Lights, camera, action!
Review by: Orasion_Seiz
My first review in more than a year. It's been a while; I haven't had the chance to play that many games since I started my working life. I played Manhunt few year's back and I thought this game would be nice to review. I just hope I have the right words to describe it.
If I can describe Manhunt in one word it would be frantic. Manhunt is one of those games that can be addicting as well as challenging. At first I have doubts about this game, but when I played it I was going in a killing frenzy. I was enjoying it like a maniac. A word of advice, the game contains scenes of explicit violent content which is not suitable for younger gamers so it's not a game for everyone to enjoy. Enough of the introduction let the killing begin.
Manhunt was developed and created by Rockstar North, the same team responsible for the famous Grand Theft Auto series. Manhunt begins with a character named James Earl Cash, a serial killer on death row about to be executed. However, he was given a second chance to live by a film director named Lionel Starkweather. But it's not quite Cash was expecting. He is however the star of Starkweather's new serial killing film called Manhunt. You are out trying to escape the city at the same time a number of gangs will try to kill you in the streets. So what does a good actor do? Kill these lowlifes and send them to oblivion. You have to use stealth and speed as well as the gifted ability of Cash to kill in order to survive.
The main highlight of the game are the execution scenes that you perform in order to kill. Basically what you do is pick up a weapon, sneak up on an enemy and execute him. Once you are close enough to an enemy, Cash will rise his arm and a white cursor will appear (holding L1 to lock on). When an execution is performed, you will get a scene in which Cash kills the enemy. The execution scenes are different depending on the weapon you have and level you performed the execution. To perform an execution you can hold down either square or x. At this point the cursor should be white and if you wish to release the square or x button you will perform a rushed or level one execution. This type of execution is fast and you won't get a good style bonus, Starkweather won't be impressed either. If you continue to hold the square or x button, the cursor will change white to yellow. When you release the button, you will perform a violent or level 2 execution which is of course better than a level one execution. And if you continue to hold the button the color will change from yellow to red. When you release it, you will perform a gruesome or level 3 execution. These level 3 execution will give you style bonuses when you complete a scene. And Starkweather will be also impressed on your performance. But not anytime you will be performing executions. Sometimes you will be force to fight enemies hand to hand and by the end of the game you will be using guns instead of doing executions.
You can get a number of weapons and items in the streets so you can use them to survive. Weapons are categorized by their color and Cash can carry only one weapon per category. Green or disposable weapons are silent type and will be gone after being used once. This includes a plastic bag, a glass shard and a wire. Blue or medium size weapons are not disposable. A knife, crowbar, blackjack are just some of those type of weapons. Handguns are also classified as a medium size weapons. And then there are the red or large types of weapons. Baseball bats, shotguns, rifles can give you enough firepower in a fight. Lure items are in yellow and you cannot use these to execute your enemies. They are just use if you want to lure or get the attention of an enemy. Also there are painkillers in the game. These are white in color and it replenishes 50% of your health when you're injured. If you see some, try to remember the location and in case you need it just go back and get it. One of the basic to become a good killer is being stealthy. At all point in the game you can hide in shadowy spots and lure a victim into his demise. During the first few scenes of the game, you can easily execute most of the enemies given that the A.I is easy to fool around. As you progress though, the A.I becomes smarter and it will be hard for you to execute enemies. Also try to hide the bodies of your victims in the shadows so other enemies won't notice it. They will just call their cheery buddies when they found one and it will be hard for you to kill all of them. And if you find yourself in a cornered situation, it's better to run into a safe hiding spot and wait until its safe again. Just remember that you're also graded by your speed, so try to finish a scene as fast as you can to get some bonus style.
The graphics of the game is good. It's similar to the graphics of a Grand Theft Auto game but with a little makeover. The environment is set in a dark city and all the time is night. The character designed isn't much detailed but it doesn't matter as Cash was created as a professional killer. The few short movie cut scenes in the game which shows Cash being captured by the enemies adds also a little thriller to the game. The execution scenes are brutal and sometimes spine chilling. The in game sound of every scene is very thrilling. You can also hear the protagonist's heartbeat as he hides in the shadow before performing an execution. It adds to the adrenaline rush as you play the game. The voice acting on the other hand isn't that well done especially the protagonist voice acting. There are a lot of trash talking in the game mostly from the hunters and Starkweather. They repeat the same phrases and sometimes intimidating.
Manhunt has 20 scenes or stages. Each scene depends on your speed of completion so it is not guarantee your going to beat a scene on a given time. The game also has some bonus features whenever you earn good star ratings on every scene. This includes some pictures and profiles of every hunter in the game as well as Starkweather. There is also some bonus scenes that you can unlocked for every consecutive five bonus features that you get. So if you get the bonus features unlocked in scenes 1 – 5 you get a bonus scene. And so on and so forth. These bonus scenes can be play in the select scene menu in the bottom part. Other than that there are some nifty cheat codes you can input after you have beaten the game. But some of them are hidden so it's up to you to discover this nice little cheat codes.
To end this review, Manhunt is a very good game to be enjoyed ONLY by matured gamers. The violent, frantic, explicit content of the game are not suitable for younger gamers. Were talking about a lot of killing scenes and trash talking in this game. If you think you're matured enough, then I dare you to try this game. I guarantee you that you're going to enjoy it.
"Daddy didn't see what would happen if she left me. Mommy's supposed to care, but she was never there..."
End of review