Manhunt 2

"Better off just calling this game "The Project", since it has little to do with the original Manhunt"

Since I won't bog the actual review parts of the game with my rant I'll list it here.

Manhunt fans have been waiting basically four years for another Manhunt game, and we finally get one…but what we get is nothing close to what we were used to. The original Manhunt had a scoring system for each level, where you had to finish the level in a certain amount of time and also have so many kills (varying levels) done as well. By getting the max score of five stars, you unlocked codes to use in the game. Also, you could get extra skins (characters) to use in the game by using the same technique. What kind of scoring does the second Manhunt have? None. This is the first step that Rockstar/ Take 2 took in destroying their second Manhunt game.

Next was the kills/executions. In the first game you had it shown to you in a VHS recording type of style (to go with the “Snuff” theme). This didn't block/blur/censor out anything, but helped set the mood of the game. In Manhunt 2, you are faced with the second sellout step that Rockstar/Take 2 gave to its fans of the series. When you would do a kill (doesn't matter what level it is), the entire execution has this pathetic, black and white/reverse negative look to it. It also has some redness to the screen, depending on your level (white has a little red, yellow has more, and red has the whole screen). This ruins the mood of the game and only makes the gamer wonder why they are playing this garbage! Sure, some Manhunt fans actually LIKE this censorship, or can continue to enjoy the game with it going on. Not me. Anyone who was a fan of Manhunt since the beginning should look at the second title and just laugh while walking away from it…since it is a joke and nothing else. Just having the name “Manhunt” in the title almost makes the first game seem dirty. Yeah, I really hate the second game that much.

Continuing on with the kills, when you played the first game you could use a few weapons to actually remove the head of your Hunter. The head could then be used as a distraction device when thrown. The second Manhunt also lets you do this, but only a couple of times when it is needed during the game. Step three of Rockstar's/ Take 2's plan to destroy this game was to limit you as to how many decapitations you could do. Now this is when I have to laugh at how the censorship rules apply for this game. With all the above already mentioned, we now come to gunshot kills. Particularly those shots to the Hunters head. No censoring was done here. You can blow the head clean off with no fuss. How can the ratings board go crazy over some kills, yet go “It's okay to use a rifle and blow a head completely off. We won't censor that”. Amazing.

Other steps that Rockstar/Take 2 took to neuter this game are:

- Removing a few executions that were too graphic according to the ratings board.
- Having less blood shown during the kills.
- Cutting out any sex/nudity that was intended to be shown in the game (this was the only part of the game that I didn't mind seeing go).

Rockstar/Take 2 should have stood behind their game and defended it, instead of going “Ok” for all the cuts/censoring that was done. If this isn't selling out, then I don't know what is. How can you have a game that you feel is okay for people to play (that are of a certain age), and yet turn it into something that will only make your intended audience disgusted and refuse to buy it? It is like having an “R” rated Horror movie watered down to a “PG-13” rating just to make more money from having the kids watching it. Stupid yes, but it's done. Everything is about money now a days. Wonderful world that we live in. Teach the children that greed is fine, but killing isn't. I'd rather have it the other way around.

In conclusion, Rockstar/ Take 2 sold out big time and expected its fans for Manhunt to continue to buy a watered down version of the game. Some did, but others did not. The PS2 version of the game only sold about 50,000 copies for the first week of its release. To me, that isn't impressive. Oh, and if you are a video game player of adult age you don't exist. At least this is what Sony/Nintendo think since they feel that there is no need to have “Adults Only” games. Makes you wonder what will happen a good ten years from now when there will be more adults playing games…

Oh, and for the record. I borrowed a copy of this game from a friend to play and write up a review for. Sorry Rockstar/Take 2 …you didn't get my money for this weak/lame title that you tried to pass along as another Manhunt game. Also, I am a HUGE fan of the original Manhunt so you can't just label my review/opinion of the second Manhunt as that of a troll. I'm just showing everyone what is wrong with this game, and if I can get one Manhunt fan to read my review and pass on buying Manhunt 2, my time spent on playing the horrible sequel, and writing the review for it wouldn't be wasted. Now, onto the review.

Presentation

I basically laughed when early on in the game you hear a part of dialog stating that a “Manhunt” is now in effect (for your character that you use in the game). I guess they needed that so the title and the story for the game could match? The problem that this game suffers from is the same problem that plagued “Silent Hill: The Room”. That game isn't a “Silent Hill” game, but just another type of horror game that needed the title of “Silent Hill” to help it sell. This game should have been called “The Project”, and didn't need any relation to Manhunt at all. The only connection that I can see with this game and the original Manhunt would be the execution styled kills, and the stealth…but there are plenty of stealth games out there already.

You are Daniel Lamb, some nut job who used to be a normal person trying to take care of his wife and children. He was used in an experiment (won't say since it would ruin the story), and it has gone horribly wrong. Now, your task is to escape a mental hospital and kill those who are hunting you down like an animal. To me, the first Manhunt had the right idea. You were in control of a prisoner on death row, and different types of Hunters hunted him down. When you killed, you were doing it in self-defense. But in this game, the killing almost seems like you are after innocent people since they don't do much in the terms of hunting. Sure they look for you, but there isn't the same fear of being seen/caught as there was in the first game. Plus James Earl Cash (the character in the first Manhunt game) was kidnapped and forced to play in a sick game controlled by Starkweather. Daniel is just trying to find answers, and does the killing as a side task almost. At least this is how it feels when playing the game, since the motive of bringing him in is barely mentioned.

The story gets a little interesting towards the end, but when the big shocker is revealed…it isn't all that shocking. Anyone could see what was going on by level three with Daniel and Leo. Too bad Leo wasn't used more since he was clearly the better of the two. Daniel was a whiny little (censored), and you never really cared about his character. At least Leo was interesting to a certain degree. Plus, when you reach about the three quarters mark in the game you'll learn that a certain doctor could say a phrase and make Daniel weak or it could kill him. Why not tell this phrase to the Hunters?! Sure, it wouldn't make it much of a game then, but to have this doctor use this phrase as a way to hurt/kill Daniel in the game was stupid.

The flashback levels really didn't work for me. Sure, they help the story along, but when the story is weak it only comes off as a way to make the game longer. Don't have enough levels during the regular story? Throw in some flashback levels and bam! Problem solved. I'm sure Rockstar/Take 2 was thinking about this when doing the game.

I was really disappointed when you're faced with a big motivational part in the game story/plot wise. What does Rockstar/Take 2 do? They don't show you the video. I'm not sure if this was cut, or just wasn't intended to be shown, but if they really wanted to move the story along and show the gamer some brutality…the video must have been shown. Instead we have lame porn garbage to move the first half of the game along into nothingness, and then come across a plot point that actually matters and we get nothing. 4/10

Graphics

For a game that has been worked on for many years, it is funny to see small glitches in the game. A body part going through another part of the game (mostly the floor) is a bit lame, but some glitches are funny. I had one Hunter run towards an object that I threw as a distraction and he ran back to his normal spot…but he was running backwards! This continued for many minutes (the Hunter running forward, then running in the same motion but in reverse) until I threw another object to make him go towards it. Further into the game, I had the same glitch were a Hunter was running side-to-side this time. A blast from my shotgun took care of this.

The levels (while short) look good. Houses, buildings, vehicles, etc. look nice. Sure the graphics seem a bit dated compared to maybe some PS3 or Xbox 360 games, but what do you expect? I'm not a big graphics gamer, so I was happy with what I saw on screen. The glitches did bother me though, and some of the models looked a bit mutated. By this, I mean whenever you saw a close up of Leo, or Daniel they looked ugly or as if their face was melting. I'm guessing the graphics team wasn't trying to make their faces good looking?

Since I was watching the executions without a filter, you could really see some glitches, or just bad programming. Weapons not entering the body correctly, a hand not holding the weapon correctly or not at all, motions for the kills that looked weird. All of these really hurt how the killing part of the game looked. Maybe Rockstar/Take 2 didn't care to make the kills look good since they had a filter to cover them up with? Once you complete the game, you do get the option to turn off the “Screen Noise FX”, which really improves how the screen looks. I hated that static effect.

Let's face it…you play a Manhunt game for the killing period! It isn't for the “Story” or for the “Characters”. If you can't admit to liking Manhunt because you are hunting down those who are hunting you…then I'm curious as to what color the sky is in your little world of make-believe? 5/10

Sound

Some games can really take the enjoyment level up a notch just by using good voice actors. Too bad this game isn't one of them. When a character speaks in the game, you almost wish that they didn't. It isn't “Resident Evil” bad, but it is close. The only good sounds that come from the characters is when they die. The sounds used seem almost lifelike. A few of the sounds made when dying seem a bit over-acted, but not too many are like this. When playing some of the levels towards the end of the game, the lines from the Hunters seemed to be a bit better. They were funny, and didn't come off as a weak line read.

The music used to set mood fails. Probably because the task for completing each level isn't that challenging or because the Hunters are not smart enough to make you worried or scared. The stupid soundtrack for the sex scene in “Safe House” was lame, pathetic and down right (censored). It wasn't needed in the game (soundtrack or movie playing), and should have been removed since the ratings board had so much stuff to go after, why wasn't this included? Oh, it's okay to have clothes on the woman in the porn movie, but keep the moaning and dumb language?! After reading a topic on a popular Manhunt message board, you can silence the porn movie on that level by shooting the projector.

Weapons sound like they should, and other minimal sounds are good. Not too much to discuss here, since sound isn't that important to me…especially since their wasn't anything that stood out in this game. 5/10

Gameplay

If you are playing this game and are getting stuck a lot all I can say is this. DON'T bother with the first Manhunt. If you cannot manage to get through all sixteen levels on this game, then chances are that you won't last more than a few levels on the first Manhunt before you look at cheating options. This game is EASY! So easy, that I almost fell asleep while playing since there was zero challenge involved.

Just another negative towards Manhunt 2. Or maybe Rockstar/Take 2 wanted to make this game easy since the first Manhunt was so hard to complete? Some gamers prefer a good challenge, and luckily we had that with the original Manhunt. But now, in a world that sees video games being played by a much larger population (and most of them are not very skilled at it), a lot of games have watered down difficulties so anyone can complete them. True, I only played the first difficulty level (sane), and if I played it on the harder level (insane), the challenge would have been there. I'm guessing that the radar isn't shown on insane mode, and I honestly don't think that the Hunters are any smarter than they were on the sane levels. They might be harder to kill, and do more damage to you on insane, but that's probably it.

As for good parts in the game, there are a few. I liked how you could use gasoline to burn Hunters with. Very cool. You can only do this for one level, which sucked since it was a new way to take a Hunter down. Shame that we had a clone level from the first Manhunt where you carry around a gas can. The next part that was interesting is how you had to press certain buttons if a Hunter was looking in the darkness for you. You do it right, and he won't see you. You mess up, and you're found. The Helicopter levels can be a bit annoying, but it is one part of the game that is realistic, so I give the game credit for using it. It was also an added feature that the first Manhunt didn't have. Gun Executions are cool, but this was without the filter being shown. They sort of make the guns into hand held weapons that you would use to sneak up on someone, instead of just aiming and shooting.

The new styles for Executions that were added are cool, but can either be a pain to pull off, or are not available on every level. The environment kills are the bothersome ones since you have to get a Hunter to that particular spot to enable them. I wish you could sneak up on Hunters and grab them (like in “The Punisher”) in a chokehold, while dragging them to whatever spot you want to use for their death. The “Fourth” level kills are those where you can jump down from a high spot and kill a Hunter. If a level has this available, it is worth seeing at least once.

You can easily complete this game in eight to nine hours, and that's with messing around time and not rushing. I thought that I had a lot more levels to go after completing about fourteen levels, but there are only sixteen levels to play on…and a few of those levels are very short. If the levels had certain requirements for a better score (like the first Manhunt had), then replaying the levels would bump up the total time played.

The controls in this game are very bad! When you move your character around, it feels sluggish and slow. You can't even move your camera around (unless you go into first person mode, and you have to stand still for that) that much, and when you need to look around for a possible Hunter in your area…this is VERY important! Hand to hand fighting isn't that complicated. Just repeatedly press your attack button and get your three hits in. Then get ready to get hit yourself, since your victim can withstand your attacks for quite a while. It won't matter if you're hitting the Hunter with your fists, or with a crowbar, or even with a hammer…after three hits, they hit you back. Only after you've hit them a good nine to twelve times will they go down. After that, it's a few kicks and they are dead. Of course if you are ganged up on, you're dead in a matter of seconds. They kept the aspect of running when found, instead of standing around and fighting true to the first Manhunt game, which was nice.

Using guns/rifles in the game gives it some variety, but it also takes away the fun of the hunt. Why slowly hunt someone down when you can just run up and shoot them? These Hunters are not that bright, and only a few of them can actually aim and hit you a few times with their guns. This is why I enjoy using the hand weapons and taking out each Hunter one by one. It adds to your playing time, and you are rewarded (sort of) with a weak execution (some kills are cool to watch though, just not too many).

Running from a Hunter is both funny and annoying at the same time. I'll explain. Some Hunters you can lose by going around one corner and into the shadows. They will either run past your spot, or look around where you are hiding. Then you'll come across Hunters that you cannot lose even after running around for a several seconds. It takes many twists and turns before you can find a shadow spot to hide in without them knowing where you are.

The final level is funny because of what your final task is. I won't ruin it here, but some might find it disturbing. I thought it was unique, since not many games have had this type of objective that you had to accomplish. I did miss the boss battles that the previous Manhunt game had. Sure, there is one boss fight I guess in this game, but when you had a boss like Piggsy from the first Manhunt, all others seem weak.

The alternate ending level is okay, but it would have been much more fun to play if it wasn't so bright or glitchy! I had a few moments when my actions on the controller were delayed by a second or two. It was mostly shooting (again with all the shooting, lame) but it wasn't as bad as some of the other shooting levels. I'm just lucky to have played it without having to replay the whole game over again (it is unlocked once you complete the game, just look for it as the last level on your replay level list). I prefer this ending over the wimpy regular ending. But of course, you have Daniel with the goodie two shoes ending and then Leo and his evil, more dark ending. 4/10

Lasting Appeal

This game will only be played more than twice by those hardcore Manhunt fans that seem to think that any game with the Manhunt title on it is super cool. I have completed the game once, and shudder to even think about playing it a second time for that alternate ending (I don't have to though). I'll wait several months and let the bad aftertaste of this game die out before torturing myself again with playing it.

The final score posted on this site (GameFaqs) is for the PS2 censored version. I will list the other two scores that are for the same game, but with its own differences:

Score: 4/10 This is of course for the regular product that you buy at the store.
Score: 5/10 This is for having the filter removed via Code Breaker. It helps keep the setting/style of the game true, but the title still suffers a lot in other areas. Also, the kills even without the filter off seem weak and non-graphic in detail.
Score: 6/10 This would be for the Beta version floating around in cyberspace. It might be buggy, but it contains a few kills that were removed for the final version. It also lets you decapitate as often as you want.

None of those scores can compare to the perfect score that I gave the original Manhunt. It earned that score and more! Shame to see such a great idea of a gaming series go down the toilet thanks to a company that once had the guts to push the envelope for making games…and now has gone to giving into censoring its own product to the point where it disgusts any loyal Manhunt fan (not to be confused with the fanboy/fangirl fan, since they will love ANY Manhunt game). 2/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/19/07

Game Release: Manhunt 2 (US, 10/29/07)