Manhunt 2

Name: Manhunt 2

Genre: Stealth Action

Platforms: Wii, PS2, PSP (Reviewed on Wii) 

I get it now.  I finally see why there was so much controversy about the release of this game.  Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with the blood-soaked storyline or the gruesome murder animations.  This game DOES, in fact, incite violence...towards the developers of Manhunt 2.

Rockstar's second entry in the notorious Manhunt series follows the saga of neuroscientist Daniel Lamb, a mentally unstable former research study subject who escapes institutionalization with the help of fellow inmate Leo.  Along the way, you'll traverse a variety of dismal and allegedly creepy looking environments assassinating enemies with a wide array of weapons and everyday items.  The story unfolds at a nice pace, and is surprisingly one of the high points of the game, but, despite a few surprising twists, lacks the emotional punch of the original Manhunt title.  But let's be honest; you aren't playing this for the story. 

 This is NOT a stealth kill

The real draw of Manhunt 2 is the killing.  Bloody, gruesome executions are everywhere in this game, and it's obvious that far more effort went into this aspect of the game than any other.  Using the wii-mote and nunchuk to simulate the motions of injecting a victim in the neck with a syringe or slamming them over the head with a crowbar is certainly fun for people of a certain persuasion. Sadly, to avoid a dreaded Adults Only rating, the developers were forced to use shaky camera effects and blurry color bleeds to severely obscure the action when these sequences arise.  The overall effect is that these scenes are almost completely unrecognizable as executions.  You could just as easily be watching a sloppy waltz or the heimlich maneuver being performed. 

What's most disappointing is that, blurry camera notwithstanding, these are actually the only sequences in the game that are remotely worth playing.  The rest of the game consists of stealthily sneaking up on your victims, occasionally engaging in melee combat and gun fights, and fetch quests.  None of these are particularly well-executed.  Keeping to the shadows and not being seen works well enough, but camera issues and touchy motion sensitive controls for things like leaning cause a lot of blown stealth opportunities.  When this happens, you'll be forced to fight it out with the less-than-spooky array of maniacs and bounty hunters that impede your progress.  At the outset of the game, sledgehammers, axes, crowbars and your fists will be your only means of defense.  These melee battles consist of thrusting the wii-mote and nunchuk forward.  That's it.  It's exactly as much fun as it sounds.  It really doesn't matter, though, because early in the game, you'll pick up your gun and be able to abuse the idiotic enemy AI as they stand perfectly still, taking bullet after bullet to the head.  Add in clipping and collision detection issues and it's obvious that Manhunt 2 is running on a five year old game engine that just doesn't cut it any more. 

If the scenes weren't blurred and chopped beyond recognition, this would have been what a syringe execution looked like.

Rockstar went to lengths to present a certain creepy, ugly mood; they just didn't go to great lengths.  The environments are certainly dark and gloomy, but textures  are decidedly last-gen, realistic light sources are non-existent, and environments lack any sort of interactivity short of some hotspot kill opportunities.  Character models suffer from low polygon counts and flat, muddy texture.  To make matters worse, it's as ugly on the inside as it is on the outside.  Manhunt 2 is filled with blood, filth, psychos, vomit and worse.  Less than 5 minutes into the game, a naked prisoner threw his feces at me.  In a game that is essentially trying to convey the feel of a horror movie, there is a lot more gross-out content than actual scares, suspense or feelings of creepiness.  The presentation is disappointing to say the least, and for many people, the game will be too unpleasant to bother with.

Manhunt 2 is uninspired, gratuitous, unoriginal and not much fun to play.  It works, which I guess is good, but there's nothing here that hasn't been done much better dozens of times.  I know that there's an audience for all the ultraviolence, but even they're getting shafted by the excessive editing done to the kill animations.  I honestly can't recommend this game to anyone.