Hailed for months prior to its release as the violent videogame to redefine violent videogames, Manhunt 2 was released last week just before Halloween. And do you know what happened? Nothing. Just plain, downright fuckin’ nothing. No sort of new standards for gore nor gruesomeness were set.
Manhunt 2
Hailed for months prior to its release as the violent videogame to redefine violent videogames, Manhunt 2 was released last week just before Halloween. And do you know what happened? Nothing. Just plain, downright fuckin’ nothing. No sort of new standards for gore nor gruesomeness were set.
Rockstar Games’ latest effort puts players in the blood-spattered shoes of Daniel Lamb, a neuroscientist turned test subject for a shady research group, as he performs endless executions so violent that the initial cut earned an Adults Only (AO) rating. That rating threatened the game’s distribution, since no console manufacturers currently allow AO games on their machines. To keep the game alive, Rockstar had to tone down the kinkiness and overt sexuality and reduce the extremely realistic ultra-violence. And hot damn, is that reduction noticeable to a fault.
To shake the AO rating, Manhunt 2‘s gore factor had its face bashed in with a bat, its spine yanked out with an axe and its balls ripped into with a buzzsaw…all things you can still do in the game. However, the violence gets masked when a player whacks a guy, as the screen turns fuzzy and heavily color-saturated whenever you move Lamb in for a kill. The screen then dims a bit, and instead of a full view of your prey’s death, you just see a shadowy, grainy image of someone dying, followed by the camera’s refocusing and the sight of Lamb’s bloodstained arms.
The Wii edition has the most graphical polish, which isn’t saying much given how obviously polygonal the graphics are, a sadly regular disappointment from Rockstar. Seriously, do they not believe that a game benefits from having smooth edges?
Playing Manhunt 2 on Wii is also the most enjoyable control-wise, thanks to its visceral motion-sensitive controls. However, the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable editions are more interesting given that the execution filter doesn’t always manifest, meaning you can see the gruesome kill a bit clearer. Also, the Sony editions get more brutal about the time players can use guns, since it’s possible to shoot someone’s face without entering execution mode, meaning messy gore is displayed in full glory.
The bottom line here is that Manhunt 2 is a decent stealth survival-horror game that could have been great if it weren’t so hampered by bland graphics and blatant censorship. To its credit, the game offers an engaging storyline, top-notch voice acting and ambient noises guaranteed to perplex even the most horror-torpid gamer.
Indeed, though you don’t see the kills as vividly as promised, you do hear the choking, sputtering, blood vomiting and dying whimpers as clearly as the real deal. At least I suppose it’s realistic, since I’ve never actually killed someone with a glass shard through the jugular or a plastic bag over the face.
The benefits hurt at times, because they remind players that the game is now just the guts of a bar-setting title, lacking the body and soul of what could have revolutionized the survival-horror genre (not to mention set new standards of videogame brutality). As it stands, the goring gets boring, and your faith in Rockstar as a cutting-edge studio will diminish after playing Manhunt 2.
