Manhunt

Here I am, 2:29 in the morning, drinking kool-aid and writing a review for Manhunt. Manhunt is a game by Rockstar, a company (in)famous for games like Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto 3 (again with upgraded graphics and shit), Grand Theft Auto Vice City (again with upgraded graphics and shit), and my favorite: Bully. Rockstar is also famous for leaving flaming bags of dog shit on censors' front porch and ringing the doorbell. When I went in to this game, all I could expect is that this game would be violent as shit. What I got was a genuinely enjoyable gameplay experience.

The basic premise of this step-headed red-child of a game is that you are James Earl Cash, a criminal convicted for... well, they don't say in game, so I'm going to assume he stepped on the grass when it said "Stay the fuck off the grass motherfucker". Since, in Carcer City, this is an offense punishable my capital punishment (and minor redundancy), he is sent to be killed by lethal injection. When they are about to kill him, the lights flicker off like in every horror movie/game and Cash awakes to find himself quite alive, and in an empty execution room. A voice (badass voice actor, I might add. I was impressed, I enjoyed hearing his voice) tells him, through the PA system, that Cash is given a "second chance" to work for the director. He reveals himself to be a Mr. Starkweather, and you are instructed to grab that earpiece and you are thrust into the game.

Being a sort of stealth survival kinda sorta almost horror sometimes game, stealth is of utmost importance. Luckily, you can use the shadows to your advantage. And when I say advantage, I mean that shadows render you completely invisible. This is cool, at first, but eventually it gets to seem weird when five guys are staring at you from five feet and wondering where you are. Oh well. The first weapon you are given is a plastic bag, a one time use weapon. By "one time use" I mean that you can use it to execute one enemy. One of the core gameplay mechanics are "executions", where you sneak up behind an enemy and get a special kill. When behind them, hold the Action or Action2 button to raise your weapon. A reticle will appear on the enemy that will start out as white. Continue holding down the button, and it will eventually turn yellow, and then red. When you release the button, the game will show a short cutscene or Cash killing the enemy. A white level kill is usually not overly brutal, and doesn't have much action. Yellow level is violent, and red is gruesome. Because I am a sick fuck, the first kill I tried for was a level three, and with the plastic bag, meant Cash pulling it over their head and beating them in the face with his fists until they drowned in their own blood. I was impressed.

While this is all neat in the first few levels, it quickly becomes... not really tedious in the sense that it's irritating, but there's not much more to it. Since hiding in the shadows makes you invisible, you can tap on a wall to draw attention, hide in the shadows, and then get easy kills. For the first 15 levels or so, there are two game modes: tap-on-the-wall-and-get-easy-kills mode, and holy-fuck-this-shit-is-unforgiving-shooting-level mode. Guess which one is easier.

The shooting levels in this game are... irritating. Consistency is really the main issue. The shotgun is a very prominent weapon, but it rarely makes sense. Sometimes a shot to the chest from ten feet is instant death, sometimes it barely nicks them. I've been in situation where I one shot everyone in the room as they round the corner, and then others where I am immediately killed upon raising the shotgun. This game is unforgiving as hell, especially in the later levels where if you fuck up it could easily mean death, which means stalking and killing everyone again. This game also took quite a while for me to beat. While there isn't that much game to play, only twenty levels, it would often take me 30 minutes a level, although this is partially because I'm bad.

The story was interesting for me. I genuinely enjoyed following Cash through his little nightmare, and I feared for his life when I was getting owned, but there really isn't that much story. It was like a kakuna evolving into a beedrill, except it never really has good stats. Enjoyable, but not much to it. Starkweather was an engaging character, I loved hearing his voice insult and encourage Cash. One of my favorite lines is "You're REEEEEEEEEEAAAA AAALLY getting me off, Cash!" after getting a gruesome kill. Unfortunately circumstances make hearing his sweet, loving voice impossible in the later levels.

The horror aspect of this game is... well, not really innately scary until later levels. The only reason I was frightened was barely escaping that bad man with the sickle and watching him stare at me in the shadows from two feet away. Otherwise, it wasn't really very scary.

Overall, this game was pretty solid. Sometimes the AI was retarded, and sometimes if was cold-blooded and efficient. It felt repetitive, but never really unfun. I always enjoyed playing it, even if it was pretty much the same thing over and over.

Gameplay: 7/10
Story: Shortbutcool/10
Replayability: Meh/10
Funness: 8/10
Hiding in shadows: a milli a milli amilli/10
Killing people in violent and gruesome ways like a sick puppy: 10/1
Extra rating for out of ten: 92/10

mah frist revweiw

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