Dispatches

Disnatches, Act Three; Or: A Snatcher Darkly

Well, pleasant dreamers, I once again find myself at the end of a stirring Kojima game, staring down the end of an interminably long cut-scene, and one of the master’s first, to boot. Once again, it’s been a gripping narrative, despite some of the cloying story devices, plot holes, last-minute love triangles and other assorted narrative missteps. Moreover, while I’ve griped here and there about how the game has more or less failed in terms of providing gameplay that is at once satisfying, innovative and expressive, I find myself rather pleasantly surprised at the end with a few mechanical twists and turns that actually offer tantalizing glimpses of the same kind of playful design Kojima would later infuse, with much richer detail, in the MGS series. Still, at the end of the day, Snatcher isn’t really a game, just in the same way that it isn’t really “cyberpunk,” either. What it is, on both counts, may wind up being one of the most surprising revelations about Kojima’s work, in general.

Snatcher isn’t futuristic or ahead-of-its-time, in aesthetic, gameplay or narrative style, but stubbornly old-fashioned.

Dun dun DUNNNN!
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