Customer Reviews
Manhunt not all that bad. - By: Eddie Harris, 29 Jun 2008 
If you say manhunt is the most violent & digusting gamein the british gaming market! well...your right.
Its a fact that no other game has caused as much debate of removing of the game from store shelves but I wouldn't say its as bad as some of the other violent games. For example "State of emergency" had the same level of violence but had a very arcade feel to it...a bit cartoony so its making all of this violence funny. But manhunt dousn't! The levels are all dark & soakedin grime with an atmospheric soundtrack (especially on surround sound)to make you feel the awful disgusting nature of the violence at hand, rathur then making it fun.
It is also true that the game was removed from shelves for reasons I won't go into out of respect for the people involved but when the reason it was removed was disproved it came back onto the shelves.
As for the game play it is repetitive but it dousn't spoil the fun of it at all. once you have completed the game it takes effect though but you can still play one or two levels at a time later & still enjoy it.
the weaponsin the game are all nasty things such as plastic bags, glass shards, rounders & basball bats, knives, wire & even sickles! There are also guns but there is a skill to surviving a gunfightin this game, if you can hide & take out your enemy that way I would strongly recomend it untill you get lots of firearms experience. but one downfall is that towards the end of the game you start to not get hand-to-hand weapons but only guns & it takes the point out of the stealth aspect of the game.
overall it's a good enjoyable game but once you have completed it you don't have as much fun with it as you did when you played it for the first time.
blood, guts and violence! - By: Jm Carr, 22 May 2008 
loved this game, excellent story line & if you like blood guts & violence this is perfect! I espically liked the plastic bag kill haha. But yes i loved this game good for if yourin a mood! i would keep it away from children under 18 because it is a very violent game.
Puts ideas is chav scallies minds - By: Mr. J. Roche, 14 Jan 2008 
This is the only game that I have brought that I have taken back & tradedin for another game because I thought that the game was damaging psychologically, & I am a pretty moral guy.
However, I think that if i played this game for too long, & i was under a lot of stress, I could start using some of the ideasin the gamein real life.
I cant imagine what it does to idiots who aren't moral & who already have a desire to hurt innocent people.
No wonder violent crime has escalatedin the UK.
In the past I have always laughed at people who have criticized violent games as damaging society.
Especially as I was married to a Jehovah Witness for a while, & JW's are big on slagging computer games.
I laughed as I always reasoned with them that playing a batman game has never made me want to go out dressed as batman to fight crime & if someone did, i would question their mental health stability.
However, this game puts ideasin even the meekest minds, & is so darkin its intentions that I really think it shouldn't be on the market.
I really do think its one of the many reasons why the UK is rapidly escalating down the toilet.
People make the place. And if all the people that livein the UK start turning to violence to get their kicks, then would you like to live there?
This game bites! - By: J. Simpson, 10 Oct 2007 I ignored this game for years thinking it was just going to be an average game exploiting bad publicity until a fellow gamer started talking about it.
I was very wrong, this game is quality, from its original concept, tense story & gameplay, great audio. One of my favourite PS2 games ever..
Its goes without saying this game is explicitly violent, it is intended for adults that perhaps have a taste for films like 8mm, Hostel & Saw. PARENTS THAT STILL THINK GAMES ARE FOR KIDS AND ITS OKAY FOR THEM TO PLAY SOMETHING LIKE THIS, THINK AGAIN.
Special mention must go to the character Starkweather, a voice the character will hear throughout the game, this must be the best voice acting I have ever heardin a videogame, totaly convincing.
This is what happens when videogames grow up, a great game but get ready with the pause button because this game is sick!
After the first thrill there's..nothing - By: Serpico, 03 Jul 2007 
You play James Earl Cash. You're a convict & sentenced to death. But instead of an lethal injection you received some kind of narcotic. However, you wake upin a dirty hall & a voice tells you that you have to play the main rolein a snuff movie.
Your task: Do whatever you're told - survive - find a way out of the trap you're in.
Many people (even the text on the back of the DVD case) say that your maintask is to "stay alive". That's simply not truein any way. Most of the timein the game it goes like this "Kill all enemiesin this area. When you're finished the gate to the next area will be opened." The first half of the game consist out of that - nothing more. You get a few minor tasksin these missions, like for example saving people by not being spotted by the enemy, or by guiding certain people threw one of the areas & prevent that they get spotted or killed, butin the end it's always the same.
You get certain weapons or stuff like plastic bags, glass sharps, knifes, axes, machetes, guns, tranquliser guns & so on. Most of the time you have to use these weaponsin order to sneak up to your enemy & kill it. This triggers a cutscenein which you can see how the protagonist kills his victim (using the machete for example will resultin the protagonist slashing it into the hips of the enemy & cutting its head off. The player can throw the head afterwardsin order to get the other enemy's attention). You can also get more violent sequences by sneaking up to the enemy longer. At the beginning this is optional, butin one of the levels you'll be forced to trigger the most violent sequence, otherwise your enemies will keep on respawning all the time.
So, the main aspect of the game is sneaking & stalking. But it's als possible to use guns & to fight one-on-one. But you won't do it often, since it's useless. Especially later on when the enemies become stronger you barely have a chance to escape a one-on-one battle. The battle-system sucks & the controls are horrible & clumsy. It's the same with the aiming system when you'rein a gun fight (and certain levels force you to use ONLY guns) - the game has a auto-aim function. That's nice because the free aimingin the game sucks the most. Nevertheless, imagine this situation: Two enemies standin front of you (you're hidingin the shadows & can't bee seen). Between both of them is a gasoline can which explodes if you shoot it. Would be a good idea to do so, right? Forget about it. The auto-aim function forces you to aim at one of the enemies. You'll have to deal with them one by one.
The most annoying thing about the game is how damn boring it becomes. After you've finished the 9th of 20 stages you start realising that the game will offer nothing more. It's always the same. You see an enemy, you make some noise, the enemy comesin order to look for you, you hidein the shadows, the enemy turns you it's back, & you slaughter it down. Repeat.
In some stages you have to use guns, which is boring as well. Always the same, no tactic, no fun.
But the games does also have some positive aspects like for example the fantastic voice acting of the certain characters or the (at the beginning) real refreshing & sinister story.
Closing comment: The game is too long, because although there are some story twists the game mechanics offer nothing new. You always do the same, only the weapons change. The controls are horrible & the difficulty combined with the saving system is sometimes just annoying. Some parts of the game are easy as hell, other parts are so damn hard & frustrating that you want to eat your controller.
I guess if the game wasn't that violent & disturbing, noone would have payed attention.
And I guess it's the same with Manhunt 2 which is now about to come out.
Violence is not a part of the atmosphere, it's part of how the game is supposed to work at all - & that's a rather sad fact.
And by the way: this is no horror game at all.
