Rockstar's Seminal Pyscho Thriller Returns

The thing about Manhunt is that there are no other PS2 games like it. It's now three years since Rockstar North unleashed its oft-misunderstood marathon of relentless brutality, so capable of dragging a bonesaw across your nerve endings and so vilified in the press as the epitome of Games As The New Evil.

Since then, we've had the blockbuster horror of Resident Evil 4, the excessively violent 'interrogations' of The Punisher and the harrowing fight-or-flight terror of Forbidden Siren 2, but none have surpassed the suffocating atmosphere and remorseless viciousness of Manhunt. Only it's own upcoming sequel has any chance of challenging Manhunt's position.

The follow-up has little to do with the original’s story but has everything to do with its tension, presentation and mind games. And if you hated the original, we'll save you some time here: you are very probably, going to hate this.

Don't Worry, I’m a Doctor

Dr Daniel Lamb has spent the past six years in Dixmore Hospital for the Criminally Insane, a result of his involvement with the Pickman Project (named after its founding professor), a somewhat demented experiment for which Lamb put himself forward, only to be spat out at the other end into a nuthouse.

One night, an electrical storm takes the lid off the looney bin, an opportunity for escape that he greedily grabs - not that he has much choice between the thuggish orderlies and the brain-whisked patients.

Shoot and Nut

With fellow inmate Leo on hand to offer tutorial-style advice, it's here that Manhunt 2 opens. You are thrust once more into a nightmarish, jagged world filled with some of the filthiest dregs to be found under humanity's toilet seat.

Just who is Leo, anyway? And what’s Lamb been up to in the past 6 years? Why isn't he caked in his own dribble and excretions, like the rest of Dixmores inmates? The developer isn't telling, but there's a wealth of room here for the plot to set up all kinds of psychological bear traps around your feet.

As in the original, there's one key rule for surviving Manhunt 2 - never get comfortable. In fact, within the first 30 seconds of play, you'll probably get widdled on, thanks to one of the wackos loitering in the cells that you must creep past while getting the hand of stealth.

The basics haven't changed: your energy bar turns dark blue when you're out of sight and a radar on the bottom left of the screen tracks nearby threats, their state of alert and just how much noise you're making.

Incredible Skulk

There's one major enhancement, though, albeit a cruel one. Remember how smug you felt loitering in the shadows in Manhunt, cosy in the knowledge that no-one could see you? Kiss that saftey goodbye. Any enemies looking in your direction will now randomly activate a micro-game, in which you must match the button prompt that suddenly flicks onto the screen, or they'll spot you.

It's an added shock in an already tense game of hide-and-seek. And enemies don't walk in such predictable patterns patrols this time around, either.

The notorious execution kills make their return, allowing you instantly to snuff any unwary enemy by locking on to them and trailing them from the rear; the longer you hold back the lock, the more barbaric the kill, progressing from Hasty, through Violent to Gruesome. And we're not even going to attempt to describe what happens when you Gruesome kill someone with a ballpoint pen, the second weapon you'll get a chance to use after the syringe that you start with.

But if the weapons are new, the methods aren't - although a fresh take is now offered via Environmental Executions (Hitman-style setups involving a telephone, say, or a fuse box) and Gun Executions.

Yes, the guns are back. You'll be seeing them in later stages, upping the pace from ultra-painstaking precision assassination to heart-popping sprints and ambushes.

Red Light Distress

Later in the game, Lamb visits a brothel known as The Honey Pot. Inside, he's hoping to find Judy, a technician from Dixmore who seems to know plenty that's she's not telling, a hopeful lead in unravelling the horrendous mess that he's in.

But inside, the first thing you'll find is an angry doorman with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, along with dozens of gun-toting goons from the Project. Not to mention a whore going to work on a 'client' - although that's no bad thing because their dirty groans allow you to cover up the noise of smashing a window in the next room, if you time it right.

By the end of it, Lamb's womanhunt goes awry Judy ends up dead just as he stumbles across her, without a single one of his questions answered. Oops. But that's Manhunt for you. It’s one of the most remorseless game experiences you could ever hope to survive, and Manhunt 2 isn't looking to change that thankfully.