PSP - Manhunt 2

Format
PSP
Publisher
Rockstar Games
Developer
Rockstar London
Country of origin
UK
Genre
3rd person action

Manhunt 2 for the PSP

By David Rasmussen
27th Jan 08

Yeah, a game about killing people or escaping from the insane asylum to kill people isn’t all that rare. I’m sure we’ve done some variant of this formula in other games! So when the “controversial” Manhunt 2 came out (spade and neutered from a release killing AO18+ to a M17+ rating)… yeah. Somehow from release to now people have been told endlessly that the game is, to sum it up, a long list of “lowered expectations”… and, yes, like Leisure Suit Larry : Magna Cum Laude I am pretty sure putting the extra content back won’t make the game any better. (In fact abit less of the violent “God of War” style fatalities could have done us all a world of good).

OH! Let’s just say it!
Yes, it really is retarded the chain of “age ratings” on games past T for Teen!
There’s OT for Older Teen 16+
Then one year later it’s M for Mature 17+
And finally, just recently, the last stick in the coffin of stupid, AO for Adults Only 18+!
How about we just have OT for Older Teen 15+ and Mature/Adult (MA) 18+ already!!
That way we have Older Teen AND Adult and we don’t have a chain of stupid ratings!!
But that’s just me. Let’s go strangle some video game pixels now.

Hate the homicidally insane homeless? Play Condemned on the XBox360.
Want to attempt to relive the killing of Saw in a video game? Well… be afraid, they’re releasing Saw the Video Game later this year (if you have fond memories of the Saw franchise then why are you even thinking of buying the game! Don‘t!)

However what if you want to play a game that almost wasn’t because of the damnable evil that is the ESRB then there‘s Manhunt 2 for whatever system you can find it on.
(Yeah, the ESRB, three closeted C.A.V.E.rs (aka Citizens Against Virtually Everything) who seem to love to hate everything human in games -- they should quit the ESRB and form their own intolerance religion, the Church of ESRB and the Latterday Intolerants).

Because of them the game’s violent “fatalities’ were watered down and “censored“.
(However you know what? For some reason I kept thinking of Kratos’ button sequence fatalities even though you only hold down the square button to initiate the kills in this game. (And it’s not even as original as God of War, you just sneak up behind target and quickly hold down the Square button when in range to go through the killing scene) -- then I remembered all about The Punisher game and that’s what Manhunt 2’s fatalities reminds me of, The Punisher. Oh, by the way, censorship of the kills doesn’t matter as they’re often too much violence even with the “censorship” for you God of War or Punisher fans out there. So you’re not missing much.

Then there’s the sex in this game.
Odd. The game box still says “Mature Sexual Content” despite the fact most of the mature content has been systematically watered down to the point of pointlessness. It’s like GTA : San Andreas and it’s warning that doesn’t live up to the less that mature content of the game. Yeah, a car rocking back and forth is so mature… right.

So when it comes down to it you’re here for all the violence of the gameplay… though to me it seems quite abit of this gameplay seems familiar… why does it seem… oh, right, this game seems to have taken a majority of it’s mojo from Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell or the Metal Gear Solid games than the one inspiration for the killing, the Punisher game (complete with the use of the area‘s content for assisted murder)!!

Let’s see…
Sneaking around stalking people (Splinter Cell and MGS).
You didn’t sneak around much in The Punisher, you mostly were doing the shooting or beating thing in that game.

Hiding the darkness and ambushing people (Splinter Cell & MGS).

Flattening yourself out against a wall and “tapping” to draw guards towards you.
(Actually I remember this more from Metal Gear Solid than Splinter Cell but I think you can do that in Splinter Cell too).

Brutally killing people you sneak up on (or shooting them down)… well, the shooting is Splinter Cell but the brutal killing is not. The only original thing, though not all that original as I’ve done this before in God of War and The Punisher. And yes, I’ve enjoyed it far more in both games than I did in this game.

Dragging the dead bodies and hiding them in dark areas (oh, back to Splinter Cell and MGS (both)).

You can only hold a few items (one of each type) in your possession, so you should use each to the fullest advantage…oh, let’s just round it out already!

The game’s story is a little interesting, but not to the standards of Silent Hill or any other really moody set piece games of death and violence. Each level plays out the same as any other level (go from point A to B killing whatever people you can to progress), and the story isn’t all that compelling unless you’re really into games like this. There is a twist ending, there is abit of Silent Hill (this game is like licking a hallucinogenic postage stamp in that there’s a little something there but it won’t last you long), and some people swear by this game (and say they enjoyed playing this game) but for me it’s a give or take proposition. If you don’t mind that it’s a least a decent enough stealth game for the PSP, and you can get your Splinter Cell on here better than the first or second Splinter Cell game for the PSP (whichever game Chaos Theory was) then go for it. Of course if you’re here more for a Survival Horror game than a Stealth game then maybe you should stick to Silent Hill : Origins. That should serve you better.

Still the game is better than bad, but not quite perfect.
It’s easy enough to pick up and learn, and overall the controls are not too bad.
The real flaw with this game (besides the repetitive gameplay) is the wonky camera that seems to (bleep) out at the worst times (mainly when your coming out of hiding behind something to sneak up on people, the camera seems to want to look at you more than your target so you lose sight of the target for a few seconds while trying to sneak up on it… which, as you guessed, is a bad thing when your trying to sneak up on things.)

Autolock works, but that’s all it does. It’s not too innovative and you only get a lock on when your shooting at people (nothing to help you when your flaying about trying to hit people in melee combat). And did I mention the game seems to be mostly the old marriage adage of something old… a lot old… for a game that is supposed to be some sort of modern day video game masterpiece (according to it’s creator when he was whining about the ESRB’s AO18+ original rating for the game) it sure does seem to be a mishmash of cobbled together stuff for other games (better games).

Still it’s average and if you can buy it (or trade it) cheap it might entertain you for awhile. Otherwise it’s not the great game people were tricked into believing it could have been. Yuck, another “Bully” for Rockstar Games (at least Bully, however, got a 5 out of 5 while this game only scratches up 3 ultraviolent beatings out of 5.
And to think I had higher expectations for the waste of my money reviewing this! Bleah!

-- David Rasmussen 27th Jan 08

PSP Manhunt 2 Images