Manhunt was a messed up, twisted, disgusting, brutal, disturbing and offensive game released by Rockstar for the PS2 and Xbox. It was a stealth, horror-style game that wanted you to kill your enemies in the sickest way possible. Rockstar found it appropriate to bring it back with Manhunt 2, the difference here is that it's on both the PS2 and the Wii. Was it a sane idea to bring this sick franchise to the Wii? Or will it stab them in the back?
The story of the first Manhunt was that you were an unwilling participant in a large snuff film. You were forced to participate due to the villain kidnapping your family. Here, the story is a little more in-depth. You play as Daniel Lamb, a man who broke out of an insane asylum to find out what happened to him and why it happened. He is accompanied by a man named Leo; a man that everyone advised him to avoid. Things aren't how they seem and there is a complicated narrative behind it all. It's confusing, but interesting. It's not very well told, seeing as there are only cutscenes in-between stages, but it gets the job done.
The gameplay is exactly the same as it was in the previous game. You creep around and hide in the shadows in order to sneak up on your enemies to murder them. Every action you perform, other than walk, causes you to make noise and if you enemies hear the noise, they will go and investigate. You can use this to your advantage and lure them away from their group and it's fun to do so. You can fight your enemies one-on-one, but if there are more than one you will get severly overpowered. If you are discovered, you are forced to run away and break the line of sight and hide in the shadows. You collect weapons around the environment to use in your murder and some are more powerful and more useful than others and they are color coded.
The green weapons are one-time use and they are usually things such as plastic bags. The blue weapons are stronger than green and they never break. The red weapons are stronger than blue, but they are slow. The weapons are mostly used to execute your enemies and each one has it's own execution animation. You also get guns and they are used in firefights which through the stealth out the window. You can now stealth execute with guns, but this will alert everyone around you. The gameplay still holds up for the most part and is played mostly for how stupid and gross it can get.
The biggest thing here are the controls. This game is on the Wii so it uses the Wii remote. The remote is used in a variety of ways and most of it works. To fight one-on-one, you waggle the Wii remote to swing your weapon. If you are fighting unarmed, the Wii remote is your right arm and the nunchuk is your left arm. This is interesting but takes some getting used to. When executing, you follow the on-screen prompts to tear your enemy apart. These prompts are the only thing that ever messes up, but it thankfully doesn't mess up often. The gunplay is what you'd expect, but it's really fun and enjoyable.
The game is broken up into stages and some of them can get difficult and to go stealth only can be challenging. Manhunt on the Wii adds some new things to the franchise that work very well, but are extremely messed up when you think about what you are doing. It's some of the best use of motion controls on Wii, but the game isn't amazing.
The game's music is dark and fitting, but it's forgettable. The voice work is good and all the characters sound great aside from the grunts, which are hilarious at times, but the sound effects are the focus here it seems. All of the sounds are more than appropriate and they are all really disgusting and make everything that more brutal. They put the most effort into the right places.
The visuals are the worst part of the game. They are clearly the same as the PS2 version's which are the same as the original game's. They aren't terrible, but they lag behind everything else on the market now. With games like Twilight Princess on the system, at launch no less, games like this are less tolerable. It still looks okay and it runs at a good pace, but the executions ruin everything even more. The executions were the highlight of the original game and they are here as well, but here they are censored. Whenever you perform an execution, the screen tints red and goes distorted and you can't make out what happened very well. With this included with the lower-end PS2 visuals, it's bad.
PROs
- Story is messed up and twisted
- Gameplay is still tense and can get challenging
- Controls are actually pretty good
- Best use of motion controls
- Good voice work and sound effects
- Unbelievably brutal
CONs
- Low-end PS2 visuals
- Executions are censored
- Music is forgettable
- Story is confusing and muddled
Overall, Manhunt 2 is fun as long as the excessive violence doesn't bother you. It might not look good and it might feel clunky at times, but it's still an enjoyable game. The use of motion controls alone are reason enough to try it out.
Story: 7.0/10
Gameplay: 7.0/10
Audio: 7.0/10
Presentation: 5.0/10
TOTAL: 6.5/10