One of the best looking games on the Dreamcast, the game is another proof of the power of Amuze's console. This Ps2 port - identical to the original - is still a good looking game, and especially in the indoor environments, the graphic engine proves to be rock solid.
From the hideout of a dangerous gang to a secret laboratory, Amuze did a good work filling the environments with a wealth of details. The quality of the textures is a bit low, but decent lighting sources and a steady frame rate are reasons to appreciate Headhunter. Boss battles are the most spectacular moments in the game. The first boss battle is played on a rooftop, under a thick rain that look just awesome, with the various objects that can be destroyed in real time.
The outside environments are definitely unimpressive. Repetitive, poorly textured, without reflection or lighting effects at all, they also show some hiccup in the graphic engine, mainly evident pop-up issues. The few cars that move in the streets are built with a very low number of polygons, and there are no other moving objects, no persons walking in the streets, no birds flying in the wonderful skies of California, nothing.
Character models are built with a decent number of polygons, but what's more important they are well-designed, well textured and the animations of the playable characters are very smooth - a pleasure to look at. Anyhow, the movements of many non playable characters are definitely on the "robotic" side during the in-game cutscenes.
The story unfolds with a strange mix of pre-rendered movies, in-game sequences, and good quality FMVs of humorous newsbreaks with real actors that give the player a look on the and events and the futuristic world of Headhunter. I don't like very much this kind of hybrid solutions, but in Headhunter the formula works quite fine.
