Manhunt 2 Review

Manhunt 2 is a game that I figured I would eventually play sometime, it wasn't at the top of my list. I had recently gotten a PSP and a Wii and wasn't sure which one to get it for, if I was going to get it at all. My brother then surprised me for Christmas and got it for me on the PSP, not knowing that I was interested in it at all. I just completed it the other day and have some things to say about it.

Now let me preface this by stating that one of my favorite game franchises of all time is the Metal Gear Solid Series (MGS). The best part about those games are the stealth elements. You hide in a corner, tap the wall, the guard patrolling the area walks over to investigate, you grab him from behind as he walks away and choke him out. You can then either stuff him in a locker, carry him around with you, or leave him there for his buddies to see and wonder "I don't remember leaving this here" It's all real fun but can be very frustrating sometimes. If you fail to choke him out then you end up in mediocre hand to hand combat where all you have have is a stun gun and you're aiming frantically for his head, which never works.

Manhunt works the same way, where you hide in a dark corner, wait for the enemy to come find you, and choke him out. Where the games differ though is that if you miss the execution, either he walks away too fast, or you don't time it correctly, the melee combat actually works pretty well. Unlike the MGS games you usually have more than a stun gun with you. In a lot of the levels you're given a shotgun, or machine gun, and you can just gun fools down. On the psp it locks on for you, so all you have to do is run though, push a button to lock on, and fire away. It was a little easy, but it was very satisfying. The levels were very long too so it didn't feel like I was blowing through the game too quickly.

The executions, if you do pull them off, are awesome. They're extremely violent and brutal, and even though they are filtered due to controversy from the ratings board, you can still tell what's going on with no problem. I have always loved Rockstar's games, from the obvious GTA games, to the lesser known Max Payne or Table Tennis games. I am new the the Manhunt franchise and will probably go pick up the original game for the xbox sometime. The story may not have been as engrossing or cinematic as the MGS games, but I found the game play to be just as tight, if not better. The graphics also looked fantastic on the PSP, I was impressed at how well some of the levels looked, probably just as good as the PS2 version. Manhunt 2 is out for the PSP, PS2, and Wii (probably will take the cake as the most violent game to ever come out on Wii). If you're in to violent stealthy games, I'd pick this one up.

Labels: Reviews, Sony