Sometimes, you've just got to roll with the punches.
Gratified by the growing, passionate and influential audience attracted by our first Vs. Mode exchange on God of War II, MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo and the staff of Level Up began to loosely plan out future discussions/debates. Last month, we wrestled with the Halo 3 multiplayer beta. We had always intended to tackle Rockstar's brutal stealth-horror game Manhunt 2 upon its release, because the Level Up crew very much enjoyed the first title--if "enjoyed" is indeed the right word--and we were curious to see what the company had planned for the franchise. But you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men.
So last week, when all hell broke loose--first with the banning of Manhunt 2 in the U.K., followed by the Adults Only rating here in the U.S., the banning of the title in Ireland, and Take-Two's decision to "temporarily suspend plans to distribute Manhunt 2 for the Wii or PlayStation platforms while it reviews its options with regard to the recent decisions made by the British Board of Film Classification and Entertainment Software Rating Board--we began to despair. But we persevered, Rockstar accommodated us, and we got to play the first third or so of Manhunt 2 on Friday afternoon, with the opportunity to play as many additional missions as we can get through on Monday June 25th, so that we can debate and discuss the game for this week's Vs. Mode. Here are some excerpts:
Stephen Totilo: The first level of Manhunt 2 is the only one that matches the description most reporters--including myself--have used to explain the game: it has the player controlling Daniel Lamb, escaping an insane asylum where something has gone horribly wrong, the helpful voice of a guy names Leo accompanying him with each step. We'll talk more about this level later, I'm sure, but rest easy knowing I experienced its highs and lows. I got Daniel urinated on by one angry inmate still behind bars. I discovered another who had hung himself. I performed my first stealth kill--with a syringe--and watched Daniel vomit because of his quick-passing guilt. I learned to sneak around and figured out how to get past some characters without killing them. I learned the motion controls and swiped the Wii's movement-sensitive remote sharply one way then another to knock a man's head off with an axe. I made my escape. I played the part of a crazy man.
N'Gai Croal: The second reason I was so taken with [the original] Manhunt is because of what you mentioned in your opener: the man who has rescued you from execution and brought you to the abandoned town of Carcer City, where you must kill or be killed, all for his amusement. And as you point out, he gives you orders through your earpiece. He tells you where to go. He tells you what to do. He tells you what minimum level of violence he'll accept in the surveillance camera-meets-snuff film killings that you must commit for his pleasure before he will open the doors or gates that will let you proceed to the next area. He sounds awfully familiar, doesn't he? His name? The Designer--I mean, the Director. Yes, at the heart of Manhunt is a brilliantly twisted joke. Rockstar grabs the translucent veil of mildly disreputable innocuousness in which most action titles cloak themselves, tears it open and exposes the sinister truth that lies just beneath the surface: in an awful lot of videogames, the developer and the publisher are asking you to virtually kill an awful lot of virtual enemies, over and over and over again. Manhunt is just more honest about this than most, and cleverly, brutally so to boot.
As loyal readers know, the staff of Level Up is fond of film parallels, and this controversy certainly warrants another one. Is Manhunt 2 the new "Bonnie and Clyde," the new "A Clockwork Orange," the new "Last Tango In Paris," with Level Up and Totilo serving as the modern-day Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris, valiantly defending it from the Bosley Crowther-type bluenoses who Just Don't Get It? Or is it just the new "I Spit on Your Grave," the new "Deep Throat," the new "Hostel: Part II," with us blindly playing the roles of apologists, sycophants and fanboys?
We critique.
You decide.
Welcome. Click on the link below to read Round 1 in its entirety.
Loading Menu
