BitSnark

Having enjoyed to a moderate extent Rockstar’s original Daily Mail baiting stealth game, I am a tad curious about the current lack of fervor surrounding the possible release of Manhunt 2 after RockStar Games successfully appealed against the most recent refusal by the BBFC, to classify the game for release.

When the original Manhunt was released, many gamers (including myself) believed it to be a succinct marriage of controversial subject matter with traditional gameplay (a Rockstar hallmark it has to be said). When the credits rolled up, I had enjoyed my time with the game but was not blown away by it, the ludicrous level of violence being little more than a novelty. Still, the snuff video premise of the game, combined with the gory execution style kills earned it not only a ticking off and subsequent vilification of the games industry by self-righteous liberals in the broadsheets, but also short term sales bans from specialist retailers such as GAME.

This kind of negativity is not a foreign concept to gamers who enjoy games with a mature context and that case certainly will not change in the foreseeable future. Indeed RockStar, though outwardly grumbling at having their game being pulled off the shelves and slurred by the averagely idiotic broadsheet press, must have been delighted at all the free press that their new game was receiving. By publicly making something so taboo, it just fans the fire of human curiosity as more, and more people wanted to buy the game and see what is was all about – again violence being the primary hook for said curiosity.

All that aside, and nearly three years on, we have the sequel – Manhunt 2. U.S Reviews have been unimpressive so far, finding an uncomfortable middle ground between poor and mediocre. This is largely the same game that we have played previously it would seem as it appears to be nearly as violent (the 17+ version that was granted an American release being cut down in the gore stakes) and still contains the same stealth-kill gameplay that we have grown accompanied to, both prior to and since the original’s release.

So the question is, should any of us UK folk actually give a toss about this game? I couldn’t care less, regardless of which version we’re talking about (sorry, Wii motion control on this kind of game doesn’t do anything for me, but your mileage on that may vary) the game is still no better than it’s predecessor in gameplay terms but whereas the last game was techically unimpressive, the whole snuff-video idea was a novel hook at the time.

Thoughts?