Manhunt 2

We have to start this preview with a little bit of flippancy that will no doubt put a frown on some Rockstar PR faces as they mumble to themselves that somehow us writing the following sentence will cause the OFLC to pay the game a little more attention to the game that they otherwise would. As soon as we heard that a sequel was in the works we started calling the game Banhunt II. After all that preamble a rather juvenile joke probably comes across as more then a little lame but we think the name is very fitting. The sequel to a game that was brought in front of the review board and had its rating revoked will be a red rag to a bull, especially when that game comes from Rockstar, a company that doesn't so much create controversy as revel in it.

If you recall, the original game told the story of a violent convict who is forced to "act" in increasingly brutal snuff films by deranged director Starkweather so his family isn't murdered. Well, from what we've seen, Manhunt 2 is a sequel in name and theme rather than character, telling a whole new story. We've only seen two levels of the game so far and aren't privy to a lot of the plot but what we understand so far is that player take the role of Danny, a scientist who was working on some kind of human weapon project who used himself as a guinea pig to prove results when funding is threatened to be cut. As science is want do when it can lead to screaming and bleeding, things go wrong and for some reason Danny spends the next six years in a hospital for the criminally insane. The plot of the game appears to be the added scientist and another inmate who may or may not be a figment of his imagination (we haven't seen enough to make the call definitively one way or other) hunting down people from his past to find out the truth of what happened to him and what has gone on in the last six years.

FATALITY

From what we've seen there are a few tweaks to the gameplay that should make the second stab at Manhunt a little more interesting that the first. For a start player can now jump (or mantle if you prefer) over obstacles making level design and sneaking a little more interesting. The pacing of the game seems to be a little swifter as well with a fairly even balance of sneaking and shooting throughout the game. This time around players are also able to break light sources making for some dynamic sneaking design. Finally the Hunters now have a chance to spot you if they look directly into the shadows in which you are hiding. We didn't see this mechanic in action but apparently if the hunter suspects you're there the player will have to successfully complete a button matching mini-game to remain unnoticed.

It's interesting to note that Rockstar have kept the three tier execution system from the original Manhunt. If you didn't play the original, the tired executions meant that the longer you stood behind and in range of someone undetected before attacking someone the more brutal the execution animation. In term of Starweather's directorial vision and the snuff film world in which the first game existed this brutality for brutality's sake made sense, adding to the visceral impact of the game and making the entire thing more than a little uncomfortable contextually, we can't help but wonder why the same style of kills is making and appearance in the second game aside from the the sake of controversy. While brutal executions fit the first game contextually well - the main character being a brutal man forced to do increasing more brutal thing by a mad snuff film director - the idea of a nebbish scientist opening up from groin to chin with a knife or stabbing them repeatedly in the face and neck with a pen seems a little out of character, no matter how addled they are. Of course when we see the final game (or at least more complete code) there may be a cutscene or bit of dialoge that puts everything into perspective and give us that context we so long for.