Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Headhunter

Written by Adam Woolcott on March 05, 2002

First Impressions: Hunting heads, and arms, and legs, and stuff like that.

Headhunter started life early in the Sega Dreamcast cycle, a game that had been developed as that console was released, and was still being worked on throughout the slow, sad demise of that great system. The game was released in Europe (the home territory of Amuze, the Sega owned developer), but the title was never allowed to show face in other countries.

In comes Acclaim, a company that has published many a Sega game since Sega ditched hardware and became a 3rd party developer, who have officially picked up this once-hotly anticipated title and are hard at work porting the Dreamcast game over to the PlayStation 2. While the game received mostly positive, yet critical reviews of the DC version, hopefully the PS2 conversion will have more meat to it, helping the Metal Gear-ish game shine to its true potential.

The story of Headhunter tells of Jack Wade, a, you guessed it, headhunter, for the ACN: Anti-Crime Network. Basically, criminals are to pay fines for committing crimes, and if they do not, headhunters such as Mr. Wade are to hunt them down and either make them pay, or be forced to give up particular body parts or vital organs to rich, ill folks who happen to need that certain part to live. In short, these guys are bounty hunters. Gruesome, indeed.

However things aren't as they seem, and Jack gets caught up in some shady business, and you find him missing most of his memory, and has had his headhunter (say THAT 4 times fast) license revoked. ACN President Christopher Stern has been murdered, and Jack, along with Stern's daughter Angela, go out to solve this murder. You also will get to play as Angela, if you'd rather not play as Jack.

Needless to say, Headhunter will be story-rich to go along with the gameplay.

Headhunter is very similar to Metal Gear Solid Ц the preferred method of attack is stealth; sneaking around, watching your radar and not getting detected. Sure, you can go around and kill everything in sight, but most likely you'll be wasted, since you're outnumbered and everything. Despite that, you are given some nice artillery to use, like rocket launchers and shotguns. But most likely these will need to be reserved for boss battles, and such. Also like MGS, you'll use many different varieties of communications methods for keeping in contact with your support, and it's very similar to the Codec, able to talk, and also upload data.

Besides that, the creative element of riding a motorcycle comes in. In a lot of ways this is similar, slightly, to an RPG. Jack can ride his bike anywhere and do pretty much anything, and depending on where you go, you'll trigger progression in the story. It reminds me a lot of the Xbox game Jet Set Radio Future.

Throughout that, Jack can earn skill points to improve his riding skills, which perhaps come in handy for reaching particular areas and dealing with certain situations. The more points you earn, the better rider you are, in terms of speed, handling, and stamina.

The presentation is already top notch, and it's expected to be even better for the PS2 release. The visuals seem very polished, with good details and nice effects, such as excellent lighting and water. Headhunter follows a fully 3D engine, so nothing is pre-rendered whatsoever. It does only run at 30 FPS, but I would trade tons of detail at 30 FPS than a bare looking game at 60. Then again, that was the Dreamcast copy; it's possible the game can be bumped to 60 FPS before release, but I doubt it.

The London Session Orchestra is handling the soundtrack, so you're pretty much assured an amazing musical experience, and hopefully the voice acting will be up to par as well.