Much as mankind has the urge to progress further forward in the fields of science and exploration, game developers often seem to have the urge to push the limits of what we might consider tasteless or offensive. Now I enjoy a good digitized drive-by shooting as much as the next fellow, but I have to stop and acknowledge that sometimes people simply act in an exaggerated and garish fashion so as to attract attention to themselves. Cue appearing from right stage, Rockstar North’s Manhunt, which seeks to answer the age-old question that has plagued mankind: Could stabbing someone in the eye sockets with a shard of glass ever become tiresome? The answer, surprisingly, is yes.

The player is cast in the role of James Earl Cash, a kindly gent sentenced to death and then spared at the last moment by Lionel Starkweather, avant garde director/sadist, who intends to remake Cash’s death sentence in a budget version of The Running Man. He communicates via earpiece with the player over the course of the game, urging you to kill faster and with more cruelty, so as to satisfy the viewing audience and boost ratings. To accommodate this cinematic vision, vast sections of the city have been cleared of citizens and populated by Hunters (gang members, racists, and asylum inmates), allowing the player to engage in wholesale meaningless slaughter in several different locales. Of course to keep things from getting too one-sided, your targets have been notified of your presence in the area, and are thus hunting you just as you hunt them.

This title effectively falls under the stealth assassination genre, although in a somewhat simplified manner. While the player can sneak, wall sidle, crouch and lurk in the shadows, they cannot climb onto any surface higher than their shins, unless made accessible by a wheelchair ramp. This leaves you with one basic means of attack: hide in the shadows, make a noise, and wait for someone to come near you before attacking them from behind. And while Cash is able to duke it out using weaponry or his fists, with more than one enemy present it quickly becomes a downhill struggle as the player is swiftly overpowered. When one does unleash a successful stealth attack, they are treated to a ShakeyCam™ recording of the ensuing brutality as Cash eagerly opens up his target’s cranial or abdominal cavity like a frolicsome child in search of delicious candy, or possibly leprechaun gold.

To ensure that the aforementioned eye-stabbing doesn’t become too limiting, the player is able to perform up to three levels of attacks on an ascending scale. When first approaching a target with the lock-on mode in use, a trio of grey triangles will appear around the target’s head. If the player presses the attack button once, the basic slaughter will ensue. However, if they press and hold the same button, the triangles will eventually turn yellow for a Violent execution, then red for a Gruesome execution. These don’t serve any particular purpose in the game, aside from one level where the player is required to perform advanced executions in order to advance, and scoring extra stars at the end of each level which can be used to unlock bonus levels and cheat codes. One of the predictable aspects of any game with a gimmick cinematic that cannot be skipped, is that these sort of sequences can get fairly repetitive and blasé over time.

Level design and graphics are fairly average at best, with lots of grey and brown tones smeared over murky, worn-down environments. At the end of each area Cash’s handlers will appear to collect him, disarm him, and ship him off to the next hunting grounds. This makes for somewhat jarring transfers of setting and locale, in addition to the whole tired rigamarole of losing all your gear and hurriedly searching for a weapon before the masses descend upon you. Regions vary wildly, from tenements to zoos, mansions to industrial areas, but all seem determined to follow that murky, smeared color scheme. Additionally most opt for a rather rigidly scripted series of events, with the player firmly locked into the designer’s course of action, unable to innovate or pursue alternative means of overcoming obstacles.

For any type of stealth game, sound is usually a very important aspect in both aiding the player in detecting the enemy, and vice versa. To assist in this the NPCs in the game are quite chatty fellows, constantly muttering to racial epithets to themselves, talking to each other, or announcing the current state and rigidity of their genitalia to the empty alley they’re lurking in. Beyond these sound cues, the player also has radar of sorts that shows you where the enemies in the region are if they’re moving, what direction they’re looking in, and how aware they are of your presence. Alerting the enemy by throwing debris, hitting walls, or kicking garbage cans allows the player to lure targets closer to where they’re hiding in the shadows. Additionally, any sort of strenuous activity will alert nearby Hunters, activities such as running, fighting, or walking over gravel and metal.

By merit of the Mature ERSB rating alone, this game obviously isn’t for everyone. For people who prefer a little depth or story to their stealth games, this title will also leave one feeling wanting and unfulfilled. But if the idea of jamming a crowbar through someone’s neck eight times in a row fills you with scintillating joy, this may be the game you’ve been waiting for. When it comes right down to it, aside from some over-the-top graphic gore and violence, this game brings nothing new or worthy of note to the table. Like a creepy, surly teenager on his first day of high school, this game simply tries too hard to be cool and achieves very little of what it sets out to accomplish.