Manhunt 2 Wii Update

We played the AO-rated version and now we've played the M-rated one. What's the difference? New screens, too.

Mega-publisher Rockstar Games has created a name for itself by releasing videogame software whose content pushes the boundaries of the ESRB's M rating. Titles like Grand Theft Auto regularly feature violent gunfights and profanity, but even these are child's play next to the company's Manhunt franchise, known for its grotesque scenes of murder - the type of stuff that'd make a content-policing lawyer like Jack Thompson leap to his feet and howl at the moon. Even with its buckets of blood and dismembered gore, the original Manhunt released to the masses with a coveted M label, but its sequel was not so lucky. The game, which follows a sometimes-delusional anti-hero as he treks through an ugly, shadowy experiment gone awry, recently came down with an Adults Only rating, a virtual brick wall for publishers. While first parties like Nintendo and Sony will license M-rated games, they won't touch AO-rated ones, but even if they would, most retailers wouldn't carry them. As a result, Rockstar was forced to make some changes to Manhunt 2. We recently had the chance to play the now-M-rated Wii build of the game, and while it's mechanically identical to its earlier self, some cosmetic differences have been introduced.

Yeah, Danny decapitates this guy and uses his head to gain entry.

Rockstar demoed two levels from the latest version of Manhunt 2 - one we had seen before and another completely new to us. The first stage, titled Sexual Deviants, follows main character Danny and his only ally Leo as they make their way through The Project, which can best be described as a conglomerate of freakish thugs and run-down top-secret facilities. Somehow, the duo has gotten itself imprisoned within the compound and must escape, but to do that Danny will need to get his hands bloody… very bloody, actually. As the character travels through dilapidated warehouses, gruesome S&M clubs and ruined hospital wings, he'll encounter hunters - leather-bound killers, mask-wearing psychos, corrupt policemen, etc. - and he'll have to murder them. Clearly, these hunters aren't mankind's best, but they are nevertheless human, and they do bleed quite a lot. The game rejoices in gore, no doubt, but there's more to it than blood and guts - a truth demonstrated early into Sexual Deviants, as Danny and Leo sneak through corridors, hide in the shadows, climb atop trucks, and use a variety of different weapons and items to lure and dispose of enemies.

If you crave gore, don't worry -- Manhunt 2 still has you more than covered.

The content may be too much for some to stomach, but the presentation is well done regardless. Manhunt 2's storyline is made more believable with realistic voice acting, atmospheric camera angles and pans, and moody transitional effects. There's even some comedy thrown in for good measure. Take, for example, a scene in which Danny decapitates a hunter and then uses his severed head to gain entry through a security door. A guard on the other side opens a peephole and sees the decapitated head staring back at him. "Georgie Boy!" he exclaims. "Come on in." When the door opens and the mutilation is revealed, he screams, "What did you do to Georgie Boyyyyyyy!?" before attacking. The scene is simultaneously disturbing and comical. When Danny uses a baseball beat to pummel a leather-faced opponent, the opposition whines, "I don't like being dominated!" before collapsing to the pavement with a thud.

Eventually, Danny and Leo make their way through the ground-level S&M club complete with naked pole-dancers and a variety of total freaks to an underground section where the real debauchery unfolds. In locked rooms that blanked a long corridor, psychopaths mutilate and murder victims in a number of disgusting fashions. In one cut-scene, a masked killer uses a power saw to slice into a man's bulging belly, as the victim lies helplessly strapped to a table. In another, a hunter prepares to electrocute a separate prisoner. Manhunt 2's new M rating does not appear to have any bearing on these sequences, as they look and play exactly as they did when we first saw them so many months ago. Indeed, the majority of main gameplay functions are intact, violence, gore and all. If Danny beats a hunter with a mace, the carnage will play out uncensored, and blood will splatter onto the main character's clothes.

But there have been some unfortunate content omissions, too. When we first wrote about Manhunt 2, we referenced a particularly nasty death sequence, in which Danny could use a pair of pliers to literally rip the testicles off a hunter. That murder has been completed removed from the updated build of the game. Not a big deal for us, as it only amounts to one kill out of dozens. Danny can still saw into the heads of enemies, or bludgeon them with a blunt object, or stab them, or use a syringe on them, or even use the environments to take them out. In one sequence, Danny uses a sewer cap to decapitate a hunter, at which point the enemy's body fell into the sewer hole.

You can probably guess what an axe will do to the human body.

The biggest and most disappointing change relates to the major death strikes. When Danny sneaks up on an enemy, gamers can hold the A button down, at which point they will be given the option to pick from three different murder animations (on Wii, they get to act them out with Nintendo's motion-sensitive controllers). In the AO-rated build of Manhunt 2, we could clearly see these over-the-top and horrific animations. In the M-rated version, Rockstar has added both an extreme blur effect and in most cases darkened the graphics so that it is nearly impossible to make any sense of what is going on. Players will be able to see character movement, blood splatters, and sometimes they may catch a glimpse of an identifiable action (for example, Danny jamming nails into the legs of a chair-bound opponent), but mostly it's guesswork - a garbled, motiony mess that's far less satisfying. This truth is doubly unfortunate because both everything else is unchanged and because these death strikes are what gamers will want to work toward; they're the pay off for a job well done, but now the pay off is not nearly as rewarding.

The hunters in Manhunt 2 are genuine freaks.

Our reactions to these maneuvers really speak volumes. The first time we played Manhunt 2, everybody in the office was very outspoken one way or the other about the grotesque Wii-motion-enhanced kills. (On-screen cues tell players to jab left or right with the Wii remote, to pull up or down with both controllers, etc., and only after the gestures are made does the animation continue.) Onlookers were crying out and laughing and several people were in awe of the game's brutality. But with the updated build, we couldn't fully identify what was going on. We could see movement and hear disgusting noises, but if Rockstar had told us Danny had just decapitated a hunter or strangled him instead, we'd have to take its word for it. Not to suggest that these sequences are completely ruined - they aren't. They're still fun to perform and some of the animations - especially when they're in well-lit rooms where more of the movement can be recognized - are still satisfying and entertaining.

Manhunt 2 is scheduled for an October 31 release date on Wii, PlayStation 2 and PSP. The Wii build of the game will feature a few extras, including some unique weapons and more blood splatter, not to mention the gesture-based controls (which generally work very well), but otherwise the content is the same. Rockstar's title may have dropped the AO label and toned down the presentation of death strikes for an M rating, but this blood-soaked effort is still one of the grossest and most disturbing titles we've ever seen. It's also fun, thanks to usually-tight control and an abundance of dark atmosphere. We're going to join the hunt this Halloween and with the handful of extras on Nintendo's system, we're going to do it on Wii.

We've posted five new screenshots in our media section.

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