Review
Release Date: 10.29.2007
Platform:
PlayStation 2Developer:
Rockstar LondonPublisher:
Rockstar GamesReviewed by
Andrew Thornton on 1.28.2008
Manhunt 2 was delayed for a number of months due to the fact that the ESRB issued the title an AO rating. I'd like to first and foremost say that I find this a sad state when not only will console makers not put out an AO title on their system, but retailers wouldn't sell it if they did. That said, the second I heard it got that rating, I had a bad feeling. The original Manhunt had some original ideas but was ultimately undone by the fact that it was an altogether too simplistic game which relied on the shock value of its brutality to disguise its gameplay faults. I feared that
Rockstar had gone even further this time. They had. Disgusting levels of violence if they add to a title are one thing, doing it for the sake of doing it is something they should have the right to do, but something I really don't understand the attraction to.
Rockstar's answer to this AO rating ended up being to simply blur the most violent kills, make them so they weren't really clear. It worked, the rating was lowered and the title is out. Its not a satisfying answer however. Because just like the original
Manhunt, the gameplay here continues to be all too simplistic. The novelty of killing people in a variety of disgusting ways for no apparent reason wears off quickly and you're left with characters who don't move well (more like tanks then men) who move far too slowly and who you never feel are as strong as they probably should be. To make matters worse, the enemies appear to be more stupid than in the last title. One thing that could be said for the first
Manhunt was that it created a sense of fear, of being on edge, and the awareness that things could blow up at any second. Here, the enemies follow such tight patterns of activity that you never feel any real danger. They don't act with true intelligence, they actually act like morons most of the time. The new story, about a couple of mental patients who have escaped, helps with the lack of that edge, it just isn't particularly interesting. But a lot of it is on the pure gameplay.
One example of taking out the atmosphere of the orignal title is your new ability to destroy many lights. In the original game, the dark wasn't something you could always use. Here, it feels like its always there for you. It makes you feel safe in a game where you should never feel safe. Until late in the game, you also are forced to over-rely on your stealth kills which having been censored, just aren't that enjoyable.
Graphically,
Manhunt looks quite good for a PlayStation 2 title. In fact, it looks downright great. Environments are well done, the character models are great and the lighting is great, though your being able to control it makes the game both easier and continues taking away any feelings of danger. The animation could definitely have used some more time and I won't say that the environments you play in are ultimately very appealing, but they are well done on a purely technical level. The voice acting is truly great, something Rockstar seems to have down, and the ambient noise is extremely well done and is responsible for most of whats left of that creep factor. The technical end of the game is extremely well executed and easily the best feature of
Manhunt 2.
But once you've finished it, there really isn't a lot of reason to replay the title. The story isn't interesting, the gameplay may actually be weaker than the first title and there are a fair number of annoyances like the enemy AI that just aren't worth putting up with when there are so many better action games out there.
Manhunt 2 finally released, which is good, albeit in a somewhat neutered form. But unfortunately for gamers everywhere, it fails to live up to its promise and doesn't even reach the levels of its predecessor. Its gore and extreme violence serve no real purpose and are there purely for the controversy of it, much like in the first title. In any future iterations of this series, Rockstar might be better served spending less time thinking of the most disgusting ways to kill a man and more time making their characters move like actual human beings and adding enough diversity to their title that it doesn't get old before a few hours are up.
