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RELEASED INITIALLY ON THE Dreamcast and then later on the PS2, the original Headhunter stood out with a great mix of third-person shooter action, stealth and some high-speed motorbike riding. With its well-developed characters, great voice acting and intriguing gritty near-future storyline it felt very much like playing out some kind of B-Grade action flick. Main character Jack Wade with his George Michael stubble, ever-on Oakley shades and cool action-hero demeanour were mostly responsible for this due to the sheer campness of it all, but he was also pretty cool and now he's back to kick more ass in Headhunter Redemption.

At the end of the last game the Bloody Mary Virus caused massive devastation and afterwards a huge earthquake also levelled Wade's city. Since then a new order has emerged with society splitting into two distinct worlds - 'Above' and 'Below'. 'Above' is a glittering metropolis of glass and steel towers, entwined by elevated highways with its citizens controlled by ever-present media and the powerful corporations behind it. 'Below' is the home to criminals, undesirables and misfits, meeting all the needs of 'Above' in return for the right to survive.

Maintaining law and society order 20 years on from the setting of the original game is veteran Headhunter Jack Wade, older, wiser and battle-hardened. At his side is the reluctant new sidekick, the rebellious street kid Leeza X. While stalking the criminal masterminds of the shadowy underworld, they are led into the greatest danger of their lives and must overcome something much more sinister than a simple human threat. Each must face their darkest fears. Together they must redeem a world facing chaos...

In Headhunter Redemption you'll get to play as both Jack and Leeza as the game demands. Also, while the first Headhunter had the reputation of being primarily a stealth game, Redemption will scale this back to a few areas only and gun-blazing action will fill about 80% of the game. To cater for this new focus the controls have been changed and tweaked and a unique new shoulder-button-initiated aiming system has been implemented. Some reports have hinted at this being a little unweildy to start with and even convoluted but they were filed after previewing early code so hopefully Sega has refined it for the final version. There's also the introduction of a new scanner gadget called IRIS that will report information on anything important in your immediate vicinty and should assist you to move around the rather large environments in the game.

From what we've seen so far Headhunter Redemption is looking like a huge improvement visually on the original as you'd expect several years down the track. It has a very stylised, futuristic look that fits the techno-thriller theme well and makes good use of soft-lighting and depth of field effects to produce quite an ethereal look to it's sci-fi settings. The maps we've seen are quite huge and detailed and there's a distinct difference between the shiny, futuristic Above world and the grimy, delapidated Below. As is done in many newer titles, the cutscenes now also take place in the game engine making the transitions between them and gameplay smoother and to also show off what it can do.

Headhunter Redemption is about to be released any day now and is looking like a very worthwhile follow-up to the original Headhunter. We're itching to put it through it paces after waiting so long for this sequel so keep an eye out for our full review soon!

Further info -

• Partners in crime. Headhunter Jack Wade and his rebellious new apprentice Leeza X must work together, using their unique abilities, weapons, and style.
• Over 14 challenging stages. Venture deep into the expansive, interactive sci-fi Headhunter universe solving puzzles and hunting down the truth both Above and Below.
• Missions. Your ability to solve individual missions and objectives through gritty action-packed combat environments will determine the outcome.
• Interactive movie-style gameplay. Stunning graphics and a huge 5:1 Dolby Digital orchestral score created by industry award-winning composer Richard Jacques.
• Weapon Frenzy. Both hunters have a stash of destructive weapons ranging from pistols to High Tech Proximity Grenade Launchers.

Show me the screenshots!