Manhunt

"Rockstar delivers once again with another amazing game..."

Wow. Rockstar has been on some sort of streak lately... Ever since Max Payne, they've released nothing but hits. Even the crappy State of Emergency was purchased by the masses who wanted to kill something with anything. Now Rockstar has gone even further, and they're now on that narrowly thin line between the M rating, and the AO rating. That's not to say that Manhunt is a bad game, but it's not perfect...

Graphics 9/10
Some of the best I've seen on PS2, and pretty damn good when compared to other Rockstar games... There're only a couple that rival/beat it in the graphics department, but they're not common. One of the biggest things you'll notice is the details in all of the environments. There's graffiti on the walls, random gibberish in certain buildings, and the gore is pretty realistic, in most cases. There's only one part of the graphics that I didn't like, and that was the blood that you saw during some of the executions. Honestly, I could probably do better using MS Paint with my left hand (I'm right-handed...) while blindfolded. It really looks like crap, and it could've used some work. The blood isn't... uhh... blood-like. It's too light-colored, and it doesn't splat well. When you blow some idiot's brains out, it looks fine, but during certain executions it looks horrible...

Sound 10/10
You have to play the game to know what it's really like. Me just describing it won't do the job. The music, although extremely subtle, makes a huge difference, and it wouldn't be the same without it. The things that the hunters say will crack you up in most cases, and even though their vocabulary is full of more bad language than every rap album in existence, it's still hilarious. There are plenty of times when a hunter heard me laughing because of what he said (I'll talk about this amazing feature further down), and I don't regret being caught. The guns sound like guns, the sick noises that you hear during the executions are realistic, etc. etc. There's not many stealth games that can rival this...

Controls 9/10
The controls for this game are near perfect, with just one drawback: No jump button. You can walk, you can crouch, you can run like all hell is breaking loose behind you, but you can't freakin jump. Jumping would've been one of the most useful things in this game, even if it was just to be able to climb onto a dumpster or something. But no... Cash is stuck to the ground like glue is to paper. You can fall off of some ledges, but that's about it. No jumping. But, that's my only gripe with the controls. Besides that, everything is perfectly positioned, and there's not many ways you can screw something up. So besides the lack of a jump button, the controls are just about perfect.

Gameplay 8/10
This is where a lot of things go kinda wrong. There's one big feature that saves it though, and without this feature, the gameplay would've probably gotten a mere 6 or 7. There aren't many games that utilize a headset, but this is one of them. Sure the hunters don't know what the hell you're saying, and screaming EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! or Kiss my ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! won't make much difference to them, because they're too dumb to know what it means. They just know that they heard something. It's a great form of distracting them as opposed to just knocking on a wall or kicking a trash can. But it doesn't save the gameplay completely. Honestly, after you get your first actual firearm, things get boring. All you do is wait in the shadows, wait for a guy to walk up, and Cash will automatically target their head. One shot, and they're down. Yeah, everyone knows where you are, but you just do it to everybody. Just camp in the shadows til everyone's dead (except for you). If you don't hide, you're just about guaranteed to get shot down in the battlefield. And since you can't carry health items around, the only way you'd survive a big shoot out is if pain killers are near by (Max Payne, anyone?). And it doesn't stop there. Once you get your revolver, you'll start finding better weapons, and stealthy executions will become extremely rare. At that point it just becomes Max Payne without the bullet-time. If they would have kept the option of chopping a guys head off rather than blowing his brains out, then it would be better, cuz there's only one quiet gun, and it's not even really a gun.

Story 7/10
The story is just weird, and in my opinion, kinda got lost halfway through. It starts off with you, James Earl Cash, preparing for execution. Cash was on death row for something (I don't even know if the game tells you), and you're about to be executed. But the execution turns out to be a fake, and this guy, Starkweather, saves your ass. They inject you with some drug that makes you sleep like a rock, rather than a lethal injection. When you wake up, Starkweather is talking to you through the megaphone thing. At that point, you're working for him, and the rules are simple. Kill stuff. Preferably the other people around you, but if you so dearly want, you can squish the occasional rat or shoot the occasional bird. But that's beyond the point. You're the main star of a set of snuff films (if you don't know what that is, stop reading, and forget about this game). As you're going along, you encounter different enemies. But then, for some odd reason, your family gets involved. You save them, but they don't make it far. Then it kinda goes a bit random for a few levels, and near the end, you finally find out that you're out to kill Starkweather, because he killed your family. But for about 5 levels you're doing nothing but killing cops (how they got involved, I have no idea...), and then you finally get back to killing gangs. It's a really odd part of the game that makes no sense... And it's because of that part that the story got a mere 7.

Rent or Buy?
If I were you, I'd wait for a price drop, cuz it really isn't worth the whole $50. Or $40. I dunno how much it is right now... But it's not worth it unless it's around $30. Once it hits that point, I know I'm gonna buy it... But if you can't wait, then go ahead and buy it, or at least rent it first to see what it's like.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/07/04