This review contains spoilers
Not really a type of game I would usually go for. As much as I've enjoyed myself with the Metal Gear series and Death Stranding, a visual novel written entirely by Hideo Kojima didn't sound that appealing to me, mainly because I thought there would be no cool gameplay mechanics to save the game if the writing style failed. I was proven wrong on some accounts.
What pulled me in immediately was the setting and the general vibe. I'm a huge sucker for 80s scifi and this seemed more like a love letter to the genre. There is some originality to it, but so much elements have been "loaned" from other sources you would expect the main character turns out to be one of the bad killer robots himself. From the opening cinematic I was hooked on the soundtrack and dark visuals ripped straight from Blade Runner. Can't really complain.
Gameplay-wise, Snatcher is very simple but not something you would call straight-forward. Some of the progression feels fairly complex and arbitrary and most of the time you're not sure if you should LOOK or INSPECT the item to progress. Sometimes you need to even do these multiple times in a specific order. I can say I didn't finish this game without consulting a guide. Sometimes there are these shooting gallery scenes, where you're supposed to mow down killer robots before they kill you. Early in the game these are easy, but difficulty ramps up quickly, especially the final insector fight is just outright brutal and the snatcher fight right after that feels child's play in comparison.
The plot is... It's okay. It really feels Blade Runner - esque with our trench coat detective hunting robots mimicing humans, but there are certain Kojima-elements sprinkled in that don't really hold up that well in my opinion. I played the western localization, so I got saved from the most horrendous stuff but the main character still manages to feel like a huge ass with no consequences when interacting with the opposite sex. The ending with all the women gathered around swooning the protagonist felt just unnecessarily masturbatory and the shower scene just plain creepy.
In the end, it's a fine visual novel/graphic adventure and a great homage to 80s scifi, as long as you get past all the yikes-stuff.
What pulled me in immediately was the setting and the general vibe. I'm a huge sucker for 80s scifi and this seemed more like a love letter to the genre. There is some originality to it, but so much elements have been "loaned" from other sources you would expect the main character turns out to be one of the bad killer robots himself. From the opening cinematic I was hooked on the soundtrack and dark visuals ripped straight from Blade Runner. Can't really complain.
Gameplay-wise, Snatcher is very simple but not something you would call straight-forward. Some of the progression feels fairly complex and arbitrary and most of the time you're not sure if you should LOOK or INSPECT the item to progress. Sometimes you need to even do these multiple times in a specific order. I can say I didn't finish this game without consulting a guide. Sometimes there are these shooting gallery scenes, where you're supposed to mow down killer robots before they kill you. Early in the game these are easy, but difficulty ramps up quickly, especially the final insector fight is just outright brutal and the snatcher fight right after that feels child's play in comparison.
The plot is... It's okay. It really feels Blade Runner - esque with our trench coat detective hunting robots mimicing humans, but there are certain Kojima-elements sprinkled in that don't really hold up that well in my opinion. I played the western localization, so I got saved from the most horrendous stuff but the main character still manages to feel like a huge ass with no consequences when interacting with the opposite sex. The ending with all the women gathered around swooning the protagonist felt just unnecessarily masturbatory and the shower scene just plain creepy.
In the end, it's a fine visual novel/graphic adventure and a great homage to 80s scifi, as long as you get past all the yikes-stuff.