There are two ways of reading the title of this game. Either it's a Snow-plough simulator or it is a typo. If you guessed either - sorry, you guessed wrong. It's an Interactive Movie about Drugs dealers.
Your mission, should you wish to participate in this Movie of Interactivity, is to protect the District Attorney.
Problem number one for the British. What the hell is a District Attorney?
The District Attorney is the lawyer for the people, a non-partisan official who is elected every four years. The District Attorney’s Office prosecutes felony crimes throughout a County.
I'm like a public service myself eh? Educating the masses. So that's a District Attorney. We all live and learn. So, what's a felony...? Never mind. I guess selling Snow is a felony.
Moving on. This is one of those games written to appeal to the mature gamer. I guess they meant mature as in over 18 years old. Especially since there is some brief nudity and some swearing and some bullet holes in people. The weird thing is I found it kind of shocking. Not because I was offended but because it is kind of shocking seeing that kind of thing in a video game. It's a bit like when they started putting images of real dead people on the News. (If anyone remembers that.) It just felt a bit weird.
Snow Job is a point and click adventure. So - You want to use the phone tap? To use the phone tap you must find the head-phones. To find the head phones, you need to go to the electronics store. To get the store you need to... and so on.
The underlying objectives of the game are simple. You have to avoid running out of time or money. Do either and the game tries to bore you to death with a particularly dull end-sequence.
As your role as detective it is your job to save the D.A. and to achieve this you must find clues. These are either given, discovered or won. Won by playing either the conversation game. I.e., you pick the right 'flow' of the conversation by asking or saying the right things at the right time. Alternatively you can win clues by playing some mediocre mini-games. For example a cross-word puzzle. Clues can be given at other times or discovered by one of the other characters if you interact with them.
The game, in traditional Interactive Movie style, is made up of a collection of strung together movie sequences.
So one thing we have to consider is the acting. It is not too bad. The star of Snow Job and the person who plays the role of District Attorney and the love interest is Tracy Scoggins. No offense Trace but that's a terrible sounding name. Tracy is a steady B-rated actress. Babylon 5, Dynasty and Dallas to highlight a few bits of her career. A career mind you, that spans three decades. A quick shifty (look) at IMDB and low-and-behold Tracey doesn't list Snow Job on 3DO. Shame on you Trace. You should take a leaf out Ms Pizzio's book.
The other aspect of the movie, is the movie sets. They are inferior, in my opinion, to the Digital Pictures (Night Traps developer) sets of Supreme Warrior or Corpse Killer. The makers, IXL, have just used real locations. Yes they are good but inferior to the extravagant quality of Zito's Pirate Ship or Chinese town.
At the end-of-the-day you have probably spotted I've got a soft spot for Interactive Movies. I do. I don't think it's possible to play on a 3DO here and now in 2006 and not get the occasional nostalgic pang from playing one. Snow Job is a top-draw Interactive Movie and it's rarer than a heat wave in January. (In western Europe!)
3DO Kid.
