Manhunt

18 Nov 2003

PC (Microsoft Windows) PlayStation 2 Xbox PlayStation 4 PlayStation 3

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7.2 rating

586 want

1033 played

77 playing

44 reviews

Developer

Rockstar North

Publisher

Rockstar Games

Take-Two Interactive

Time to beat

Main story

10h 52m

Main story + extras

100% completion

Based on 6 answers

Summary

Manhunt is a third-person stealth horror game. The game consists of twenty levels, and four bonus levels that can be unlocked; the levels are referred to as "scenes". Players survive the Scenes by dispatching enemy gang members known as "Hunters", occasionally with firearms but primarily by stealthily executing them in gruesome, over-the-top ways. The player is rated at the end of each level, primarily dependent on the gruesomeness of the killings and the speed of completion, from one (unimpressive) to five (extremely competent) stars. Executions are preferred in order to gain a higher score, thus encouraging players to play as viscerally as possible. The game's locales are full of "dark spots" and shadows where the player can hide while being chased by the Hunters; hiding in these dark areas makes the player invisible to opponents.

The game takes place in the gritty crime-infested Carcer City. The story opens with a female journalist reporting on the convict James Earl Cash, a criminal on death row who has supposedly been executed by lethal injection. Cash is awoken to the voice of a person coming from an earpiece, revealing that Cash was only sedated. Cash puts on the earpiece and the person, who refers to himself as "The Director", promises Cash his freedom before the night is over, but only if Cash follows the Director's instructions. Released in a dingy neighborhood, Cash is directed to slaughter his way through the streets, populated by a gang calling themselves The Hoods while the Director, watching through security cameras scattered throughout the city, repeatedly mentions the need to please the audiences, revealing his occupation as a snuff film director. However, despite the Director's promise of freedom, Cash is beaten and thrown into the back of a van by a group of mercenaries known as the Cerberus. After his battle against the Hoods, he is also hunted by other violent gangs in various locations across the city. The gangs are organized by Ramirez, an ex-soldier and leader of the Wardogs, a gang of army veterans and experienced hunters. First, Cash is pitted against a gang of white supremacists known as The Skinz in a scrap yard. After that, faces off against Ramirez's Wardogs in an abandoned zoo where Cash has to save kidnapped members of his own family. Following the zoo encounter, Cash is forced to battle a gang of devil worshipers and perverts known as the The Innocentz in an abandoned mall. After retrieving a video tape in the mall and finding a VCR player, Cash witnesses his family being slaughtered by The Innocentz. Betrayed, Cash is forced to endure the humiliating task of escorting a drunken hobo through the hostile streets of East Los Albos. After finishing off the Innocentz in a derelict chemical factory, Cash takes on a gang of psychotics, known as The Smileys, who have taken over a mental asylum. Here, Cash survives the ending to the snuff film as planned by the Director. Consequently, the remaining Wardogs and Ramirez are hired to kill Cash. However, Ramirez and his gang are killed by Cash, and Cash quickly turns on the Director. The Carcer City Police Department (CCPD), are working for the Director; the CCPD are ordered by the Director to re-capture or kill Cash. However, the journalist seen at the game's beginning encounters Cash and imparts that she is on a mission to expose the Director's snuff film industry and CCPD corruption, and that Cash is vital for this important task; the journalist also reveals the Director's name is Starkweather. Protecting her from the police, Cash manages to take the journalist safely to her apartment, but Cash himself is re-captured by Cerberus. Back at Starkweather's mansion, he is ordered to be killed by Cerberus. However, Piggsy, an insane, chainsaw-wielding man, who wears a pig's head as a mask and was kept chained up in Starkweather's attic, has broken free and slaughters the investigating Cerberus. This allows Cash to work his way through the garden and mansion, killing the Cerberus leader along the way. Cash finally reaches the upper levels of the mansion, where he and Piggsy stalk one another. Cash triumphs after luring Piggsy onto a trapdoor that collapses, and as Piggsy tries to hold on, Cash chainsaws Piggsy's hands off, sending Piggsy falling to his death. After hacking his way through the last of the Cerberus, Cash finally confronts Starkweather and despite his pleas, brutally disembowels and decapitates him with the chainsaw. Soon, the press turns up at the mansion with the journalist exposing Starkweather's snuff ring and the police's involvement in Starkweather's operations. Cash is nowhere to be found.

	Audio	Subtitles	Interface
English	✓	✓	✓
English (UK)	✓	✓	✓
Spanish (Spain)		✓	✓
German		✓	✓
French		✓	✓
Italian		✓	✓

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8 3

This game is sick. Brutal in so many ways. I love stealthy games and this is one of them. Story was decent, it's not bad, but I enjoyed gameplay, a lot.

13 Jan 2024

6 2

It does a lot with the limited mechanics it offers, but it can be so frustrating, I quickly lost interest. The atmosphere is still great though!

21 Dec 2023

9 2

As a huge fan of games developed by Rockstar North I gotta admit I have been avoiding Manhunt for many years and I was always skeptical to give it a try but after all the years avoiding it, playing this game for the first time was an experience that exceeded beyond my expectations. Manhunt is a purposely disturbing and ugly game to say the least and the whole game from start to finish is unsettling to play. It feels like you're doing something that you somehow know you shouldn't be doing but you're intrigued to do it anyhow. But beneath all the ugliness is a polished challenging & psychological stealth game. The gameplay consists of stealth, & gunplay but the majority of your playthrough is spent lurking in the shadows taking out your enemies one by one with Manhunt's controversial executions. Above all Manhunt is a suprisingly well developed stealth game that stands alongside other great stealth titles from the early 2000's. While the stealth mechanics may look simple at first there is actually lots of details worth mentioning. Almost every action by James creates certain amount of noise such as walking on certain surfaces, hitting a wall or performing an execution. This may also be used as a tool to attract or distract enemies. Fighting your enemies face to face is not encouraged in the game since your enemies are ruthless and fighting any more than a single enemy is practically a death wish. This means you should execute your unknowing enemies in brutal fashion which then exposes the most infamous element of the game. The executions in this game are violent and gruesome with three main types that vary in length and brutality. Unlike many other games where killing feels trivial and easy, Executions in manhunt are heavy with some terrifying sound effects that adds a layer of immersion to it's violence. It's also worth mentioning how patience is a key element in Manhunt's gameplay. Carefully observing your enemies and taking your time to take them out one at a time is somehow required to progress through most levels. Considering how every mistake can be proven fatal and knowing how James is not an unstoppable protagonist, adds more vulnerability and creates a more horror like experience for the player. The other main gameplay aspect of Manhunt is gunplay which becomes more frequent through the later levels of the game. I gotta admit while the gunplay is the most criticized part of the game I didn't have much of a bad time playing through them. Surely they have their problems with some clunky aiming and a flawed cover system but considering this game came out in 2003 they actually get the job done. And I gotta say some of the shooting levels where the most tense and terrifying gunplay I have ever experienced. Since some levels puts you in tight cornered spaces and the fact that James can die from only a few shots adds to the suspension and horror aspect of these levels.
The presentation of the game is also well crafted eveything from the main menu visuals to the VHS effects while performing executions makes Manhunt feel like an Interactive snuff film. The enemies & gangs are well designed with different backgrounds. Brian Cox's performance as the sadistic director who is constantly watching & judging your actions is truly astounding. Despite it's snuff film premise, the lore of the game actually has a lot of depth and carries a message underneath. While the media at the time where blindly blaming Manhunt and videogames in general, Never during my whole playthrough did the game glorified violence or even made me feel good about it. The Soundtrack (Composed by Craig Conner) is also underrated with a terrifying ambience that sounds like a horror experience itself.
In the end Manhunt is a truly underrated gem being a victim for controversies during it's release but I definetly recommended to give this gem a try.

11 Nov 2022