Perhaps Swedish code shop Amuze's greatest achievement here is the wonderfully Robocop-styled future, from the tacky ABCBS news broadcasts to the use of specialist weapons, built specifically to neutralize hostiles without harming their internal organs, Headhunter's world has been brilliantly crafted. Each of the levels follow suit with some impressively detailed environments, something the genre so craves for.

The game is played with an even mix of stealth and action, allowing the player to choose how to tackle each situation. Generally, stealth being the better option of the two because as with the similar Metal Gear Solid, once you've been spotted and the alarm bells are ringing, getting away isn't going to be easy. Thankfully, combat is handled well. Repeated presses of the X button will cycle through available targets and Jack will lock onto the selection. It's a simple but effective system and one that works well throughout the game, save for a few problems when trying to target enemies in the distance.

A particularly useful move in shootout situations is the ability to pop your head around a corner, gun ready, before quickly hiding again. When locked onto a target, Jack can also perform a selection of combat rolls. While the range of moves may not be expansive, they are certainly well implemented and this is echoed in the firefights, which remain fluid and playable throughout. Controlling Jack will take some practice, and the erratic camera doesn't help the learning process but generally things are kept simple and easy to understand. On the whole, the difficulty level is spot on, always remaining challenging but never impossibly so.

Between each mission, you must ride to the next location on your high-powered motorbike. The city is full of traffic (but empty of pedestrians, unfortunately), however drone-like they may be. The bike may be unforgiving at first, but with some practice it almost becomes a game in it's own right. The city is huge and a lot of fun can be had just aimlessly driving about. The speed of the bike itself is almost frightening; especially when riding against oncoming traffic, but collisions will just stop you without any damage done and Jack will always remain on the bike, however hard you try to knock him off.

The graphics in both adventure and bike sections are strong, though never spectacular. Little details, such as a dead body slumped over an office desk with blood splattered up the wall behind are common and add to atmosphere greatly. The bright, clean textures the Dreamcast is famous for lend itself well to the world Amuze has created. There are one or two faults; the frame rate on the bike section can take a serious hit whenever a wheel spin is pulled off. But overall, Headhunter has some of the best graphics seen on its home console.

Aside from a well-implemented combat system and tidy graphics, it's the way the game plays out that lifts the title far above the average 3rd person shooter. Puzzles have been designed with gameplay in mind, often introducing a simple one off sub game, which will test anything from your reaction speed to pad dexterity. The backtracking that spoilt Resident Evil's tense atmosphere has been avoided by clever level design, often opening up a shortcut to the relevant area just as the puzzle in question requires it.

Everything Amuze has set out to achieve they have succeeded in doing, great story, interesting characters, and compelling gameplay. However this leads to the biggest problem with the game; it could have been so much more. The concept of a Headhunter 'leader board' is a good one but one which is rarely explored, and with the city mapped out in so much detail it's a surprise how little of it you need to explore. At distinctive points in the story, Jack Wade must upgrade his Headhunter license (a series of VR tests) to continue, while this works well enough, implementation of a basic RPG system to allow players to upgrade whenever they had gained enough points would have added some welcome depth.

The story really heats up during the final section of the game, but the level design sadly takes a turn for the worse. Everything that makes the game enjoyable up to this point has been dropped, now a fair degree of backtracking must be undertaken to solve the puzzles and the environments are simply bland in comparison.

Although it could have been so much more, HeadHunter remains an enjoyable game from start to finish. The few problems are unfortunate, but when put against everything achieved they seem fairly unsubstantial. The futuristic setting and entertaining characters all help to create a fantastically likeable, witty and creative world. While it lacks the production values of the Metal Gear Solid series, it deserves equal success in the market place. But being a title released with so little hype at a time when hype rules all, it remains to be seen whether Headhunter can reach such heights.