With the overwhelming success of the Grand Theft Auto series, Rockstar Games proved that there is a large market for adult-targeted video games. Their latest title, Manhunt, pushes the envelope even further and delivers one of the most disturbing and violent video games to date. More importantly, though, once the shock value wears off, players are left with an excellent game that can stand on its own merits.
The game begins with a man named James Earl Cash being led to the electric chair. A few hours after his supposed execution, he wakes up to find himself in some sicko’s twisted version of “cat and mouse”. A nameless, faceless man tells Cash through an earpiece that if he can survive the night, then he’ll be set free. Unfortunately, he’s being hunted by armed thugs with orders to kill on sight and is armed with no weapons of his own. Cash must therefore stay hidden and strike from the shadows to survive.
Stealth is the name of the game in Manhunt. A small radar window at the bottom of the screen will show enemies in the immediate area that Cash either sees or hears. If the enemy is out of sight and not making any noise, they won’t show up on radar. Each enemy is represented by an arrow pointing in the direction that they are facing. If the enemy’s arrow is yellow, it means that they are unaware of Cash. Orange indicates that something has alerted them, but that he hasn’t been spotted. When an enemy has spotted Cash, their arrow will turn red and they will attack.
In order to avoid detection, Cash must move silently from shadow to shadow. While walking is silent most of the time, some surfaces, such as gravel or water, require slower movement. When completely hidden, an icon representing your character at the bottom of the screen will darken and Cash will be completely invisible to any nearby enemies. Getting through most areas will be almost impossible, though, without disposing of most of the enemies in any given area. While it’s possible to take out one enemy at a time with a gun of some kind, you won’t come out unscathed, and being outnumbered always ends badly for you. Instead, it’s best to kill enemies silently, one at a time, without alerting their buddies. Cash, being the resourceful guy he is, can kill with just about anything. At first, you’ll be limited to makeshift weapons like shards of glass and plastic bags, but later more exotic weapons appear, such as crowbars and baseball bats. Regardless of the weapon, these stealth executions are extremely violent and bloody. In fact, the longer you hold the attack button down, the more brutal the kill is.
Manhunt is easy to play thanks to the game’s tight controls. Moving Cash with the analog stick is a breeze. During combat, the X button performs a quick, weak attack while the square button produces a slower, more powerful assault. The circle button cycles through the weapons that Cash is carrying and the L2 and R2 buttons allow him to strafe back and forth. Pressing the triangle button will allow him to shimmy along walls and peak around corners. The L1 button locks onto the nearest enemy, making stealth kills and other attacks easier to execute. The controls are extremely responsive and are never a hindrance in any way.
Manhunt’s gameplay is excellent as well. The first half of the game consists mainly of stealthily killing off enemies to get by. Staying out of sight is important, but when spotted, it is possible to run away and hide until your pursuers give up searching. Eventually, thugs begin carrying pistols, shotguns, and machine guns instead of baseball bats and knives. Remaining unseen becomes much more important at that point, as failing to do so will almost always cost Cash some health and, in many cases, his life. Of course, what others have, thou can taketh away, so you can finally get your hands on some firearms. Guns make noise, though, so it is usually preferable to dispose of enemies silently when possible. There are times when packing heat is the only option, though, and Manhunt handles this aspect of the game pretty well. Cash can and must make use of overturned tables, crates, and other objects as cover from enemy fire. Sometimes, the firefights in Manhunt are pure brilliance. Cash will run from cover to cover, popping up over tables to fire off a few rounds while his enemies do the same. Unfortunately, in later levels, these strategic firefights are replaced with Cash simply hiding around a corner and mowing enemies down as they run blindly down a hall. It’s never easy and it’s still fun, but it isn’t quite as satisfying.
Manhunt’s difficulty ramps steadily upwards as you play. The first few levels are fairly forgiving as the basics are learned, but soon Cash is faced with crossing areas being patrolled by four or five enemies at once. Eventually, gun-toting enemies become the norm, bumping the difficulty up a bit more. The last quarter of the game is quite a bit more challenging, and many players will find themselves replaying missions four or five times before continuing on. With a few exceptions, Manhunt is rarely frustrating, despite its difficulty level. This is mostly due to the fact that death is usually a result of carelessness or player error, not bad AI or design. Near the end of the game, though, missions take quite a long time to complete and save spots are few and far between, so death often means replaying twenty minutes worth of a level. An extra save point or two would have gone a long way to make those stages more bearable.
Manhunt’s graphics aren’t the best that the PlayStation 2 has to offer, but the game looks very good. It has a dark and gritty look that fits the theme of the game perfectly. The shadows and lighting effects used in Manhunt border on brilliant, which is a good thing considering Cash spends much of his time in them. Though many of the enemies you’ll encounter have the same basic character model, each has unique features that set them apart from one another. All of the characters in the game are extremely lifelike, especially in their movements. Cash even shows wear in the form of new cuts and tears in his clothing as he takes damage. The game’s most talked about feature, the executions, are a little too realistic, though. When Cash performs one of these macabre killings, the game’s perspective changes so that it looks as though you’re viewing the game through a video camera for a better angle. Every one of the game’s executions (totaling at least thirty) is brutally realistic and will probably be a source of controversy for months. Senator Lieberman will have a field day with this one.
Sound is probably one of Manhunt’s most impressive aspects. So much of the gameplay relies on sound that it has to be fantastic…and it is. The “director”, as he calls himself, will berate Cash for wasting time and congratulate him on especially brutal kills. The thugs hunting Cash yell taunts and insults and carry on conversations with each other, which not only further immerses the player but also provide clues as to where the enemies are. In fact, much of the game’s dialogue holds clues as to what is actually going on. It’s obvious that a lot of time and energy were spent carefully tooling the script so that the player is always given just enough information to stay intrigued.
Even Manhunt’s music plays an important role. Most games simply include a few tracks for some background noise, but in this game, it actually serves an indicator of danger. Most of the game is accompanied by a low, eerie melody that compliments the game’s gritty atmosphere. When an enemy is nearby, however, the tempo goes up a notch and the beat quickens a bit. Being spotted by an enemy raises the tempo to a frantic pace and lends a sense of urgency to the situation. This is an effect that has been used by movie directors for years, and it is put to good use here.
Manhunt doesn’t feature any kind of counter that keeps track of how long you’ve been playing, but the game is probably about twenty hours long. Finishing it on normal difficulty doesn’t seem to unlock anything aside from some conceptual art and there really isn’t much incentive to play through the game again. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. Manhunt is extremely violent and even a bit disturbing, but it is also one of the finest games to grace the Playstation 2 in some time, and is well worth the price of admission.
