There won’t be anything like Manhunt ever again. It’s a game that is so brutal, so nihilistic and shows such a total disregard for human life that anything that treads similar boards in 2022 is going to be by an independent studio and likely assumed to be the product of some alt-right arseholes, regardless of whether that is actually the case or not, by most of the mainstream gaming press. It certainly won’t be the big budget new release from the people who just put out Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Christ, can you imagine Rockstar put out a new Manhunt after a decade of GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2? It’s just not going to happen.
It was Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us: Part II that has come closest to treading similar boards in regards to the violence on show, with the blunt reality of murder and/or survival being presented very effectively but, unsurprisingly for what is one of the most ‘AAA’ games ever made, they spend the whole game smoothing things over with saccharine character moments, zombie movie clichés and a predictable ‘violence begets violence’ narrative.
Now, despite my distaste for Naughty Dog’s game, this extra trimming is a hugely important part in allowing for that level of violence to be shown. In 2009, a Japanese horror film called ‘Grotesque’ was banned by the BBFC. Their reasoning - among a few other reasons - included this statement.
“Grotesque is also markedly different to the Saw and Hostel ‘torture porn’ series, in that those films contain a more developed narrative and there is therefore more contextual justification for the strongest scenes.”
Manhunt has very little in the way of narrative or character development and that is entirely by design. The main character, James Earl Cash, is a horrible human being, a murderer who begins the game receiving a lethal injection, only to wake up and find himself part of some macabre game. In his earpiece is the ‘director’, Lionel Starkweather, who runs a snuff movie ring and requires you to kill your way through gangs of horrible bastards - nazis. sadists and psychopathic killers - to give him footage for his films.
And, for the first 2/3rds of the game, that is it. That’s all the exposition you get. It’s a game about killing killers for an evil entity. There’s nothing to get you rooting for Cash and, well, you’re not supposed to. The whole game has a particularly grim tone, with the infamous executions ranging from the almost hilariously OTT to the disturbingly realistic and matter of fact. It makes you feel a bit icky and a bit like you shouldn’t be seeing these things, never mind instigating them.
Everything about Manhunt is about this nasty vibe. It’s supposed to evoke the imagery of 80s video nasties, of early internet gore sites and that one time you tried to download some big titty MILF porn off of Limewire only to be confronted with a 240p video file of a real life execution. Manhunt feels naughty, forbidden, sometimes even evil. This is why it is so memorable - there’s very little like it and - perhaps - with good reason.
The world has changed and such a harsh presentation of brutality requires some kind of narrative sweetener to get it past the censors. Despite The Last Of Us 2 being significantly more graphic, due to the much better visuals, there’s enough about it that ensures that it isn’t just a game about killing, despite that being your main means of interacting with it. There’s a moral message and character development, as well as the implication that you’re doing this for your character’s survival - not for the pleasure of a deviant filmmaker.
The droning synth soundtrack is reminiscent of John Carpenter’s music for Assault On Precinct 13 or Escape From New York, which fits perfectly for the desolate night time backstreets of Carcer City, the abandoned buildings and warehouses that provide the backdrop for your night of killing. The only other thing that you hear is Cash’s heartbeat, constantly drumming up the tension levels as you wait for the perfect moment to strike and batter your victim to death with a hammer.
As a stealth game, Manhunt is very primitive but I feel that works in its favour. You hide in shadows and, when you’re classed as hidden it is a totally binary situation - an enemy can come right up to you and look you in the eye and as long as you’re deemed as ‘hidden’ by the game’s logic, they won’t see you. The A.I. isn’t particularly smart and therefore, can be easily exploited. It’s designed to get you performing those brutal kills and flip the tables, making you the hunter, not the hunted. It’s balanced by the fact that anything more than 1v1 direct combat will usually result in you being killed but if you keep your nerve and plan your kills - hell, premeditate your murders - you’ll be alright. It almost feels more like a puzzle game than an organic stealth experience, where you’re figuring out the optimal safest way to off your opposition and proceed to the next area.
In the final third, there’s a notable increase in having to use guns (the weakest aspect of the game) and the sudden inclusion of a plot device - a reporter who saves Cash from a trap and tells him about her plan to take down Starweather’s snuff ring. There’s a few gimmick levels, like an escort quest and a level where you have to perform specific kill types, to flesh things out, but Manhunt regains momentum for its final act - a showdown on Starkweather’s estate with his private militia and one of gaming’s most horrific bosses - Piggsy.
I mean, what else is there to say about old Piggsy? He’s a gigantic naked man (cock and balls out, the lot) wearing a pig’s head who is apparently the now completely insane ex-star of Starkweather’s movies. He runs around the dark attic of Starkweather’s mansion waving a chainsaw around in a section that is just straight up gore horror and a wonderful upping of the ante for the final section. Oh, and he’s a cannibal.
Despite a few clear issues with the mechanics and the fact that it spreads itself a little thin towards the end, Manhunt is a perfect game. A perfect game doesn’t need to be the best game ever or an incredible example of a particular genre or anything like that. Manhunt sets out to create a specific atmosphere, to evoke emotions of fear, dread, disgust and macabre curiosity. It wants to remind you that there’s a darkness out there that you might not want to admit exists. Not the sort of thing that sits below the surface of society, where a bit of scratching can unearth some horrible stuff but properly beneath it all, right down in the proverbial sewers. It’s a game for anyone who has that morbid fascination with the worst in humanity, for anyone who ever visited Ogrish.com, has watched awful YouTube documentaries on ‘Red Rooms’ or the deep web. It’s a game that embraces the fact that it isn’t for everyone and maybe shouldn’t be for anyone and it manages to do it without coming across like an edgy teenager trying to shock.
Manhunt 2, its somewhat more controversial sequel, due to being outright banned for a while, doesn’t get that final part right. Despite being a much more mechanically refined game, it is far more plot-driven and far more OTT with the extreme violence, to the point where it is almost funny in the absurd. It doesn’t quite get the gritty, nasty atmosphere right and if Manhunt is a video nasty directed by Carpenter, Manhunt 2 is the remake helmed by Eli Roth. It’s bleeding, punctured heart is in the right place but it completely misses the mark.
We won’t get another one like this. Hell, they couldn’t even do another themselves.
It was Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us: Part II that has come closest to treading similar boards in regards to the violence on show, with the blunt reality of murder and/or survival being presented very effectively but, unsurprisingly for what is one of the most ‘AAA’ games ever made, they spend the whole game smoothing things over with saccharine character moments, zombie movie clichés and a predictable ‘violence begets violence’ narrative.
Now, despite my distaste for Naughty Dog’s game, this extra trimming is a hugely important part in allowing for that level of violence to be shown. In 2009, a Japanese horror film called ‘Grotesque’ was banned by the BBFC. Their reasoning - among a few other reasons - included this statement.
“Grotesque is also markedly different to the Saw and Hostel ‘torture porn’ series, in that those films contain a more developed narrative and there is therefore more contextual justification for the strongest scenes.”
Manhunt has very little in the way of narrative or character development and that is entirely by design. The main character, James Earl Cash, is a horrible human being, a murderer who begins the game receiving a lethal injection, only to wake up and find himself part of some macabre game. In his earpiece is the ‘director’, Lionel Starkweather, who runs a snuff movie ring and requires you to kill your way through gangs of horrible bastards - nazis. sadists and psychopathic killers - to give him footage for his films.
And, for the first 2/3rds of the game, that is it. That’s all the exposition you get. It’s a game about killing killers for an evil entity. There’s nothing to get you rooting for Cash and, well, you’re not supposed to. The whole game has a particularly grim tone, with the infamous executions ranging from the almost hilariously OTT to the disturbingly realistic and matter of fact. It makes you feel a bit icky and a bit like you shouldn’t be seeing these things, never mind instigating them.
Everything about Manhunt is about this nasty vibe. It’s supposed to evoke the imagery of 80s video nasties, of early internet gore sites and that one time you tried to download some big titty MILF porn off of Limewire only to be confronted with a 240p video file of a real life execution. Manhunt feels naughty, forbidden, sometimes even evil. This is why it is so memorable - there’s very little like it and - perhaps - with good reason.
The world has changed and such a harsh presentation of brutality requires some kind of narrative sweetener to get it past the censors. Despite The Last Of Us 2 being significantly more graphic, due to the much better visuals, there’s enough about it that ensures that it isn’t just a game about killing, despite that being your main means of interacting with it. There’s a moral message and character development, as well as the implication that you’re doing this for your character’s survival - not for the pleasure of a deviant filmmaker.
The droning synth soundtrack is reminiscent of John Carpenter’s music for Assault On Precinct 13 or Escape From New York, which fits perfectly for the desolate night time backstreets of Carcer City, the abandoned buildings and warehouses that provide the backdrop for your night of killing. The only other thing that you hear is Cash’s heartbeat, constantly drumming up the tension levels as you wait for the perfect moment to strike and batter your victim to death with a hammer.
As a stealth game, Manhunt is very primitive but I feel that works in its favour. You hide in shadows and, when you’re classed as hidden it is a totally binary situation - an enemy can come right up to you and look you in the eye and as long as you’re deemed as ‘hidden’ by the game’s logic, they won’t see you. The A.I. isn’t particularly smart and therefore, can be easily exploited. It’s designed to get you performing those brutal kills and flip the tables, making you the hunter, not the hunted. It’s balanced by the fact that anything more than 1v1 direct combat will usually result in you being killed but if you keep your nerve and plan your kills - hell, premeditate your murders - you’ll be alright. It almost feels more like a puzzle game than an organic stealth experience, where you’re figuring out the optimal safest way to off your opposition and proceed to the next area.
In the final third, there’s a notable increase in having to use guns (the weakest aspect of the game) and the sudden inclusion of a plot device - a reporter who saves Cash from a trap and tells him about her plan to take down Starweather’s snuff ring. There’s a few gimmick levels, like an escort quest and a level where you have to perform specific kill types, to flesh things out, but Manhunt regains momentum for its final act - a showdown on Starkweather’s estate with his private militia and one of gaming’s most horrific bosses - Piggsy.
I mean, what else is there to say about old Piggsy? He’s a gigantic naked man (cock and balls out, the lot) wearing a pig’s head who is apparently the now completely insane ex-star of Starkweather’s movies. He runs around the dark attic of Starkweather’s mansion waving a chainsaw around in a section that is just straight up gore horror and a wonderful upping of the ante for the final section. Oh, and he’s a cannibal.
Despite a few clear issues with the mechanics and the fact that it spreads itself a little thin towards the end, Manhunt is a perfect game. A perfect game doesn’t need to be the best game ever or an incredible example of a particular genre or anything like that. Manhunt sets out to create a specific atmosphere, to evoke emotions of fear, dread, disgust and macabre curiosity. It wants to remind you that there’s a darkness out there that you might not want to admit exists. Not the sort of thing that sits below the surface of society, where a bit of scratching can unearth some horrible stuff but properly beneath it all, right down in the proverbial sewers. It’s a game for anyone who has that morbid fascination with the worst in humanity, for anyone who ever visited Ogrish.com, has watched awful YouTube documentaries on ‘Red Rooms’ or the deep web. It’s a game that embraces the fact that it isn’t for everyone and maybe shouldn’t be for anyone and it manages to do it without coming across like an edgy teenager trying to shock.
Manhunt 2, its somewhat more controversial sequel, due to being outright banned for a while, doesn’t get that final part right. Despite being a much more mechanically refined game, it is far more plot-driven and far more OTT with the extreme violence, to the point where it is almost funny in the absurd. It doesn’t quite get the gritty, nasty atmosphere right and if Manhunt is a video nasty directed by Carpenter, Manhunt 2 is the remake helmed by Eli Roth. It’s bleeding, punctured heart is in the right place but it completely misses the mark.
We won’t get another one like this. Hell, they couldn’t even do another themselves.