We experience Rockstar's unsettling adventure on Wii

Editor's note: This preview was penned two weeks ago, before the BBFC refused to give Manhunt 2 a certificate. At the time of the demo we were under the impression it would be given an 18 certificate.

For a moment we freeze. An onscreen prompt urges us to thrust the Wiimote backwards and forwards, and so cut a man's head in half with the rusty sawblade we've just slashed across the backs of his knees. Years of videogame impulse take over, our arm pistons the Wiimote and our victim's bonce splits messily. Blood smears the screen. "Christ Almighty," we whisper.

Manhunt 2 on Wii puts the demise of your enemies directly in your hands. It's a gruesome business. Even fans of the original Manhunt's knowing plot, arresting atmosphere and gut-churning violence might find the sequel unsettling - this is a game for hardcore horror fanatics only.

The sequel occupies a totally new world, unrelated to the original's snuff-movie antics. It features Daniel Lamb, a young scientist finding his big break with a shady organisation, the Pickman Project. Is Danny aware of the Project's horrifying depths? Rockstar isn't telling. However, when the Project hits problems, Dr. Pickman himself coerces the debt-strapped Danny to volunteer as a human guinea pig. Cue the bad things.

Danny wakes up seven years later in a cell at Dixmor Asylum. He's stood over the corpse of a doctor, who he's just throttled. It only gets darker from here. Manhunt 2 delves into Danny's mysterious past, with the help of Leo Kasper, a fellow Dixmor inmate who - as we correctly predicted - is also a playable character. How Leo knows Danny isn't explained. But we're guessing that Danny was Leo for the last seven years, and now they're both awake in a Fight Club-style dual personality.

Manhunt's shadow-hugging gameplay works well with Wii's motion-controls. Both nunchuk and Wiimote controls are used, and feel completely natural, while the PS2 version is slightly less comfortable to play. Though anyone who's played Manhunt before will know that the control scheme intentionally restricts your movements, promoting caution and heightening the tension.

Wii's nunchuk analogue stick moves Danny/Leo around, and rolling the nunchuk left or right lets you peek around corners. The Wiimote is reserved for attacking actions. Stand at a wall and swing it, for instance, to make some noise and attract nearby enemies. Scrapping with enemies uses a Wii Boxing setup - punch with either hand to punch, defend by lifting your arms. Finally, as in our gruesome introduction, both controllers come into play during Manhunt 2's alarmingly violent executions.

Above: As you play the Wii edition, Danny - or Leo - becomes ever more splattered with the blood of your victims

Manhunt was vicious, but Manhunt 2 is something else. There's a bigger variety of implements, to be used with disturbing imagination, from the handheld cylinder saw to the lowly ball-point pen. And on Wii, the triggering of an ambush is just the beginning.

Take a cudgel to your foe, for instance, and you'll be blatting the Wiimote down like an axe blow, lunging it forwards or swinging it like, well, a cudgel. Or leap from an elevated position - using the new jumping attack - by thrusting both Wiimote and nunchuk upwards. Then it's a task of looping a wire around their throat with another lift of the two controllers and sawing at their jugular by moving the handsets vigorously backwards and forwards.

Time slows at each action to help, but you can mess up a kill too, although your victim isn't likely to be standing up again. This ramps up your involvement, emphasising the fact that you're no longer murdering via buttons. Actions are carefully matched to the motions on screen, and you end up acting out each murder you commit. It's the kind of thing that threatens to have you lurching awake in the middle of the night, sweating and searching your palms for blood.

Manhunt needs to be deeper than it appears or the focus on death becomes cheap and lazy. It might take thematic inspiration from the exploitative no-brainer gorenography of films like Hostel and Saw but there needs to be a reason for the violence. The first Manhunt tempered its murderous gameplay with incredibly well crafted story and gameplay features.

Daniel Lamb's revenge tale isn't as cleverly honed as Cash's enforced killing spree, but it does attempt to imply that Lamb at least begins the game as a disgusted bystander to the carnage of the asylum riot that's taking place around him.

Hoevever, there's no real replacement for Starkweather's constant goading, played with such force by Brian Cox. And the victims we've seen so far in Manhunt 2 don't have the same characterful impact as the first Manhunt's themed nasties, especially the rent-a-goon soldiers we massacred on one particularly bland level.

But Manhunt 2 has its own strengths. Leo Kasper's accompanying voice can't match Starkweather's full-blooded malice, but the dual-personality mystery is compelling - and Rockstar's typically good script writing ensures the appeal continues. It also possesses the same intimidating atmosphere and brow-wetting tension as the original. And though some of the enemies and levels we saw weren't terribly inspiring, some great moments (no spoilers!) convince us things will get much stronger further in.

It's the Wii version, however, where Manhunt 2 excels. A brilliant non-violent example sees you holding the controllers totally still while enemies search the shadows - on PS2 this is a random button-hitting exercise - and your direct involvement with each execution creates a far more challenging, risk/reward tension. Rockstar's gorefest is an excellent example of how to employ Wii's intriguing control system to chilling effect.

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