Retro Review: Manhunt 2

<p>Rockstar Games has never been one to back down from controversy&comma; but unfortunately with <em>Manhunt 2<&sol;em> they had to bend to the rules or have no systems to publish on&period; Back before <em>Manhunt 2<&sol;em> hit the shelves the ERSB gave it an Adults Only rating&comma; which means that no major console&comma; Sony&comma; Microsoft or Nintendo would carry the game on their system&period; Take-Two Interactive had Rockstar rework some of the scenes that offended and published the title in 2007 on the Wii&comma; PSP and PS2&period; Personally&comma; I am against censorship in any form and this offended me heavily&comma; so I did the one thing that a consumer could do back in 2007&period; I bought a copy for every system just to piss off all the cry-babies&comma; for the purpose of this review I will be playing through the PSP version&period; I guess parents can no longer control their children and prohibit them from buying an insanely violent game&comma; so we must all suffer&period; I will slowly step off of my soap box and tell you why you must play this classic Rockstar title&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There is a huge thunderstorm over the Dixmor Asylum for the Criminally Insane which somehow releases the cell doors at the facility&comma; which in turn allows all of the inmates to escape and take over&period; You play as Daniel Lamb&comma; an amnesiac who has no recollection of why he is in the asylum or anything of his past&period; You escape with the help of Leo&comma; another inmate who basically is your tutorial person&semi; the whole first level is your escape and tutorial&period; As you progress through the story&comma; outside of the asylum you realize with the help of Leo that something is amiss with your life and that you have been backstabbed&period; You eventually make it to your burned out home and discover a certain drug that you left there prior to your amnesia&period; Taking it clears your memory some&comma; and allows you to continue down the path to a full memory&comma; and of course glorious revenge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;116693" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-116693" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-116693 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;07145139&sol;manhunt22&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Manhunt 2 - Rockstar&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-116693" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Manhunt 2<&sol;em>&comma; Rockstar&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The controls are pretty simple for this heavily stealth based game&comma; which I&&num;8217&semi;m insanely terrible at&period; The controls never hampered me as I attempted to stay in the shadows&comma; but my impatience did because I wanted to get to the killing&period; Since I played my PSP version I will go over those controls&period; The analog stick is what moves Daniel around&period; Pressing X while you move the analog stick forward gets Daniel to run&comma; which makes you extremely noisy&comma; so it isn&&num;8217&semi;t the best idea to run all the time&period; There is a little HUD on the lower left screen that shows you how much noise you are making and lets you see your enemies and in which direction they are facing&period; To skirt around you have to hit the Left and Right Triggers which allow you to sidestep silently&comma; which you will need to do in order to get behind your enemies&period; The biggest drawback to this game was the execution mechanic&comma; as basically you have to sneak up behind an unsuspecting foe and hold down the Square button&period; The longer you stay behind the enemy while holding down the Square button&comma; the more brutal the execution is&period; In the sequel though Rockstar had to smudge these executions so that you couldn&&num;8217&semi;t see what Daniel was doing to his foe&period; It is sad&comma; but if you squint you can make it out&comma; kind of like when porn was scrambled on your childhood television&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;116701" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-116701" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-116701 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;07164751&sol;manhunt&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Manhunt 2 - Rockstar&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"330" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-116701" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Manhunt 2<&sol;em>&comma; Rockstar&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The graphics for this nine year old game are pretty well done&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m sure at the time when I was first playing these I was amazed by the graphical advancement Rockstar was showing&period; Now if you put it up against <em>Grand Theft Auto V<&sol;em> you&&num;8217&semi;ll be sorely disappointed&comma; but that&&num;8217&semi;s what happens with our hobby&period; Rockstar made the characters look realistic and didn&&num;8217&semi;t go the slightly goofy route they went with in <em>Bully<&sol;em> at the time&period;  They even upped the ante with the visuals in this game&period; When you&&num;8217&semi;re going through the levels it looks as if you are watching all of this take place on CCTV cameras&period; It gets grainy at times and when you are about to execute your fellow man it cuts to static then a close up blurry shot of the murder&period; This visual idea really gives the game a great atmosphere&semi; you think that you shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be watching yet you continue on&comma; level after level of gritty goodness&period; The voiceover cast does a good job as well&comma; nothing sounds canned and the crazy folk sound&comma; well&comma; crazy&period; It isn&&num;8217&semi;t the VO that gets you into the game though&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s the feeling of peril that the graphics&comma; the mood&comma; the music and the story all bring to the table&period; Will you find out who Daniel was or will you die with your face down in a strip club&quest; I died many times&comma; so don&&num;8217&semi;t fret&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I have enjoyed the <em>Manhunt<&sol;em> series immensely over the years even though both games are very difficult &lpar;as well as the fact that I don&&num;8217&semi;t do stealth games very well&rpar;&period; The time when these games came out was a great time for games&period; Developers were all in for trying something new and different and <em>Manhunt<&sol;em> is one of those series that shows that&period; Now that I am somewhat better at stealth I&&num;8217&semi;m replaying through these two masterpieces and am just in love with what Rockstar came up with&period; The two games vary in story but in gameplay they are roughly the same&comma; I like a good old fashioned revenge tale better than a snuff film setting&period; Any fan of Rockstar or stealth games should pick this title up because you won&&num;8217&semi;t regret it&period; Hiding in the shadows means life or death here with no room for error&comma; even the best stealth player will have a difficult time&comma; I know I did&period; This is one of the forgotten Rockstar franchises and it should not be passed over for the shinier Rockstar titles&semi; go for the grit&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll thank me later&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;