Manhunt is a stealth game developed by Rockstar Games, it was released November 18, 2003 for the PlayStation 2 video game console, and April 20, 2004 for Xbox and Windows. Although it was generally well-received by critics, Manhunt created a controversy due to the graphic violence the player is encouraged to engage in. This resulted in the game being banned in several countries and implicated by media in a murder, although this implication was later rejected by the police.
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 from one to five stars at the end of each level which is largely affected by the gruesomeness of the killings and the speed of completion. 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.
Over the course of the game, the player uses a wide variety of weapons, ranging from plastic bags, baseball bats, crowbars and all sorts of bladed items to firearms later on in the game. If the player is running out of health, painkillers can be found which replenish health. The player can strike walls or throw items such as bottles, tin cans, bricks and severed human heads to make noise to distract Hunters.
Source: Wikipedia, "Manhunt (video game)", available under the CC-BY-SA License.
