When this came out, everyone talked about it. It It is one of those games...the controversial ones, like Postal, or Mortal Kombat, or today, hatred. News stations used to call this a murder simulator, that will train kids how to torture and maim their peers. The deaths in this game are brutal, and graphic...but what about the actual gameplay? Manhunt is essentially just a stealth action game, where you have to hide from people, that are actively hunting you in an arena, and kill them. Stay behind them longer, and you can kill them more brutally. You have to stay behind cover, because as it is the case in most sneakiy-sneaky titles, they are armed with assault rifles, while you are armed literally with paper bags and construction equipment. Fortunately, they are not too smart, hence they agreed to hunt a serial killer in a dark building, full of other idiots with guns. After a while you get a nailgun, which works basically as a real gun, and after that the game turns into a standard issue TPS. There are quite a few levels left in the game at that point, but it hastens your progress so much, that you can complete the rest in one sitting, even if you have other things to do that day. The isn't bad, but it isn't good either. My little brother brother played it when he was twelve, so even thought it is rather graphic, it's also very forgettable. Maybe the reason for that is because you don't actually do the killing yourself, just press a button, and watch someone else do it for you.

This is easily in my top 20 if not top 10 video games of all time. I personally like really dark and violent media as well as the concept of snuff films in fiction. Now, when you combine that with Rockstar Games package (Great humour, writing, voicework, visuals etc) you get this masterpiece. Taking place in the Grand Theft Auto universe, you play as James Earl Cash; a death row inmate who's execution was faked and who is forced by a perverted snuff film director to partake in the ultimate snuff film. You have to kill your way through the crappy part of the already crappy Carcer City in parts of the town that the director (Starkweather) has fixed with an infinite supply of cameras. As the action escalates you are put up against tougher and more disturbing gangs until finally you are thrown into an insane asylum overrun by some disturbed and heavily armed crazies. Rarely does a game reach this level of brutality and grit. Humour is thrown in the game in the form of funny enemy dialogue and the director(played expertly by the wonderful Brian Cox) speaking to you and encouraging you via an earpiece. The darkness and humour works together superbly. While I do like Manhunt 1 and 2 in their old school Rockstar Games glory, I really hope that Rockstar decides to work on a third installment with the new technology. I prefer Rockstar back when they did games around these times due partially to the Rockstar Games look, but I cannot deny how great their writing and gameplay works with their recent games. GTA V being a masterpiece. I can not imagine how much of an insane and breathtaking experience a Manhunt game in the current era would be to have.

The game is not aging well. Featuring a third person stealth game with an interface from GTA, Rockstar went violent with this game. A controversial game where you brutally kill the enemies that sounds fun but it is not. When you start playing it is ok, the executions are as brutal as you may think and that's probably the reason why you are playing this, but that just ends. Once you've seen the executions what is left is a third person stealth/action game with nothing to add to the genre, and that's something that comes pretty soon in the game. So, a couple of hours of fun and nothing else for the rest of the game.

I remember playing this game back when it came out for PS2, it was funny because it was gory. I don't think I enjoy that now that I'm grown up. Something to highlight is the story, besides the dark brutality of the game most of the time, the story is quite good. But again doesn't justify some of the most cruel scenes IMO. This game is like the movie 'HOSTEL', it's violence wrapped with an argument. But the center of the whole thing is not the argument, so don't go for it if you think it's the most important thing on this title.

Brutal....that's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this game. Sadly I've never got the privilege of playing the second one. This game is...crazy, dark...Grab what you can to protect yourself...Psychos are coming for you and the only way you will survive is being just as vicious, perhaps even more so. Each melee weapon lets you do a series of brutal attacks, you can take a plastic bag suffocate and brutally beat your enemy...If you pick this up you are in for a sick ride....graphics are dated but not really bad. A game you would definitely want to pick up if you are in the mood for something dark and vicious.