Manhunt

Never in my entire gaming life have I encountered such a brutal and violent video game. Manhunt is definitely the most violent, gruesome and sadistic video game ever made, not just graphically but also mentally. It's sick, twisted and evil...but the worst part of it - it's fun!

In Manhunt, you play as James Earl Cash , a high-time criminal who was about to be sentenced to death at the beginning of the game, but somehow he mysteriously escapes. It later turns out that he was rescued by a man named Lionel Starkweather , a film director who has somehow a deranged vision in his work. He lets James has his second life and freedom only if the soft spoken inmate agrees to play in Starkweather's little game of survival. Cash basically has to travel from town to town, killing anyone he sees and proceed onwards to freedom. Starkweather then records his every move as the whole "maze" is wired with security cameras and watches them for his own sick and twisted pleasure.

Manhunt emphasizes a lot on stealth as it involves a lot of hiding in corners, sneaking to an enemy's back and execute them that way. The execution is probably the best and also the most controversial part of the game which it's a pain and pleasure to look at. You use all sorts of weapons such as plastic bags, knives, baseball bats, crowbars, and a few other stuff. Once you equipped a weapon, you aim at the enemy from the back and while holding the attack button, a target icon appears. From here, there are three levels of execution and it changes color the longer you hold it. The first level, which is the white target, executes an enemy in a quick and not so gruesome way. The second level (The yellow target) is much more bloodier than the last and quite gory. The third level, which is the red target, is the worst of the worst. I won't spoil you the details but let's just say it makes you wanna puke.

Sneaking is key, and if you're spotted, you can duck and hide into dark corners. There are several dark areas for you to hide or ambush your enemies and it's an important element for victory. Enemies will chase you and sometimes in groups but if you hide well, they will slowly give up on the chase and return back to their position. The enemies are a blend of smart and dumb mix together. It's kinda funny sometimes when they can't see you even if you're standing right in front of them but it just happen you're inside a dark area.

Aside from those weapons mention earlier, you get to use tin cans, bricks, and bottles not to inflict damage to the enemies, but to distract them. As you progress later on you get to use guns. It is then when suddenly the whole pace changes because everything move so quickly that you have to gun down everybody before they do the same to you. The gun sequences are pretty decent. It's fun to blast the baddies with shotguns and stuff but after a while, you realized you're blowing so many people's heads off that you'll just grow numb to all the violence.

It's a hard game because the enemies are fairly tough, especially when you're surrounded in groups. There are save points (Or checkpoints) in all the stages but they're are quite limited so you can't rely too much on them. Strategy and guts is the key in Manhunt.

Both the graphics and gameplay is very decent in PS2 standard but the most memorable thing in Manhunt is the audio department. The soundtrack is very creepy and the voice acting is really impressive, most notably Brian Cox as the voice of Lionel Starkweather.

Manhunt is without a doubt a must buy for the PS2 if you like stealth games and violent ones too. It's an interesting game, but for me I don't see any replay value in it. The levels are quite repetitive and the difficulty is kinda hard. It's not as torturous as you think it will be, but there are some frustrating parts. After completing the game, I don't have the urge to play it again unlike any other games. Although the ending is rewarding in a way, but I wish it could've been better. The ending's so stale, lame and empty if you ask me. 

This game is officially a certified M-Rated video game, filled with 18+ contents that will blow your head off. It makes me wonder how Rockstar got away with it. I was expecting them to be in jail or something for corrupting the youth but I guess the GTA series saved their lives. But then again, GTA is another controversial game. Anyway, Manhunt is great. To be honest, I almost felt like puking after playing a few stages because of the gruesome violence the game delivers that I had to stop playing for a few days. Take my advice, play smart. Don't play continuously. You might be in the next bodybag... 
 
Score: 
Gameplay: 1 Star
Graphics: 1.5 Star
Sounds: 1.5 Star
Replay Value: 1.5 Star
Overall: 1.5 Star
Total: 3 out of 5 Stars