Snatcher, for the Sega CD (Konami, 1994)
Another Konami game?
Yeah, but this one's different.
Explain.
This one's less a game than an interactive graphic novel.
That's your rationale? Seriously?
I'm dead serious. It's all about the story. That, and it was one of the five (count'em, five!) games for the Sega CD to use the Justifier, and the only game to justify the purchase of said peripheral.
Toy guns! I'm already on board, but just for shits and giggles, what else do you have for me?
Set in the not-so-distant year of 2047, you assume the role of Gillian Seed (that's a hard g, not to be confused with an actress from the X-Files), a new recruit for the J.U.N.K.E.R.* agency, a group in charge of detecting -and subsequently destroying- the titular snatchers, which are a mysterious group of robots that kill humans and impersonate their victims for equally perplexing purposes.
Riveting, certainly, but let me take a stab here: Gillian's a hard-boiled detective that plays by his own rules, consequences be damned. And he has a questionable, if not enigmatic, history that slowly unfolds throughout the course of the game.
Correct! But you forgot to postulate that Snatcher borrows heavily from Blade Runner, (the) Terminator, and countless other cyberpunk tales rather shamelessly, which it does to good effect.
Well, you didn't let me finish my cynical diatribe.
Yeah, I do that sometimes, but only when an interlocutor is being an ass about the topic at hand.
You can't talk that way to me! I have two vicious cats!
And a husband.
That's unimportant.
Perhaps. What were we talking about, now?
You were gonna tell me more about this stupid game on an equally-moronic list of video games.
Right. As Gillian Seed (which is an awesome name, by the way) you scour the infested streets of Neo Kobe, searching for snatchers by following up leads, interrogating various lowlifes, and engaging in the occasional shootout, Justifier in hand.
Doesn't sound very exciting.
It's hard to explain the appeal of a game that isn't much of a game, per se, but still; screw you.
Just calling it as I see it. Don't shoot the messenger, especially not with that baby-blue Justifier you're holding.
It's not plugged into the Genesis, so no worries. Did I mention that Gillian employs crude sexual humor during each and every encounter with female characters? It adds an additional shade of awesome to the whole experience.
Classy, Kennan. Classy.
Look, all I'm saying is that if the future consists of a delicate mix of cyborgs, chauvinism, and urban decay, then sign me up.
You disgust me, partially due to such crass commentary, but mainly due to the fact that you've neglected to mention that Snatcher is the brainchild of one Hideo Kojima, better known to the world as the creator of the Metal Gear series.
No shit? And you're not just reading from Wikipedia or something?
You'll never know.
* I'm sure that acronym stands for something cool, but it's been fifteen years since I played the game, so make up something appropriate at your leisure.
** This is Japan, after all.
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