Headhunter - Dreamcast

Developed by Swedish firm Amuze, Headhunter is the long-awaited game designed to bring tactical espionage to the Dreamcast. In the wake of the genre-defining Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation, the world got a taste for the sneakier side of gaming. Will this last Dreamcast attempt surpass Industrial Spy, the last effort at big business stealth to grace the Sega machine?

Framing the look and feel of this tough guy-a-thon perfectly, Headhunter is set in a version of the near future in which the government, along with several obligatory major corporations, controls everything, including all the media Earth’s inhabitants get to digest.

As part of a cost-cutting initiative, law enforcement has been outsourced to any hardnut who thinks he is up to the task. This motley crew is known as The Headhunters.

You play Jack Wade, and decked out in the regulation jeans and black t-shirt, you must guide Jack’s designer stubble-powered personage through several cities, tracking down criminals in objective-based missions.

Now here’s the cool bit. Because he has so much travelling to do, Jack is treated to a sort-of-free company motorbike to get around on.

The game plays very much like Metal Gear Solid, and the operation of the character and general game mechanics will seem familiar to many players. The basic idea is simple. You sneak in somewhere, with as little fuss as possible, and fulfill several objectives, usually leading to the capture or assignation of a criminal.

As with Metal Gear, the best approach to this game is assertive pacifism. The all-guns blazing method will get you nowhere, whereas a bit of sneaking and decoy pellet throwing, mixed with a fair amount of throttling will see you right.

If you own a Dreamcast and like Metal Gear but always thought there was a bit of motorbike action missing, this quality and considered stealth-em-up from our Swedish friends is just the ticket. more