Review By: J. Michael Neal
Developer:	Rockstar North
Publisher:	Rockstar
# Of Players:	1
Genre:	Urban Survival Horror
ESRB:	Mature
Online:	No
Accessories:	Memory Card, USB Headsets
Date Posted:	3-2-04

As you could probably tell by now, noticeably absent from this game has been Rockstar North’s trademark humor. This decision is palpable. It underscores Manhunt’s straight-faced brutality. You may hear or see something that makes you chuckle, maybe even laugh, but it seems almost incidental and you have to have a sense of humor as dark as night to think otherwise. No, the mood is kept grim and nihilistic from start to finish. This really helps to separate the game from the comical and cartoonish depictions of crime and violence in Grand Theft Auto. It’s GTA’s Kill Bill to Manhunt’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance – know that while both are violent, one is clearly meant to have weight, be taken seriously, while the other is not. Beating someone to death with a baseball bat in Vice City is not beating someone to death with a baseball bat in Carcer City. This comes to a major issue in Manhunt – the violence.

The violence in Manhunt will definitely make a few people wince. It wears its cruelty like a crown and portrays such acts with nauseating accuracy. You’ll suffocate men with plastic bags, gouge eyes with shards of broken glass, carry severed heads as weapons, and dismember with grotesque realism thanks to a damage engine that puts the GHOUL’s to shame, but is it violence for the sake of violence, or is it actually there for a reason? Is it possibly trying to say something? Could this be Rockstar North’s ultimate commentary on violent entertainment? How much does enjoying a game like this say about your character? How blurred has the line between simulated and actual acts of depravity become? Has our culture’s love of violence made us less conscious of the value of human lives? Has this now made violence when it brings people pleasure acceptable? How long before fictional violence isn’t enough and we need to witness actual murders to our bloodlust? Will this eventually make everyone a victim? Possibly. Expressing fears of authoritarianism, around the clock surveillance, the pervasion of voyeurism, and the future of violence, Manhunt could very well be gaming’s answer to A Clockwork Orange, 1984, or Brave New World. Or it could simply be an easy way to stir up sales through free publicity while targeting the gullible teen male demographic. Personally, I’d be much quicker to look for underlying social commentaries, as neither Grand Theft Auto III nor Vice City shied away from putting the old cultural lens to our society, cleverly sneaking the findings in between copious amounts of violence and comedy. In this case, Manhunt is a piece of violent entertainment used to commentary on the state of violent entertainment. Pretty ironic, huh?

But who buys games for irony? Not you I bet. Revolutionary games with rich subtext mean nothing to you unless they are fun, so I’m sure you’re wondering by now, “but how does the game play?” The answer: better than you could have ever hoped. In fact, even without the above mention elements, this would still be a tight little stealth-action game and could simply be enjoyed for being Splinter Cell with GTA audacity and Soldier of Fortune 2 gore. However, if you don’t have a delicate thumb, or like quiet games that require patience and sharp senses, you’ll have a tough time enjoying Manhunt beyond the story and setting.

While Manhunt’s atmosphere makes it an ”Urban Survival Horror” title, the same way you could call Deliverance a “Georgian Backwoods Survival Horror” movie, at it’s most basic level, Manhunt’s a stealth game. You must avoid detection, stick to shadows, keep your noise level to a minimum, and dispose of enemies before they alert others, just like in Splinter Cell. However, Manhunt adds it’s own folds to the stealth game formula; ones that cannot be fully appreciated at first glance but completely change the way the game plays. Luring your prey, as oppose to sneaking up on them, is chief among these distinctions. This is a game about hunting, stalking, watching and being watched, and these are all translated into the game brilliantly.

In your typical stealth game, your goal is to watch enemies and memorize patterns until you find the perfect opportunity to sneak up on them and go in for a stealth kill. This is not Manhunt. If you try to play Manhunt like this, it will take you a lifetime to finish one level. No, Manhunt has you get them to come to you, making Manhunt more of an “offensive stealth game”.

In Manhunt, sounds are used to lure enemies to your location, both for good and for ill. Setting a trap for unsuspecting hunters is as easy as staking out a dark area and rapping on the wall, kicking a trash can, or talking into a USB headset; everything generates a sound in this game, so creating a commotion isn’t a problem. When a hunter makes a sound, is visible on screen, or becomes alert, he is registered as a blip on the radar. If there is only one hunter in the area at this point, you’re lucky – you’ll see a red arrow appear on the radar indicating the alert hunter. He’ll begin to move towards the direction of the sound to investigate. If you are concealed from sight by the shadows (which is indicated by your health icon darkening) he’ll come up empty and his arrow will turn back into neutral yellow as he turns tail to head back, giving you a small window of opportunity for the perfect stealth kill. This is your primary weapon for disposal in the game. 

Landing stealth kills is easily the most rewarding aspect of the game. It requires cunning, guts, and skill, and offers a graphic, satisfying pay-off. The process of getting a stealth kill is not without it’s pleasure, either. Seeing, or hearing, a hunter and knowing “you’re mine”, then figuring out how to get the best of him is incredibly fun, and difficult, considering how attuned the AI is. If you manage to get one of them in a position where you are right behind them, but they don’t know it, the anticipation mounts as you prepare to go for the kill. There even begins to form this feeling of playing God, of toying with people, of absolute power-over, where you think, “Look at me. I’m right behind you, I’m going to kill you, and you don’t even know it. I’m going to savor this moment and see just how long I can drag this out before getting caught.” In a sick way, you begin to understand how an actual serial killer must feel. Yes, I was disturbed by that too, but I told you this game wasn’t for the prudish.

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