Manhunt

"Repetitive but fun - killer maniacs are after you"

A different look at a reality TV. A look that can give you chills down your spine.

Story: 8/10
You are James Earl Cash a convicted felon that is on a death row. Your execution has taken place, but guess what - you are not dead. A mysterious voice over the speak system wants you to put in an ear piece in and the fun starts. The voice is movie director Starkweather and he wants to give you a second chance at life. He wants you to start in his reality series called "Born Again". You basically are the prey and need to survive and progress while being stalked and chased by variety of killer maniacs aka THE MANHUNT. You take the job, get ready, and let the hunt begin.

Graphics: 7/10
The same engine as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, minus the bright colors. The environments are dark and gloomy as all the action takes place in the shade or at night. The games features CGI sequences which most of them are shown like the footage came from a hand held camera, you can see the REC icon. The executions and mission objectives are also shown using the previously described camera view.

Sound: 9/10
Sound in this game is tremendous. The music in the different stages suites the surroundings and when foes get close you can hear you characters heart beat get more vibrant. It would be nice to see a different tune when you are chased but this does not happen. The voice acting is top notch. The different types of gangs talk differently and these things apply when they are just hanging around, or looking for you. During executions as expected different weapons make different noise as they rip through the flesh. The highlight however is the voice of the directory that you hear in your headset. He enjoys your executions complementing you, guides you through levels, and gets pissed off at you if you haven't killed anything in a while. His voice is very vicious and can send shocks down your spine.

Game-play: 7/10
The game plays from a 3rd person perspective with ability to switch to 1st person to get a better view. The camera is leveled not over-head and you can shift if left and right. The main point of the game is to stay alive by executing/killing the maniacs that are looking for you. Until you get a gun, executions are the way to go because melee combat is hard to win as this game was designed around stealth. You have to stay in the shadows, sneak up behind their enemies and execute them. Once you in range and hold the attack button for a while execution target turns yellow, hold it a little bit more longer and it becomes red, giving you the ultimate killing experience. These killing sequences are not for weak minded, as they are very graphic and provide you with maximum gore. Each weapon has two executing sequences, which make the game repetitive after a while as you keep on executing the same killer move over and over. Enemies can also be lead to your trap by making a noise, and waiting in a shadow till they come by. You see the enemy movement on your radar, where they are pointing, whether they are alert, or have spotted you. While you in a shadow you are virtually invisible but this is not always the case, the enemy can surprise you and come into the shadow spotting you. This keeps the game real and not predictable as the AI can be considered smart at times. If you are spotted you have to run and hide somewhere again, so enemy will lose track of you. If you cannot hide and nowhere to run, means a sure dead. There is a stamina meter so you cannot run forever. Enemies can also ambush you. The gameplay sort of can be compared to a wavelength, when you get new weapons things get exciting as you want to see the new killer moves then level after level it gets dull till you start getting guns, then you get tired of those till the end when difficulty kicks in and the game gets interesting again. The gun sequences pretty much remove the stealth element. You want to make noise and be seen so enemies run to you so you can take them out one by one. Sometimes you want to just run into them and shoot them first, as supposed to letting them get set so it will be hard to get through. Aiming is the same way as in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, you get a fixed target on an enemy and the closer you get you have the ability to go straight for the head shot. You have variety of weapons in the game which can be classified into three categories. Dispensable such as plastic bag, barb wire, glass shard, etc. Melee such as hammer, chain saw, craw bar, baseball bat, etc. Guns such as pistol, shotgun, sniper rifle, machinegun, etc. Saving is done in terms of getting into a save zone where you can save once and at the end of the level. Once you load all the guns that were laying around the level are gone, which also happens if you take your time picking them off ground, they just vanish. There are few bugs with the environment. Sometimes you can get stuck in a wall, or get cornered by an obstacle whether it is an NPC or the environment that you need to restart. There is no multiplayer and there are few unlockables based on the beating the level with 3 stars or better. The games consists of very few mini games, and they are part of the gameplay and cannot be skipped. There are some mini games that you can unlock and cheat codes, but following the codes and fulfilling the requirements I could not make them work, so you are on your own in terms of getting help. The game is not hard, but towards the end it can get pretty hard. Just be patient and you will get through it. It takes about 12-16 hours to complete, depending how fast you were going.

Final Impression
Very violent game, you should not let your kid play it, it can leave an emotional scar - brains are flying, skulls are split, beheading - not for minors definitely. This game has been banned in few countries for a good reason. Other than the hard mode, there is no replay value and believe me playing through this again could be a chore do to the repetition, so maybe a rental is not a bad choice. It sells for $19.00 at the moment NEW.
I'll give it 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/14/07