Cinematic only as peak Rockstar could do. Much as Max Payne is inspired by John Woo and GTA Vice City was by Scarface, Manhunt is clearly inspired by the gritty horror movies like Texas Chainsaw and the New French Extremity movement (which at the time was starting to find it's footing), and wears it like a glove throughout. Some of the best stealth gameplay you can find for this era, also gets brutally hard in the final stretch. Takes a bit for the story to get going, but once it does, it's a smart relentless reverse-slasher, a self-statement on violence in media and a gritty horror-crime thriller with a brilliant musical score, although more story on it's bones would have been recommended. Heard 2 has more story, so can't wait to get around to that soon

Manhunt is extremely controversial, and for good reason. It's hyper-violent and disturbing, forcing you to sneak around and execute enemies in brutal ways. The story is bleak, the atmosphere is oppressive, and it definitely makes you question how far is too far in a video game. It can be disturbingly effective at what it does, but even if you're into horror, the excessive and repetitive violence becomes numbing. Manhunt is a hard pass for most, and only for those with a strong stomach and an understanding that its brutality is intended as a commentary, not simply entertainment.

Atmospheric dread candy. Not quite the Edgelord driven mindless horror you're thinking (not this one at least) but it finds a pulse on a reverse-slasher cold-blooded thrills. Ingeniously harsh on difficulty to a slight degree of realism, tailors you to engage on stealth takedowns than face-to-face combats since you won't go far against crowds of goons, with a highly janky and inconvenient combat for you to absolutely praise thy heavens at the sight of firearms.
Gunplay is clunky but ensures a challenging hardship given how receiving gunfire drops your health significantly, facing off mobs of goons to increasingly more powerful firing squads face an equal amount of difficulty as you'd drop dead as easily as your enemies. Bombastic action doesn't mesh too well with this antiquated cover shooter shtick but it grooves to grindhouse horror messiness by the fantastically bonkers finale where you navel-gaze towards squads of tactical forces.
The takedown system is a neat way to face the player's fascination towards violence- It's not truly necessary to perform them as vicious as they're sold, and yet, these avoid monotony to the player's gameplay (at least until you realize there's just one animation for each gravity of execution). I kept finding amusement at the simplicity of a plastic bag.
It's an imperfect and janky action-adventure of sorts but i truly admire the asphyxiating tension and nihilistic premise as a framework for a morbidly Noir quasi-survivor horror exploitation film playing you as the hero. Carcer City stands as some of the most inhospitable worldbuildings ever imaginable by Rockstar Games right next to hospital spawnpoints on GTA.

Manhunt was great.
It was dark, psycho, full of violence and gore.
It had many great moments. Killing enemies with a plastic bag brutally always feels great, or with any weapon from a brick to a chainsaw. You also had 3 types of executions with every weapon, they really made sure this game gets banned in as many countries as possible:)))
It also had lots of stealth which made this game tense, the shadows were your friend.
The soundtrack was very unnerving, unsettling, haunting and disturbing, you could've cut the tension with a knife because it was so thick.
Great boss fights too, i think i finished this game about 5 times and i still want to do another playtrough.
What makes this game truly special is the fact that there are 0 fictional elements, nothing supernatural just horror and madness where humans are the monsters.