Just in time for the Halloween season, Rockstar Games's "Manhunt 2" made its way to the Wii and Playstation 2 this week. If an analogy is to be drawn between this game and the horror genre of films, it is more like "Saw" than "Exorcist"?that is, more viscerally than supernaturally frightening. Even the "Resident Evil" series, with its zombified not-quite-human antagonists, has more to do with an uncanny kind of horror than "Manhunt 2." This game is all about the blood and guts.
"Manhunt 2" tells the story of Daniel Lamb, a scientific guinea pig for "The Pickman Project" who, due to some side effect from the experiments, has to be sent to an asylum. The game picks up after Daniel has been in the asylum for six years, during which time he has become brainwashed and paranoid, unable to discern between reality and imagination. As the game progresses, the player pieces together what really happened to Daniel Lamb.
As Daniel goes about recovering his memory, the gameplay focuses on perpetrating brutal revenge on those that wronged him. You may have thought you had seen violent games before, but "Manhunt 2" takes violence to a whole new level. Along with such staples as setting someone on fire and stealthily sneaking up to and slitting your foe's throat, other death scenes include smashing in someone's face with a sledgehammer and eviscerating someone from behind with a scythe. Death scenes are viewed through cinematic cut-scenes, bringing you into a more intimate connection with the slaughter.
The game also takes violence to new heights by utilizing the Wii motion controls. For example, in one execution scene, in which Daniel repeatedly bashes someone with a crowbar, the player must bring the Wii remote down as if smiting the foe personally. In another, Daniel uses a syringe to inject lethal poison into his opponent, during which time the player presses down with the nunchuck and joystick as though pressing down the plunger itself. In short, if you are a disturbed person who wishes pain on others, you will probably enjoy this game.
"Manhunt 2" revolves so much around being an ultra-violent gore fest that the Entertainment Software Rating Board gave the original cut of the game the dreaded "Adults Only" rating, anathema to any game's hopes for mainstream success. Though you would think that, like the "Mature" rating, an "Adults Only" rating would be enticing to certain types of gamers, games with an "Adults Only" rating are not carried by most major retailers. Another example of this is the infamous "Hot Coffee" model from "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas." When it was revealed that you could have virtual sex in that game, there was an uproar and the game was pulled from the shelves.
Unfortunately, changes needed to be made to "Manhunt 2" to make it a commercially viable vehicle for Rockstar. Due to the wonders of YouTube, I have watched the unedited versions of scenes from this game, and they are highly disturbing, providing a very clear view of what is going on, including splatters of blood hitting the camera. In the edited version, these death scenes are blurred; you cannot quite see what is going on. This greatly reduces the effectiveness of the scenes. A good scary movie makes you feel claustrophobic; there is nowhere to escape to. The unedited "Manhunt 2" scenes worked in the same way. You simply could not escape the bloodshed. But these blurred scenes do provide a way of distancing the self from the unwholesome activities on the screen. This dumbing-down of the violence is economically sound, but hurts the game's artistic merits.
Therefore, I would suggest one of two paths: If you liked the original "Manhunt" and enjoy stealth games or copious amounts of violence, give "Manhunt 2" a try. But if you want to take a stand against censorship, give the game a pass and let companies know that you want to see things as they are meant to be seen.