Manhunt

released on Nov 18, 2003

Manhunt is a third-person stealth horror game. The game consists of twenty levels, and four bonus levels that can be unlocked; the levels are referred to as "scenes". Players survive the Scenes by dispatching enemy gang members known as "Hunters", occasionally with firearms but primarily by stealthily executing them in gruesome, over-the-top ways. The player is rated at the end of each level, primarily dependent on the gruesomeness of the killings and the speed of completion, from one (unimpressive) to five (extremely competent) stars. Executions are preferred in order to gain a higher score, thus encouraging players to play as viscerally as possible. The game's locales are full of "dark spots" and shadows where the player can hide while being chased by the Hunters; hiding in these dark areas makes the player invisible to opponents.


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Manhunt é um bom jogo, porém depende até qual parte você chega. A partir do capítulo 15, a dificuldade aumenta exageradamente, a IA começa a te ver através da parede e a gameplay não ajuda (por ser datada). O final do jogo é bem vazio e ele acaba simplesmente do nada...

Me mata que Rockstar se tomara la molestia de "censurar" el pene de pigsy en su segunda fase considerando el resto de cosas horribles y moralmente cuestionables que muestra el juego.

“I’m going to deal with Starkweather personally (fistbump), thank him for my ‘second chance’. You’re my backup if I don’t make it. Have a nice life.” 10/10

i can really tell that this game set the foundations for a lot of stealth-oriented games that would come out after its release, but standing on its own, manhunt is just pretty okay.
as you could guess, the stealth is very good, the gameplay does revolve entirely around it after all, although it does get kinda boring kinda quickly after you’ve done your 30th execution which boils down to hitting a wall or waiting for an enemy to pass by a dark area and then trailing behind them whilst holding the square button until you can brutally murder them. the game does keep it fresh by introducing new enemy types or “gangs” that have their own quirks that changes the way you should approach a level, but that doesn’t change how sick you’ll get of holding down the square button for 10 seconds behind each enemy in the game.
the story is. there, I guess? it exists mainly to just move you on and explain why different gangs are showing up but not much else. it’s not interesting in the slightest, although let’s be real nobody’s playing this game for the story, they’re playing it for the controversy.
I don’t get it. I mean I kinda get why this game was controversial but nowadays it really is nothing special. there’s no shock-value in the bloody and gory executions, likely due to heavy distortion and censoring with the VHS filter and just the PS2 models in general.
manhunt is just okay, and that’s fine. I’m glad it laid the foundation for games like the batman arkham series and the only good parts of any assassins creed game and maybe the octocamo in mgs4 but not really (but it kinda is if you deep it??)

note: DO NOT purchase this game on PC/Steam!!! i know for a fact that the game is broken to shit on there and you will have a better experience emulating this or playing it on actual PS2 hardware. as someone who emulated it, I faced zero major bugs aside from ones relating to my emulator settings, so MAKE SURE you do not pick up the Steam or Rockstar Games Launcher versions of this game!

A challenging and brutal stealth game.