Manhunt

"Definitely one the kids will love."

Grand Theft Auto, one of RockStar's prize establishments, has always pushed the envelope of violence and piss of soccer moms across America. Well, RockStar has taken it even one step farther and created Manhunt, a game even more violent then GTA (who would have thought it was possible?). After being on the Playstation 2 for many months, it was finally ported to Xbox. You may be wondering if it stacks up to GTA's quality. Well, read on to find out.

Manhunt is one of those extremely controversial games, putting a heavy focus on the blood and gore. Definitely one the kids will love. You take the role of Cash, a thug thought to be dead, out to kill again. You must scrounge around the dark and gritty streets of the city, hunting down those trying to kill you; the hunters. This game truly does make you hunt men... not in that way, you perverts. There are different gangs to be found through out manhunt, each with their own “thing”. For example, all the members of “The Smileys” wear demented smiley face masks. Easy enough to put two and two together.

Your job is to travel through the streets, eliminating these “hunters” using what is at you disposal. Unlike Vercetti from Vice City, or the nameless thug from GTA3, Cash isn't able to take down 6 police members at once using a minigun. Even getting pounced on by two gangstas can really take a tole of Cash's health. While GTA has a heavy focus on action, Manhunt has a heavy focus on stealth.

Cash won't be killing off these adversaries barehanded. Weapons play a big part in Manhunt, and just like GTA there are different classes of them. The small weapons, like glass shards or plastic bags, are the most silent for stealth killing. However, once you use the item, you lose it. Don't worry though, there's plenty of paper bags laying around the alleyways. There are also melee weapons, such as baseball bats, crowbars, and meat cleavers. Manhunt isn't only limited to short range weapons, you'll find plenty of firearms along the way.

This game encourages you to use stealth to silently kill your victims. You won't be pulling a Agent 47 and silently strangling your target with fiber wire. Cash prefers making things... messy and excessively violent. How violent, you say? How ever violent you think jabbing a shard of glass into someone's neck or splattering their brains on the wall with a baseball bat is. He ain't no Sam Fisher, that's for sure. The director will give you a higher score for more excessive executions.

You may be wondering how the graphics stand up for this generation. Manhunt actually has pretty decent graphics, as apposed to RockStar's other “killer” game, Grand Theft Auto. While it's not Halo 2 or Doom 3 quality, it's definitely improved over it's PlayStation counter-part. The textures have become clearer now, and the tattoos are easier to make out. Cash, however, still has Tommy Vercetti's funny running animation. Even with good textures and the clever demented styles of certain gangs, this game won't be winning any fashion contests.

For a game like this, gritty music is the only way to go. However, you won't be hearing much music during the missions of Manhunt. This is not surprising, it is a stealth game after all. The voice acting is bearable, although you won't hear to much variations in the voices. It's either random thugs talking about the ***** back home, or the director giving you advice or praising you on the bloody mess you just made. Yeah, the director is a bit of a nutjob. Another nice touch you'll see is how the thugs actually beg for your mercy when they are on the verge of death laying on the ground. And of course you'll let them live because you're such a swell guy... not.

With all this jam packed into one game, Manhunt is a pretty decent title. While it won't be winning any awards (expect maybe bloodiest game of the year), if you are in the need of a violent game, you'll probably fall for Manhunt right away. Although, if you are looking for a deep game that will last you a long time, you'll want to look else ware. While kids will eat this game up, it might not be the most appropriate for them if you're one of those concerned parents (although you should be able to figure that out from the title.) With enhanced graphics, over-the-top violence, and a few Xbox-only features (like being able to alert hunters using the Xbox communicator), this game at least makes for a decent rent. Not quite on par with the GTA series, but good none-the-less.

Final Score: 7/10
*47 Street Thugs were killed in the making of this review*

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/04