Manhunt 2

Let's get one thing out of the way before anything else. Manhunt 2 is a violent mess that encourages players to slaughter people in the most goriest way possible. If you're one of the many insecure, over protective parents out there that feel like their little bastard will turn into blood thirsty criminal after being exposed to a little pixelated violence, do yourself a favour and familiarize yourself and your children with the ESRB ratings system and stop reading now. There's a good chance your son or daughter will think this game kicks ass but just in case, our Wii section is located here

Manhunt 2 has received a lot of criticism and has been the subject of debate even before it was released. The final version has been watered down a bit but that doesn't mean this isn't one of the most graphic action games out there. That's essentially it's main purpose. Not just to kill, but to do it with style. By style I mean long animation sequences that show your character going above and beyond to take some one down. The over the top gruesome death scenes is what everyone paid to see so let's do this then.

The first Manhunt involved an incarcerated individual who was involved in a sick and twisted reality show pitting him against others in a deadly game to see who would be the last one standing. The catch was that you received higher ratings when you brutally killed someone opposed to "killing them softly". Manhunt 2 doesn't involve any of the back story from the first game though. You play as Dr. Danny Lamb and start off in an insane asylum. Much to the surprise of the staff working that shift, the doors to all the cells mysteriously open up. This is when the magic happens. You make your way around picking up objects like pens, shards of glass and all kinds of other seemingly innocent instruments of death. With you as always is your new best friend Leo who assisted you in the break out. He's constantly whispering sweet nothings into your ear while you attempt to escape the loony bin. You also learn from him that you were an integral part of an experiment known simply as "The Project". Your main focus now is to discover why you were placed in the asylum in the first place and what sort of experiments they have been performing on you.

This game could have had a lot going for it if it wasn't for the masses bitching and moaning about all of this fake violence. Now when you go to perform your ultra brutal kill move, the screen gets distorted at key moments of your attack blurring things out. It kind of looks like when your TV signal is intermittent and the picture becomes distorted and then returns to normal. Only this time it happens during all the good parts. You think something cool is going to happen and then about 30% of it is taken out. Just awesome. The developers have also added this grainy silver effect that fades in and out while playing. I'm not sure what the purpose behind this is but to me it ended up being more annoying than anything. It looks like the beginning of a heavily used VHS tape that's been rewound about 500 times. If there intentions were to distract you from the overall appearance of the game with a lot of picture distortion then mission accomplished.

This game plays a lot like Rockstars golden boy Grand Theft Auto in terms of fighting and the overall look and feel when moving around. Fighting is performed by locking on to your target and either using a weapon or your fists. When your opponent goes down you can kick them when they're down to finish up the job if you end up duking it out. Manhunt 2 uses stealth tactics in order to sneak up on your enemies so you can pull off your fancy finishing moves. Often times you must hide in shadows and creep slowly to avoid detection. When you are able to sneak up on your intended target, holding down the X button for as long as possible determines how brutal the kill scene will be. It keeps things interesting for the most part but often times you can simply go toe to toe with anyone and you'll be able to take them out easily enough. That is unless there's more then one enemy coming at you.

Manhunt 2 isn't exactly scary either. It's a bit nerve racking but there really isn't anything to be afraid of. All you're doing is looking into your past while an assortment of characters stand in your way. Some of the environments could have given off a really creepy vibe but the distortion on your screen takes a way from any sense of realism which is a constant reminder that you're simply playing a game. I never really felt attached to the character so I would often ditch the stealth techniques and simply ran at enemies just swinging. The stealth reward of witnessing a brutal death scene didn't mean very much to me seeing as how the majority of it was blurred out.

Even though I had some issues with the overall game, the fact they were able to port this game so successfully onto a hand held device is impressive. At times things can get a bit tricky and annoying but the overall experience was gratifying. Some of the previously mention details did get under my skin but in the grand scheme of things, Manhunt 2 delivers a nicely packaged stealth action game that should provide a challenge and a few surprises along the way.