Manhunt Review

 (Originally published to Glitchwave on 10/7/2024)

[Image from glitchwave.com]

Manhunt

Developer: Rockstar

Publisher: Rockstar

Genre(s): Stealth, Horror

Platforms: PS2, Xbox

Release Date: November 18, 2003

The guys over at Rockstar are going to Hell. Pushing the buttons of middle-aged parents with Grand Theft Auto's sleazy and unfettered violence evidently didn't garner enough ethical controversy for their liking. With a game like Manhunt, I feel the studio has promptly stamped their one-way ticket to eternal damnation. Rockstar has always embraced the hysterical outcries their games have received and effectively shielded all accusations of corrupting the youth with a sense of indomitable pride in their work. In the case of Manhunt, however, even they feel as if their libertarian ethos in game development crossed a solid line. Manhunt was a veritable Pandora’s box of controversy when it hit store shelves shortly after GTA was making waves on the PS2, and the brutal nature of Manhunt was shocking enough to momentarily transfuse the public contention away from their best-known series. A nightmare of a court case involved blaming Manhunt for a fourteen-year-old’s death held a strain on Rockstar for years. While the studio stood its ground and ultimately won the legal battle, a part of the team still felt pangs of guilt for the tragedy they got roped up in. Deep down, they still somewhat felt that they had unleashed something unholy into this world. Rockstar may be content with their acclaimed association in broadening the parameters of gaming environments despite the backlash they’ve faced, but Manhunt still makes them take Ambien at times to help them sleep at night. Given that the era in which Manhunt was released was my gaming prime, I’m all too familiar with its storied notoriety. Still, what I don’t know from decades of third-person gossip is if Manhunt is worthy of joining the ranks of its fellow exceptional, yet problematic Rockstar brethren.

So what exactly makes Manhunt extreme enough to give GTA a break? Well, I can’t think of anything more taboo-breaking in an interactive medium than having the player pilot the actions of a serial killer. Before you conclude that the player will be breaking into people’s homes and unceremoniously butchering them like farm animals, there is at least context to the amoral deeds taking place. The playable psychopath is named James Earl Cash, and the state has just failed to euthanize him via lethal injection after he’s been sentenced to death. Soon after he re-emerges from his temporary slumber in the dark and desolate death row, an untraceable voice starts speaking to him. The detached presence manages to release Cash from his cell, but there is a price for his freedom. The caveat to setting Cash loose is that now he must embrace his violent criminal persona set by his conviction and create a snuff film. Considering how the game sprinkles in the footage reel frame, some editor is probably going to stitch each of Cash’s kills into an extensive compilation. Yeah, I’m sure whoever at Rockstar conjured up this premise has a lot of explaining to do, mostly to a certified therapist.

The streets that Cash is now running around as a fugitive are the ones of Carcer City, a fictional American metropolis that may only marginally bear a resemblance to at least one of the USA’s urban zones by circumstance. Carcer City is a vacant, bombed-out wasteland, with architecture so grimy and depleted that one might think it was torn and shredded by the horrors of some unspecified war. The desolate urban decay is a perfect breeding ground for gangs to run amok and conduct shady, illicit business practices. Cash’s victims sacrificed for snuff art are the various members of these criminal factions. He’s eradicating their strongholds block by block, but I’m not sure cleansing the city of these scummy wastrels constitutes a crude gentrification measure. This is especially the case considering his methods of dispatching them. To make a dirtbag descend beyond the pale into the gates of the underworld where he belongs, Cash must find an object on the field because his hands are apparently too tiny and delicate to oust them with pure strangulation. Once he finds his golden opportunity upon getting close to them, an automated sequence commences where he executes the poor sap, with a staticky VHS tape filter over it to signify it’s being filmed. Pouncing on an enemy immediately once in range already delivers a gruesome kill, but holding down the attack button until the target marker glows either yellow or red will initiate an execution of unspeakable brutality. Don’t play Manhunt on a full stomach.

While the centerpiece of the action in Manhunt is obviously horrific, a million-dollar question lingers in my mind: should the player feel remorseful for their deeds if these pieces of human excrement are the ones taking the brunt of it? The various gangs encompass the absolute dregs of society, the kinds of dudes that would make anyone lock their cars or clutch their belongings while walking down the street at even a fleeting glance. Besides the “Hoods” and “Wardogs” who greatly intimidate just on their outfits and statures alone, other gangs exhibit plenty of unsavory traits than just the physical ones. The “Skinz” are a bunch of neo-Nazi rednecks that refer to Cash as a “half-breed.” Cash must only be an eighth African then, which is considered “impure” enough to evoke their wrath. The fatter, balder members of the predominantly Mexican gang of “The Innocentz” exude the stereotypical look of a sex offender, and their perverted dialogue is guaranteed to give anyone the creeps. Sure, two wrongs don’t make a right but in Cash’s dire situation, I’m glad that Rockstar took a firm “no women or children” approach and decided to zone their carnage on the least sympathetic people possible. All the while, the scope of the action combined with the merciless bludgeoning that Cash inflicts on his foes always places him as “the danger,” almost a role reversal that muddles the horror factor.

Even though Cash is ultimately “the one who knocks,” the conditions of his videotaping contract still involve him skulking around to avoid enemy detection. I neglected to mention that while Cash is winding up a swift murdering maneuver on an enemy, he can only perform his specialty when the enemy is unaware of his presence. This statement should connote that Manhunt is a stealth title, a genre of video game that emphasizes a patient, methodical approach to combat rather than storming into the line of fire guns blazing like in its more accessible action counterpart. Gangs tend to work in packs and they outnumber Cash per square inch by six to one, so it’s wise to adopt a stealthy initiative to smoothly bump off their numbers. The outlined prominence of stealth in a horror game such as Manhunt is quite harmonious since one could assume that they’d rather hide from the terrors that be than face them with fierce confidence. If Cash’s cover is blown, several corners and alcoves are available around any area, and their blanketed shadowy dimness practically makes Cash invisible to the naked eye. Still, this form of covert camouflage will only protect Cash from harm if he distances himself from the enemy that has caught him, but the endurance meter is likely not to exhaust if Cash needs to evade any hostilities. If one of the aggressors knicks Cash with a blade or a bullet, a plentiful amount of painkillers will be strewn across the field to heal his wounds, provided the player can locate them in the dimly lit corridors where they are usually found.

Manhunt is relatively lenient with player error, but I bet the developers never predicted that the player could use their leniencies as a tactical strategy. Exposing one’s presence to the enemies just to bolt away to a shadowed corner is the perfect method of laying waste to the city’s various savages. The alcoves and alleyways around the city are deeply darkened enough to completely shroud Cash’s body, leaving any pursuer to tilt their heads in confusion like a dog while pacing around the vicinity doing a triple check of their surroundings. Once they’ve given up or turned their backs on Cash long enough, the player is free to swoop in and whack the stupid fuck. Is this tactic an infraction on the core principle of a stealth game to remain unseen? Of course it is. In my defense, if Manhunt was actually concerned with the player’s elusiveness like any other stealth game would be, its accommodations would lean more towards preventing getting caught and less in the evasion process. I understand that Cash’s line of sight is realistically limited, but the radar that is intended as a reference to the enemy’s positions needs to be smacked for it to fully function like an old television. Whenever an enemy is blissfully unaware and whistling a jaunty tune to themselves out of boredom (that I swear sounds like the Sesame Street theme at times), the yellow arrow marker that signifies their lack of alertness only emerges on the radar whenever Cash is close to them. Even up close, its appearance on the radar is shaky at best, so it's difficult to discern their line of sight. Whenever they’re a suspicious orange or a chasing red, the radar never abandons them. This is why compromising one’s location in Manhunt seems to be the most logical means of eradication. It seems counterintuitive to the definition of stealth, but whatever floats this game’s boat.

Presenting a few clueless enemies every few yards in a level is essentially the recurring objective in Manhunt. Even with the unflinching, stomach-churning violence on display, many players still eventually become jaded by the frequent massacres and chide the game for being repetitive. While there is some validity to this criticism, the game at least makes an effort to alter the scope of the same task every so often. However, I’m not sure they’re welcome adjustments in the long run. Everyone knows that escort missions are the bane of every gamer’s existence, so randomly having to keep track of some drunken bum with no relevance to the plot is an unsolicited ball and chain strapped to the player’s ankles. Commandeering a magnetic crane and flattening guys with a fridge sounds hilariously enthralling in theory, but the loudness of the industrial contraption is an invitation for everyone in the area to run to Cash’s location and ambush him. Saving Cash’s four family members who are bound and gagged puts our psychopathic protagonist in an unusual heroic role, and the guards targeting the hostages instead of Cash if they spot him actually gives the player incentive to stay in the shadows and plan their moves tactfully. Still, the radar screws the player over as some guards emerging at inconvenient moments is almost RNG conditional. Manhunt only offers one boss battle, and it’s certainly a highlight that incorporates all of the best implementations of the game’s stealth mechanics. Cash will start the duel without any tools, as he must scour the dilapidated hallways of the arena for glass shards and wooden picks while finding that golden moment to leap out of the shade and skewer the target. Not to mention, the target in question is an obese, chainsaw-wielding cannibal serial killer named “Piggsy” who veils his identity behind the severed head of a swine and whose mental faculties have all deteriorated from being kept as a prisoner for so long. Piggsy alone is the most vomit-inducing sight in a game filled to the brim with scenes liable to make the player nauseous.

Even though I think the occasional alterations to the stealth gameplay are ultimately unnecessary, I will gladly guide a thousand shiftless hobos through the roughest of ghettos before the game diverts into third-person shooter territory. Once the player advances to the eighth scene of the game, the voice finds it time to grant Cash the usage of firearms. From then on, pistols, shotguns, machine guns, and the rare sniper rifle are integral assets to Manhunt’s gameplay. Must I detail why the deafening bangs of guns are counterintuitive in a stealth game? One may use Solid Snake’s lengthy arsenal as a rebuttal to my rhetorical question, but the series synonymous with the stealth genre utilizes guns in a completely different manner than Manhunt. In Metal Gear Solid, disposing of the common enemies scattered around is discouraged entirely. Alerting the guards carries a bevy of consequences that range from tedious to overwhelming, which incentivizes the player to stay sneaky at all costs. A gun should only be fired either at a safe distance or as a last resort when caught in close quarters. Plus, it helps to conserve ammunition for the various boss fights. When a stealth game is centered around directly interacting with enemies like in Manhunt, compromising one’s presence with unsilenced firearms is a recipe for disaster. Surprisingly with all I’ve stated, Manhunt tends to forgo the stealth gameplay almost entirely whenever Cash finds himself in an area with firearms scattered about. This may initially seem like a relief, but this shift in gameplay is the primary source of suffering while playing Manhunt. Unlike Solid Snake who is an adroit super soldier capable of incapacitating enemies head-on when he needs to, James Earl Cash is an untrained schmuck who moves like he has an acute calcium deficiency. Anyone who attempts to confront enemies face to face will immediately learn that Cash is not equipped to deal with hand-to-hand combat, hence why the developers designed his stilted movement to fit a stealth game. When the game suddenly expects the player to rush all enemies like a one-man army, Manhunt becomes like a severely handicapped version of Max Payne. Cash cannot crouch behind cover, he can’t shift through his weapons swiftly, and the only way to inflict fatal damage to enemies by shooting them in the head is to sprint right up to them almost like Cash is ready to give them a warm embrace instead of a steamy bullet to the brain. The scene called “Border Patrol” is the notoriously difficult mission involving shooting-intensive gameplay, but the level that is most indicative of the fallacies of Manhunt’s gunplay in my perspective is the second half of “Doing Time.” The amount of armed lunatics in close quarters ready to obliterate Cash without any sort of stealth to aid the player made me wish that Cash could instead turn the gun towards his own head and pull the trigger. What a god-awful, inappropriate way to diversify Manhunt’s gameplay.

Ultimately, who the players should focus their frustrations on for all of this broken bullshit is Lionel Starkweather, also known as the identity behind the disembodied voice commanding Cash to commit heinous, amoral acts on camera. Apparently, this man is a successful filmmaker in the canon of Manhunt who also dabbles in creating movies that one can only see in the forbidden sections of the internet. I’d say that his little project with Cash is his side hustle tapping into a lucrative market of depraved people, but he cannot seem to refrain from commenting on his arousal when Cash murders someone in cold blood. Not only is his bloodlust unnerving, to say the least, but his Hollywood sleazeball demeanor makes this man arguably more disgusting than the pig man who feasts on gory human remains and feces chained up in his attic. From his loathsome commentary to all of the sadistic stipulations he instills onto the player, Starkweather becomes the most detestable character in the game and he’s not even the one directly committing all of the murders. I couldn't abandon Manhunt despite how many times the thought had crossed my mind, for I started to despise Starkweather on a personal level and desperately wanted to tear him limb from limb. Once Starkweather decides to sever ties with Cash and leaves him to die after a cheeky white rabbit scenario gimmick for unclear reasons, Cash’s freedom from his all-seeing eye leads him on a warpath to get revenge on his former associate with the aid of a news reporter who is already wise to Starkweather’s shenanigans. The road to payback is not a smooth one, especially since the revenge arc is littered with late-game shooting levels that aggravate me to no end. Still, once Cash climbs Starkweather’s mansion and finishes off his bottom bitch Piggsy in the aforementioned duel, cornering Starkweather in the first and only in-person interaction with the absolute slimebag and eviscerating him to a pulp with a chainsaw is so cathartic that it almost made me pop a chub. Starkweather is one of the most effective villains in video game history, for I’ve never hated an antagonist to this degree where finally bringing him to justice in the grizzly way the player does fills me with profound joy. Does that make me a sick fuck? No, because everyone who has played Manhunt is in the same boat (or at least they should be).

What I’ve learned is that Manhunt is like the Splatterhouse of the 21st-century 3D era of gaming. The 1980s side scroller became a staple in arcades because its horror factor was unprecedented in the medium. Still, it faltered in all gameplay aspects because the mechanics were clunky and presented a main character unfit for the style of video game at hand. Its popularity was truly due to its gory spectacle, a treat to witness but not so much to experience firsthand. The same indictments given to Splatterhouse can be easily attributed to Manhunt, elevating the threshold of permissible content in gaming and provoking the ire of parents everywhere in a vexing package. Manhunt’s stealth gameplay, while competent enough, isn’t exactly intuitive and does not foster the same skill ceiling as something like Metal Gear Solid. When it poses as a third-person shooter for a large chunk of the playtime, the game is fucking atrocious. Rockstar’s presentational strides elevate the game, but not enough that I can forgive all of its flaws so glaring that it angers me that the developers could not see it. Still, no gaming experience matches the same level of visceral and cold, nihilistic violence that Manhunt bestows. For the sake of taste, I hope no other game dares to come to the challenge of topping it.