Metal Gear is my favourite series of all time - in any medium. The games seamlessly blend comedy, melodrama and filmic elements while still pushing gameplay to the forefront, unlike many other film-like games. I would consider myself to be an unabashed fan of Hideo Kojima's work. Even the unfinished Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Death Stranding - a game about parcel delivery - I adore, and consider to be two of the most interesting games made in the last decade. The former has a bottomless dedication to player expression, while the latter is one of the most bizarre and idiosyncratic blockbusters ever released for a multitude of reasons - and in an era where blockbusters were playing it safer than ever.
So it embarrasses me to say that I had never played Snatcher until now. After tracking down a copy of this super-hard-to-find game (that Konami flatout refuses to re-release), I've finally played Kojima's second game as a director (after the original Metal Gear). It's safe to say I was missing out.
Even from the opening moments, Snatcher has the most immaculate vibes imaginable. The cyberpunk aesthetic immediately pulls you into the world, where you're treated to an opening crawl with narration on the history of the world that feels ripped straight from the best films of that era. A catastrophic bioweapon has emerged, Body Snatchers who can assume the form of humans. This may sound familiar. It's well known that Kojima has never shied away from his influences, and you can feel Ridley Scott's Blade Runner coursing through the world design and overall visual aesthetic, from the opening shot of Neo Kobe City to the fact that Detective Seed looks a touch too close to Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard. Meanwhile, the Snatchers themselves are almost directly ripped from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.