Yes and also, while we are at it, let’s ban spoons

Rockstar is at it again. Baiting the tabloids/moral minority with the follow-up to what was billed as one of the most violent, notorious and opinion-dividing games of recent years. Manhunt 2 launches on PS2, PSP and Wii this summer and will, no doubt, be launched amid yet another shitstorm of controversy stirred up by mainstream hacks who have never actually played a videogame, let alone had a good look at Rockstar’s latest psycho-killer.

I managed to get a good look at a preview build of the game at Rockstar’s London offices recently, so read on to find out whether or not the game justifies the hype. Oh, and if you are of a nervous disposition and/or you are an anti-videogaming lawyer/Labour MP and your name is an anagram of “Smack John Top” or “Zit Ah Kev“ (I can't bring myself to say the names right now) then you might want to go and take 10mg of valium right now. And wait ten minutes or so before you read on.

The first Manhunt is, unfortunately, more well-known for the tabloid reactions to the extreme, over-the-top in-game violence, instead of whether or not it stood up as a decent videogame. Critical reception amid the gaming press was mixed. Some said that the game was sheer tongue-in-cheek horror schlock and should be judged as such, while others criticised the game for being all ‘gore over gameplay’. The “immoral majority’s” liberal opinion (again mainly from commentators who had rarely even seen or played the game) was generally a shrug of the shoulders and a “whatever floats your boat!”

However, the game was still banned in a number of countries and, worst of all, linked to the murder of British teenager Stefan Pakeerah. And even though the police have denied any connection in that particular tragic case (in fact, it turned out the game was owned by the victim of that crime and not the perpetrator) the follow-up is going to find it hard to shake the ‘violence for violence sake’ tag of the first game.

“Ban this evil game!” cried a Daily Mail headline at the time. “Yes and also, while we are at it, let’s ban spoons, which can also be lethal in the wrong hands,” replied some wag on the Daily Mail’s own forum at the time, which tickled this particular SPOnG reviewer. I still feel that comment sums up the hypocrisy and hyperbole over the whole ‘violence in videogames debate’ better than no other.

So watch out for the almost inevitable tabloid outcry when the game is released later this summer (“call Labour MP, Zit Ah Kev, get him to say something about violence and games,” we can already hear the tabloid news editor shouting…) With that in mind, of particular interest is the fact that, as well as PSP and the PS2 version we saw at Rockstar recently, the game is also coming out on Nintendo’s family-friendly Wii. No doubt this is bound to wind up the player-haters over at the Daily Mail to a new level of “oh-my-lord-whatever-next-ness”

Whatever. Let’s have a look at the game. Let’s concern ourselves here with the main thing that should matter. Does the game work as a piece of adult interactive entertainment or not?

Rockstar’s PJ Sim – the man charged with demo’ing the game - explained to me that the game is not a straightforward sequel to the first game, instead it is more, if you like, “a spiritual sequel” with the player this time around taking on the character of Dr Daniel Lamb – a Gordon Freeman-esque speccy-four-eyes who seems to have been banged up in a mental asylum for a number of years – for reasons that will no doubt be made clear later in the game as the storyline develops.

Sometimes, it’s hard to be a liberal.
Our man Danny seems to have volunteered himself for some dodgy treatment as part of a top secret weapons experiment he was involved in, the side effects of this being the reason why he’s found himself banged up in the Dixmore hospital for the criminally insane nuthouse for years. That is, until a freak electrical storm causes the hospital’s security system to go haywire. The lunatics, it seems, are taking over the asylum. Which is where the game starts.

Danny needs to sneak his way past guards – not to mention other crazy inmates (one of whom even decides to take a piss on poor old Dan) - by creeping carefully down the corridors and sticking closely to the shadows, keeping a close eye on the radar at the top of the screen which will alert you when guards are less likely to be aware of your presence.

Creeping past the guards is fairly straightforward at first, but pretty soon you come face to face with your first opponent, one of the other inmates who smacks you full on in the face. While Danny is, apparently, not used to violence, in no time at all you find yourself having no option but to beat the guy to a bloody pulp. Which soon seems to clear Danny of his fear of violence, as he is soon moving on to grab a syringe from a nearby room to stick it right into the neck of a nurse who is blocking your escape from the hospital.

Danny also has a mate called Leo who’s talking him through his escalating spree of ultra-violence to help him out of this hospital. As you make your way out of the hossie you will also discover the questionable thrills of sticking a pen in somebody’s eye or sticking a knife or some shards of glass into a victim’s neck. In seemingly no time, you manage to pick up a shotgun which means that you can stop sneaking through the shadows and instead you can joyously pistol-whip the interns or, you lack imagination, just shoot them in the face as you run through the corridors.

Another new feature which the guys at Rockstar were very keen to show off in the game was the ‘environmental kills’ – shown off in a brothel area called ‘the Honey Pot’ - which simply refer to the various ways in which Danny makes use of objects around him (toilets, telephone cables, fuse boxes and so on) to take out his unsuspecting victims with ever more gruesome glee.

To be (brutally) honest, it was at this point of the demo where I found myself questioning the very point of Manhunt 2. Sure, the ‘kill animations’ and ‘environmental kills’ were hilariously over-the-top in terms of the level of gore and general squeamishness. We can imagine playing the game through for the first time and squealing with a kind of perverted delight at how well executed (sic) these in-game moves were. But then, we cannot imagine getting much pleasure from this game beyond the initial Beavis and Butthead-style “heh, check it out, I just stuck a pen in that dude’s EYE!”.

Overall, while the production values in the game are no doubt much-improved on the first game, I cannot shake the feeling that the game itself seems extremely limited. Unfortunately, while I want it to work on many levels, I find it hard to recommend Manhunt 2 in any way.

If you are aged ten to fourteen and you find extreme schlock horror style violence funny and cool, then you will probably love it. However, if you are a fan of games that involve a little more thought, strategy and challenge, then I cannot help but think that Manhunt 2 is going to fail to deliver.

Just like the worst kinds of original ‘video nasties’ Manhunt 2 contains enough darkly gruesome murder scenes to keep ‘fans of the genre’ happy to plod through the fairly tedious gameplay to get to the next darkly gruesome murder scene. However, I for one just hope that this is the last outing of this rather tedious game, which I cannot really describe in any better way than Rockstar’s Achilles heal.

The hardest thing, for me, is going to be the difficult job I’ll no doubt have of defending such an average, poorly-designed videogame when it gets yet another tabloid-press mauling around when it launches later this summer.

The whole thing reminds me of that quote, usually attributed to Voltaire:

“I may disagree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it”…

Sometimes, it’s hard to be a liberal.

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