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Manhunt Delivers Stealthy Shock For Rockstar
Thanks to U.S. Playstation Magazine for its review of Rockstar North's ultraviolent PS2 stealth action title Manhunt, which it rates as "a solidly constructed third-person affair." The reviewer also explains the most unique feature: "As an interesting gimmick, Manhunt supports the USB headset. With the headset, the Director's comments [as voiced by Brian Cox] are heard only through the earpiece." GameSpot also largely rates the title positively, approving of the "tension and grim satisfaction" in the stealth action gameplay, but highlighting the ways the "game unflinchingly depicts intense graphic violence" as the Director "captures on video the bloody executions" carried out by your in-game character. This leads Playstation Magazine to question the ESRB rating system, suggesting that if Manhunt "didn't merit an AO rating, then I don't know what will", while IGN PS2 simply says, with regard to the gore: "No videogames to date have gone as far."
They mostly define AO (Adults Only)-rated games as games that would involve nudity or sexual acts - a few hentai games from Japan would warrant this, but not much else. As it is, though the game is brutally violent, it's pretty much the same stuff that a 17 year old could see in some of the more violent R-rated movies. The problem is that people have become used to allowing under-17-year-olds to play M-rated games; in this case, the game is clearly *not* targetted at that demographic, though I'm sure that I'm about to be shocked when I hear some ten year olds talking about that awesome cleaver murder they committed in Manhunt...
--- Bwah?
Hmm.. I got this last night and can definitely say it is no State of Emergency. It's delivers on its promise -- I haven't been so on edge in a videogame since the first Resident Evil was released.
And yes, this game is beyond violent -- it is downright vicious. I can't recall any other game where I've actually winced at a cutscene. This is not just gore and blood -- it is savage. Having said that, given the premise of the game, it certainly succeeds at it.
And, in the interest of fairness, conservative groups do threaten boycotts but so do very liberal groups. Dr. Laura's television show was hurt, in part, because of the boycotts brought on by pro-homosexual groups. I think the idea of organized boycotts can have a time and place in order to bring about change but when you use it to silence people whose opinions you disagree with - that's just hurting society. From a conservative group, I can somewhat understand their reasoning but for a liberal group to attack someone who is anti-homosexual seems a bit hypocritical. Aren't they always pushing for acceptance of all and diversity within society? Yet that diversity cannot include anti-homosexuals, etc. Perplexing, very perplexing.
But back to the game, has anyone heard that Rockstar had to edit parts of Manhunt? With a movie, you can give a cut to the board and then cut bits of the movie pretty easily to appease them. With a video game, this might not be as easy to do - especially if what they are offended by isn't just a simple cut scene but rather an underlying piece of the gameplay. Could this bring about bugs in the finished game? I don't know if game companies are being forced to modify games like this.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
I happen to enjoy movies and games with gritty content. They give me a window into a dark world that I'll thankfully never intersect with in real life, but that I still find conceptually intriguing. That being said, I can't play Manhunt for extended periods of time because the tension and the ultraviolence start to get to me...but that doesn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the game.
Out of curiosity, since you plan to stop buying games by Rockstar because of Manhunt, have you also boycotted all of the movie studios who have put out films with extremely gory content? I mean, you should clearly be skipping the Lord Of The Rings films because New Line Cinema also put out Seven...