NY Times: Manhunt 2 not as violent as gore movies

The last time we heard about Manhunt 2 and the controversy surrounding it, it seems that we’re not going to find any closure soon until the game itself gets released and the public is able to truly digest just how the title can get gruesome. A writer for the New York Times by the name of Seth Shiesel then went forward to find out for himself, and with rather surprising results.

Dropping by Take-Two’s Manhattan offices, Seth met up with company chairman Strauss Zelnick, in order to clock in about three hours’ worth of playtime with the now-infamous title. The two exchanged pleasantries and opinions about the game, and then finally got down to the bloody task at hand: playing the highly-controversial Wii version of the game, which the critics have been blasting for the sole reason that you had to imitate the killing actions your character does in order to get the full gameplay out of it.

So what were his impressions of the game? Seth calls Manhunt 2 a highly-conventional game. Playing as Dr. Daniel Lamb, you look around for tools like a crowbar to open a door, or solve little puzzles with simple solutions. He notes the creepy music and the creepier bondage outfits, but we got that in Manhunt 1, didn’t we?

But as we all know, those aren’t the parts of the game it’s being banned for, and so he moves on to talk about the gameplay’s execution system – and while he admits that Manhunt 2 IS indeed quite violent and quite gory, it pales in comparison to today’s more prevalent media, with Hostel and Saw II as his examples. The actual execution scenes, violent as they are, are quite optional and last no more than 10 seconds. And with the game being pretty much about your character trying to break out of a heavily-guarded facility, you’re more focused on not getting swarmed by the enemies rather than seeking on inflicting as much violence as possible.

Seth Shiesel’s final verdict? Confessing that he’s not a gorefest fan, finding himself quite the squeamish one when it comes to violence, Seth found Manhunt 2 to be not particularly sickening or frightening. And compared to today’s movies, he says that Manhunt 2 is more of a violent, interactive cartoon than anything else.

It’s certainly good that someone actually tried playing the game to see for themselves just what every parental watchdog group is eager to ban. You can read the entire article at the read link below, and let us know what you think by your comments.

The last time we heard about Manhunt 2 and the controversy surrounding it, it seems that we’re not going to find any closure soon until the game itself gets released and the public is able to truly digest just how the title can get gruesome. A writer for the New York Times by the name of Seth Shiesel then went forward to find out for himself, and with rather surprising results.

Dropping by Take-Two’s Manhattan offices, Seth met up with company chairman Strauss Zelnick, in order to clock in about three hours’ worth of playtime with the now-infamous title. The two exchanged pleasantries and opinions about the game, and then finally got down to the bloody task at hand: playing the highly-controversial Wii version of the game, which the critics have been blasting for the sole reason that you had to imitate the killing actions your character does in order to get the full gameplay out of it.

So what were his impressions of the game? Seth calls Manhunt 2 a highly-conventional game. Playing as Dr. Daniel Lamb, you look around for tools like a crowbar to open a door, or solve little puzzles with simple solutions. He notes the creepy music and the creepier bondage outfits, but we got that in Manhunt 1, didn’t we?

But as we all know, those aren’t the parts of the game it’s being banned for, and so he moves on to talk about the gameplay’s execution system – and while he admits that Manhunt 2 IS indeed quite violent and quite gory, it pales in comparison to today’s more prevalent media, with Hostel and Saw II as his examples. The actual execution scenes, violent as they are, are quite optional and last no more than 10 seconds. And with the game being pretty much about your character trying to break out of a heavily-guarded facility, you’re more focused on not getting swarmed by the enemies rather than seeking on inflicting as much violence as possible.

Seth Shiesel’s final verdict? Confessing that he’s not a gorefest fan, finding himself quite the squeamish one when it comes to violence, Seth found Manhunt 2 to be not particularly sickening or frightening. And compared to today’s movies, he says that Manhunt 2 is more of a violent, interactive cartoon than anything else.

It’s certainly good that someone actually tried playing the game to see for themselves just what every parental watchdog group is eager to ban. You can read the entire article at the read link below, and let us know what you think by your comments.