Oh boy, how will I ever be able to talk about this game? I guess, at the least, I should give this article a more 18+ rating, and that everyone should be advised of the game we are going to be talking about today. But the game is so old with graphics, that the violence almost doesn’t matter. Well, today, everyone, we have a very special horror game to talk about. Created by Rockstar, the people behind Grand Theft Auto, comes their first survival horror game, and easily one of their most controversial games out there. Rockstar is known for having controversy in their games from murder to bullying to blaming their games as the cause of animal abuse… I am not kidding. But, how many Rockstar games have been banned in several countries for their disturbing content and graphic violence. Maybe some, but none more so than the survival horror stealth game, Manhunt.
Manhunt takes place in the fictional town of Carcer City, where a death row inmate named James Earl Cash is said to have been executed, but is actually still alive, and is now part of a sick and twisted event lead by a man called The Director. Cash is made to be the star of his show, a snuff film made for the enjoyment of people who take pleasure in watching others being murdered. So, as the star of The Director’s new film, your goal in the game is to travel across the dangerous side of Carcer City and execute every enemy you come across in ways, sometimes with The Director making up a few things for you to do as you continue to do so. Each enemy you run into is part of a dangerous gang or is part of The Directors special attack team. The gangs include The Hoods, a simple street gang that’s about simple beatings and muggings and aren’t too hard. The Skinz, which are just basically Klansmen. The Wardogs, mercenaries that carry firearms. The Innocentz, a gang of Satanic cultists and pedophiles. The Carcer City Police after The Director blackmails the police chief, Gary Schaffer. Cerberus, The Director’s personal guards and some of the hardest enemies you’ll run into, and finally, The Smileys, a gang of asylum inmates who have the most disturbing dialogue in the game… And yes… You have to kill them all.
Manhunt is not a game where you can just go right into enemy lines and expect to tear them apart. I mean, just because you’re on camera in a city that thrives on being a place of murder and crime, you can’t just go out and kill whoever you want. What do you think this is, Madworld? (Oh, you don’t know Madworld. Oh, okay). The point is, you can’t go running up to enemies and expect to kill them all by doing so. Sure, you can take out a few, but it will either end in your death, or being just barely alive with practically no health and basically prolonging the inevitable by that point. As I said, Manhunt is a stealth game. You do have to kill the enemies, but these guys are much more easy with killing someone, and since they are in packs, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, so you must sneak up on enemies from behind. You must hide in the shadows, use noise to distract them, bang on walls, and just stay out of their line of sight. Once you do get behind your back, you must perform the thing that got this game banned in several countries: An execution. Executions are said to be the most violent things ever seen in a game. As you’re behind an enemy, you must hold in the attack button and wait. The longer you wait, the more gruesome the execution is, and the more gruesome it is, the more points you get at the end of the level. Now, as said, these were so violent that it got the game banned, but nowadays… Yeah, the gore effects don’t hold up. I mean, has anyone played Mortal Kombat? The game that started the ESRB ratings? Those games are a millions times more gruesome. Sure, Manhunt is more realistic, so I guess that makes it more disturbing. Breaking a man’s neck as you suffocate him with a plastic bag, smash his brains in with a baseball bat. Use wire to slice through a man's neck to decapitate him…. Okay, I’ll stop talking now.
Of course, the game isn’t all about stealth. There are points where you must fight the enemy head on… Which is where the game starts to show its issues. The first problem with this game is the camera. When you are still and not moving, the second you move the camera, it goes into a first person view, and the camera controls are inverted. I don’t care what the reason is, inverted controls are not ever needed for a camera. They should be used for only plane games like Crimson Skies and underwater sections, like Jolly Roger’s Bay from Super Mario 64. Never the camera. I say this because the gun sections can go straight to hell. Once you need to use guns to fight your way through instead of stealth, all the fun leaves the room. It just walks out, without a second glance. Enemies can gang up on you and drain your health in a matter of minutes. And you have limited ammo, and I mean VERY limited, but the enemies come at you with some sort of infinite supply of bullets. Once you kill one group, you’d better grab all the ammo you can and get back to cover, because the next group won’t wait long. When you get to the Cerberus, my god, it’s just a mess. I hope you like dealing with the most powerful enemies with the strongest weapons and highest AI intelligence, because they are definitely going to challenge your patience. Not your stealth your tolerance, as in how much of this shit can you tolerate. I wouldn’t mind if the enemy had guns if you could just sneak up and kill them. Hell, the Metal Gear Solid franchise relishes in being a stealth game where the enemy has the advantage when it comes to weapons, and that’s one of the best franchises of all time. It could have worked for Manhunt… You know, if you weren’t forced to fight the enemies. I wouldn’t mind if fighting them head on was an option, but because it’s forced, it really makes this much more painful to sit through.
Of course, when it comes to Manhunt, we all know what the first thing is that comes to mind… Besides the bans. I’m talking about the game’s final boss. (Spoilers for Manhunt from here on out) And no, I don’t mean The Director. That was a very crappy fight. I’m talking about the fight before it with Piggsy, otherwise, this games Pyramid Head or Nemesis. Now, I don’t consider Manhunt a scary game. It is very disturbing, sure, but not scary. I can see how others would find it scary, but I don’t see watching a person have a crowbar shoved in their brain scary. But Piggsy… I can see how people are scared of Piggsy. So, who, or what, is Piggsy? Well, he’s a large mentally challenged man who wears the skin of a pig, and carries a chainsaw with him. After breaking free from his chains in the mansion of Lionel Starkweather, The Director, he begins to kill members of Cerberus inside the mansion as Cash kills the ones outside in the garden. Soon, when you reach the top of the mansion, you are met with Piggsy, and this is a much more intense fight. Piggsy isn’t killed when you sneak up and stab him with wooden stakes (Which are incredibly limited, mind you). Instead, he is only a little damaged. The chainsaw he wields is incredibly damaging and can get you killed in just a few swings if you aren’t careful. And you have to make sure you know you have the guts to run past him and make some close calls. This is a real intense part that I love. Being trapped in a tight space with someone who only has the thought to kill, and nothing else. That is a very haunting thought, and I love it.
Alright, so maybe Manhunt is a bit of a disturbing game. It’s definitely got the things that society would deem inexcusable and disgusting, and the executions, while not as gruesome as they were back then, certainly did make me tense up a little at times. It’s not the best horror game I’ve played… Or the best stealth game… Or the best Rockstar game… But it is the first massively controversial game I’ve played, and, as much as I find it hard to admit for whatever reason, I actually enjoyed this game a little. Yeah, I know. It’s fucking crazy. I already feel like I’m slipping from society. It’s not the greatest game out there (The shooting and camera proves that), but it’s certainly not as bad as everyone says it is. I recommend trying it out some time… Unless you're in one of the banned countries, which, if you are, then sorry. Take care.
Manhunt takes place in the fictional town of Carcer City, where a death row inmate named James Earl Cash is said to have been executed, but is actually still alive, and is now part of a sick and twisted event lead by a man called The Director. Cash is made to be the star of his show, a snuff film made for the enjoyment of people who take pleasure in watching others being murdered. So, as the star of The Director’s new film, your goal in the game is to travel across the dangerous side of Carcer City and execute every enemy you come across in ways, sometimes with The Director making up a few things for you to do as you continue to do so. Each enemy you run into is part of a dangerous gang or is part of The Directors special attack team. The gangs include The Hoods, a simple street gang that’s about simple beatings and muggings and aren’t too hard. The Skinz, which are just basically Klansmen. The Wardogs, mercenaries that carry firearms. The Innocentz, a gang of Satanic cultists and pedophiles. The Carcer City Police after The Director blackmails the police chief, Gary Schaffer. Cerberus, The Director’s personal guards and some of the hardest enemies you’ll run into, and finally, The Smileys, a gang of asylum inmates who have the most disturbing dialogue in the game… And yes… You have to kill them all.
Manhunt is not a game where you can just go right into enemy lines and expect to tear them apart. I mean, just because you’re on camera in a city that thrives on being a place of murder and crime, you can’t just go out and kill whoever you want. What do you think this is, Madworld? (Oh, you don’t know Madworld. Oh, okay). The point is, you can’t go running up to enemies and expect to kill them all by doing so. Sure, you can take out a few, but it will either end in your death, or being just barely alive with practically no health and basically prolonging the inevitable by that point. As I said, Manhunt is a stealth game. You do have to kill the enemies, but these guys are much more easy with killing someone, and since they are in packs, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, so you must sneak up on enemies from behind. You must hide in the shadows, use noise to distract them, bang on walls, and just stay out of their line of sight. Once you do get behind your back, you must perform the thing that got this game banned in several countries: An execution. Executions are said to be the most violent things ever seen in a game. As you’re behind an enemy, you must hold in the attack button and wait. The longer you wait, the more gruesome the execution is, and the more gruesome it is, the more points you get at the end of the level. Now, as said, these were so violent that it got the game banned, but nowadays… Yeah, the gore effects don’t hold up. I mean, has anyone played Mortal Kombat? The game that started the ESRB ratings? Those games are a millions times more gruesome. Sure, Manhunt is more realistic, so I guess that makes it more disturbing. Breaking a man’s neck as you suffocate him with a plastic bag, smash his brains in with a baseball bat. Use wire to slice through a man's neck to decapitate him…. Okay, I’ll stop talking now.
Of course, the game isn’t all about stealth. There are points where you must fight the enemy head on… Which is where the game starts to show its issues. The first problem with this game is the camera. When you are still and not moving, the second you move the camera, it goes into a first person view, and the camera controls are inverted. I don’t care what the reason is, inverted controls are not ever needed for a camera. They should be used for only plane games like Crimson Skies and underwater sections, like Jolly Roger’s Bay from Super Mario 64. Never the camera. I say this because the gun sections can go straight to hell. Once you need to use guns to fight your way through instead of stealth, all the fun leaves the room. It just walks out, without a second glance. Enemies can gang up on you and drain your health in a matter of minutes. And you have limited ammo, and I mean VERY limited, but the enemies come at you with some sort of infinite supply of bullets. Once you kill one group, you’d better grab all the ammo you can and get back to cover, because the next group won’t wait long. When you get to the Cerberus, my god, it’s just a mess. I hope you like dealing with the most powerful enemies with the strongest weapons and highest AI intelligence, because they are definitely going to challenge your patience. Not your stealth your tolerance, as in how much of this shit can you tolerate. I wouldn’t mind if the enemy had guns if you could just sneak up and kill them. Hell, the Metal Gear Solid franchise relishes in being a stealth game where the enemy has the advantage when it comes to weapons, and that’s one of the best franchises of all time. It could have worked for Manhunt… You know, if you weren’t forced to fight the enemies. I wouldn’t mind if fighting them head on was an option, but because it’s forced, it really makes this much more painful to sit through.
Of course, when it comes to Manhunt, we all know what the first thing is that comes to mind… Besides the bans. I’m talking about the game’s final boss. (Spoilers for Manhunt from here on out) And no, I don’t mean The Director. That was a very crappy fight. I’m talking about the fight before it with Piggsy, otherwise, this games Pyramid Head or Nemesis. Now, I don’t consider Manhunt a scary game. It is very disturbing, sure, but not scary. I can see how others would find it scary, but I don’t see watching a person have a crowbar shoved in their brain scary. But Piggsy… I can see how people are scared of Piggsy. So, who, or what, is Piggsy? Well, he’s a large mentally challenged man who wears the skin of a pig, and carries a chainsaw with him. After breaking free from his chains in the mansion of Lionel Starkweather, The Director, he begins to kill members of Cerberus inside the mansion as Cash kills the ones outside in the garden. Soon, when you reach the top of the mansion, you are met with Piggsy, and this is a much more intense fight. Piggsy isn’t killed when you sneak up and stab him with wooden stakes (Which are incredibly limited, mind you). Instead, he is only a little damaged. The chainsaw he wields is incredibly damaging and can get you killed in just a few swings if you aren’t careful. And you have to make sure you know you have the guts to run past him and make some close calls. This is a real intense part that I love. Being trapped in a tight space with someone who only has the thought to kill, and nothing else. That is a very haunting thought, and I love it.
Alright, so maybe Manhunt is a bit of a disturbing game. It’s definitely got the things that society would deem inexcusable and disgusting, and the executions, while not as gruesome as they were back then, certainly did make me tense up a little at times. It’s not the best horror game I’ve played… Or the best stealth game… Or the best Rockstar game… But it is the first massively controversial game I’ve played, and, as much as I find it hard to admit for whatever reason, I actually enjoyed this game a little. Yeah, I know. It’s fucking crazy. I already feel like I’m slipping from society. It’s not the greatest game out there (The shooting and camera proves that), but it’s certainly not as bad as everyone says it is. I recommend trying it out some time… Unless you're in one of the banned countries, which, if you are, then sorry. Take care.