Going into Manhunt 2 directly after finishing the original was kind of wild. The sequel largely forgoes any attempt at being a serious stealth game in favor of providing a gory theme park ride (particularly if one is playing the uncensored PC version with the red filter disabled). From the first appearance of British-accented henchmen wearing business suits and opera masks, it becomes apparent that this is going to be a much campier experience. The prior story didn’t have a lot going on beyond darkly humorous comments from its antagonists, but this one resembles the scripts of a half-dozen classic psychological and political thrillers thrown into a blender. The twists can be seen coming from miles away, but there’s a satisfying sense of pulpiness to it all. With sharper gore effects to show off and an actual story to tell, Manhunt 2 also seems much more interested in letting the player reach the end credits. In comparison to the first, hand-to-hand combat is very forgiving; with the right weapon, button-mashing an enemy to death from the front is now viable. After the introduction of firearms in the fifth level (out of sixteen, counting the bonus mission), there’s only one mission that doesn’t build to a big gun battle, and the shooting itself has been reworked to result in fewer player character deaths and way more exploding heads. The focus on action probably works in the game’s favor, as the artificial intelligence is lackluster at playing hide and seek. Enemies forgetting that the protagonist was ever there and returning to their assigned patrol routes is a time-honored tradition of the stealth genre, but these guys often lost track of him because he walked around a single corner. In contrast to the original’s presentation echoing 80s slasher films, the sequel has a 2000s horror aesthetic that looks much tackier despite the higher polygon count. One other issue is the motion control-imitating mouse movements that intrude on executions by default; fortunately these can be disabled through the options menu.

It’s too bad that Steam’s policies circa 2009 and a somewhat questionable Adults Only rating from the ESRB basically scuttled this game’s digital availability. I got a SecuROM-protected copy from Amazon before it was delisted, but who knows how long the activation servers are going to remain online. One would think there’s nothing to stop it from being rereleased now, but given that the original on Steam currently requires a fan patch to run properly, it doesn’t seem like Rockstar has much remaining interest in this series. Manhunt 2 may not be as atmospheric as its predecessor, but it does pack an even greater amount of carnage in a much more accessible package, making it easy to recommend to horror aficionados.

wow so edgy

Tem uma história mais bem elaborada que o primeiro e o personagem tem mais personalidade por assim dizer

Eu gosto da estética e da ambientação, e os gráficos são bonitos até no portátil

Os controles também diferente do primeiro envelheceram melhor

A visibly rushed non direct sequel, with none interesting vibe of the first game, the ranking system is gone for no reason (not on PC), the levels are very short and very hard to use stealth around it considering how badly designed they are, the stealth and enemy AI also has gotten worst, the enemies most time don't even react to noise properly when in the previous game it worked perfectly fine.

The story is a real oddball one, the violence feels somewhat out of place considering the protagonist is amnesiac, at the same time, the game executions are censored making the kills a actual eye sore to look/play through and that's really odd considering that's what you gonna be looking at through most of the game (unless you play on PC or PSP uncensored patch).

Basically Manhunt 2 is a mediocre sequel, censored on most platforms and you should probably ignore it.

I gotta say, this could be better, but it was not a bad game in my opinion.
Story was... a story, all right. The 2/1 and a half protagonists were... ok. Daniel (the main protagonist) basically had the personality of "I exist" through most of the game. The other protagonist, Leo, was a bit more exciting, but about as bland. Story was also a bit dumb, but I don't wanna spoil the most predictable plot twist in history.
Graphics, yup, that's a late PS2 game. It's a good looking game for the system, though, and got some upgrades on the PC version, but not many. Presentation was fine for the most part, except in the final in-engine cutscene showing Daniel's lips not moving when he talks, which is not an issue in the rest of the game, weirdly. The ending was also pretty sudden.
The gameplay was something, all right. It's part stealth game and part third person shooter. The first few levels were all stealth, and then they shove in third person shooting halfway through most of the next levels. The stealth was pretty fun, and was where the... good shit, was. (I'll get back to that.) The stealth was less focused on line of sight, unlike Metal Gear Solid, and instead is more focused on light and sound. Those mechanics work pretty well, though. However, the third person shooting... ugh. The aiming was kinda weird, firstly. It just felt off. Secondly, it tries to be a cover shooter, but the cover mechanics are not great. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens had better cover shooting mechanics. The shooting was not great, and it's like 50% of the game.
As for the violence, this game has it in spades, even on the censored console versions. I played the uncensored PC version, and it worked perfectly on Windows 10. You eventually get used to the violence, but it's fun to find out how you can brutally murder someone with a new weapon, as each weapon has 4 different executions. It's not for the queasy, tho.
I'd continue, but discord won't let me, so 7.5/10.
(I posted this on Discord, and I had to adhere to the character limit.)

Originally posted here: https://cultclassiccornervideogames.wordpress.com/2018/10/16/nsfw-manhunt-2-2007-wii-psp-ps2-pc-review/

After the controversy of the first Manhunt, you would think that Rockstar wouldn’t put the money and effort into making a sequel. Maybe a few ports of the first game to other consoles to help recoup some of it’s costs on the down low, but not a fully fledged sequel. But surprisingly, 4 years later, Manhunt 2 was announced and released to the public.

The PC and PS2 versions were developed by Rockstar London, the PSP version was developed by Rockstar Leeds, and the Wii version was developed by Rockstar Toronto, with the WII, PSP, and PS2 versions being released in 2007, an the PC version being released in an uncensored form in 2009.

Instead of being a direct sequel of the first game’s plot, Manhunt 2 instead goes in a different direction. Focusing on two inmates at the Dixmor Asylum for the criminally insane, Daniel and Leo, as a severe thunderstorm causes the security system to go offline, opening all of the cell doors in the facility, letting the people locked inside out to roam around.

In the chaos, Daniel, who is a partial amnesiac, unable to remember how he got into the asylum, with the help of Leo, escape. After this escape. Daniel tries it figure out why he can’t remember his past and how he got into the asylum in the first place. While you’re following the clues, a group of people called the Watchmen are hunting you down, trying to prevent you from finding the truth.

Manhunt 2 tries to do something slightly different with it’s main character in that it tries to make you feel at least some sympathy for the main character. Daniel seems to be just as disgusted with his actions as a lot of the people playing would be. He does get desensitized to it as the game goes along, but when you’re brutally killing people in the dozens like Daniel is, I’m pretty sure most people would get desensitized to it.

While the first game had a great 80’s horror movie vibe going, with a John Carpenter-esque synth soundtrack, and slasher style, Manhunt 2 goes for more of a conspiracy thriller vibe with it’s plot. It isn’t bad by any means, it just doesn’t have the same vibe the first game did, and just doesn’t capture the same vibe as the first game.

The first noticeable difference between this game and the first is that Manhunt 2 definitely cranks it’s mature content up to 11, where the first Manhunt only got the ESRB rating “Mature”, this one got an “Adults Only” rating, meaning it would be refused sale on store shelves for major chains in the US. The difference is that Manhunt 2 adds some sexual content and use of drugs on top of it’s high impact violence and strong language. I earlier asked why Rockstar would want to release a sequel to probably it’s most controversial game, but if you were going to release a sequel to Manhunt, upping everything that made people disgusted to the first one seems like you’re just making it worse.

As a result, the PSP, PlayStation 2, and WII version of the games were censored, with all of the executions having a filter applied to them, to the point of not being able to see whats going on in some of these versions of the game, with the WII version getting the worst of it. But strangely, a lot of the sexual content seems to be intact in these versions. And the Wii version seems to have the best quality video with the cutscenes. Weird.

The core gameplay is the same as the first one. You’ll be hiding in shadows, running from enemies if any of them see you, and be performing executions. Executions have more variety this time around. The instruments of violence you can pick up have a wider variety than the first game, making executions a little less tedious having to sit through the same animations over and over again.

A new addition to the execution system is that you can also use parts of the environment to perform executions, similar to the earlier Punisher game from 2005, which also had to get censored on consoles. You’d think that people would learn. These include electrocuting someone to death with a fuse box, freezing someones head in liquid nitrogen and smashing it to pieces, and even trapping someone in an iron maiden with spikes on the inside. Quite a few of these are level specific, so it never gets old as there is always something new to see.

The gun combat has significantly improved. It’s still not amazing by any stretch, but it’s now a viable option, especially since gun combat has a heavier focus than the last game. If actually running and gunning in this game isn’t your cup of tea, guns can now also be used for executions too, making them actually worth your time. The Melee combat is also better, but is still only viable as a last resort.

Surprisingly, the WII and even the PC version has motion based movements for it’s executions, requiring you you to use the Wiimote and nunchuck to re-enact the executions on screen to execute enemies, while the Wiimote even has noises coming out of it’s speaker when you perform these executions, adding another layer to the already disturbing nature of the game.

The PC version has a slightly gimped version that has you simply moving the mouse in a certain direction to complete the execution. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t feel as smooth as the Wii version, because you’re limited to the mouse. If you are annoyed by it, you can turn it off in the PC version. Because of this feature, both the PC and Wii versions come with a tutorial to show how these move based executions work.

Probably the most annoying part of Manhunt 2, for me at least, is that in the Wii and PC versions of the game, while you’re hiding in the shadows, someone hunting you can come over to the area that you’re hiding, and while they’re inspecting your hiding area, a circle pops up, and you have to hold your mouse/Wiimote in that circle as it moves around. It just feels like an unnecessary addition ontop of the motion controls. I get that it’s supposed to make the stealth part of the game more tense, but it just feels like an annoyance the further you get into the game.

Also, like the fist game, the PlayStation 2 version takes advantage of the PS2 headset, and in a similar fashion, you can hear Leo through the earpiece along with using your voice to attract nearby enemies.

Another feature that the PC and Wii versions also come with is an alternate ending that you can unlock if you do well enough during the game and get a high enough star rating in each level.

While Manhunt 2 isn’t a bad game, and in a lot of ways is much better than the first, it still feels like a step down from the first game purely because it cranks up the shocking content, going for violence and sexual content over the sense of atmosphere the original one. If you liked the first Manhunt, you would probably enjoy the second one, but for the people who don’t like extreme content in their video games, this game is a skip.

Now that I'm done with both manhunt games, this is definitely the boring one. Not because of the difficulty tho, because unlike 1, here guns are overused and turn the game into a mindless shooting gallery.

The premise (The Pickman bridge) is a procedure that optimally allows the user to sideload a personality next to their own and be able to switch between them at will. This is a cool idea taken down a dull path to a disappointing ending.
Other than the inclusion of gory murders idk how is this considered a manhunt sequel.

While more polished and less frustrating than 1, it has none of it's soul or anything that made manhunt the IP it was.
If you want to visit these games just play the first one or maybe skip both for something better.

God this game is so close to being an amazing forgotten gem but I just cannot ignore the high levels of jank the gameplay has with a story that kind of fizzles out halfway through. It has some of the highest highs of stealth based survival horror with some of the lowest lows of mediocre third person shooting with brain dead enemies and glitches galore. Its a shame that Rockstar has no plans to continue the series because the ideas this game has with glimpses of its brilliance in levels such as Sexual Deviants & Domestic Disturbance would be PERFECT for a modern day game. Unfortunately it just was super under baked in some parts and was thrown out due to the controversy of its existence.

Slightly worse than the first game, and hard as hell to come by, but if you want to just kill shit and feel badass then it can scratch that itch a little.

a sequel that delivers great atmosphere, gameplay additions and a more macabre story, held back by denying its actual core gameplay by adding even more shootout sections compared to the original, a more glitchy AI that acts erratic despite working on certain points and this unending feeling that this game was rushed at the door with how much content was removed to please retailers just to sell it

seriously, its night and day when you play the uncensored version and seeing how much stuff was lost

Se fosse pra definir em uma frase, era "PUTA QUE PARIU, QUE JOGO RUIM"

Acho que Manhunt devia ter parado no primeiro, tirando isso, a versão de Wii desse jogo tem uns controles cabulosos de tão ruins, pra matar as pessoas nesse jogo é uma punhetação de controle repetitiva. Até certo ponto eu não sabia se eu tinha que matar alguém ou dançar o créu na velocidade 5.

Não conheço a história desse jogo e vou continuar não conhecendo porque eu larguei ele na jogatina.

Fora isso, achei o jogo chato e tedioso. Não aconselharia ninguém a jogar isso... dou uma estrela e meia por causa dos gráficos e ambientação, que são decentes.