Snatcher - Does it live up to the hype?

[Gogogadget]

^ that's how I felt personally about Snatcher, it wasn't too bad up until Act 3 when it suddenly introduced loads of plot threads from nowhere, the game would of been better with the abrupt ending of just Act 2 imo.

[DarkDragon]

Its funny because I refused to buy this game when it came out because I read in EGM about all the stuff that was censored/edited out and it pissed me off so much that I didnt want the game. Of course years later looking back, I wish I had bought it then.

[bultje112]

Just trying to counter the overblown hype.

I understood it just fine back in 1994. Snatcher is about as sophisticated as a GI Joe cartoon episode.
Last winter when I began to play through Snatcher again, I got bored after a handful of hours and couldn't care less to pay it any more attention.

However when someone starts a thread asking if Snatcher lives up to the hype, I'll gladly add my 2 cents next to the 2 cent predicatable praise which is bound to be dropped.

again. where are your arguments? you have none.

[bultje112]

I enjoyed it mainly for its production values and all the little easter-eggs hidden throughout. There's a lot of cleverness packed in the title, and Kojima's ability to set up atmosphere well shines through.

And yet so too do his main flaws. Tries to tie together every damn plot twist in the final act, and introduces a whole bunch of stuff that, given the whole title seems to be something of a murder-mystery, sorta invalidates the whole game as a member of that genre; plot twists in mysteries don't really work well without even a light foreshadowing, and instead all the weird secrets at the end -- and hoo boy are there a lot of them, at an exhausting 45+ minutes of exposition -- just feel sorta tacked on since nothing else before that point referenced or hinted at any of it. Makes it all feel really cheap and/or like it was desperately all tied together at the last minute without much thought as to how it all fit together. Then again, given that the third act wasn't ever released for the MSX+ and PC-98, that might well have been what happened.

he actually does shine a lot of light on things before. harry being the son of gillian and jamie can be taken basically from the picture of harry as a kid in his lab room(my girlfriend did). random hajile being son of elijah modnar can be seen by simply backwards spelling it(cheesy perhaps yes, but it was better done in japanese version and was hard to translate I guess)

[megadriveworld]

Snatcher is good for it's theme tune alone! I might upload it and post it shortly.

[Murphy245]

Just noticed this thread! i played through snatcher earlier this year and i got sucked right in,it quickly became one of my all time favourite games.

If anyone likes snatcher i strongly recommend trying out policenauts,their is an english fan translation of it for ps1,that game is just as good as snatcher maybe even better and again is probably one of my all time favourites!

[Zz Badnusty]

again. where are your arguments? you have none.

Blade Runner is a film about a guy who hunts down robots designed and made to act like humans.

Snatcher is a game about a guy who hunts down robots designed and made to act like humans.

Specific enough?

Oh, but Blade Runner and Snatcher are both really love stories.
Just another similarity.

[Team Andromeda]

Oh, but Blade Runner and Snatcher are both really love stories.
Just another similarity.

Think like that you must hate every game ever made has I'm sure there's a book or a Film that will have done the story before . Shenmue must be overrated for starters its nothing more than a classic ripp-off of the old 80's Kung Fu revenge movies. Makes you wonder why people even need to see Shenmue IIII and IV . When any old Classic Kung Fu film will tell you the out come - ie the fathers death will be avenged

[retro nick]

I played through Snatcher for the first time back in January. I played it at night, with the lights off, and alone (This gave me horrible nightmares BTW. The idea of machines someday turning on humans actually scares the crap of out of me. It's ok, go ahead and laugh). Took my time to exhaust all menu options, and read EVERY entry in the HQ computer. I felt it was excellent storytelling. As a fan of old school point-and-click games, it sucked me right in until it was over.

Most don't have a story that stays that involved from start to finish like Snatcher does. Bravo.

Oh yeah, the music is BOSS. "Pleasure of Tension" rules, I love the schmaltzy song that plays when you call Jamie, and my wife listens to "One Night In Neo Kobe City" on Youtube quite often. "Jingle Bells" drives me crazy though.

As far as stealing from other fiction......don't ALL fiction authors do that to some extent? It could be said that the Terminator was stolen from parts of Westworld.........

[Barone]

Yeah... Almost all these movies and games are based on books from '50s and '60s, so talking about "stealing" at this point sounds a bit goofy IMO.

[Murphy245]

Kojima is known for taking ideas from movies,Snake is based on snake pliskin from escape from new york city.

Snatcher is blade runner

Policenauts is inspired by lethal weapon,im sure their are other examples but i dont think its a bad thing.

[Zz Badnusty]

Yeah... Almost all these movies and games are based on books from '50s and '60s, so talking about "stealing" at this point sounds a bit goofy IMO.

To be clear, it was bultje112 who leveled the term "stealing" in his support of the story.

I plainly said the story is derivative. When people gush over how great the story is, it is quite reasonable to point out that it isn't exactly original.

[Barone]

Yes, I agree.

I wasn't replying to you or anybody else specifically, I was just trying to pointing out that trying to deny that it's derivative or trying to trash it for being derivative is nonsense. I had the feeling that some guys were pointing the movies as the primary source when they are actually a mix of much older stuff...

[retro nick]

the story is derivative.

I also agree. I just feel that in spite of this, it is still well told.

[evildragon]

I think I'm going to play this game again.