I'm lucky enough to have a uncensored copy of Manhunt 2 for the Wii, but not even playing it uncensored is enough to make a decent game. I enjoyed the first Manhunt it was a totally original idea with good visual effects for the time,a story that was straight out of a classic horror film, and some decent game play. Sure the enemy A.I. was pretty stupid but the whole execution thing made it cool. But sadly Manhunt 2 fails in every aspect that the original was good in besides the executions. So let me begin the review and explain why this game is just one of the most medicore games that I have ever played.
Graphics: 2.5
Lets face it Manhunt 2 just looks bad. Whether your looking at the games overall atmosphere, models, or colors. First I'm going to talk about the models which would have looked good if this game came out only on PS2/PSP as launch titles but for Wii standards there just lacking. The characters have very little curvature in them and they just look weird its almost like the models are something out of an N64 game. But the weapons and just the overall objects in the environment look decent and are better to look at then the main characters. Now I'm going to move onto the detail in the models mostly the textures in the objects. So like before I'll start with the characters. The characters in Manhunt 2 have bad textures in them. For an example when you first start the game your playing as Danny and you just got out of your cell in the insane asylum. When you just look at Danny and his jump suit you'll notice that the textures in the jump suit that Danny wears really melts together and looks like they didn't try to make Danny or any character in the game look good they detailed the characters to the point to where you can just tell what the item or thing is supposed to be. An example of this would be that Danny has a pouch on the back of his outfit, When I first saw it I honestly thought it was like a stain on his outfit, I thought perhaps it might be a crap stain, which makes sense since hes a mentally unfit person in a mental hospital. But I was surprised to find out that it was just a pouch that Danny puts items he finds like a head, brick or whatever. What I mean by the detail melts together is that is lets say your playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl and you pick...uh...Link when playing as Link and looking at his outfit you'll notice some really fine details in Links costume like the rinkles in it or if you pause the game and zoom in the textures in the outfit look very sharp even close up. Now you may be asking your self what Super Smash Brothers Brawl has to do with Manhunt 2 well nothing I'm just making a comparison between two Wii games and how one game (Super Smash Brothers Brawl) looks very good and one (Manhunt 2) looks like crap. And the amount of detail has been raised a little when looking at smaller items like weapons but they still look pretty poor and undetailed. So like I said at the top the graphics get a 2.5 out of 5 they don't look god awful but they sure as heck are not pretty to look at.
Game Play:2.5
The one thing that is more laughable then the graphics is the game play. For anyone who has played the original Manhunt and hasn't playing this medicore sequel would be happy to know that the game play aspect of the game has not changed much at all. Now back when the first Manhunt came out it was acceptable that the game play was a little shallow but for a game released in 2007...this is just ridiculous. So the game play goes like this your in a room with areas that have these abnormal dark areas that are supposedly pitch black and you sneak/walk/run into these "pitch black" areas and wait for someone to walk in right in front of you and when I say right in front of you I mean they get inches away from you and for some stupid reason they can't see you because I guess all of the bad guys in this game have very poor vision. So they turn around and you walk out of the "pitch black" shadow and hold the action button for a set amount of time, let go and watch your character (Danny) execute the person. As I just stated above you hold down the action button which is in this case the "c" button on the Wii, and the longer you hold down the "c" button the cursor around the enemies head will turn three different colors. White, yellow and red. White executions are the least violent kill, yellow kills are a great deal more violent then the white ones and red kills are the most kills in the game. Now for most people who don't have access to the uncensored Wii version are stuck with the absolutely worst copy of the game. In the censored copy no matter what color kill you do white, yellow, or red all of the kills have been censored to the point where you can't see what is going on. The screen will either turn very dark and you won't be able to see anything but black and dark brown or the screen will turn like red, white, and black and then the screen gets garbled to the point where your just looking at a bunch of static. As I said before you hide in these "pitch black" areas of the game which are just extremely out of place meaning that you'll be in a room with a light or rather multiple light yet there are areas in this room that are "pitch black" This alone doesn't make any sense and leads me to believe that the people who made this game have never been in a room where a light bulb played a part in it. You have notices that I say "pitch black" areas I put pitch black in quotes because these areas are clear as day when you see them or get in them but for some reason even though these areas are clear as day if an enemy walks by looking for you and walks right by the dark area your hiding in they for some reason can't see you almost as if A. There blind or B. There very, very, VERY stupid. There is one more game play aspect that I want to touch on and that is the quick action sequences which work like this. So your hiding in "pitch black" areas of a room or whatever and a bad guy will walk up to the black area and if he notices something a circle the size of your T.V. will appear and will get a lot smaller really fast until its about the size of a small apple and you have to keep your cursor the size of a dime in the circle and if you don't the bad guy will see you and pull you out, but the funny thing is that although this is a good addition to the game play but due to the extraordinarily bad A.I. after someone pulls you out of the shadows and you in plain site, the bad guys just stand there for like 5 seconds like a bunch idiots. And just for laughs I'll just stand there until they un-stupid and start chasing me and run right past them and back into the exact same area I was just hiding in. Showing how bad the A.I. really is. Let me wrap this section up I give the game play a 2.5 out 5 it's got the same Manhunt game play but with even worse everything else!
Story:2
The great thing about the original Manhunt is that you couldn't take the game seriously with such a cheesy story line, but Manhunt 2 tries to take itself way too seriously and its (laughing) just horrible. Now its actually surprising how uninspired this game is. The graphics, the game play and the story its crazy. I can't spoil anything but I will tell you this the story of Manhunt 2 is exactly this, Fight Club's story with mass murdering in the mix, that it! If I was reviewing the movie Fight Club I would give it a 5 for the story and everything else in the movie simply because its just amazing and you don't expect it but since Manhunt 2's story is such a blatant rip off of one of the greatest movies and they put absolutely zero time, zero thought and zero effort into the story of the game I have to give it a 2 because its just amazing on how unoriginal it is!
Sound:2.5
There's not much I can say about the sound besides that its not great its horrible. I believe that about 1/3 or half of the stabbing sound effects are from the original Manhunt and since about half of the melee weapons are stabbing utensils or knives their kind of stale but there still good. The music in Manhunt 2 is that tension building music that's in the first Manhunt and in horror movies. So its good and fits the style of the game nicely. Overall the sound in Manhunt 2 is good...not great 2.5 out of 5.
Alright so let me finish up this review, Manhunt 2 is a bad game its not terribly bad like an unplayable game its just that the game is just so medicore there is zero reason to play it there are so many other games that are a thousand times better then this medicore pile of feces.
