How will our cities look and operate? Will sentient or intelligent robots have come into existence? Will we even be around, considering all the damage we’re happily doing to the planet?

All these questions and more are hot on practically everybody’s minds, and for this very reason, games are quick to capitalize.

Cyberpunk, Dystopia, Utopia, Cosmic, Steampunk. These are some of the most captivating settings games can choose from, and any games that do tend to find themselves in the spotlight. Recently, I played through some of the great cyberpunk and dystopian adventures published by Wadjet Eye Games, namely Shardlight, Primordia, Technobabylon and Whispers of a Machine. This is not mentioning Deponia, which is also a dystopian game. All these games and others like it immediately produce an engaging experience that sets them apart from other adventure games. Playing through them, interacting with a world which seems so distant yet so close, allows such games to leave an everlasting mark in your mind. And yes, needless to say, Snatcher is one such game.

Snatcher is… a game I’m sure many people are familiar with and recognize as one of the most legendary adventure games of all time. Made well over 25 years ago, Snatcher is a cyberpunk visual novel adventure game that can effortlessly stand up to many of the modern adventure games we have today.

Set in a very realistic and relatable 2050s cyberpunk world, Snatcher tells the story of a man and woman who find themselves in Neo Kobe after somehow having lost much of their memories. The man, Gillian, joins an elite force known as the Junkers, a unit dedicated to bringing down a new threat facing the city: Snatchers. Beings who are capable of hijacking the body of a hapless victim – usually a VIP -  and seamlessly taking over their lives, free to wreak havoc on other targets or on society itself.

After being introduced to the small crew, Gillian is immediately pulled into action and sets out on a perilous investigation to solve the murder of his new accomplice and nab the Snatchers responsible for the crime.

For me, the game was charming right off the bat, beginning with cutscenes and lively conversations with the staff at Junker HQ. For a game made in 1994, Snatcher has surprisingly high quality vocals, tense but energetic and electronic background music, catchy sound effects that serve to notify you of certain events and expansive dialog options that leave you interacting with and looking at every possible thing multiple times. All these elements, together with an action-packed story full of twists and turns create an engaging masterpiece that is a must play for fans of the genre.

Gameplay 22/20	The gameplay in Snatcher is very simple. It operates like a text-based adventure game supplemented with graphics. You basically have a list of actions to select from, which typically include looking, investigating, asking, talking and so on.   Snatcher is a highly interactive game, and you’ll find yourself constantly exploring your environment and talking to people even about random things just to see what happens. The great thing about this game is that they do cater responses for everything and many options have multiple lines of dialog, encouraging you to really be thorough with your investigations. Playing the game did indeed make me feel like a detective and that is something to applaud.   Admittedly, having to keep selecting options with key presses can get tiresome compared to using a mouse as you would in modern games, but we are talking about an old console here, and obviously, it wouldn’t have had mouse support.   A huge plus point for Snatcher is that unlike other old adventure games, Snatcher actually takes it easy on players. It is difficult, don’t get me wrong. Often times, progress is dependent on how thoroughly you explore your options and there will be times when you’ll struggle to figure out what to do. This is reminiscent of games like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle which offer impressive challenges to players.   Where Snatcher differs though is its linearity and guidance system. Despite allowing the player the freedom to wander around to locations and do as they please, you often have to do one specific thing or complete a set of actions before the story proceeds. This means you’ll be able to wriggle your way out if you happen to get stuck as you know the answer is bound to be at the location the game focused on last. Plus, Metal, Gillian’s robot companion, will actually render gentle assistance whenever he seems to be struggling and this ensures a walkthrough will never need to be used. The overall experience of playing Snatcher is thus one that is both engaging and relaxing at the same time. Very well done for a game of its age.   The other main gameplay in Snatcher is shooting and this is a largely forgettable mechanic. It doesn’t detract from the experience too much as it is rather infrequent, and you won’t ever mind it being there as the game will let you retry if you get killed. Plus, any self-respecting game where you play as an elite warmonger should feature SOME kind of combat, right? Of course, I just wish the dumb cursor didn’t have to keep resetting itself back to the central position.   As a final remark, it is worth stating that Snatcher is NOT a point and click game and instead plays more as a novel, considering how it treats difficulty. It doesn’t have the inventory mechanics, complex puzzles or random minigames that you would expect to see in standard point and click games (“Did I ever mention that I like minigames? “ – Deponia). Can’t say if this is either positive or negative, but the gameplay overall feels good regardless.
Game Design 15/20	As far as game design is concerned, I think Snatcher has done a pretty decent job.   + There are frequent save points and saving is even modeled as a natural function of Metal.   + Scenes are designed to include many interactive elements, and each element has multiple lines of dialog accompanying it.   + Very gentle hand-holding that keeps you from getting stuck whilst feeling completely natural.   + Given that you need to constantly choose a dialog option, the player would feel very much involved in every aspect of the game. This is what makes the game so engaging   - Shooting is annoying in the sense that you have to press a button to pull out your gun, and in some instances, I would have already taken a hit by this point.   - The crosshair requires the arrow keys to be held down else it moves back to the center, which can be aggravating at times.   - Sometimes, events are only triggered after you look at or investigate something numerous times and there is no active indication of whether you have exhausted the dialog for each option.
Graphics 20/20	To be frank, Snatcher could pass for a modern game. It has better artwork than quite a few modern games in fact.   You get expressive, lively and detailed characters, rich scenes with relevant information clearly displayed and a world that has that beloved cyberpunk feel. The game comes with energetic animations and even well designed props. Even the UI is clean, with the visual window occupying the top 2/3rds and text options occupying the remainder. I have zero complaints.
Audio 20/20	Let’s be honest, many games today don’t have voice acting. This game not only has extensive voice acting (you’ll have to forgive the slightly low audio quality of course), but also possesses a fantastic soundtrack. A soundtrack with a good selection of electronic, atmospheric and tense music that support the game’s cyberpunk theme and set the mood for the story.   There are also iconic sound effects that signify important events such as discovering a dead body or uncovering new information. Again, zero complaints.
Story 21/20	The story in Snatcher is actually respectably good with a solid number of plot twists along the way which you may not see coming.   The game weaves a thick and cohesive narrative that kept me fully engaged from start to finish. The narrative even made concerted efforts to explain any aspects of the plot that may have seemed far-fetched at first glance.   Another thing good to mention is that the story kept me on my toes throughout. I was always in anticipation of the next instance where a Snatcher would jump me or where something crazy would happen, and that is a good sign of the story being immersive. And yes, there were plenty of moments where I felt genuine surprise or even felt scared enough to slightly jump from my seat, and I don't scare easily. I could talk about the story in depth, but I’d be dumping tons of spoilers in the process, so….. just trust me when I say it’s good and go experience it for yourself.
Lore 25/20	The game world delivers futuristic concepts in a wholesome way. You have sentient robots, but they are not accessible to civilians. You have cybernetic pets, which is a reasonable way of keeping poor animals away from human interference. You have your standard sleek and modern vehicles and weapons. There are frequent mentions of the “pre-collapse” world and relics from said world still left standing. To me at least, the world painted by Snatcher felt both futuristic and realistic at the same time and made it that much more enjoyable to be in.   Gillian and the other characters are well designed and are easy to get attached to and invested in considering how full of life they are.   Metal is an exceptional character and has been integrated into the story in very meaningful ways that make him feel natural and allow him to add solid immersion value to the game despite him being a robot.   While deaths in the game were not as impactful as expected due to lack of time spent with that particular character, they were still touching as you could clearly see the effect they had on Gillian and empathize with him.   Jordan, the game’s version of a codex has plenty of interesting tidbits regarding the game’s world and characters. It gives you all the background information you need to properly enjoy the game and answer any questions you may have, though I did feel like it could have had additional entries on specific locations and buildings as well (I could search for people, but could not do the same for locations which I guess makes sense considering what Jordan is, but still)
Value 2/0	Well, retro games are treated the same as free games when it comes to value.   But considering that Snatcher is one of the most memorable experiences you can have, it falls into the category of “must-play”. That being said, I do wish it was longer.
Overall Grade 20/20	S*
Score	103

 

Snatcher is a game that breathes immersion. Every little aspect of it is engineered to raise the game’s immersion value, from its carefully constructed cyberpunk world to its lively characters and animations, to how perfect of a role Metal plays to how its gameplay manages to provide a thoroughly engaging experience.

With a great story and even greater character designs to boot, I think Snatcher is indeed a must-play game and one can only hope that it gets remastered at some point and released for a modern console such as the PC or Switch.