Item: Manhunt
Rating: 8.5
Author: Douglass C. Perry

While stock analysts and the game industry's corporate bigwigs are puzzling over the next big thing from Rockstar (namely the next iteration of Grand Theft Auto), Rockstar North (formerly DMA) has once again created a different game, one they've been thinking about and building for the last three years. One based on fetishes.

Manhunt is all sorts of things -- an idea about control and the lack of it; about the diminishing sense of identity in our growing world of high-level security; about the rampant level of violence in our culture, and the sick dependence we have for seeing said violence on TV. Yes, it's about all sorts of things. Yes, indeed. But the core of Manhunt
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Manhunt - PlayStation 2
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is about listening. Listening, reacting to your environment, and adapting. It's essentially the jail-bound, drug-taking step-child to the TV show Survivor, except you're not kicked off the island. You're hunted down and bludgeoned to death -- for fun, entertainment and, because in some strange way, it's sexy.

Take note, because the things you have heard are correct. Manhunt is bloody, violent and sick. It's M rated because of its graphic depictions of decapitations -- death by crowbar to the face, wire chokes and machete hackings. But also because it reaches into the wasteland of human life and returns with a quivering piece of rotting meat and makes you taste it. You may have seen this kind of thing in movies, anime or the like, but no videogames to date have gone as far as Rockstar's Manhunt.

The Basics
Players take on the role of James Earl Cash, a criminal who's sentenced to death row for a crime or crimes too heinous to even mention. Given a second chance by a power-hungry man known as "The Director," Cash is not killed. Instead, he's just given sedatives and taken to the cancerous barrio of a city known as Carcer City. The municipality of Carcer is controlled entirely by the Director, a.k.a. Starkweather, who's set up hundreds of cameras in every place possible, populated it with psycho gangs and a corrupt police force. Here, Cash is the one-man star of Starkweather's snuff films.

Each new level is narrated by Starkweather, who chimes into Cash's earpiece with sick applause or chiding criticism when you're doing extremely well or poor. His comments range from a sick sort of disgusting humor to just plain repulsive comments, but either way actor Brian Cox (William Stryker in X2) gives a top-notch performance in the voice-over. What's especially intense about his voice is that by using a USB headset, players can hear him in their own ear (his voice is separated and channeled into your headset). Players can use the microphone to make noise too. Using the headset genuinely enhances the already tense action by adding in an unpredictable human element. For instance, if a player is surprised by something on screen, he or she might yell or suddenly say something in surprise (like we did - "OMG" and "Sh*t!"). By doing so, he or she alerts nearby hunters, and well, it's all over so fast. Some Smiley-faced thug has pummeled you to death before you know it.

The bleak story -- of Cash getting set up again and again in more difficult settings -- is told in minimalist style. That's both good and bad. On the one hand, it's not overbearing. On the other, there is very little story to be told. You'll go several levels without really knowing anything new or anything at all. And it's only in the later levels that something finally develops. As with everything in Manhunt, the focus tightly clings to stealthy, brutal gameplay. So, needless to say, it's not a story-driven game.

But the stealth-action game focused on the fundamental principle of tactical hunting is indeed a testament to disciplined design. The 24-level game (20 plus four bonus levels) is deep with intriguing "scenes," and it's polished and refined to create a cruel gameplay experience. Each level comprises three to four parts, and because most of the experience is based on studious stealth, it's easily a 20-30 hour game on Fetish mode. There is a healthy learning curve and, like many old school games, the gameplay is unforgiving. Actually, as an example of the game's hardcore target base, Rockstar North has provided only two levels of difficulty: Fetish (Normal) and Hardcore (Hard). (In Hardcore, there simply is no radar. Eeek!) There is no "Easy." Which, in my mind, is sort of like saying, "This is not for kids; it's for adults, you f*%kheads." Kind cool, when you think about it. A game just for adults. I like that.