Description
Gameplay[edit]
The player chooses actions on text-based menus to progress the story. In this scene (from the Sega CD version), Gillian is conversing with Katrina Gibson.
Snatcher has been described as both a graphic adventure game and a visual novel.[1][2][3] The player controls Gillian Seed as he investigates and hunts “Snatchers”, dangerous humanoid robots disguised as humans roaming Neo Kobe City.[1] The game’s visuals are static images with some animations that display at the top of the screen. There is no point-and-click interface, with all actions made through a text menu with commands such as move, look, and investigate.[1] The game’s puzzles and dialogue trees are simple, lending to an emphasis on linear storytelling.[1] Sometimes character panels are shown below the main graphics window during conversations to convey their facial expressions.[2]
The game allows exploration of a semi-open world.[3] There are a handful of action segments where the player shoots at enemies dispersed across a 3×3 grid. The Sega CD version supports the Justifier light gun packaged with Lethal Enforcers for these segments.[1]
Plot[edit]
The main cast of Snatcher. From left to right: Jean-Jack Gibson, Harry Benson, Random Hajile, Gillian Seed, Jamie Seed, Katrina Gibson, Benson Cunningham, and Mika Slayton.
Snatcher is set in the mid-21st century, fifty years after a biological weapon known as Lucifer-Alpha killed much of the world’s population. In Neo Kobe City, a metropolis on an artificial island in eastern Asia, humanoid robots dubbed “Snatchers” have been recently discovered killing humans, donning their skin as a disguise, and replacing them in society. The Neo Kobe government quarantines the city from the outside world and establishes JUNKER,[b] a task force to hunt Snatchers. The player takes on the role of Gillian Seed (Yusaku Yara/Jeff Lupetin), an amnesiac who can only remember that his past, along with that of his estranged wife Jamie (Kikuko Inoue/Susan Mele), is somehow related to Snatchers. He starts working at JUNKER in hopes that hunting Snatchers will bring his past to light.
After arriving at the JUNKER headquarters, Gillian Seed meets Mika Slayton (Miina Tominaga/Kimberly Harne) and Chief Benson Cunningham (Gorō Naya/Ray Van Steen), and receives a robot navigator named “Metal Gear Mk. II” (Mami Koyama/Lucy Childs) from JUNKER’s engineer Harry Benson (Ryūji Saikachi/Ray Van Steen). Metal Gear receives a distress call from Jean-Jack Gibson (Isao Inoguchi/Jim Parks), the only other JUNKER agent, so Gillian travels there with Metal Gear, only to find a pair of Snatchers have killed him. They try to pursue the Snatchers, but are forced to make a quick escape as the factory explodes. Gillian begins searching for the identity of the Snatchers that murdered Jean-Jack, and after searching his house with the help of his daughter Katrina (Miina Tominaga/Lynn Foosaner) and speaking with his informant “Napoleon” (Gorō Naya/Jim Parks), Gillian identifies a pair of suspects. When hunting down the Snatchers, he is nearly killed but is saved by Random Hajile (Kaneto Shiozawa/Ray Van Steen), a Snatcher bounty hunter. Random joins Gillian and Metal Gear as they travel to a hospital Jean-Jack identified as suspicious during his investigation. They learn it has been abandoned for several years and harbors a secret basement where they find skeletons of Snatcher victims. Among them, they find Chief Cunningham, meaning the JUNKER chief is a Snatcher. Some Snatchers attack the group, but Random distracts them to allow Gillian and Metal Gear to escape. Back at JUNKER headquarters, Gillian speaks to Harry briefly before he dies, having been mortally wounded by the Chief, and kills the Chief after Mika is taken hostage.[c] Immediately after this, Gillian receives a call from Jamie, telling him she has regained her memories and is being held in the “Kremlin”.
Gillian and Metal Gear travel to an abandoned church resembling the Kremlin, where they find Jamie being held captive by a scientist named Elijah Modnar (Kaneto Shiozawa/Ray Van Steen), who explains Gillian’s past. He, his father and Jamie were involved in a secret experiment undertaken by the Soviet Union over 50 years prior during the Cold War to create Snatchers, which were designed to kill and replace world leaders, giving the Soviets more power. Gillian was a CIA agent spying on the project, who married Jamie and had a child with her, Harry Benson. Gillian and Jamie were placed in a cryogenic sleep when Elijah released Lucifer-Alpha into the atmosphere. The pair were saved by the army, and lost their memories due to the extended period of time they had been frozen. Having become corrupt with power, Elijah reveals that he intends for the Snatchers to wipe out and replace humanity as proof of mankind’s follies; he also reveals that Random was an anti-Snatcher created by his late father based on Elijah’s appearance and memories, and presents his deactivated body. At this point, Random reactivates and holds Elijah at bay, allowing Gillian and Jamie to escape. Metal Gear activates an orbital weapon, which destroys the Snatcher base, killing Elijah and Random. Having learned of a larger Snatcher factory in Moscow, Gillian prepares to embark on a mission there, hoping to destroy the menace and rekindle his marriage with Jamie.
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