Headhunter is a Stealth Action Masterpiece

Update: I only learned about widescreen hacks after making this video, so sorry for the wide characters. This will be fixed in all future videos as of July 2023
Headhunter is basically Metal Gear Solid filtered through the lens of Total Recall. It is a masterpiece so let's talk about it!
#headhunter #stealthgame #dreamcast #metalgearsolid #nostalgia
00:00 Headhunter

[@9ine7even3hree]

This Winback and Advent Rising gotta be some of the most under the radar games.

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

Winback is incredible! I need to look up Advent Rising

[@majimamike4097]

I am a big fan of Headhunter back from the Dreamcast days. This game got the short end of the stick back then from game magazines but eventually gamers start to appreciate it more.

[@drunkensailor112]

It was actually reviewed very well at the time.

[@litjellyfish]

So fun to see the logo again. Feels almost like yesterday when I drew it on like a napkin. Good ol times. Almost 25 years already… crazy

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

It's a fantastic logo too - such a cool cyber aesthetic. I really love it! Great job 😊

[@litjellyfish]

@@DreamcastEnjoyer ah I meant the Amuze logo :) Still yeah the headhunter is since as well. But it was more just to take a font and add a bit of “cyber” stuff behind it :)

[@cubeb3]

@@litjellyfishmake that indie DC game! Would love to learn more about you man!

[@litjellyfish]

@@cubeb3 Dreamcast junkyard did and interview of me / headhunter some years ago. Search for it here on KZbin and you have the choice to be tortured by my voice for like two hours 😎

[@tobiaslofi]

You made Amuze/ Headhunter?! Tell me more!! Why did you stop? Headhunter is my favorite game ever. The gameplay is solid and the story and humor is drawing me in! It should be everyone’s no.2 top Dreamcast game (after Soul Calibur)!!

[@connorm.anderton363]

I played this game in August 2021 and thought it was, for its time, AMAZING (especially the feel of combat, atmosphere, fun "trial" segments and commentary on modern society and a possible coming dystopian future.....but then one of the main villains turns out to be a generic mad, bumbling German scientist at the end.

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

Yea that ending was a real weird twist even back when this first dropped haha. Still one of the greatest action games though for sure!

[@connorm.anderton363]

@@DreamcastEnjoyer Absolutely! It feels like an early PS3 game graphics-wise tbh (the DC version) and I thought the physics engine was really tight for its time. Is the sequel worth playing?

[@connorm.anderton363]

@@DreamcastEnjoyer I'm re-playing it!

[@litjellyfish]

How come you play it emulated it’s such a higher resolution? For me a it brings out the low poly aspect of it and make low res textures stand out more. Would have loved to see it in say original 640res with nice antialiasing. I bet it would look more coherent then.

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

Sadly I don't have good enough capture equipment at the moment to get the original footage from Dreamcast, so emulator is easier for me to get footage. Sorry if it loses some of the original charm - I still think it looks pretty great though even in a resolution it was never intended for

[@litjellyfish]

@@DreamcastEnjoyer yeah it looks great. I mean it’s just that with the higher resolution if feel the edges and the noisy textures becomes more clear. Like when you see the sharp nice pixels from the emulator you notice how low res the textures is :) Still it’s so great the packing DC have. Like I think we packed 90% of all the texures in the end. Only some textures used for text etc we needed to leave unpacked as otherwise big visual artefacts was visible

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

@ianajax I think it looks incredible either way but I get what you mean. Also, it's awesome to hear from someone who worked on one of my favourite games, so thank you for checking out my channel 😀

[@litjellyfish]

@@DreamcastEnjoyer always fun to stumble upon DC fans. Thinking of maybe do a small DC indie game if I get time and evergy. Love of course the machine

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

@ianajax if you do that then please let me know - I'll be first in line to play it 😊

[@SLRModShop]

Do NOT, under any circumstance, play Head Hunter 2... That game's appallingly bad. The only redeeming quality is that it is so forgettable that it won't taint your love for the first one.

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

Oh wow! Really? I seem to remember my Dad playing it and saying it sucked, but I never tried it so was gonna give it the benefit of the doubt. You think that's why there's no Headhunter 3?

[@SLRModShop]

@@DreamcastEnjoyer oh yeah, definitely. I knew going in it was going to be bad, I played it years after its release but I thought there was a chance it would be a misunderstood game... It wasn't, it's as bad as they say. It's also so forgettable that I don't even remember what's wrong with it. Only that I quit after maybe 2 hours. What I do remember is that the atmosphere is nothing like Head Hunter 1, it's your typical "50 shades of brown" from the x360 era

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

@@SLRModShop oh no, that sounds bad! The thing I like about Headhunter is the sunny LA vibes mixed with the steel and servers cyber future stuff

[@SLRModShop]

@@DreamcastEnjoyer same, that's what brought me back so many times to this game back then. I could never get past the cowboy but the vibe alone made it a memorable game to me. I just bought myself an Anbernic RG353 (a small, slick handheld that plays emulation). I used to not pay attention to those, for good reasons but this one blew me away. It plays PS1 games flawlessly. And it plays Dreamcast games (albeit in 240p) really well!!! I'm currently replaying Toy Commander on it and I'll try Dead Hunter again, this time, I'll hopefully finish it!

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

@@SLRModShop oooo that sounds like a nice purchase!

[@heronoverdose]

How in the world did I figure this game out at all when I was only 10 years old. Graphics I remember looking excellent at the time, and for some reason they just don't seem as aged as one would expect them to be? I guess it might something to do with the low key art style.

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

It does still look amazing! I played it when I was around 10-11 too but definitely had a lot of help from my dad 😊

[@Halbmond]

Oh wow, Ive never seen the game look this good! What emulator do you use?

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

This footage is on Redream. But it still looks amazing on hardware too

[@knk7744]

Just started this game some weeks ago. I Love it so much

[@michaeltylerstewart]

When the Shenmue music kicked in, I lost it.

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

Hahaha I was wondering if anyone would spot where that track was from :)

[@knk7744]

How could you Miss it😍

[@gorofujita5767]

Good review, but the video should have been uploaded in the correct aspect ratio

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

Thank you. Personally, I love the Wide-screen feature on ReDream - I think it does a decent job of rendering the game clearly without too much stretching, but I do appreciate that everyone will have different views on it

[@gorofujita5767]

@@DreamcastEnjoyer Yes, I do enjoy widescreen too, but in here Redream didn't work properly (maybe devs need to amplify the compatibility of forced widescreen to more games) and the picture is stretched out. Or something happened when rendering the video. (I hope I don't come across as patronizing; I know that behind these videos there's a lot of work. But aspect ratio is something I'm nitpicky about, and I like widescreen to be displayed correctly. In any case, comments help you with the algorithm, so there's also that)

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

@@gorofujita5767 don't worry, you're not being nitpicky at all - I do appreciate the feedback! There are definitely videos I've got coming up that won't be wide-screen (for instance, when I do Hybrid Heaven on the N64, since there doesn't seem to be a way to get a good wide-screen on that console) Either way thank you for taking the time to watch the video and share your thoughts :)

[@hek9322]

I'll probably play illbleed due to this video

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

That's a hell of a game, for sure

[@CasperEgas]

Great game. I bought it on release and promptly completed it. I usually don't like stealth games, but this game doesn't over do it. Love the humour too. The bike controls could have been better. The sequel is cool too, but I prefer the original.

[@shsrpr]

One of my favorite Dreamcast games, I beat it several times back in the day. Just played through it on PS2 (on my PS3), and it holds up. It works a little better on the DualShock controller. But that may just be my preference for it, the controls are basically the same, no camera controls, motorcycle driving is pretty horrendous still. I think it would have been a massive hit on the PS2 had it come out a year or two earlier. But by the time it actually came out on PS2 there were games like GTA III and MGS2. This game seems quaint in comparison to those. Even on the Dreamcast, which released a year earlier than the PS2 version, it's still a little outdated for its time. But if you can get past the controls (which feel better with time), it's a really fun engaging game. Fairly schlocky story, but the voice acting is mostly superb, and there's so much good humor in the dialogue. It feels like a Sega Arcade game of the era (duh, since it was developed on the Naomi hardware), but it's an at home single player game. Totally worth playing until the end, on DC or PS2. I tried HH2 too, btw. The graphics look terrible, but it has camera controls this time out. But it's just so different I haven't been able to get very far into it.

[@GUnitSureno]

A remaster or remake would be cool.

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

I'd be very into a remaster, no doubt

[@Ufasas]

i'd play it even without never seeing this game before

[@elfo7]

It wasn't a bad game, the problem is that I played Metal Gear first and this game was supposed to be it's sucessor. I was expecting it to be but honestly MSG was so much better, mainly because of the cinematic scenes and awesome voices. So I was pretty dissappointed with Headhunter. Still, it was a good game with really good graphics.

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

I love the voice acting and direction in Headhunter, personally. It just had a different vibe, whereas MGS is very serious and dramatic, this one is more intentionally funny satire stuff. Both great games though and both big parts of my childhood!

[@Ryan-br6np]

I'd watch a lets play. Nice video, looks like a good game.

[@travisbplank]

Guess I'm just watching all of your videos now...even topics I'm not into. I'm in for the ride it seems. It's amazing that Ive played and loved so many Dreamcast games but I'm still capable of being introduced to new ones. I'll add this alongside Berserk on my list of Dreamcast games I need to check out.

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

Hey, I really appreciate the support and hope you're liking the channel! I'll be covering Sword of the Berserk at some point too :)

[@whoopswrongbutton3987]

Nice one, going to have to get this one going on ReDream!

[@markdelgado1029]

This game was my childhood

[@emadoraadgeorgeos1282]

amazing 😍 😍 😍 😍 my best game

[@joesretrostuff]

Played this again recently. Dodgy controls but excellent game

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

I thought the controls were pretty tight considering the age, but yeah you can definitely tell it's an older game. Glad you like it though

[@joesretrostuff]

@@DreamcastEnjoyer I think it was an Offical Dreamcast Magazine review that talked about how many buttons you have to use in gunfights, i.e. one for aiming, one for firing, another for switching targets or pivoting, then if you crouch that's 4 not including the d-pad :D But yeah to be fair all 3d games at the time had slightly dodgy controls before the emergence of dual thumbsticks. Seeing as you enjoyed my sugar cube easter egg nugget on Toy Commander, here's one for Headhunter - I found a surefire way to literally fall through the floor in one of the later stages. When you first enter the big open arena where you first find Adam, when you first enter there's a sloped walkway to your left that curves around the arena. If you do Jack's wall hug on the right side of the walkway, when you get to the end of the slope Jack just falls through the floor. Works every time...

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

@j0etb hahaha I've got a save state just before Adam so I'll give this a go! You're always on it with the interesting trivia and I appreciate that :)

[@janinoherdeklar7779]

definitely..one of my top 10 DC games

[@DreamcastEnjoyer]

Same here. Maybe even top 5 for me

[@litjellyfish]

@@DreamcastEnjoyer nice to hear. Then all the effort to make it was not ok waste 😅