Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Manhunt

Written by Chris Reiter on September 22, 2003

First Impressions: "Like a frickin' mouse trapped in a frickin' maze I am. Now how do I get outta this frickin' hell hole? Oh, let me ask that frickin' freak faced man over there. Excuse me ya frickin' whacko, can you tell me how to...OWW, MY EYE! You frickin' glasses never

Rockstar's reputation precedes them. They're bad people, but in a good way. Subsidiary to the not as popular Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar only began building up their name in recent years. How they got to where they are, they did it with attitude. Rockstar, of course, is most famous for the Grand Theft Auto series where stealing cars and killing people for money is a way of life. Other such published titles like Midnight Club (underground street racing) and State of Emergency (deadly rioting mayhem) give Rockstar such a name that probably has Christian parents rinsing their children's eyes out with soap whenever they glance over a game ad related to the company. And as gamers today have so many guilty pleasures they'd like to let loose on some unsuspecting AI, Rockstar tends to feed our craving to want to play something that's naughty, but nice. Together with the team that brought millions the open-ended world of Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar's dishing out a new challenge this fall of stealthy and murderous proportions, called Manhunt.

Inmate James Earl Cash is about to learn a new lesson in life: don't get yourself locked up in prison. And especially don't do something so evil you're placed on deathrow. It just so happens that when James is lead to his demise by way of lethal injection, instead of waking up dead, he sees a beat down Carcer City before his eyes. He has nothing but the shirt on his back, shoes on his feet, and pants covering his...you knows. Moreover he's got an ear piece stuck in his ear, where an unpleasant male voice chimes in, calling himself the Director. What he wants is for James to die, or to live. Dozens of demented gang members have been stuck inside the city with James, paid off to play a game of Manhunt. The objective for them is to kill James. The objective for James is to live. There are no rules, nobody to save you, and nowhere to escape. Kill them before they kill you is the nature of this elaborate game of cat and mouse. With cameras distributed everywhere around this sprawling city, the Director says to get ready, to get set, and to go.

Powered by influence from movies like Hard Target or The Running Man, Rockstar wants to create the feeling that in Manhunt, you really are all alone. Like in the movies, Manhunt is setting out to chase one man faced with rival goons by placing you inside a custom-made city for one purpose and one purpose only: the pleasure of a sick man's mind watching you perish through the eye of a TV screen from blood hungry gangs who will never stop stalking you within the confines of this brooding metropolis. If you think that sounds a bit overwhelming, it will be. If you think there's no chance of survival, there won't be. That is, unless you learn to adapt to the environment. Manhunt will put a strong emphasis on stealth in a system found in games such as Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The star of the game James will be able to pass from one dark patch to the next, using shadows as cover from the dozens of freaks out to shred him pieces. From there, grabbing a hold of enemies and taking them out is just one of the tricks you'll need to learn in order to avoid death's clammy grasp.

Exactly how can James challenge an entire city littered with armed psychopaths unlike yourself? Weapons are to be the keys to just about everything in this game. Ranging from shards of glass, a meat cleaver, a baseball bat, or even a sawed off double barrel shotgun, Manhunt will feature silent melee types of kills and loud ranged ones as well. Because when you're one guy facing an army of crazed lunatics out to get you, you won't be able to just barge in...unless of course there's no other way around it. Sight and sound will play an integral part to everything. If you run, an enemy will hear you. If you step into the light, an enemy will see you. And then, your time to live is to be canceled permanently. It's with using the weapons James can acquire from slain enemies and a special radar that picks up on enemy sound position that he can learn to remain one of the living. But as the game progresses, the enemies in Carcer City will grow smarter. They too can move and hide through shadows, which is why taking advantage of the city's environment will be significant to the game. For example, players can lure enemies to their position by allowing enemies to detect your location in instances of sight or sound, and then pouncing on them from the shadows. The trickier you get, the better off you'll be.

Not too different from the likes of Rockstar's latest Grand Theft Auto iterations, Manhunt's visuals will follow suit, only slightly more sinister. While the last two Grand Theft Auto games were able to show cars interacting with traffic, numerous individual character models reacting to the everyday behaviors of people all around them, and a more realistic picture of the world we know, in Carcer City, darkness will creep throughout much of its interior. And in this darkness, crazy people will lurk all over wearing traditional gang material like masks or hoods and such. The character models in the last two Grand Theft Auto releases weren't exactly the most refined 3D models to come out of the oven, but the ones in Manhunt will be. Well, better looking anyway. Sprucing them up with texture effects will help to create a more defined self in each of Manhunt's persons. What'll also be really nice is how in all of the surrounding darkness, weather effects of rain and lightning will set an even more ominous tone toward the game's portrayal of gloom.