Rockstar Games aren’t any strangers to controversy, with the builders having turn into the topic of notorious scandals starting from Grand Theft Auto’s Hot Coffee mod to the banning of Bully in a number of nations. However, regardless of a long time of stunning conservative dad and mom by taking gaming to the following stage, I feel nobody would disagree that the venture which greatest represents the corporate’s dedication to the excessive is 2003’s online game Manhunt, a gritty snuff simulator that takes stealth video games right into a decidedly terrifying path.
Borrowing from horrific city legends and schlocky exploitation flicks in equal measure, the title turned a disturbing cult hit that’s nonetheless cited at the moment as one of the vital grotesque video games ever made. And twenty years after its launch, I feel that it’s time to look again on the origins of this unusual little experiment so as to discover out why there’s by no means been one other horror recreation fairly as notorious as this one.
Despite usually being thought to be a small-scale successor to the 3D GTA titles, Manhunt was truly developed concurrently with these bigger video games. In reality, it was one thing of a pet venture by Rockstar North, with the crew desirous to craft a never-before-seen city horror expertise that wouldn’t depend on supernatural monsters or aliens to disturb gamers. While the Running Man meets 8mm premise of the title led to backlash throughout the studio itself, with a number of builders complaining that the venture was headed too deep into “Adults Only” territory, the sport would in the end launch and not using a hitch the exact same yr that it was first introduced.
In the sport, gamers take management of James Earl Cash, a demise row inmate who finds himself coerced by a mysterious determine often known as “The Director” into collaborating in a large-scale snuff movie. Naturally, this leads to an interactive grindhouse flick the place gamers are compelled to violently homicide a wacky assortment of psychos and criminals as they try to sneak by way of a darkish and gritty gauntlet ready by the Director’s group.
With influences starting from The Warriors (which is becoming since Rockstar would later adapt Walter Hill’s iconic film into among the best licensed video games of all time) to Michael Mann movies (with the sport even benefitting from the sultry sounds of Brian Cox, who performed Hannibal Lecktor in Mann’s Red Dragon adaptation, Manhunter), Manhunt was Rockstar’s first foray into critical adult-oriented leisure – missing most of the satirical parts that first put them on the map.
This extra critical method to storytelling and environment probably performed an element within the controversy surrounding the sport’s launch, with the title even being banned in a handful of nations as a consequence of its express nature and a supposed “glorification of cruelty.” In reality, it was solely this yr that New Zealand lastly determined to launch the sport after an intensive re-examination, although it nonetheless stays unavailable in locations like Germany and Australia.
However, trying again on Manhunt after a long time of digital blood and guts (particularly of the high-definition selection), most gamers will probably come to the conclusion that the unique recreation isn’t as violent and mean-spirited as its popularity makes it out to be. The lack of visible constancy and a few intelligent digicam angles and modifying often masks the sport’s crueler executions, and it’s by no means implied that Cash truly enjoys all this killing, because the protagonist is solely taking part in alongside so as to assure his freedom.
It’s actually the context that makes Manhunt disturbing, with the implication that this secretive group has been hustling homicidal films with impunity whereas remodeling human beings into impromptu slasher villains making this the homicide emulator that folks initially imagined Grand Theft Auto to be. Sure, it may be enjoyable to role-play as a knock-off Michael Myers and stealthily bloodbath all of your opponents, however the recreation often makes it fairly clear that you’re the one being hunted right here.
These thrills are additionally intensified by the sport’s oppressive environments, which all really feel appropriately dirty regardless of the low-poly aesthetic. This is partially as a consequence of a genuinely unnerving rating by Craig Conner, which might very properly function the in-game soundtrack to the Director’s snuff masterpiece, that includes distorted tunes that wouldn’t really feel misplaced in a shot-on-video gore-fest.
Manhunt would later spawn a stand-alone sequel in 2007, with the builders upping the ante on each single facet of the sport and together with much more vicious kills (although the Fight-Club-inspired plot was nowhere close to as attention-grabbing because the snuff conspiracy of the primary title). Unfortunately, that will be the final time that Rockstar would dip their toes into critical horror, with their extra experimental video games changing into a distant reminiscence as soon as the studio realized that they might merely milk the GTA franchise advert nauseum properly into the long run.
And whereas I’d argue that Manhunt’s legacy can nonetheless be felt in indie titles like Christmas Massacre and Hotline Miami, there’s by no means been a correct successor to the collection – and I don’t assume there ever will likely be. After all, a slow-paced single-player murder-fest can be too area of interest of a venture to be banked by a significant developer and would additionally most likely restart all the violent videogames debate in mainstream media. While I’d like to be confirmed improper, it feels like followers ought to get used to replaying these sixth-generation titles as a substitute of anticipating a contemporary return to their stealth horror thrills.
Even after 20 years of ever-evolving horror video games, Manhunt continues to face alone as an interactive video nasty that must be performed to be believed. It might not be the digital bogeyman that the media as soon as made it out to be (and it has its justifiable share of tough edges in the course of the shoot-out ranges), nevertheless it’s nonetheless one hell of a disturbing expertise that deserves revisiting in 2023.
At the very least, you’ll by no means take a look at a plastic bag the identical manner once more.
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