- Joined
- May 29, 2010
- Messages
- 35,653
I missed out on this when it was released, and somehow forgot a PC port existed for over a decade. Finally noticed it on a Steam sale and picked it up.
The art direction (visuals, music, menus) is fantastic; feels like a professionally crafted game equivalent of an exploitation movie (as opposed to an amateurishly crafted one, e.g. Postal 2, Hatred). The light/sound/line-of-sight stealth mechanics are solid, and the lack of quicksaving can make for some interesting chase stories. The levels, while linear, are more spacious than Chaos Theory's (the benefit of using RenderWare instead Unreal) and frequently provide multiple ways of getting through the bigger areas. The first seven missions are well-done and I thought I could end up enjoying this more than the aforementioned Chaos Theory...
and then it turns into a clunky stop-and-popper. Sure, some of the levels have stealth sections (including a couple of pointless escort missions that thankfully aren't frustrating since you can just park 'em in the shadows until you clear out what's up ahead), but up until the last three missions the core gameplay is sticking to cover and popping the moles. You're not even given the option of trying to stealth them, since many of the enemies refuse to budge from their spots when they hear noise, unlike earlier enemies. The most tolerable of this bunch is the one where a SWAT team with flashlights is after you in a subway, cause seeing those flashlights in the pitch darkness is creepy, and their AI is different in that if they hear a noise they start firing into the darkness and sweeping the area (and since they have flashlights, of course hiding in dark patches is ineffective).
I figured that it was never going to go back to mission 1-7 quality again and that I was probably better off just watching the rest, but in a surprising turn, the next-to-the-last two levels return back to "thwack walls to divide and conquer." The last one's a stealth boss fight that's okay, but I didn't like the not-particularly-well-telegraphed adventure gamey way you're forced to finish him.
I don't know what they could have done to fix half the game, short of just cutting those levels and dealing with potential length-complaints, since they couldn't delay this into 2004, the year of San Andreas. Since Agent (another stealth action thing) has been in development hell for years maybe it'll turn out better. Unfortunately, I'm not even going to bother with Manhunt 2 since a) I've read that Rockstar Vienna/London didn't learn any lessons about core gameplay and insisted on including mole-popping sections b) they removed camera-rotation just to be obnoxious and c) there's a significant downgrade in art direction; it looks so very bland.
Oh well, it was worth $2.50
The art direction (visuals, music, menus) is fantastic; feels like a professionally crafted game equivalent of an exploitation movie (as opposed to an amateurishly crafted one, e.g. Postal 2, Hatred). The light/sound/line-of-sight stealth mechanics are solid, and the lack of quicksaving can make for some interesting chase stories. The levels, while linear, are more spacious than Chaos Theory's (the benefit of using RenderWare instead Unreal) and frequently provide multiple ways of getting through the bigger areas. The first seven missions are well-done and I thought I could end up enjoying this more than the aforementioned Chaos Theory...
and then it turns into a clunky stop-and-popper. Sure, some of the levels have stealth sections (including a couple of pointless escort missions that thankfully aren't frustrating since you can just park 'em in the shadows until you clear out what's up ahead), but up until the last three missions the core gameplay is sticking to cover and popping the moles. You're not even given the option of trying to stealth them, since many of the enemies refuse to budge from their spots when they hear noise, unlike earlier enemies. The most tolerable of this bunch is the one where a SWAT team with flashlights is after you in a subway, cause seeing those flashlights in the pitch darkness is creepy, and their AI is different in that if they hear a noise they start firing into the darkness and sweeping the area (and since they have flashlights, of course hiding in dark patches is ineffective).
I figured that it was never going to go back to mission 1-7 quality again and that I was probably better off just watching the rest, but in a surprising turn, the next-to-the-last two levels return back to "thwack walls to divide and conquer." The last one's a stealth boss fight that's okay, but I didn't like the not-particularly-well-telegraphed adventure gamey way you're forced to finish him.
I don't know what they could have done to fix half the game, short of just cutting those levels and dealing with potential length-complaints, since they couldn't delay this into 2004, the year of San Andreas. Since Agent (another stealth action thing) has been in development hell for years maybe it'll turn out better. Unfortunately, I'm not even going to bother with Manhunt 2 since a) I've read that Rockstar Vienna/London didn't learn any lessons about core gameplay and insisted on including mole-popping sections b) they removed camera-rotation just to be obnoxious and c) there's a significant downgrade in art direction; it looks so very bland.
Oh well, it was worth $2.50