Manhunt 2 ^{(PlayStation 2)}

Genre: Third-Person Action Publisher: Rockstar Games Developer: Rockstar North / DMA Design Players: ?

By Keith B (18th Feb 2008)

Is all the screaming about creating psychopaths out of kids by letting them play Manhunt 2 really worth it?

After being locked up in an insane asylum for six years, it is only reasonable to escape and kill anyone that tries to send you back, right? This premise comes right out of a gory horror flick and into Manhunt 2 developed by Rockstar Games. Manhunt 2 ensures that your dark side will surface as you fight for your freedom in a demented world. Manhunt 2, the sequel to Manhunt released in 2003, uses a combination of stealth, puzzle solving, and hand to hand combat for its game play. Much like its previous title, Rockstar uses Manhunt 2 to exhibit all the glorious ways there are of killing a bad guy from tying plastic bags around heads to taking a circular saw to their spine. The over the top amount of gore might turn away more conservative gamers but there is a lot more to Manhunt 2 than a snuff game.

Although it might seem that Manhunt 2 is all about button mashing and slashing AI, there is another level of thinking and timing that comes into play. Any player who is looking for a mindless button masher should look elsewhere. Manhunt 2 utilizes both audibility and visibility in order to make players utilize stealth in ways unlike before.

The controls for Manhunt 2 are very simple and are taught to the player through the first couple levels as a tutorial of sorts. Manhunt 2 has both very simple and complicated controls giving advanced gamers advantages but also not putting beginning gamers a hard time. The best example of this both simple and complex controlling is using firearms. Beginning players will love the auto targeting feature while more advance players will appreciate the duck, cover, and shoot mechanics. Players can take cover behind almost any object and expose themselves to shot at targets. Although helpful, it is not necessary to complete any stage of the game.

Levels throughout the game are set up using a checkpoint system. By completing an objective or reaching a certain part of the map will cause a checkpoint which automatically saves the game. In order to complete these checkpoints, many different stealth techniques can be used. New to Manhunt is the ability to stay perfectly still in shadows when prompted to do so. While lurking in poorly lit areas with enemies patrolling, occasionally the player will be prompted to mimic a series of buttons in order to stay still. Players can easily identify these dark hiding places by the stealth meter located on the screen.

Fear not if you aren’t the sneakiest psycho in the ward. It can become very dull waiting around in the shadows for an AI to walk past you. In order to compensate with these sometimes tedious wait times, Manhunt 2 offers a variety of ways to kill your enemy when the time comes. By simply holding the attack button while stalking behind anyone, you will perform an execution based on how long you hold the button. For example with a plastic bag, by simply pressing the strike button you will do nothing more but throw the bag over their head and strangle them to death. But by holding the button and “charging up” your execution, you could instead use the bag as a blindfold as you brutally beat their face in with your bare fists. The choice is yours.

Another way to rid the world of these heavily equip bad guys is by using “situation executions” located throughout the levels. These executions involve small cut scenes in which you use something in the environment to kill your poor victim. For example, a situation execution which I enjoyed was wrapping a phone cord around an enemy’s throat while they were trying to call for backup. Talk about a disconnection.

As fun as it may seem to play horror movie psychopath, the game at times really hurts itself from its poor game play and sloppy animations. While playing Manhunt 2, you will find yourself trying to kill everyone as gruesomely as possible but there will be two major problems in the way. The first is the poor camera controls and the second is the sometimes glitch filled AI you must face.

Numerous times throughout playing Manhunt 2 I nearly quit in frustration of trying to move the camera into a helpful angle. The camera can be toggled between a classic over the shoulder view and also a first person view. Neither one seems to do the trick while playing the game. In first person view, it is nearly impossible to examine the environment around you without accidentally moving into harm’s way. While looking over the shoulder, it is impossible to swing the camera around more than 180 degrees without switching to first person mode, turning, and then toggling back. This constant struggle to get the right view when in the heat of a gun battle will often leave you dead.

As if it wasn’t hard enough to get a proper camera angle, the enemy that you are trying to hunt can sometimes be impossible to kill. Usually throughout the different levels, the enemies walk a designated path keeping guard of whatever area. When alerted by movement or sound, the enemy would go investigate the disturbance much like they should. It is when the enemy doesn’t find you after being alerts that bugs in the game tend to appear.

One semi-common bug that I encountered at least a dozen times during the game is what I call the “dance dance” glitch. After the guard is alerted and searches for you instead of returning to his normal patrol he runs back and forth in a small circle. The guard looks like a dancing idiot which may be fun for laughs but then makes it impossible to get past the guard without being seen. The sporadic movement of the AI gives no window of opportunity to get past him which leads to headaches and many level restarts after being killed.

A final note to consider before playing or purchasing Manhunt 2 is its mature rating. Rockstar Games goes all out to push the envelope with the mature rating and it can sometimes get annoying. Ridiculous AI chatter, strange locations for levels (pornography theatre anyone?) and also relentless gore are sometimes completely overdone. It can be embarrassing playing this game in public with the volume up. However if you can get past the poor camera work and bugged AI, you can really enjoy the fresh storyline and innovative action sequences. You might need to sleep with the lights on after playing Manhunt 2 but it is worth the nightmare.