Manhunt

[Ady]

the likes of which already gives our hobby a bad name.

Never knew people took gaming this seriously.

The media do. And they'll be the first to kick up a stink about the game's content come the first sniff of a copycat act.

As if that's going to happen. After all, it is really really hard to get your hands on the weapons in real life.

I mean, where are you going to find a plastic bag eh?

I don't mean someone's going to necessarily go out and imitate, but the mdeia will be looking for a something to pick on and you know it. They've done it for the most unlikely games in the past, why not this one?

[martTM]

I'm with martTM. It's cock.

Have played it more and now have the following comments to make (in spoiler mode, of course):

Good

? Very atmospheric and well-presented. Voice acting is well done, graphics are stylish and look great through RGB and it's an all-round good package.
? Genuinely scary at times (heartbeat, etc) but with twinges of humour that make me laugh - searching for something to break open a locked gate, only to find a room with 'Here's the crowbar, you wanker' written on the wall in blood, then having someone jump out and try to batter me to death with it was funny.
? The headset idea really works. Really.
? Er... that's it.

Bad

? There's NO gameplay when it comes to the kills and the stealth element, while necessary, is flawed. If the idea is to take your time and sneak around, how come the best rankings are awarded to people who sprint around and get to the end in as fast a time as possible? Fighting is limited to basic strikes and trying to get hits in when the opponent isn't blocking, while the controls are fiddly at times - only being able to rotate the camera when you're moving is a pain, as it flicks to first-person if you hit the right stick when standing still. Oh, and did I mention that holding down a single button, then watching a cut-scene that you have no control over ISN'T fun in the slightest?

All in all then, I'd give it four G's. Coz it's wikked like, innit.

[Ady]

Wow. Gore and swear words. It is teh mature!!!1

Watch it fly off the shelves.

See what you need to do to be down with da kids Nintendo?

[Duncan]

It's MGS without the tedious 30 hour cutscenes and Splinter Cell without the teeth grinding tedium. I think it's a great little stealth 'em up.

yeah, it's quite possibly morally bankrupt, but at least it's not pretending that you're doing it to save the whole world or whatever predictable excuse Tom clancy games give themselves to justify the fact that you're basically going around killing people with more hi-tech weaponary.

But that's just an aside, at the end of the day the gameplay is ALL there. The fact s that you're making snuff films. The director evidently wnats 'style' so you have to perform better. And to perform better on tape, you have to take some risk for your 'reward'. you've got a alleyway with 3 or 4 thugs down it - how are you going to separate the group so you can take them out one at a time instead of being completely battered?

And Brian Cox is fantastic!

At the end of the day, if you're going to put it down for it's style, you're basically missing the point that there are loads of games out there that do EXACTLY the same thing, but not in the same ballsout plotline. it's not a fantastic, genre defining game, it's just fun.

butnotforkids!

[srgbilco]

I don't really see how brutally killing peeps is fun. In GTA, Medal of Honour etc, the violence wasn't visceral and even comic at times, with no consequence and little humourous quips, a la James Bond.

But this stuff is like the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs, or the smash-face-in scene in Irreversible. Does that kind of detail and content make for "fun" viewing? No, it's supposed to shock you and make you feel uncomfortable. And never, ever is it glamourised and the consequences are always shown.

I'm not debating whether the visceral detail and consequences of these films is better than the glamourised killing sprees of XXX and their ilk, since these styles are obviously accepted by society as a whole and the tabloids in particular.

But Manhunt is glamourising the content that other films use to shock and educate in it's detail and methods of killing, and so rightly deserves to get ripped apart in the papers. Trouble is, it'll be ripped apart for all the wrong reasons.

This is not a view on the gameplay, but looking around, it seems to be ****. It's just the comments put out on GameFAQs, and some peeps here, that prompted this.

[Mr Spew]

Not many people have came into the shop asking about it, the one name thats been on everyones lips ps2 wise has been tony hawk underground, reckon it will overshadow Manhunt this week as for next week, new medal of honur will probly cast it aside a bit more, will see over the weekend!About the only thing i liked about it was the use of the socom headset for director comments in your earpiece, creepy other than that i think there is better games out this week to spend your cash on!

I don't think we sold a single one on Saturday, it's like with Pop Idol, I think we sold one copy of that, and we have 60-odd copies of Eye:Toy Groove, and haven't sold one.

[jim g]

This really is a crap 'game'.

I don't know what they were thinking with this but it really is a pile of bad taste poo and boring as hell.

Games have always had violence and that is not the issue here, for me it is like being in a snuff movie. The use of the plastic bag to kill people sort of crosses a line in videogames. Violence is everywhere in games, but with Manhunt it takes a step too far. It will also overshadow all the great games out there once the press pick up on this.

I played it to third level thnking, there must be more to it than this, but no. Hide in the dark sneak up and kill, that's it.

Shame on you Rockstar, but thank goodness for game rentals.

[RLench]

So have any papers picked up on this yet?

[martTM]

It's MGS without the tedious 30 hour cutscenes and Splinter Cell without the teeth grinding tedium. I think it's a great little stealth 'em up.

But that's just an aside, at the end of the day the gameplay is ALL there.

Where? Hidden under the manual in the box? Is it a bonus mode that I haven't unlocked yet? There's nothing that even remotely resembles gameplay in this mess of a title - the executions hold little satisfaction as you're hardly doing anything to perform them, and it gets worse once they get pushed aside in favour of guns.

And Brian Cox is fantastic!

Ah, now THERE'S a point I agree with - the voice-over talent is well done and Starkweather himself is played to a tee. Shame it's the icing on a rather rancid cake.

At the end of the day, if you're going to put it down for it's style, you're basically missing the point that there are loads of games out there that do EXACTLY the same thing, but not in the same ballsout plotline.

Okay, I think we've found your niche then - true, no other games confront the subject but there are plenty that handle the game style in a far better and more enjoyable way.

It's not a fantastic, genre defining game, it's just fun.

Fun? Are you sure? I've got absolutely no problem with the game's style (gritty and hard-edged) or even the fact that it's got violence in it - my beef is with the fact that it's just NOT FUN. The game comes down to getting the stupid-as-hell hunters to chase you into the shadows, then holding down X when they give up until they're dead. That's it. My continued patience with it has run out, as I'll be taking it back to the shop tomorrow for a ?40 refund and then I'll never think of it again.

[Duncan]

Okay, I think we've found your niche then - true, no other games confront the subject but there are plenty that handle the game style in a far better and more enjoyable way.

Which ones are those then? as I've already said, I found splinter cell to be too hard and dull for it, and MGS 2, whilst being reasonably playable, ruined because of it's director's penchant for making a bloody film

Fun? Are you sure? I've got absolutely no problem with the game's style (gritty and hard-edged) or even the fact that it's got violence in it - my beef is with the fact that it's just NOT FUN. The game comes down to getting the stupid-as-hell hunters to chase you into the shadows, then holding down X when they give up until they're dead. That's it. My continued patience with it has run out, as I'll be taking it back to the shop tomorrow for a ?40 refund and then I'll never think of it again.

Exactly how far did you get in the game? even to the point where you find a gun?

I'll admit, I don't like the fact that some of the hunters are deliberate set pieces, as in they only leap out at you as soon as you hit an invisible marker, but aside from that, I've no problems with the AI of the people at all. you make a sound, they look for you i.e. like what happens in all those other games. And more often than not if they're REALLY looking for you, they'll go into the shadows as well.

As for the fun aspect, yes, I do actually think it's fun. It's Black comedy for sure, but it's there all the same. Maybe our points of reference are different. But at the end of the day, that's what makes us humans special - we're allowed different views on the same thing, but I'd hate to think that you prejudiced against it purely because of the violence aspect because there's absolutely nothing wrong with the game behind the gore at all.

[Ady]

Finally got to play this, and whilst its by no means terrible, there's no way I'd spend ?40 on what is essentially a very repetitive maze game. The gore is really the only thing that makes it remotely interesting.

In short; Metal Gear + Mortal Kombat = Manhunt

It's fun for a while, but the gore novelty will wear off, leaving a somewhat compelling, but utterly vacuous game. I also think the ony people likely to find the game's content 'mature' are the fourteen year old boys it was aimed at.

[martTM]

Finally got to play this, and whilst its by no means terrible, there's no way I'd spend ?40 on what is essentially a very repetitive maze game. The gore is really the only thing that makes it remotely interesting.

In short; Metal Gear + Mortal Kombat = Manhunt

It's fun for a while, but the gore novelty will wear off, leaving a somewhat compelling, but utterly vacuous game. I also think the ony people likely to find the game's content 'mature' are the fourteen year old boys it was aimed at.

Ker-ching!

You know, I've always respected your opinion, Ady...

[Duncan]

Finally got to play this, and whilst its by no means terrible, there's no way I'd spend ?40 on what is essentially a very repetitive maze game. The gore is really the only thing that makes it remotely interesting.

In short; Metal Gear + Mortal Kombat = Manhunt

It's fun for a while, but the gore novelty will wear off, leaving a somewhat compelling, but utterly vacuous game. I also think the ony people likely to find the game's content 'mature' are the fourteen year old boys it was aimed at.

Ker-ching!

You know, I've always respected your opinion, Ady...

just ignore my post then, why don't you. As it is, I still think that you're all talking bollocks.

[martTM]

Finally got to play this, and whilst its by no means terrible, there's no way I'd spend ?40 on what is essentially a very repetitive maze game. The gore is really the only thing that makes it remotely interesting.

In short; Metal Gear + Mortal Kombat = Manhunt

It's fun for a while, but the gore novelty will wear off, leaving a somewhat compelling, but utterly vacuous game. I also think the ony people likely to find the game's content 'mature' are the fourteen year old boys it was aimed at.

Ker-ching!

You know, I've always respected your opinion, Ady...

just ignore my post then, why don't you. As it is, I still think that you're all talking bollocks.

Not ignoring... well, yeah okay so maybe I did. But then I'm a busy man, leading a busy life.

Forgot to take Manhunt back and am now stuck with it, unless I want to trade it in. Bugger. Went back to it though (after ploughing through Castlevania: LOI in less than two days) and have reached mission 14, where it's JUST got interesting... and by interesting, I mean 'still boring gameplay where I just use one button, but now at least the computer isn't as dumb as a bag of spanners'. However, having to deal with three guards at once rather than just one still isn't fun - I'll keep at it in between bouts of 1080, MOH: Infiltrator and F-Zero 2, but only because now I appear to be committed to getting ?40 worth of gameplay out of it. Which I'll have to do by wringing it drier than a three-day-old flannel.

[Marvelon]

I know I shouldn't judge beforehand, but tbh this looks like some cheap, attention-grabbing nonsense, the likes of which already gives our hobby a bad name. No doubt it will get the attention and column inches it was made for.

That's what I thought about DOA extreme beach volleybal. I found it intensely boring and it didn't get anywhere beyond the edge cover. To be perfectly honest I hope it get's lots of flack from the daily mail/sun etc. that'll stop a few parents from buying it for their 6 year olds this christmas.