The definition of tedious and mediocre gameplay. But for some reason, still somewhat enjoyable.
I picked up the original Headhunter game a long time ago when they released it for the Playstation 2. It wasn't the greatest game I had ever played, but it was a good time waster and had some cool elements in it to keep my interest until the conclusion. The main character is named Jack Wade and he is a Headhunter. He is also a total bad ass. He's not the best character ever and certainly not as cool as Snake from the Metal Gear series or Dante from the Devil May Cry series, but he held his own in a worn out genre, which is always a positive. My initial thought when finally deciding to pick this game up was that I really wanted to step into Jack Wade's shoes again. Well, much to my dismay, you play through the majority of the game as a new character, Leeza X. Jack saved her back when she was 6 years old from her father who was about to kill her. Now, 20 years later, she is a "rebel" if you will and completely against all authority. Well, Jack breaks her in and she becomes his aid. The story would probably make sense if you payed close attention to it, but it really isn't all that good, so to be honest, I couldn't tell you what the hell the plot of this game was, nor did I care.
The gameplay at first was horrendous. At the very beginning of the game, I was absolutely disgusted at how much I hated it. Aside from not being able to play as Jack Wade at the beginning, the controls were very clunky and it was difficult to properly run around and turn somewhere without ramming into a wall or barrel or something. Also, the aiming turned me off very much. In this game, when you aim, it takes a while to focus in on the enemy, so you will find yourself waiting and waiting for the cursor to center in on the bad guy while he is getting dangerously close to shooting you in the face. It's kind of hard to explain, but the aiming was terrible. Everything that I hated about this game eventually grew on me, except for Leeza X. Once I got used to the movement and the aiming, it was like second nature. But Leeza X still was not Jack Wade and although she tried to act "edgy" and "hip" she still was completely uninteresting and I longed to play as Jack. Unfortunately, you don't play as Jack until about half way through the game and even then, his segments are almost painfully brief. The last major gripe about the gameplay is the fact that some of the time, you will have no clue where you are supposed to go or what you are supposed to do. Keep a walkthrough ready because believe me, you will be stuck more than once in this game. The game gives you little to no hint on what is supposed to happen and it is one of the most aggravating things I've ever had to go through with a video game. It's not the worst gameplay ever, but it could have been a lot better.
The graphics aren't great in the least sense, but they aren't terrible either. They look like an early Playstation 2 game. That isn't all that bad, but after games like God of War and Resident Evil 4, people expect more out of their games, and sadly this game fails to deliver on the graphical front. The characters look blocky and the enemies are the same recycled enemies over and over throughout the whole game. The environments were also nothing dazzling to look at. It did have some inventive areas like a game show area where you have to navigate through a maze and a room that looks like it was taken completely out of Resident Evil, which is a great nod to the horror genre. Overall, it wasn't anything special, but it shouldn't turn you off.
The sound wasn't great either. Everything sounded very drab, from gunshots to groans to explosions, they all sounded very weak. The voice acting was also pretty bad. I will say though that Jack Wade sounded pretty good. It wasn't the best voice actor ever, but he did a passable job bringing him to life, but as for Leeza X and the other characters, it was almost laughable. Leeza X was annoying, painfully unfunny, and very cliche. Again, not great, but not terrible.
Overall, if you enjoyed the original Headhunter, you should give this game a shot. I bought it off of Ebay for 7 bucks brand new including shipping, so it wasn't a bad buy. If you can find it cheap, do yourself a favor and see what Jack's been up to. If you can't find it for less than 10 bucks, just pass on by and take comfort in knowing that you're not missing much.