First Impressions: I've always wanted to track down bad guys, ride motorcycles, and get babes. Now with Headhunter, I can do two of these things.
You have probably read elsewhere that Headhunter for the Dreamcast will be very similar to Konami's Metal Gear Solid series. And well, you're not really going to hear anything different from me. Headhunter is being compared to Metal Gear Solid for a good reason too. It contains the same espionage type gameplay found in Metal Gear, but with a little twist.
In Headhunter you play the role of Jack Wade, a badass headhunter, kind of like a detective/bounty hunter. As Jack, you have to track down and catch criminals as you travel from city to city on your motorcycle. Jack is originally hired to capture a murderer, however, a lot more trouble comes out of that one mission than expected. Since the government in the game puts a lot of emphasis on what the media reveals to the public, I'm guessing that if you don't catch the murder, he will reveal something horrible to the world that the government doesn't want them to see. Man, I should be a detectiveЕ
Like I said earlier, you will follow criminals from city to city riding on your hog (incase you didn't know, that's slang for motorcycle). This part of the game absolutely rocksЕ not just because you ride a motorcycle everywhere, but because the cities are being said to be super-realistic, so you'll be able to do just about anything you could do in real life, such as weaving around slower the moving cars in traffic (which I always wanted to do). You can also expect an online mode, via SegaNet, that gives you the ability to race up to seven other players at once. Plus, a motorcycle like Jack's is a babe magnet. I wonder if babes will be included?
Once you step off of your motorcycle in Headhunter though, the gameplay will be similar to everyone's favorite spy game, Metal Gear Solid. You'll be placed in an espionage/action world where using stealth to sneak around and guns to shoot the bad guys are imperative to your survival. The VMU will also be used in the main gameplay. You will actually receive beeper messages through the VMU to help with certain parts in the game; I don't believe that's been done before. Additionally, if you're online with your Dreamcast, you should also be able to download more files to open up new locations within the game. It's good to see that Amuze is using a good dose of the Dreamcast's many extra features.