There’s a great deal which has been said about Manhunt 2 already, but only a few people have actually played the thing. Earlier this week we visited the offices of Rockstar Games in London to have an extensive hands-on with the Wii version. Even though it was as graphically violent as we had come to expect, it was also a brilliant interactive experience, and we’re disappointed by the BBFC’s decision to reject it for classification.

You play Daniel Lamb, a former scientist, who’s been locked away in a lunatic asylum for the past six years. One fateful night you escape with the assistance of Leo Kasper, a fellow inmate, and together you go on the run. Along the way you try to establish why you were put away and the precise nature of the experiments performed on you, but it won’t be easy. There’s a veritable army of government agents, soldiers, bounty hunters and organised gangs who want to find you and kill you.

That’s why it’s called a manhunt.

The primary mode of play is stealth, where you make your way through each level by avoiding detection. You hide in the shadows and mask the sounds of your movements, and carefully scope out potential escape routes and pitfalls. Your enemies will look for you in groups of three or four, and lacking any real firepower, you’ll have to pick them off one-by-one. They can be killed using whatever weapons come to hand, be it a shard of glass, a pair of pliers, or the infamous plastic bag. And depending on how sneaky you are, you can determine the ferocity of your attack by timing your strike accordingly.

There’s absolutely no denying that Manhunt 2 is extremely violent and sadistic. The bloodshed is not incidental to the game, it’s the central action of your character, and is totally uncompromising in its depiction. Your victims are maimed and brutalised in the most stomach-turning ways imaginable. But placed within a proper context, the violence is no more excessive than in other games like Hitman or God of War. It’s deliberately over the top, and clearly belongs to the Grand Guignol tradition of horror. An adult audience exists for this kind of entertainment, the same audience who watches films like “Hostel”, “Captivity” and “Vacancy” at the cinema, and within those terms it doesn’t deserve to be condemned.

And despite the violence, playing Manhunt 2 is a fantastic experience. For the Wii version of the game, Rockstar have really gone to town with the motion sensitive control scheme, and it’s easily the best title on this platform since The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

The execution sequences are re-enacted with the Wii-mote by following the onscreen prompts and moving it in the appropriate direction. Of course, using the Wii-mote to saw a victim’s head off sounds excessive in the telling, but the actions you perform are abstract representations of what happens onscreen. You’re unlikely to forget that this is a videogame you’re playing.

The Wii-mote is also used for wielding guns in later stages, with a targeting system that is totally intuitive and natural. Another feature occurs where, if someone is especially close to your position and they become suspicious, you have to hold the controller very very still within a small circle to avoid being discovered. Other games have touched on these kind of possibilities with the Wii, but none have done it as well as this.

There’s lots of other clever little flourishes; there’s a thing called an “environmental execution”, where location-specific props (e.g. an open manhole cover) can be used to murder someone in a more interesting (read: ultra-gory) manner than usual. Players can also create more shadow for themselves by smashing light-bulbs, or manoeuvre enemies to a particular position by tapping a wall or chucking a can away from you. Options like these give players more freedom in how they choose to tackle a particular stage.

In terms of production values, the films of eighties schlockmeister John Carpenter (”Escape from New York”, “The Thing”, “Halloween”) continue to be a big influence on this series. Tributes can be found throughout the plot, locations, and soundtrack. Each stage is designed and carefully paced like a tense action sequence from one of his films. Seedy locations range from lunatic asylums to porno cinemas to torture dens, and copious splatters of crimson are everywhere to be seen. The music and sound effects are spooky and atmospheric, with the occasional snatch of synthesiser score that could have been written by Carpenter himself.

It has to be said, it’s a major disappointment to both the industry and to the fans that Manhunt 2 is not going to be released. Firstly; it’s a masterpiece and deserves to see the light of day. Secondly; the United Kingdom has traditionally been more liberal in its attitude towards videogames regulation, especially when compared to Germany and Australia. Manhunt 2 is no different in content or tone to the original Manhunt, and therefore should not have been any exception.

As recently as April the BBFC published a research report that refuted the correlation between violent games and real-life violence. Disregarding their own findings is hypocritical, and an obvious attempt to preempt a hysterical backlash from politicians and the tabloid media. Intentional or otherwise, the they’ve demonstrated a lack of faith in the enforcement of their ratings at the point of sale. It is not the responsibility of Rockstar to ensure that games ratings are adhered to, and yet they’re the ones being penalised after investing millions of pounds in the development of a product there is clearly a market for.

It’s an unfortunate situation, and one that sets a dangerous precedent for the industry. People who watch films, read books and listen to music are not subjected to such heavy-handed censorship, and the same rule should apply to people who play videogames. Let’s hope the mess sorts itself out when (or if) Rockstar appeals the BBFC’s decision. In the meantime, head over here and sign the unofficial petition.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 7th, 2007 at 5:07 pm by Bulent Yusuf
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