So I was gonna write this whole post on Manhunt 2 and why it might have been rated AO but IGN stole my thunderhorse.

I played the AO version of Manhunt 2 last night for several hours and wanted to give a hand-on review of it. While I can understand why retailers won’t carry AO games, it makes me very mad that some third party is limiting the creative ability and expression of a game developer. Especially when that developer has proven that they can make a solid title and doesn’t have to resort entirely on shock/gore factor.

If you played Manhunt then you will easily recognize Manhunt 2. The graphics haven’t changed very much and it controls the same. The most aggravating thing about the controls on first pick up is that you can’t adjust the camera with the right thumbstick. In fact, you can’t adjust the camera at all. This would cause frequent frustration for me as I played.

Here’s my detailed recap of the first few hours of Manhunt 2. The game opens in an insane asylum for criminals on a stormy night. All of a sudden the cells open up and the inmates are let loose on the guards and orderlies. During this scene you one orderly coming out of a cell zipping his pants up with an inmate crouched on the ground behind him. As you make your way down a hall some crazy guy pisses on you through the bars, then as you keep going you come up to an open cell. As you are about to see inside the cell a chair comes sliding out its open door. If you enter you’ll see an inmate who has just hanged himself with the words “Help Me” written behind him on the wall. As you progress through the asylum you see various bodies, one guy has his shoulders and head scorched off but his intestines are showing and are shooting blood into the air. Later, you enter an elevator and when you get out you see the torso of an inmate lined up with the opening of the elevator.



The first kill you do is performed with a syringe. An attendant is trying to open a door and you sneak up behind him and jam the syringe into his chest until he is dead. When you learn how to sneak around using the wall hug you have a pen as a weapon. He spotted me as I was sneaking up on him so I ran away because he was beating me to death. I ran and hid behind a corner and when he came near I guess the AI didn't detect me cause I walked to the side of him and the "pen death sequence" played with me jamming it into his neck and blood spurting out.



At one part in the level two orderlies with night sticks are kicking an inmate on the ground until it sounds like he throws up and dies. The orderlies high five and walk off.

The first time you are introduced to the more powerful executions, you again have the syringe. There are three levels: hasty, violent, and gruesome. I went with gruesome. Your character pulls the victim’s legs out from under them then straddles over them and jams the syringe into their face. It then looks like he then pulls the handle of the syringe as if trying to draw blood, then takes the syringe out and blood is shooting from his face. The camera doesn't show the face directly but you get some glimpses as the guy is struggling.

Later you come into contact with a shard of glass to use as a weapon. The hasty kill has your character jumping onto the enemy's back then stabbing then multiple times in the stomach. However, the gruesome version has you take a slice at the enemy’s lower back which makes them drop to their knees. Then your guy takes the shard and jams it in the enemies face about 5 times as blood pours out before twisting his head and snapping his neck.



By this time you have hitched a ride on the back of a garbage truck and made your way to a playground area where the voice who has been communicating with you says that you hid the drug that will clear your head somewhere in here.

The first environmental kill you come upon is a manhole with its cover slightly ajar. If you sneak up on your unsuspecting victim and attack you pull the feet out from under them and then kick them in the groin several times before placing their head in the hole, then hitting them in the back of the head with the cover and then dumping the body down the hole.

At the end of this level you get a chance at a new execution style, the “jumping execution.” I had the crowbar when I did this part and I was on a rooftop. I jumped down on the sap and jammed the crowbar into his head with the flat end then kinda pried it upwards which may have asploded his head but I didn’t get a chance to see because the level ended.

If anyone is interested on hearing about more let me know and I’ll write more.

We all knew that Manhunt 2 would be as violent as the first if not more violent, but when we heard it was getting that coveted “AO” accolade, well, we knew it was going to be something special. Unfortunately, after giving the game a solid playing through, I can not offer you any examples as to why the game was given an Adults Only rating and not a Mature one.

This game is extremely violent this is for sure. There are several executions scenes that made me kinda crunch my face up and raise my eyebrows, but nothing that made me think that the line had been crossed. That line involves violent rape, sadistic killing of children, and defacing religious symbols; Manhunt 2 had none of this that I saw.