"Still a great game, with many exceptions..."
Snatcher...a game that is either easily recognized or not. A game with one of the best stories ever crafted, now redone for the Sony Playstation. What could possibly be better? A WHOLE lot could be better.....
Snatcher is set in Dec. 2042 in Neo-Kobe, Japan. You are Gillian Seed, the newest recruit to the Junker agency, a special police agency formed to combat the Snatcher problem. Snatchers are some kind of bioroid life form who have been killing off people and taking their place in society. No one knows who what they are, but its your job to find out.
Snatcher was released for the PSX in late 96, months before the Saturn version was released. There were 2 other home versions before this one and they were for the Pc-Engine CD and the Sega CD (not in Japan though). So, timeline wise, this was Japans first remake since the illustrious PC-Engine version. In many ways it stays true but in many ways it falls far off course. Below I will explain how....
Graphics - 7/10 - Hmmm, where to begin. The color palette is very nice! Seriously though, many stills were redrawn or recolored and, while a few are very nice, many just dont cut it, and some are just plain bad. Also, before the game, there are 2 CG cinemas that were some of the most lackluster I have ever seen. They are supposed to take the place of the nice anime-style opening of the 2 previous versions, but they fall WAY short.
Sound - 7/10 - Yet another disappointment. The original had a great soundtrack and while it mostly remains intact here, some tracks are new and dont live up to the rest of the soundtrack. Some sound effects have also been redone and, again, arent the greatest. The voice acting is adequate for the most part. Not great but not the worst either.
Gameplay - 8/10 - Still very solid. Easy to navigate menus and easy to control cursor in shooting sequences.
Control - 8/10 - Again, very responsive controls for menu navigating and for the shooting sequences.
Story - 9/10 - Thankfully this remains fully intact. Nothing has been altered and the superb story is still fully intact. Stll one of the best storylines and most immersive ones in the gaming world.
Replay - 8/10 - Even though technically a digital comic, its still fun to play through to find all the little tidbits and info. not found the first time around.
Version Differences - Beside the color alterations, the redrawing of many scenes, the 2 CGs replacing the anime and the music changes, there are some other noteworthy differences. The major one is this version is censored WAY more than any other version. Certain scenes are now shaded darker to hide the gore, a dogs death was redrawn with less gore, a headless body scene now scrolls up to longer show the head and a rotting skull is now pixelled-out so its not fully seen. They do little to kill the experience, but this shows how a Japanese game can actually be more censored than its American counterpart.
Buy or rent - Hmm, I would suggesting renting or trying out first if possible. While still a great game too many things were altered to place it next to the other versions. It still has the great story, which is the main attraction of the game. Still definitely worth a play through.....All in all, Snatcher is still a classic, even with some butchering done to it in this version...