Surely it's more than possible to have moral qualms about killing and still go ahead with it? 
I mean, in real life I believe taking another human life is always morally wrong, no room for argument - doesn't mean I don't sometimes think it's necessary.
Of course this was the thing with Manhunt for me - where I appreciate there's certainly room for analysis like Concept's infamous article but such analysis, when people do feel like it, usually goes much further than is warranted by anything in the game. It is glorifying the violence to some degree. It could be far subtler - sorry, I think if you seriously believe the game is built around just-enough-and-no-more you're at least partly kidding yourself. And the setup, while interesting, isn't that great - I could think of countless more challenging ways to implement a similar story while still using simple if X then 1 or if Y then 2 game design.
Of course the main problem would be it's simply not that great a game. Take away the admittedly superlative audio and it's a horribly limited game of cat and mouse with some of the most appalling AI I've ever seen - nine times out of ten the game hardly bothers to make it anything less than obvious where the enemies will or will not go (even the original Thief did this miles better) and you can comfortably outrun any of them by just fleeing to the start of the level anyway.
I played it to the end, and would probably want to give the sequel a try... but it was largely for the atmosphere, and that atmosphere was still sadly lacking, despite excelling in some respects. It is better than a lot of people gave it credit for, no question. But it's still not even slightly deserving of Edge's 8.
EDIT: Oh, I also admit the use of the headset was inspired, and adds a lot to the experience. The PS2 had it, too... and you do know any input the microphone picks up counts as noise in the game, right?
I mean, in real life I believe taking another human life is always morally wrong, no room for argument - doesn't mean I don't sometimes think it's necessary.Of course this was the thing with Manhunt for me - where I appreciate there's certainly room for analysis like Concept's infamous article but such analysis, when people do feel like it, usually goes much further than is warranted by anything in the game. It is glorifying the violence to some degree. It could be far subtler - sorry, I think if you seriously believe the game is built around just-enough-and-no-more you're at least partly kidding yourself. And the setup, while interesting, isn't that great - I could think of countless more challenging ways to implement a similar story while still using simple if X then 1 or if Y then 2 game design.
Of course the main problem would be it's simply not that great a game. Take away the admittedly superlative audio and it's a horribly limited game of cat and mouse with some of the most appalling AI I've ever seen - nine times out of ten the game hardly bothers to make it anything less than obvious where the enemies will or will not go (even the original Thief did this miles better) and you can comfortably outrun any of them by just fleeing to the start of the level anyway.
I played it to the end, and would probably want to give the sequel a try... but it was largely for the atmosphere, and that atmosphere was still sadly lacking, despite excelling in some respects. It is better than a lot of people gave it credit for, no question. But it's still not even slightly deserving of Edge's 8.
EDIT: Oh, I also admit the use of the headset was inspired, and adds a lot to the experience. The PS2 had it, too... and you do know any input the microphone picks up counts as noise in the game, right?
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