Manhunt

ManHunt is an action filled, gritty urban game. It contains many of the elements seen in games like Hitman, Grand Theft Auto and Resident Evil. The stages or scenes are dark, gritty and textured to look like CCTV footage, especially seen when you execute the hunters. It is highly atmospheric and tense throughout, effects like always hearing the sound of your characters heartbeat and a real sense of realism. The only downside is the repetition which starts to dog the game as you progress. However this isn't too much of a problem if you like your'e games dark and violent.
Overall this is game is for someone who doesn't have the patience for Hitman, is bored of Resident Evil and is looking for a change in the survival horror genre.
Enjoy!

Nice idea, but falls down in a few places. The whole of the first few levels of this game are entirely stealth based. You sneak around hiding in shadows, making the occasional bit of noise to atract an enemy, then you execute him when his back is turned. You are given new weapons along the way in an attempt to stop the game becoming tedious by allowing you to see new tyes of execution. Unfortunately it still becomes tedious until the shooting starts about 7 levels in.

The bit where you first have to involve yourself in firefights is extreamly fustrating, not least because the manual does not explain the "firefight" system, which means you'll either get massacred or run out of ammo very fast. Once you know how the system works it's actually quite good as it automatically allows you to pop out, fire, and then duck back behind cover with ease. You still tend to take damage though unless you're lucky. Unfortunately towards the end of the game (last 2 levels in particular) it becomes very fustrating as the firefight system is rather erratic. It doesn't always aim correctly which can result in you being killed quite easily if you don't manage to kill a guy with an assault rifle on the first shot. Also if you are hiding in a shadow and you wait for an enemy to come right up close it has a rather idiotic habbit of hitting the enemy with your gun rather than firing it, which also tends to result in you getting killed. This has happened to me a 2 key points when I was playing a section for ages, which resulted in me wishing to practice some of these execution techniques on the idiot who wrote that particular peice of code.

The AI is definately a bit weak. Some of the enemys act like morons and others like tactical geniuses, with no steady progression as the game goes on. The storyline is interesting, the graphics and sound are outstanding, as is the excellent atmosphere created by the game, but ultimately the game itself is just a bit too fustrating.

Manhunt is a very interesting product, it is basically a 90% stealth puzzle game with 10% stylised violence on the top. The selling point of Manhunt is the violence and at first that is fairly entertaining, the plastic bag over the head kill is a 'cool' feature and some of the other stealth kills are also well done. The first couple of missions are very tense and well thought out in a great environment however after that the game goes badly downhill. The violence gets repetitive very quickly (the number of ways of killing is very limited) and sneaking around doing the same thing over and over again gets pretty dull. Also as you go along the humour gets increasingly childish (it's got an 18 certificate, aim it at over 18s) and frankly irritating. In it's defence Manhunt probably has the best control system I've ever seen in a 3rd Person action game however that really can't save the awe inspiring tedium of just doing the same thing over and over again.

I found Manhunt a game that you dip into for maybe 20 minutes at a time because it is just so incredibly repetitive however if you are going to find the 'jokes' in it amusing then you will play for longer. I will give it 3/5 for the control system, the initial half an hour play and getting kids the world over to play a stealth puzzler, but it really is just too repetitive to warrant a higher rating. I'd suggest that you buy any of the Hitman series instead, the gameplay is in principle very similar (although the violence is much more toned down) and Hitman has lots of other good features that Manhunt simply doesn't.