The Gamer's Quarter

[TheRumblefish]

So I have a question, I know that someone on the forums must have played Manhunt. I looked it up on Wikipedia and from what it had said the game peeked my interest. The ideas of violence in the game sound very unique in a lot of ways. I just want to know if the game is really worth buying. Does anyone have any personal reactions to the game and it's violence? Or any opinions on the game's own views of violence within the game? Is the game playable? Did Rockstar take it up a notch with this game, and then never recieve recognition for it?

Enough questions though, answers are what really matters. I've never been a fan of Rockstar, and I have never been interested in the GTA series, but this game really seems like it could hold my interest.
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[SuperWes]

It's very simplistic and controlled in its gameplay, but it's also very emotional in a way that just doesn't get a lot of appreciation by people who claim to want more emotion in games. The problem is that the emotion it provides is a bit like "bad" emotion, if there is such a thing. It makes you feel bad for doing what you're doing. It puts you in the position of someone and forces you to do things you probably wouldn't want to do in real life simply because the game tells you to. This is in stark contrast to GTA, where you can choose whether or not you want to murder. Manhunt forces you to kill and then constantly reminds you of how brutal you're being.

It's may be worth playing if you're into that, but it's also kind of depressing.

It's also worth noting that Fight Night Round 3 for the Xbox 360 also provides a lot more emotion than it gets credit for. Unlike Manhunt, it's not "bad" emotion, but you'd have a hard time convincing people of that. EA can't possibly do anything good, so that means they must be doing nothing to propel the art form of videogames forward.

-Wes
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[Dracko]

Manhunt is far better than it ever got credit for. I don't like the GTA series at all. It's rife with posturing and comes off as more and more cynical with every edition (Though I enjoyed the first one).

Manhunt isn't as heavy-handed. It's directed, literally, and has definite purpose in mind. It goes beyond the shock tactics (Which, personally, I feel can be very valid as artistic tools) and really does manage to snare you into its game. You start off a prisoner, but the moral dilemna most people bring up only truly comes out after that stage.

It plays well too. The underlying mechanics are simple and straight-forward, so there's not much to be lost in it. It's no Splinter Cell is what I'm saying. And it works for the best like that.

So yeah, I'd say it's worth a rental or at bargain price. It's not one of the greats, but it's purposeful and well designed.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[DaleNixon]

I loved Manhunt. I remember one stage where you have to sneak past a trailer house. There is a man inside sitting on the toilet (you can see him through the bathroom window. I had one of my victim's heads on my tool belt so I threw the head through the window and it hit the guy on the toilet. He came out screaming and I shot him in the face with a nailgun.

I've got to say the best part of the game is the dynamic musical score. The music has a gritty B-movie feel to it, and it gets downright eerie at times.

[TheRumblefish]

Thank you to everyboyd that replied, I plan on picking up the game soon after hearing your opinions on it. It's easy to call any piece of entertainment that uses violence as a vehicle for emotion, "heavy handed". It's also easy to simply dismiss the shock value and become engrossed within the violence itself, which fascinates me entirely. Weather or not I will come out of the experience with a heavy heart, or a feeling of complete immersion remains to be seen. I'll post in this thread when I acquire the game itself. Thanks again for the valid opinions.
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[dark steve]

[Persona-sama]

[Pijaibros]

This game also uses the microphone, I used the Xbox one. You can hear the director's commentary through it (instead of the speakers) and talk into it to attract the hunters' attention. Breathing heavily or gasps also can let them know your position depending on how high you have the tension.

It really is how the game is meant to be played.

Mainly the level of gratuitous violence is what scared the people off. Though if you were in Cash's shoes and you had crazy director who insisted on gory executions for high ratings, plus entire areas of people who want to kill you only for some pocket change the director promised them you would grudgingly comply too.

[Dracko]

It has to be kept in mind though that Cash isn't an angel himself. He was on deathrow for a reason, more than likely.

Knowing and accepting that kind of affected how I played. In the GTA series, for instance, everything is casual. You're a Hollywood gangster and you can do no wrong because cops rehash the same radio emergencies over and over again and drop dead easy.

In Manhunt, your executions are portrayed graphically and in-your-face. It gets common after a few hours, but that's the point: By the time you reach the stage where these gruesome butcherings get pedestrian, you're on a personal vengeance mission more than anything else.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Shapermc]

I have always talked to people who confirmed my opinon that Manhunt is basically the kind of thing that I shouldn't support in games. Gratuitous violence for its own sake with no redeming qualities.

Just having a "bad" feeling is not enough for a game. GTA 3 makes me feel "bad." That alone is not a redeming quality. GoW is unredemingly immature and gratuitous.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[GilloD]

[SuperWes]

[Mr. Mechanical]

Manhunt is probably one of the few games that's so explicitly aware of the violent nature of videogames, and it uses this to exploit the player into feeling uncomfortable. In that sense then, the game is a success as it does what it sets out to do. However, if all it's doing is trying to make you feel uncomfortable then it's kind of a failure, because it could be doing and saying so much more than it actually is. Wasted potential, etc.

I doubt Rockstar and Co. were really setting out to make people rethink the role of violence in videogames but if that's what it ends up doing at the end of the day then I can't help but support it because that's an issue right now in dire need of attention from gamers, despite the fact that the game is bascially being violent for the sake of violence.

[Shapermc]

[GilloD]

[SuperWes]

[Mr. Mechanical]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Mr. Mechanical]

I don't know, I had some fun with it. But then, I also really liked God of War.

And calling it exploitative seems a bit harsh, because you could argue that it is trying to bring to attention the role of violence in modern entertainment or something like that which would place it squarely in the realm of "artistic" or whatever.

[Shapermc]

[GilloD]

[dhex]

eh, games = murder.

conflict is life. war is the health of the state. etc.
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[SuperWes]

[Shapermc]

[Ketch]

This is a good analysis of many of the different things that Manhunt does,

http://www.ntsc-uk.com/feature.php?featuretype=edi&fea=ManhuntIntro


nonetheless I have to say that it is still -wrong- and it fetishes aggression and violence /fear and vulnerability.

[dhex]

[Dracko]

[SuperWes]

[Shapermc]

[dhex]

[SuperWes]

Well man, you know I'm mostly joking. Like, mostly like almost all the way. But my point remains that you have strong convictions against a game that you've never played, and are only aware of through hearsay.

I'm not saying that you should buy the game, I'm just saying that you shouldn't steer people away from something based on no more experience with the game than the people you're advising.

Also: read that link Ketch posted. It's pretty good!

-Wes
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[Mr. Mechanical]

[Mr. Mechanical]

[Mr. Mechanical]

Why the fuck won't it let me post the rest of this? I've got more but I can't post it or edit it into my previous posts. Keep getting a Forbidden error message.

[DaleNixon]

Johnny 5 is alive!

[Scratchmonkey]

Manhunt is totally an exploitation game in the sense that Last House on the Left is an exploitation film.

That NTSC-UK article is pretty good for covering what it feels like to play the game. Of course, plenty of people are not going to "get it"; however, there are people who find the violence in Full Metal Jacket to be hilarious. I hardly see how this makes playing the game/watching the film a worthless experience.

[TheRumblefish]

Well I picked up the game for $3.00 and reached the third level. During the first level I wasn't really to keen on anything it was simple and logical, paint by numbers stealth gameplay. I couldn't feel anything from the game nor did I recognize any sort of important underlying message. During the second level things started to change, the game started becoming more and more agressive, it took it up a notch. More hunters hunting you, more agressive and the death scenes became more agressive as well.

By the third level, I was in a way shell-shocked when I had scene the death scene with the machete. Within 30 minutes of gameplay I quickly became used to it. I also in a way "enjoyed" killing white supremacists. Then again, wasn't the game forcing me to fit the role of a murderer as the avatar? Someone who obviously takes glee within their own killing habits? That's certainly a strong focus within the game itself, a disturbing one at that. It really asks you to reflect on your actions, and that's important. I certainly never reflected on my actions when I blew away a hundred or so people in any FPS, or when I killed a ton of zombies in any Survival Horror game.

I think the gameplay is certainly different in some ways, it is a poor man's MGS, but it also has some interesting things to say. I'm certainly not displeased with a game that makes me feel remorse for taking some sort of pleasure within violence or killing. Remorse for killing people that aren't innocent at all, in fact all enemies are just as bad as you. There are no protaganists in the game. I mean, it's a very negative feeling that is being constantly projected. The game's atmosphere and music are straight out of a 70's horror film, akin to Texas Chainsaw Massacre's house, or the Nuclear Test Site Town in the re-make of Hills Have Eyes. It's dark, really dark and it just progressively hounds you with a certain degree of tension.

Until you ease into that tension because the killing becomes easier and easier for you. I do like the game, it leaves me a bit heavy handed at the end of the day, but it certainly says more then what everyone led it to believe. As for exploitation, well everyone's views on it are vastly different. I know Shaper that you and I have discussed this many times in our cinema talks. I'm a fan of Miike's work, and a lot of it goes against your opinions, and that's certainly cool with me. I just don't want to set anybody off, so I hope this post was just informative instead of a time bomb.
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[Shapermc]

So I played a good hour of the game over the weekend. I played it on someone else's PS2 using someone else's copy! Anyways, it was just not very good. It was very voyeuristic and I think it could eventually try to say something interesting. Overall it felt like a micromanagement GTA game with a minor upgraded engine. There were so many mechanics that got in the way of me playing the game well it was not worth it to borrow the game and explore further. It was also not as violent as I expected, brutal is a better word to use.

Anyways, that thing on NTSC-UK isn't too bad. I think some of the statements made could be made on many generic/general "knocked for violence" games, but the specific items were good. It was a little long winded though, even for me.

[Ketch]

What I think would be interesting is a comparison between Manhunt and Forbidden Siren, which are almost cousins in some ways. Both being stealth based survival horror-type games. But with different tactics.

(Good luck finding someone who has completed both games, since Manhunt is very hard, but Forbidden Siren is -nails-.)

[Shapermc]

[SJ]

The whispering you can hear from your XBox headset is the only reason that I have become somewhat interested in this game.

[wankerwitson]

PROTIP: play until it gives you guns.