Inferior sequel, but an interesting game on it's own, I kinda feel bad for this game with it's troubled development and the shitty media attention. This thing definately had potentail and it's nice we atleast have the leaked PS2 build to give us a glimpse of what they were cooking, maybe someday a Vienna build will leak? Luckily Wii and PSP also have uncensor mods by now but I used the PC ports with a bunch of mods, tho some of them broke some effects and animations so...The strangest thing about this game is how "un-Rockstar" it feels, let me explain, you know how almost ever R* has this coat of paint of sarcasm to it? You can still take these games seriously to a certain extent, especially when they want you to...it's not like say...MCU where it ruins what could've been but actually enhances it. Even Manhunt 1 does this ("This is the best therapy money can buy!", Journalist casually mentioning exposing The Director can make her a fortune, some of the crazy shit the hunters say which you hear a lot) but Manhunt 2? Outside of hunter quotes...(like the Asylum workers going:"This is why I love my job!", "Really, I'm doing you a favor!" and "He died of food poisoning, alright?")...which you won't hear much anyway cuz you won't be spending as much time hiding in the shadows in this game unlike the first one, and the fun mode but that's a goofy cheat most people won't even active or know about, atleast on the first playthrough. There was also gonna be the Dildo but that's cut, atleast the animations survived. This game doesn't have much of that Rockstar feeling.

But yeah, the story feels strangely serious, you never hear some double meaning weird take from Danny nor Leo, ah Leo...this man is edgy with a capital E, he is funny, but mostly unintentionally, which is also rare for Rockstar, unintentionally failing to be edgy and just ending up a bit funny? What? This all in turn makes the game feels...typical and not as special, this feels like something any other developer could come up with, atleast the big names and semi-big names of the era, Rockstar Games always have a unique feel to them, even if their formula isn't always the most unique thing in the world, you just look and play at their games and feel "Yeah, this is definately Rockstar", MH2 feels like the many horror games of its era. That being said, final levels definitely reminded me of Silent Hill 4, tho geez the lighting is FUCKED on PC, especially in these levels, it's way too damn bright...Walter Sullivan and Leo Kasper would get along well tho...maybe, there is also a skin mod for both MH games lol

Story is alright, albeit a bit butchered cuz of all the story shifting developers had to do I bet. Manhunt 1 was based on a very specific thing and knew exactly what it wanted to be and had a very solid presentation to go with it...Manhunt 2? Not much...it's just typical science experiment gone wrong amnesia stuff...but I'll give props to the medical document presentation of the manual, the logo and the PS2 save icon. Also pretty sure The Project logo (the one you also see on the cover here) is based on the Zodiac Killer logo, in the game it stands straight like a square but here it's twisted in the same way as the logo I mentioned. Going from having a white supremacist on the cover to having the logo of a serial killer...pretty bold fitting transition Rockstar!

I also wanna talk about the difficulty...this game is kind of a breeze and it's literally like 5 levels shorter than MH1 (4 if you unlock the bonus level), Danny/Leo can take a lot more damage than Cash and the gunfight levels are nowhere as painful or as long and they're kinda sprinkled around rather then being really wailing on you by the end. This has good and bad effects, less painful gun parts and more health is appreciated but the difficulty of MH1 added a lot its atmosphere on top of everything, this feels too easy and just not as satisfactory. I dig the more brutal executions tho, I dig the gameplay additions like climbing and crawling but the look into the shadows mechanic is kinda ehhh? It's very easy to avoid if you just face the wall lol, I did that and it worked all the time except a few times. Ending levels felt pretty lame, for one, I expected you to get either ending based on how you play (intentionally avoided hurting civillians to get the good ending) only to find out you get Good by default anyway and Bad is unlockable, which is pretty damn lame and the Bad Ending level is clearly a bit put together last minute. Either ending feels unsatisfactory and with question marks and just an unsatisfying conclusion to it all...especially with how the Good Ending doesn't even show the final action you to finish the game...

Danny and Leo (especially Leo) are really fucking fun to meme on tho, I like that lol, I also love the goofy ahh sounds in the fun mode, ahead of it's time lol

It's a manhunt, Danny!