Manhunt 2 Wii Hands-on

In the weeks before the high-profile BBFC ban of Manhunt 2, Pro-G were one of the lucky few to play the game. Unlike most of those lambasting the game, I was invited to Rockstar Games' plush London offices to bloody my virtual hands and sit slack jawed as I was introduced to one of the darkest corners of gaming's imagination.

As a warning for squeamish readers, Manhunt 2 is a very adult, gory game, featuring extremes of violence unrivalled by other releases that had previously managed to court more headlines and column inches. In describing this game, there is a necessity to touch on some fairly brutal imagery, so if you are easily disturbed, or looking for a game for a youngster, then check out the rest of the site.

However, if you already know that an interactive medium like the video game is perfect for the most terrifying horror-based entertainment you'll ever know, or just appreciate that an 18-rating can mean 'tackles adult issues' rather than simply 'too nasty for kids', then you should hope the reported ban gets lifted, as Manhunt 2 will likely appeal to avid fans of Nightmare on Elm Street as much as it will disgust Daily Mail readers.

From the outset, the latest from Rockstar gets you doing things with your Wii controllers that you never imagined you'd be doing. It's pretty likely that the executives at Nintendo who conceive the TV adverts with fashionable pensioners, kids, mums and dads playing happily together never thought the Wii-mote would be used as a saw to cut through a victim's neck, or as pliers to rip intestines from various parts of the body.

But however shocking, Manhunt 2 gets you doing just that, and though it shouldn't be so enjoyable, using your nunchuck and Wii-mote as grim devices of torture and violence works incredibly well and is worryingly satisfying.

The plot puts you in the shoes of the game's antihero Danny, who awakes in a high security asylum to find himself throttling a nurse he knows nothing about. Having given over six years of his life to a mysterious research project he cannot remember, Danny's memory and perception have become confused and out of control.

The first level sees you take control of Danny at the moment he releases his grip from the nurse's neck, and leads you through a tutorial-focussed escape from your prison, so you can begin to find out exactly why you have ended up where you are, both physically and mentally.

For those who remember the first game, it will be immediately apparent that a very similar approach to stealth has been implemented in Manhunt 2. It is not like the tight, regimented sneaking of Metal Gear and Splinter Cell, instead allowing for a looser, more improvised type of evasion. You can certainly use all sorts of clever techniques to manipulate your way past guards and enemies, but there isn't quite the same plodding pace here that defines the high-tech stealth titles.

If released, Manhunt 2 will be one of the Wii's must-own titles.It is still far from frantic though, and Manhunt 2 seems almost always tense, unhurried and deliberately disturbing. That doesn't mean it is totally frag free, and a good chunk of one of the two levels available for the hands-on had a heavy focus on gunplay. Whereas before the trigger-happy sections all came at around two-thirds of the way into Manhunt, and almost superseded the sneaking, this time the two are intermixed throughout the game. At times you will have no access to any firepower, and at others it will seem like a pure third-person-shooter.

So what of the controls that are likely to become the most infamous in gaming's short history? Well, like many Wii control systems they are unusual and to a certain extent novel, but they relate absolutely to the in-game action, and are both responsive and exciting. As with the original Manhunt, while there are standard melee encounters to be had, that work like a more usable version of those found in Wii Sports Boxing, here the emphasis is on horrific executions using everyday objects picked up around each level.

Sneaking up behind a guard, with perhaps a syringe or shard of glass, holding down the A button brings up a gesture on screen, which when copied triggers a basic execution. In Rockstar's terms basic means something along the lines of repeated stabbing in the neck with a pen or tearing open a spine with an angle grinder. After the event is triggered more movement commands appear on screen, which must be mimicked quickly. What is fantastic here is the correlation between your own movements and the horrific acts on screen, but of course it is that correlation that has caused so much controversy. Smashing a brick down into the head of your adversary? Then swing down your hand just as you would. Sawing through the neck of a foe with a rusty blade? Better get that Wii-mote slicing back and forth.

The Wii controls work really well and don't feel gimmickyMore elaborate and showy executions are available if you hold down the A button for longer before you begin, and murders using environmental elements such as telephone cords and toilet cistern lids are even gorier than the very bloody, uncensored standard kills. The shooting works using a competent point-and-press set-up akin to the recent Wii first-person shooters, with a simple and workable cover system included for hiding and aiming from behind a wall or crate.

Visually, Manhunt 2 on the Wii far outshines the nevertheless well-realised PS2 version, with dynamic blood splatters and more detailed settings adding to an overall shine and sharpness that is just about missing on the Sony console. Certain levels take place in the form of flashbacks, or see you taking control of another character from the game world, and overall the depth of both plot and gameplay appear more comparable to most PS3 and 360 games than the mini-game compilations and novelty releases seen more commonly on the Wii.

Here is not the place to debate whether games like Manhunt 2 offer catharsis and release, or harvest aggressive intentions. Either way, being violent has rarely been so much fun, and with a couple of simple tweaks to some of the few remaining bugs it looks like Rockstar's answer to American Psycho is, if it ever sees release, going to be one of the Wii's few great 'full games'. It also appears that Manhunt 2 could prove the Wii's worth as a 'serious' games machine, and it will definitely make you look at those chunky controllers in a way you didn't think possible.

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