New York Times says Manhunt 2 not as bad as R-rated movies @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on June 26, 2007

News: Another writer takes a stab at the Manhunt 2 controversey.

Since getting the dreaded "Adults Only" slapped on their game, Take-Two has attempted to get the word out on the unfairness of it all to anyone that will listen. This morning, they've managed to bend the ear of Seth Schiesel of the New York Times and he has plenty to say about the game's gory content.

Schiesel sat down with Manhunt 2 at the company's New York offices with Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick. He played for three hours and came away with a pretty predictable response:

[A]fter playing I found the Adult Only rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board, an independent industry group, entirely reasonable.

Perhaps the most striking thing about the game is how conventional most of it is. You look around for tools like a crowbar to open a door, and figure out small puzzles (like throwing a brick through a window to enter a building). Of course there's creepy music and wacky leather fetish outfits, but that's de rigueur. The story was suitably interesting though not overly creative.

The problem is that in addition to just hitting a bad guy a couple of times with a bat, there are other options, like slitting his throat, sticking a scythe in his nose and yanking his head back. Rather than stab him with a shard of glass, you can stab him, wrap a cord around his neck, stuff his head in a toilet and smash him on the back of the head. With the motion-sensitive controller on Nintendo's Wii, that means jerking and shaking the controllers around in vague imitation of the mutilations on screen.

So it's gruesome, but still basically a game. To that end, he decided to compare the gore he found in Manhunt 2 with Saw II, one of the harshest Hollywood horror films.

After visits to two Manhattan DVD stores I found an R-rated version of УSaw II.Ф With some trepidation I put it on and the first scene was of a young man in a bleak cell being taunted to find a key by digging into his own oozing eye socket. If he does not yank out the key in 60 seconds, his head will be crushed in a spiked metal Уdeath maskФ around his neck.

Side by side, [...] movies seem to be way ahead of games in delivering top-notch gore.

So there you have it. While it's just one man's opinion, Manhunt 2 doesn't seem to compare to the blood found in an R-rated movie. Of course, all of this is academic at this point as Nintendo and Sony refuse to allow AO-rated games on their systems.

Because of this, Manhunt 2 remains without a release date. We'll have more soon.

source: New York Times