Snatching My Heart

Over these last few weeks I've debated the continuing of my Snatcher video series. After some thought I have decided that a multi-part video for one game is both excessive and unwarranted. Quite a few internet users have created videos examining Snatcher, and dare I say they are technically superior to mine. Though secretly I shall forever stand by mine as the primo featurette. Why continue to litter the internet with unoriginal tripe anyway?

This decision has lead to the creation of a new dilemma. Resting inside a folder on my computer is 70 gigs of snatched Snatcher footage. Since I've chosen to discontinue my Snatcher series these videos are of no use to me, but that's 70,000 innocent megabytes potentially sentenced to digital execution! A cruel and unjust fate for so magnificent a game. In order to preserve my experience in some form I've included a write-up and some videos. A taste of the bittersweet experience provided by old-school adventure gameplay coupled with great storytelling.
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Snatcher can be likened to a great John Carpenter film. The material presented is neither high-class nor innovative, but there is an infectious charm that is impossible to resist. After watching the movie-like introduction, credits included, and listened to the complementary synthesized jazz overture, even the most cynical of gamers will find a smile on their face.

Konami for quite some time has been my favorite game studio in the soundtrack department. (My morning alarm is the Zone of Enders 2 theme) Released in a period when sound design for games was relegated to primitive midi orchestrations, Snatcher boasted CD-quality beats. The music is not fully orchestrated MP3s, however the audio fidelity is much stronger than Super Nintendo or Genesis games, due to the storage size in comparison to cartridges.

Digitized saxophones and synthesizer wails accompany the player as they guide Gillian along his journey. As unpleasant as midi-arranged acid jazz may sound, the audio is perfect for the material. The soundtrack evokes a sense of nostalgia when grooving along to the 80’s inspired soundtrack. Perfect for a game in the very early 90's.

From the onset, Snatcher’s story appears rudimentary and unimaginative, “A man with a mysterious past captures T-1000 robots in a dystopian future, with overarching cold war themes.” The premise of an amnesic hero uncovering their past whilst pursued by the bad guys is beyond cliché; are there any words beyond cliché, perhaps cliché-er? Most character designs appear almost patent-infringing similar to the sci-fi anime Akira. And you may expect me to say that Kojima’s masterpiece avoids being stale with a fresh take on the formula, but this isn’t quite the case.

The genius of Snatcher’s storytelling is Kojima’s willingness to play with gamers expectations. As the videogame market has grown, development studios have become entangled with the directives of publishers. In essence, as the industry has become big bucks, directors have lost the freedom to experiment. The modern gamer going into a videogame purchase understands the features expected in a product. Every year the videogame market is flooded with new games of this standard. Upcoming titles such as Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty 5 are prime examples of this trend. Both are phenomenal games, but their designs are creatively bankrupt. Konami has come to accept Kojima as their leading man, in lieu of this he’s received a wider range of freedom than most developers. This freedom allowed Hideo Kojima to overcome mundane design, and playfully experiment with the worn expectations of gamers.

An example of Kojima’s offbeat creativity is the breaking of the fourth wall. It’s not uncommon for lead character Gillian Seed to directly communicate to the player on the proceedings. Near the introduction of Snatcher, the character Metal Gear remarks that the player should turn up their television to hear a ticking time bomb. Obediently, I cranked my television’s volume to full blast. Seconds later the explosion rocked my ear drums to oblivion; Metal Gear MKII commentated that I, the player, should have turned the volume down. Kojima may have ruined my speakers, but the novel demonstration of a player’s willingness to follow orders, was a fine trade off for my speakers. Snatcher relishes in the fact that it is indeed a videogame. Our market is overburdened today with gritty sepia-toned shooters; Snatcher is a welcome reminder that games can funny.

The best moments to be had in this classic is during the excellent cut-scenes. Narrative in videogames since its origins to the 16-bit era was told only by text and still images. Developers had no other options for a number of technical reasons. When consoles began to use disk drives, the barriers preventing Kojima from a Hollywood gaming experience were gone. Proper 3d graphics and computer generated content was still years away, so Kojima employed anime inspired animation to punctuate Snatcher’s plot.

The story begins with a voice-over describing the world around the player. A mysterious plague in the 1950's reduces the population by as much as half. Robots since this incident emerge each winter to hunt humans. The world's in a crisis and you're there to pick up the pieces. After thirty minutes of playing, you'll come face to face with your first Snatcher, escaped the previously mentioned time bomb, and explored several of the seedier settings of Neo Kobe. The dramatic finale clocks in at about 30 minutes, and by this time you’ll be so mesmerized by the preceding hours, that no force in this cosmos can remove you from your seat. The quieter segments also receive focused attention, onscreen characters are perfectly emoted; quick smirks, sly glances, outraged expressions, and so forth are charming to witness. Snatcher is only ordinary on the exterior, inside the exuberance of the presentation shines through.

Destroying rogue androids and rescuing ladies in chains, all in a day's work.

Hideo Kojima’s second outing isn’t without faults. I’ve spouted quite a bit of hyperbole up to this point, and it’s time to bring things a little closer to Earth. Snatcher at the time set the bar of what a skilled developer could do with a videogame story, but the gameplay is less than stellar. Imagine those old Goosebumps choose your own adventure books, as the reader progresses from page to page the book allows the reader to alter the story by choosing a branching path. The wrong decision leads the reader to flip to a false conclusion. Replace The End with Game Over and the talking puppets/ooze/mask with flesh stealing robots, and the differences between Snatcher’s gameplay and a Goosebumps book disappear; except R.L. Stein’s writing is the casu marzu sort of cheese and Kojima’s is a rich provolone. But even if the writing is top-notch, gamers are still just reading, not playing. Even more discouraging is that the story follows a single linear path. After completing the game once, the player will have experienced all that Snatcher has to offer.

That is if and this is a big if here, the player can overcome a few obtuse and poorly-designed puzzles that stand in their path to the credits. As a gamer who’s overcome the conundrums of old-school adventure games or a Silent Hill, I believed I had earned my Sherlock Holmes stove pipe, but Snatcher quickly put me in my place. A well-designed puzzle results in that sensational “aha” moment when everything becomes clear. Most of Snatcher’s challenges elicit such a revelation, but others left me dumbstruck. This could be my own user error or perhaps poor design. I’ll use a story from my own experiences to elaborate.

Late in the game, players are asked to spell out the name of the villains’ hideout using the letters O, L, E, E, N. My first theory was to rearrange the letters to form a possible word or name. After a few failed anagrams the game informed me to think about how the letters were arranged. Obviously I was on the right track. Cut to a few minutes later and after using an online anagram generator, I had completely run out of possibilities. At my wit’s end, the game throws me another lifeline. Perhaps there are letters missing from the name. My puzzle had become infinitely more complicated. Was one letter missing, or two, or even more? Did these missing letters fit someone between the previously given letters? Another round of failed guesswork and it was time for an FAQ. The elusive name was Queens. The character Metal Gear MKII laughingly remarked that the answer was obvious. Apparently I was to assume the letters originated from a neon sign that was partially burnt out. This implied deduction isn’t entirely farfetched, but why was I mislead with the letter arrangement tip? This wasn’t the only puzzle to skyrocket my blood pressure. Another puzzle involving two switches and a set of doors was particularly maddening. For the sake of your controller or keyboard, remember to keep a guide handy to overcome Snatcher’s occasionally unintuitive puzzles.

Much like Hideo Kojima’s other games, Snatcher excels in presentation and storytelling, but playing the game is only passable entertainment. There is an obvious eschew in the design to favor of the cinematics to gameplay segments. The story is as thrilling as a rollercoaster with no brakes; peppered with great 4th wall breaking comedy. The truly tragic issue is the linearity of the experience. Regardless, this sci-fi film/game is perfect for any player in the mood for a classic adventure.