Headhunter for PlayStation 2

INTRO:
I don?t have many words of wisdom here, I just decided to rent this because I thought it looked cool. Well anyway, no need to bore you so on to the review.

PLOT/STORY/GAMEPLAY/CONTROL:
Welcome to the world of the future, where the ACN(Anti-Crime Network) are the main law enforcers, and is made up of Headhunters who track down the ?Most Wanted? criminals of the city. The headhunters are sort of like Bounty Hunters who search and bring in the enemy.

You are Jack Wade, a AAA licensed Headhunter who sits with the best of the best. When he wakes up and escapes from some kind of laboratory, he then passes out and wakes up in a hospital, not remembering a thing. Now you need to go back and track who you are, and why the founder of ACN was found dead at his desk.

Trust no one...

So, now that you?ve basically been erased, you?ve got to go to the LEILA offices and take license tests to earn either a C, B, A, or AAA license that grants you the use of certain weapons, the kind of missions you can go on, and what places you have access to with each individual license. Basically, you work your way from high restrictions, limited firepower, and stuff like that, to the AAA hot shot Headhunter you once were(maybe up to James Bond caliber).

Then there is two types of movement, [1] Making your way to each location through the city on his motorcycle, [2] or walking in a third person view with a gun in tow. The so-called ?missions? so-to-speak include using weapons( such as your gun) to take out enemies, sometimes using stealth ala Solid Snake to sneak around, and solving puzzles such as finding keys to doors that lead to other items that will be used for something else later on or something you?ve already passed.

The way the game was set-up would have been fun if it weren?t for the controls. Oh the controls, in my opinion they sucked a$$. The rolling technique and all was cool in conjunction with the ducking and aiming aspect; but the way it was executed was horrible.

The idea was there, I really liked the switching between targets and being able to dodge and roll while being shot at and then come back up to finish the guy off; but with the constant camera movement and the not so easy to control controls, the game was a mess to play.

The game really wasn?t that challenging, but the sloppy controls made it an even bigger challenge to complete.

You?ve got a health bar, that will decrease as you take damage(dur!). It?s really easy to keep yourself from losing health as you?ve got a variety of moves to use on your enemy. Besides the fact that your guns load way to slow, as you wait for the slowness to speed up, you can jump and do a rolling dive sort of in Max Payne to jump out of the way of fire while still keeping your aim locked on to the enemy you were shooting at. You can also run around like Solidus(I?m sure that has to be his full name) Snake, by leaning against walls, scooting across them, poking your dainty little head out, and then coming around the corner, guns blazing between you and a whole bunch of enemies. Although not quite as good as Snake, it?s still a fun little feature in the game(if you can get past the annoying gun controls that seems to plague most of the game).

OK so basically you ride your hog, go from mission to mission completing puzzles and objectives in each one, move a little farther in the story, earn a higher license, and repeat 5 or 6 times until you beat the game.

GRAPHICS: ?Nice shades, dude!?
If there?s one thing this game fairly succeeded at, it would be in the visuals department(?Frame rate drop in aisle 4?). The game continues through 1-4 minutes worth of FMVs, which usually explain what you need to do next. However, the only character that had some decent features as it looks like they finished it and was like f*ck the rest of the people, they can have ugly faces with blocky movements where you can actually see the polygons that make up the characters. Jack was the only character that had time put into, as he?s got the beard and shades that make him look cool, and he also lacks the lack of detail.

Like all the characters except Jack, the environments have a whole bunch of places where you could see the pixels trying to keep the scene together, and game play can get pretty choppy at times, but still not as bad looking as some of the environments and the character movements within them.

SOUND: ?Say what??
There?s not much to look forward to, just a few scenes where a cool tune will be playing and some pretty average voice acting. Jack?s scruffy voice was pretty good, but as far as the other character?s voices go, they don?t quite fit the characters character inside them.

Also basic Action/Adventure sounds like the bullet fire, the gun clicking, shooting different objects to get different sounds; you know, all the good stuff.

Rocky?s Corner: ?As I walk to my corner...?
Headhunter had an interesting concept, but the way it performs is so out of reach, so previous DC owners need not rent/buy. As for people who haven?t played the game on DC, then this might be worth a rental, but definitely not a purchase.

~Happy Gaming