Manhunt 2: Extensive First-Hand Preview

Rockstar treats us to an advanced look at Manhunt 2 for this detailed preview.

We all know the story about Manhunt. The controversy. The fuss. It's a shame all the negative press and shocking headlines stole the thunder from what was actually a pretty good game three years back. So we're pleased to see Rockstar sticking to its guns for the sequel, and just recently the image-conscious publisher invited us to a sneaky first look at Manhunt 2.

The version we're previewing is still pretty early code, but it's stable, demo-worthy code - things like the voice acting are "completely placeholder" according to Rockstar, and even elements of the story or the order in which things happen may change slightly. The protagonist's voice is apparently a researcher at Rockstar New York at the moment, for example. Some of the current voices actually sound pretty cool though.

It's the first title being developed by Rockstar London, on the secretive new floor directly beneath our demonstration room. When we went for a final preview look at San Andreas in 2004, this floor was just empty concrete, but now it's Rockstar's latest hi-tech studio. The team is working closely with Rockstar North, the original creators of Manhunt. "Pretty much all of it is being done in London," confirms Rockstar's PJ Sim. "Obviously North is inputting because they did the original, just to keep it true to the franchise, but essentially, all the design and everything is being done here in London."

The new London studio consists of new recruits and a sprinkling of imported talent from the developer's other studios around the world. But despite the involvement of North, it's stressed that Manhunt 2 is not a sequel - the story is completely separate to that of the original, set in a different time and place, with new characters. But, explains PJ, "we're now mixing themes of psychosis, mistrust, institutionalisation, paranoia and once again, pure unadulterated terror, and we're adding new gameplay features like environmental executions."

The main character you play is Dr Daniel Lamb (Danny), one of a number of scientists working at the top-secret 'Pickman Project'. One of the project's top-secret experiments focussing on weapons research comes under fire, and the powers that be decide to close down the experiment. Project lead Dr Pickman is none too pleased about the closure, and convinces Lamb that they can complete the experiment under the radar. Being the ambitious type, Danny agrees, and even volunteers himself for the treatment, knowing that personal fame and glory could be just around the corner.

Unfortunately, disaster strikes when there's a defect in the treatment, causing unforeseen side effects. He's apprehended and sent to a hospital for the criminally insane, where the key is effectively thrown away. The Dixmore Asylum is effectively "a cover to hide the victims of the numerous... experiments... that have gone wrong", reveals PJ. "They've been swept under the carpet."

ix years pass, and Danny's still there, so the effects of the ordeal are beginning to show and he starts to question his own sanity. But one dark night, there's a freak electrical storm, which disrupts the security systems of the asylum, creating a rare opportunity to escape. The hospital is thrown into chaos as inmates spill into the corridors, and panic-stricken staff stop at nothing to try and return it to order.

At the beginning of the game, Danny is making his escape and running to survive in a place where he can trust nobody, and being guided out of the hospital by a fellow inmate named Leo. The first stage of the game is your initial escape.

We have to bear in mind that this is, after all, a maximum-security facility for the criminally insane, so Danny can't quite be sure what's lurking in the shadows. Leo advises us to also stick to the shadows where we can't be detected, and proceed with caution - the energy bar turns blue, indicating we can't be seen. Shadows were important in the original game, and they're vital now - players can now create their own shadows by moving things around, and they're also a great way to lure people towards you - skills that will strategically come into play later in the game.

We did note that at some points of this demonstration however, shadows were often a little too useful, to the point of showing up enemy AI and breaking the believability of the scene for a while; a couple of times a guy literally brushed past without sensing Danny's presence, just because of the shadowed positioning. Other times an enemy was oblivious to our presence despite that we could hear our own footsteps - these aspects could do with some tuning in order to keep the overall sense of stealth moments tense and believable.

Elsewhere on the HUD, there's a radar in the bottom-left corner, assisting as we move through the levels, with colours and directions of the icons on the radar showing the level of alertness and their facing direction - not dissimilar to Bully. As we move down the corridors some of the sights of other inmates in their cells are less than wholesome. One guy even tries to piss on us through his cell. Charming, is this Dixmore place. It's easy to forget how nice games can still look on the last-generation consoles, though. The general visual quality is good and we particularly liked a shaky-cam (or roadie cam as CliffyB might call it) during parts where Danny is running. The ambient light casts realistic character shadows as Danny walks through the corridors, and superb sound quality is derived from intense, atmospheric musical scores and effects.

Danny doesn't really know where he's going, so we must explore all the avenues of this dangerous and hostile place before we can progress to the next stage of the game. the level design and layout seems non-linear and interesting; a quick check of the security monitors in the control room shows that chaos is unfolding on the other floors. Think back to the vulnerable Sarah Tancredi trapped in Prison Break series one, remove the safety of the locked door she had protecting her, and this is your nerve-wracking position.

Your first real encounter is with some random wacko with a weapon, but Danny is a bit out of practise with people and not about to get violent - yet. But the mysterious Leo - who currently we can hear but not see - advises: "You kill him, or he kills you - you don't have any choice." Danny soon gets into the swing of things, defending himself at first and the figuring what the hell, and marking the start of the game's unapologetic, lavish killing violence. "Kill that son of a bitch", recommends Leo.

Interestingly, the player can't choose to start attacking until it becomes a matter of self-defence - try to punch before Leo really starts egging you on, and you'll throw no punches and just whine, "no, I can't!" - and only when your damage is down a little, can you dish some back. Tabloid media take note - Manhunt 2 is all about self-defence. "I killed him! I feel sick!" complains Danny after stabbing someone with a syringe, Sarah Connor style. "You don't have a choice," reminds Leo, "...and you stop them from harming others."

Pretty much anything can be a weapon in Manhunt 2. There are four types of weapon: these one-off stabbing weapons like syringes and pens, then knife style weapons which are reusable, followed by bigger melee weapons like baseball bats and sledgehammers, and then firearms - with a brand new d-pad menu system to select the weapon type you need - but only one of each type can be carried at one time. Furthermore, there are three levels of brutality for the executions in Manhunt 2 - hasty, violent and gruesome - the longer you hold down the square button, the more gruesome the execution. These executions have been thoughtfully concocted and lovingly animated, resulting in some sequences that are unquestionably going to have the press up in arms. This stuff really makes Grand Theft Auto look like Tom and Jerry. But it looks cool and artistic in Manhunt 2, and the chilling film-like atmosphere in the game make it all seem well suited.

At one stage in this increasingly tense level the elevator gets stuck between floors, but Manhunt 2 lets you climb over objects as well as crawl underneath them and shimmy through tunnels. With a tap of the triangle button you can press up against walls and peer around corners undetected. Players will find medication throughout the levels to replenish health, and defeated adversaries may also drop some. We can lock some unsavoury guys away in their cell without getting into too much trouble, but like all half decent prisons, the cells have to be under lockdown in order for the next set of gates to be opened, so we have to make sure all the doors are locked before we can go further. A doctor is monitoring another CCTV station and since we don't want to be spotted later, he must be 'taken out' also. Hey, it's nothing you wouldn't see Jack Bauer carrying out in the midst of such conspiracy and cover up.

But the point is that progress through the level requires a bit of thinking. "Some things will take a while to figure out, because there are puzzle elements to certain things, like making sure all the cells are shut for example; it might take a while to figure out that's what you have to do, but trial and error, and experimentation with different things, will mean that there's some good strategy. With things like the environmental executions (more on this later), you think, I have to get this guy here, and make it all come together, how do I do that?"

Once it's time for Danny to escape the facility, we spot a truck outside in the rainy moonlit yard that seems it could be our ticket out of the steaming hole. A few kills later and we're a free man, for the time being. There's been a lot of creeping around so far; the focus is constantly on the build up to the next strategic kill, and the release of adrenaline each time is what seems to fuel the gameplay.

Our demonstration moved on to The Honeypot - a level later in the game, when Danny and Leo have been on the run for a while and gathered information about the project. They desperately need to find out more for Danny to piece his life back together, and come across a technician from the Pickman project: a woman by the name of Judy, who gave some clarity to the goings on. The details lead them to a brothel, a project-run recruitment den, believing that Judy could be here and that she knows more that she'd been letting on.

This level introduces us to some of the new gameplay built into Manhunt 2. The big new thing is called 'environmental execution' - strategically using set objects in the environment as part of your kill. The first one in this level us the use of a public payphone to smash and strangle the brothel's front desk guy. These specially created executions are all individually thought out and animated, and this phone manoeuvre is just the first of many. Environment execution hotspots are marked on the radar with a white cross. The next one signals an execution hotspot with a humming fuse box on the wall... you can imagine what happens next. A QTE-like combination of correct random button presses either ensures or ruins the opportunity and then BANG.

Rockstar wouldn't give us a number on how many environmental executions are in the game in total, but said we can expect to see the white cross of terror appear three or four times in the particular area we looked at, so we could assume this is an average per level. The most brutal execution we saw was with a wire cutter. Danny goes up from behind, gets down, reaches through between this guy's legs, and gets to work. We can't be completely sure of what we saw at this point, but let's just say, it didn't look pleasant.

It's not just shadows in the game that can protect you from getting caught. An interesting take on 'sound cover' in this level is when Danny passes a room in which a couple are up to what you may expect in a brothel (yes, you do catch a glimpse), and each time they make, shall we say, outbursts of noise, it's a potential opportunity for you to smash a window to avoid drawing the attention of the security guard, allowing you to proceed undetected. If timed right, when the security guard's icon turns blue, you're clear to make the smash undetected.

Moving on, and once we steal a shotgun, the pace of the game increases substantially, because Danny's confidence is up, though a sprinkling of caution is still required to get through the level alive, of course. There's auto-aim with the gun, but you can also manually aim by pressing up on the d-pad when aiming. Of course, guns can be used a little more brutally as well. "Lots of fans of the original Manhunt wanted to see executions with guns", explains PJ.
We found it interesting that for the most part, you can only hear but not actually see Leo, so we couldn't help but wonder more about the relationship with this mysterious friend. Would it all turn out to be some sort of Fight Club Pitt/Norton trick? "Leo is helping Danny out of the hospital. You hear Leo talking to Danny, but there are times when Leo is in the hallway ahead of him, and then other times you're not sure where he is. They're both in quite fragile mental states. As you play through, you will find out more about what's really happening behind the storyline, and a lot more will be revealed." Sounds intriguing. "This demonstration scratches the surface - there's a lot more to the game."

The guys eventually catch up with Judy and a cut-scene ensues, but we'll keep the rest a secret for now. There are auto saves that are placed pretty well, so that when you die it's not too frustrating, but there are no manual saves which is a good thing in a game that's all about tension and build-up. Rockstar doesn't have a number of levels for us, but says it will be "substantial".

It's still a game that's all about violence for entertainment at its core, but this time it has higher production values, a proper storyline and a more complex moral backdrop that suggests Manhunt 2 could offer greater depth than the original, while remaining just as gruesome. To me, whether the sort of violence paraded here is in an extreme horror flick, a TV drama torture scene, or in a game like Manhunt 2, it's entertaining and often quite amusing, harmless fun.

Manhunt 2 will be released in the summer for PS2, PSP, as well as for Wii - essentially the same game and the same story, being developed at Rockstar Toronto who is reconfiguring for Wii based on the developments in the London studio.

Original link: Click Here

[Close]