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Neo Kobe: Remembering Snatcher by Allan
Hideo Kojima was making cinematic games long before - you guessed it - Hideo Kojima started making cinematic cutscenes within games. I've introduced the band to one of the best, Snatcher. I played the Sega CD incarnation, which never hit a large audience in America. However, that is not for lack of trying, since the game is one of the best pre-1997 localizations and English adaptations I've played.
What is striking about Snatcher is the immersive setting which you are dropped right in from the get-go. Neo Kobe City is a sleazy, jazzy city of night-time intrigue, crime, and did I mention JUNKERS? The blade runner of this narrative is a lonely and hamstrung detective who must bustle through the treacherous city. In fact, the game strives to recall all of the best attributes of "Blade Runner," save replacing a debonaire Harrison Ford with Gillian Seed. Seed, the protagonist of the game, is a little more touchy-feely. Oh, the Japanese style.
I encourage you to click the image of Neo Kobe above to hear my arrangement of "Neo Kobe City." That'll give you a flavor of the feeling this game gives you.
Oh, and the game will also give you a feeling of the creeps. While Seed does have problems of his own to sort out, the game presents you with the larger difficulty of body snatching robots who appear and fire shells at you out of their mouths. Let's say that those scenes, as well as the gut-wrenching gore, will keep you on your toes.
I can see that I've already gone horribly off track. Why is the game a must-play? That is simple: Kojima combines cyberpunk and his own childish antics into the game. I am neither going to claim that Snatcher is high art, nor that it is pure fantasy. It's a little of both.
Consider the premise of the game first. In a cheezy sci-fi introduction, highlighted by the awesomeness of the Mega-CD, Kojima presents a scenario with so many layers. Apparently, in the pre-2000 Soviet Union, an industrial accident releases toxic gas into the atmosphere and is responsible for killing off a large proportion of the human population. (Give Kojima a break on the accuracy - the story was written in 1988 or so.) People come around and repopulate, rebuilding posh urban centers like Kobe. But by 2047, a frequent trend of body snatchers arises. Crazy cyborg robots kill humans, impersonate them for their four-year lifespan, and seem to have wise, powerful targets in mind. They really can only be stopped by their mortality and/or their imperfect human skin which does not respond well to sunlight.
But fortunately for us light-hearted folks, Kojima interjects humor in a way better than he has done in any MGS game. Gillian Seed comes across as a goon, and he is voiced really well by an English-speaking actor. More hilariously, Kojima pushes his fascination with the female body into the mix. Impressively, while this attempt is mere childsplay on a console as advanced as Sega's, the game gives an well-thought-out mix of gruesome dead bodies and funny romantic scenes. The atmosphere of Neo Kobe City, filled with nudnik good-for-nothings and nightclub scenes like "Outer Heaven," contribute well to a steampunk aesthetic. Snatcher will keep your attention as a mystery while not being too nagging, or difficult.
I offer this tribute to the lost art of adventure games. Snatcher - in its USA Sega CD reincarnation - turns 15 this November, and it deserves much more attention than it got. Snatcher had poor timing, delivering a CD experience ahead of its time.
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