Manhunt is like a super-violent Truman Show. It is a very dark, disturbing and creepy video game. Most certainly NOT to be played by children or teenagers. There are no heroes here. Only villains. Not one single character is the type of person you'd want to run into a dark alley with. Including the main character. The game is filled with nothing but thugs, Neo-Nazi skinheads, psychopaths, corrupt police officers, lots of cursing, gore, and violence. The star of Manhunt is a serial killer on Death Row who goes by the name of James Earl Cash. On the day he's set to be executed, they take him to the chamber and he is then put to death….or was he? It turns out the "lethal injection" he received was nothing more then a strong sedative. In one of the first scenes, Cash wakes up in a locked dark hospital-like room, alive and well. Over the intercom a strange man's voice speaks to him and tells him to put on a wireless earpiece that is on a table next to him. He does this and then the voice tells him that if he does exactly as he says, he promises that this will be over before the night is out. Cash then enters a Hellish City and is told that the streets are being patrolled by gangs. That they are scum…..just like him. And that they are there to hunt him down and cut him up. The voice tells him that he will try to direct him the best that he can but other then that, Cash is on his own. Cash now has to sneak around the dark ghetto and stealthily kill gang members with whatever objects he can get his hands on since he is completely unarmed and outnumbered. If Cash can get past the first gang, he will have to take on many other gangs afterwards. Same rules apply with each gang he takes on. After he is done with one gang, he has to drop all his weapons and start off on the next level yet again with no weapons and has to use whatever weapons and objects he can get his hands on. In this whole process, he is being recorded by surveillance cameras which is being watched by "The Director," the man speaking to him through the earpiece. It turns out this man has the power to pull a killer off Death Row and place him into an enclosed city where he has to fight to stay alive amongst gangs and what not. It's a night of kill or be killed for the delight of The Director. If James Earl Cash does as The Director directs, he might just survive with his sanity……….and quite possibility his life. Death-row inmate James Earl Cash awakens from his "execution" to discover that prison officials were bribed to fake his death and deliver him into the clutches of a snuff film ring that wants to use him as its newest star. *Possible Spoilers* Manhunt, the latest from Rockstar North, creators of the notorious Grand Theft Auto games, have branched out into Manhunt. Manhunt is a stealth game, and a great one at that.<br/><br/>I will not mention the story, as you can simply look up into the Plot Summary to get your details. I will say that the cutscenes are few, and at first glance the story doesn't really develop at all. But that isn't so. Unlike most games, Manhunt's story is progressed IN THE LEVELS. If you watch the situations that James Earl Cash is put in frequently, you see how his, and even Starkweather's characters develop.<br/><br/>Cash turns from a menace to society to a tragic hero, and Starkweather is revealed as a pitiful creature, who can only feel worthwhile by watching others suffering. Especially the level where he takes some things VERY personal to Cash, if you play that level, and the subsequent cutscene, you'll really see when the story becomes more than graphic gratuity.<br/><br/>Now on to the Gameplay. It's wonderful. It's really not like much that has been out before it. The Director (Starkweather) has Cash hide in the shadows) and the only way he can get through the night is by killing several gang members in the corrupt, impoverished, ****hole Carcer City. These games were hired by Starkweather to play the cat and find the mouse in these Manhunts. The thing is, Starkweather also wants Cash to kill these gang members in a special way.<br/><br/>Executions with melee weapons are what he wants. This is done by trailing behind the would-be Cash killers with your weapon, locked on to the back of their head, waiting to power up three different levels of gruesome death. There are several weapons in the game, and Cash can carry one of each type at a time. 1 big weapon (like a baseball bat, Shotgun, etc.) 1 small weapon (machete, hammer, revolver, etc.) one single use item (like a plastic bag or wire) and one throwing item (like a bottle, a brick, or the decapitated head of a gang member.)<br/><br/>The executions are wonderful, and are seen from a security camera, in other words, what Starkweather films. It's hard to get tired of the executions, but right when it happens things get switched up with the introduction of firearms.<br/><br/>This leads us to Graphics. The graphics in this game are beautiful. They use the same graphics engine as Vice City and Grant Theft Auto 3, but it has been severely powered up for this game. All the buildings are a washed out, uncaring gray. The entire city reeks of corruption, crushed dreams, and death, there nary is a happy moment or colorful place in the whole city. The cutscenes are beautiful, however sometime rats crawl around on the ground, and they look rather bad. On the whole, the game is beautiful.<br/><br/>Sound. Sound, in a stealth game, needs to be one of the most important components, and in Manhunt, it is. The ambient, yet rather dark, score is reminiscent of John Carpenter's own, and there's a moment in one of the later levels, where I was in a deserted casino, holed up in the highest indoor room there, and fending off a legion of corrupt cops. Since only a few bullets will stop Cash, it was quite difficult, and the way it mixed with the score is a moment I shall not forget. Aside from the score, the sound of the game is wonderful as well. Gunshots ring loud and clear, hitting a wall makes a scarily clear thud, especially with a gang member breathing down your throat. It sets up tension like almost no game I've ever played, except probably Metroid Prime.<br/><br/>I give the game a 9.7 out of ten. Rockstar Games the platform behind gory-pleasured games like the Grand Theft Auto Series and State Of Emergency, brings this thriller onto the PS2 and X-Box, this game is really intense and you really will find yourself drawn into this game making you feel part of it. The storyline follows James Earl Cash, a convicted serial killer who has been on death row and is appeared to be put to death, the lethal injection is nothing but a strong sedative. He is woken up by a voice put through an intercom and into earpiece which Cash uses throughout the game. He is sent out into Carcer City, a depraved city filled with dangerous gangs and dark locations.<br/><br/>What makes this game different from other games like State Of Emergency where you where basically running around rioting is the variety of game-play you have to use. Stealth kills in the game are very essential most of the time, where you use weapons like steel bats, glass shards, plastic bags, wiring and machete's to kill gang members. But the game also takes you into gunfights with normal pistols, shotguns and tranquilisers.<br/><br/>(Quote From Some Random News Website) "Dixon's has stopped supplying the computer game Manhunt. The move comes after the parents of a schoolboy murdered by a friend blamed the violent game for their son's death. Nowhere does it mention exactly what the other parents were doing allowing him to play the game in the first place." This definitely isn't for under 18s, well I'm 16 so I'll say that kids under 16 should stick with GTA for now. This is a whole different level of violence and you might not be able to handle it<br/><br/>This game is a good choice and its pretty poor that parents are always willing to blame anything but the child for actions like this. During the brief time the game was banned in all of the UK i purchased a copy off eBay. I suggest that for people wanting the game in New Zealand do the same.
Vratflor replied
346 weeks ago