This is what I thought of Manhunt. Possible spoilers, in the unlikely even that you're interested in the storyline.
I bought this game only because there was talk of it being banned, which seemed fairly interesting in its own right.
At first I was a bit bored, and irritated by the console-style gaming, like having designated "save points", and a "lock on" function, and not being able to skip cutscenes, and the poor mouse support and the poor colour depth and low texture resolution. The hand-to-hand combat system was pretty poor, but I didn't use it much so that didn't bother me.
I eventually overcame the console-ness irritation and the game started to pick up and be mildly amusing. There's a small variety of weapons, and you walk up behind an enemy and hold down an attack button to perform an 'execution'. The longer you hold it down the more violent the execution. This was a pretty good system, as I often had to choose between taking the fellow down quickly or taking the risk and following him for a few seconds more and get more points for a gruesome execution. My only gripe was that I often managed to achieve the most gruesome execution for all the enemies and recieved the same rating as if I was only half as gruesome.
The violence is supposedly the selling point of this game, and it's fairly amusing the first times you see an execution. It's really overrated, though, especially by those lobbying to ban it. The sound effects are fairly good, but the animations aren't very violent as the bodies don't deform very well. For one execution, you stab an enemy with a sickle and pull it up his stomach. All you see is a sprout of fuzzy redness, looking like a cloud of blood. His stomach doesn't actually rip open, the body doesn't deform at all, so it's a bit bland. The only deformations are the beheadings, and these are fairly good, but if something like the SoF 2 engine was used, then the violence would be a real pull factor. This was a bit of a cop out.
There are only three executions per weapon, and you can only hold three weapons at at time (and there are very few weapons across the maps), so you're likely to see the same scene a LOT of times, so eventually you'll just get bored of it. If you're thinking of getting this game because you love gruesome horror violence, be prepared to be dissapointed. You might be excited by it at first but you'll grow to be bored of it quite quickly.
But the near of the game, it really picks up, and it becomes a pretty decent stealth game. You're fighting enemies with assault rifles, and they'll kill you quite quickly, so firefights aren't really an option. You have to sneak up behind and execute them. This makes it really rather tense, luring them into a trap and killing them, as you know if you do it wrong you're dead. Unfortunately, this is near to the very end of the game, so there's not nearly enough of the real stealth action.
All in all, I thought this game had proper potential, but fell short. For many things, I blame the console limitations. It really could have used lots more executions and a more complicated execution system, lots more weapons, and a more complicated damage location system (ala SoF2). For other things, I blame the lazy programmers, like the very linear gameplay, and when standing in shadows you're more or less totally invisible.
Anyone else played this game? If so, does anyone know if there are any alternative Starkweather end scenes? I just ran at him and cut him up - I was wondering if you could execute him. It didn't save at that point, and I couldn't be bothered to go through the five Cereberus again.
I bought this game only because there was talk of it being banned, which seemed fairly interesting in its own right.
At first I was a bit bored, and irritated by the console-style gaming, like having designated "save points", and a "lock on" function, and not being able to skip cutscenes, and the poor mouse support and the poor colour depth and low texture resolution. The hand-to-hand combat system was pretty poor, but I didn't use it much so that didn't bother me.
I eventually overcame the console-ness irritation and the game started to pick up and be mildly amusing. There's a small variety of weapons, and you walk up behind an enemy and hold down an attack button to perform an 'execution'. The longer you hold it down the more violent the execution. This was a pretty good system, as I often had to choose between taking the fellow down quickly or taking the risk and following him for a few seconds more and get more points for a gruesome execution. My only gripe was that I often managed to achieve the most gruesome execution for all the enemies and recieved the same rating as if I was only half as gruesome.
The violence is supposedly the selling point of this game, and it's fairly amusing the first times you see an execution. It's really overrated, though, especially by those lobbying to ban it. The sound effects are fairly good, but the animations aren't very violent as the bodies don't deform very well. For one execution, you stab an enemy with a sickle and pull it up his stomach. All you see is a sprout of fuzzy redness, looking like a cloud of blood. His stomach doesn't actually rip open, the body doesn't deform at all, so it's a bit bland. The only deformations are the beheadings, and these are fairly good, but if something like the SoF 2 engine was used, then the violence would be a real pull factor. This was a bit of a cop out.
There are only three executions per weapon, and you can only hold three weapons at at time (and there are very few weapons across the maps), so you're likely to see the same scene a LOT of times, so eventually you'll just get bored of it. If you're thinking of getting this game because you love gruesome horror violence, be prepared to be dissapointed. You might be excited by it at first but you'll grow to be bored of it quite quickly.
But the near of the game, it really picks up, and it becomes a pretty decent stealth game. You're fighting enemies with assault rifles, and they'll kill you quite quickly, so firefights aren't really an option. You have to sneak up behind and execute them. This makes it really rather tense, luring them into a trap and killing them, as you know if you do it wrong you're dead. Unfortunately, this is near to the very end of the game, so there's not nearly enough of the real stealth action.
All in all, I thought this game had proper potential, but fell short. For many things, I blame the console limitations. It really could have used lots more executions and a more complicated execution system, lots more weapons, and a more complicated damage location system (ala SoF2). For other things, I blame the lazy programmers, like the very linear gameplay, and when standing in shadows you're more or less totally invisible.
Anyone else played this game? If so, does anyone know if there are any alternative Starkweather end scenes? I just ran at him and cut him up - I was wondering if you could execute him. It didn't save at that point, and I couldn't be bothered to go through the five Cereberus again.
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. " - Bertrand Russell
The Triumph of Stupidity in Mortals and Others 1931-1935
The Triumph of Stupidity in Mortals and Others 1931-1935
