[00:14] The never-ending violence in video&nbsp; games discussion has revolved around&nbsp;&nbsp; a select few experiences. Mortal Kombat,&nbsp; Carmeggedon, and Grand Theft Auto count&nbsp;&nbsp; among the most infamous. So, too, does the&nbsp; murder-filled Rockstar Games staple, Manhunt. &nbsp;
[00:30] Released in 2003 on the PlayStation 2, and then on&nbsp; PC and Xbox in 2004, the first Manhunt captivated&nbsp;&nbsp; players with its premise of a former death&nbsp; row inmate who s coerced into killing at the&nbsp;&nbsp; behest of a mystifying figure. Obscene violence&nbsp; steeped in dizzying levels of gore made for what&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:47] some consider a murder simulator. Yet, others,&nbsp; especially in retrospect, perceive a semblance&nbsp;&nbsp; of depth that s long gone unappreciated. Everything that intrigued gamers and&nbsp;&nbsp; countless critics about it didn t go over well&nbsp; in other circles, however. Controversy enveloped&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:02] Manhunt soon after its arrival, manifested&nbsp; in the outcries of parent-led organizations,&nbsp;&nbsp; the violent video game-banning efforts of many&nbsp; politicians, and the discourse surrounding&nbsp;&nbsp; the psychological effects of such games. Arguably, the contempt that plagued Manhunt&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:16] harkened back to that which was leveled at&nbsp; horror films throughout the 1980s. It even&nbsp;&nbsp; became embroiled in rumors and conjecture&nbsp; regarding a murder investigation. Despite&nbsp;&nbsp; the tumultuous drama, which inevitably led to&nbsp; Manhunt being banned in a number of countries,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:29] Rockstar managed to secure approval for a sequel.&nbsp; Unsurprisingly, the mere announcement of Manhunt&nbsp;&nbsp; 2 spawned a fair helping of controversy.&nbsp; And, still, both adventures went on to&nbsp;&nbsp; become beloved cult classics. This is the history of Manhunt. &nbsp;
[02:00] By the time leading development team Rockstar&nbsp; North began production on Manhunt around the&nbsp;&nbsp; year 2000, a separate Rockstar team was well&nbsp; on its way to causing a stir with Grand Theft&nbsp;&nbsp; Auto III and Vice City. These seminal experiences&nbsp; launched on the PlayStation 2 in 2001 and 2002,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:17] respectively, resulting in backlash that&nbsp; even unsettled some of the developers. &nbsp; According to a 2007 blog post by former Rockstar&nbsp; employee Jeff Williams, Manhunt s creation nearly&nbsp;&nbsp; caused a mutiny within the company. It was too&nbsp; controversial, specifically on the heels of GTA&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:34] III and Vice City, both of which featured a level&nbsp; of violence that could be rationalized. Apart from&nbsp;&nbsp; the standard bad guy, players were never forced&nbsp; to kill anyone. Therefore, Williams argued,&nbsp;&nbsp; it was possible to play the series with a degree&nbsp; of moral fiber. Manhunt, on the other hand, lacked&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:50] similar nuance. The studio couldn t explain away&nbsp; that game, Williams surmised, while expressing&nbsp;&nbsp; his belief that they d crossed a line. Manhunt co-creator Christian Cantamessa,&nbsp;&nbsp; who wrote the 200-page script with fellow&nbsp; co-creator Alan Davidson and Vice City scribe&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:06] James Worrall, later explained that Manhunt wasn&nbsp; t designed to incite so much contention. Rather,&nbsp;&nbsp; especially in video games. During a Masterclass&nbsp; discussion with Jeux Vid o Magazine in 2019,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:20] Cantamessa called the project a contemplation of&nbsp; violence, one wherein Rockstar aimed to explore&nbsp;&nbsp; the player s role and that of game developers who&nbsp; orchestrate said violence. Interestingly, this&nbsp;&nbsp; was all born out of a relatively simple idea. In the Masterclass, Cantamessa divulged that&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:36] Manhunt s origins were cultivated within an&nbsp; experimental phase for Rockstar. The core&nbsp;&nbsp; idea was set in stone by studio President&nbsp; Sam Houser s desire to produce a horror&nbsp;&nbsp; game. Houser left Cantamessa to work out the&nbsp; specifics with one key caveat no zombies,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:51] vampires, or other monster-like creatures.&nbsp; Just make it scary, Cantamessa was told. &nbsp; With these instructions, Cantamessa and Davidson,&nbsp; an illustrator with a graphic artstyle akin&nbsp;&nbsp; to that of Frank Miller, set about conceiving a&nbsp; narrative wherein the protagonist must hide while&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:07] being chased. The basic premise originated from&nbsp; a piece of art drawn by Davidson, which depicted&nbsp;&nbsp; a man running beneath an underpass. Only his&nbsp; shadow and lower body were on display; meanwhile,&nbsp;&nbsp; the shadows of unseen figures chasing him loomed&nbsp; close behind. A Clockwork Orange immediately came&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:23] to mind for Cantamessa; he thought it would&nbsp; be ingenious to have players assume the role&nbsp;&nbsp; of a homeless man who s tormented by gangs. The creative team then began riffing off the&nbsp;&nbsp; gang-centric angle, setting the foundation for&nbsp; Cantamessa to script a serial killer backstory.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:37] Workshopped story ideas informed the snuff&nbsp; movie aspect, resulting in a twisted version&nbsp;&nbsp; of the 1987 film The Running Man. Thus, Manhunt&nbsp; came to life, a game centered around someone&nbsp;&nbsp; directing a snuff movie that showcases&nbsp; the player-character s killing and being&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:52] killed. The security camera feature felt very&nbsp; appropriate, Cantamessa remembered. Little did&nbsp;&nbsp; the studio know during these incipient stages&nbsp; of production that what did and did not pass&nbsp;&nbsp; as appropriate would rule much of the discourse&nbsp; surrounding their experimental horror project. &nbsp;
[05:13] Manhunt first entered public&nbsp; consciousness as Project Manhunt&nbsp;&nbsp; in December of 2002. In an earnings&nbsp; statement, Rockstar s parent company&nbsp;&nbsp; Take-Two Interactive boasted of plans to&nbsp; deliver multiple blockbusters in fall 2003,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:26] including Project Manhunt a title Take-Two&nbsp; had yet to announce. According to IGN,&nbsp;&nbsp; Rockstar expressed an unwillingness to comment&nbsp; further, considering it too early in development&nbsp;&nbsp; to share details. Neither hide nor hair would&nbsp; be heard of Manhunt again until the next summer,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:41] once media outlets began previewing the title.&nbsp; Within said previews were tales of a grisly&nbsp;&nbsp; adventure that tasked players with surviving the&nbsp; most sordid of circumstances as James Earl Cash. &nbsp;
[05:53] As a death row inmate, Cash s in-game&nbsp; introduction saw him entering a death&nbsp;&nbsp; chamber before his execution by lethal&nbsp; injection. The capital punishment didn t take,&nbsp;&nbsp; though. Cash awoke sometime later in Carcer City,&nbsp; a hellish ghost town mimicking urban decay. Lionel&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:11] Starkweather, an enigmatic figure known as the&nbsp; Director, greeted Cash through an earpiece,&nbsp;&nbsp; merely explaining that he d received another&nbsp; roll of the dice. Of course, there existed a&nbsp;&nbsp; catch a series of gangs, comprised of the worst&nbsp; kind of criminals, were on the hunt for Cash,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:27] all wanting to murder him. Because of Carcer&nbsp; City s carefully guarded perimeter and the myriad&nbsp;&nbsp; strategically placed cameras, every bit of the&nbsp; action would be captured on tape for the Director&nbsp;&nbsp; s reality TV-style snuff film. This premise alone&nbsp; seemed daring for a video game at the time. &nbsp;
[06:44] Previews in the months ahead of launch&nbsp; spoke of the paradoxical sense of control,&nbsp;&nbsp; whereby players represented both hunter and prey.&nbsp; Many journalists described Manhunt as the perfect&nbsp;&nbsp; stealth experience, drawing comparisons to&nbsp; Splinter Cell. Stealthily slinking through&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:59] shadows was tense, with sight and sound proving&nbsp; crucial to Cash s survival. Being spotted or&nbsp;&nbsp; heard seemed a death sentence, then. And what&nbsp; a death sentence these mistakes incited. &nbsp; However, a number of previews hinted that Manhunt&nbsp; s truly grim nature manifested in the executions&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:16] Cash performed on others. Successfully sneaking&nbsp; behind an enemy triggered three different types&nbsp;&nbsp; of kill animations, each assigned color-coded&nbsp; indicators that came in hues of white, yellow,&nbsp;&nbsp; and red. Immediate executions were marked by a&nbsp; white arrow, allowing players to unleash a hasty&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:32] execution tamer than the rest. A yellow arrow&nbsp; appeared when players waited a few seconds,&nbsp;&nbsp; resulting in a violent execution that&nbsp; was slower to unfold and notably gross.&nbsp;&nbsp; Finally, the red indicator flashed after six&nbsp; seconds, meaning Cash would perform a gruesome&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:48] execution an unsettling display of savagery&nbsp; even by violent video game standards. The&nbsp;&nbsp; camera s switch to security footage of Cash&nbsp; s behavior accentuated the snuff film factor,&nbsp;&nbsp; further proof the sadistic Director watched&nbsp; and recorded every act of brutality. &nbsp;
[08:04] Such talk of Manhunt s vicious gameplay circulated&nbsp; like wildfire ahead of its November 2003 release&nbsp;&nbsp; on the PS2. Suffice it to say, few were surprised&nbsp; by the controversy that ignited post-release. &nbsp;
[08:16] Manhunt reviewed favorably upon its PS2&nbsp; launch. Though lackluster in places due to&nbsp;&nbsp; subpar enemy AI behaviors, many critics found&nbsp; the stealth mechanics impressive. Other core&nbsp;&nbsp; gameplay mechanics failed to receive&nbsp; similar praise. Combat, for example,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:31] felt serviceable at best. Against three or&nbsp; more enemies, shooting and melee efforts,&nbsp;&nbsp; which functioned in a crude manner akin to&nbsp; GTA, were fruitless. This especially held true&nbsp;&nbsp; since Manhunt rewarded stealth above all else. A&nbsp; faulty control scheme intensified frustrations,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:47] specifically when the camera switched&nbsp; perspectives for cinematic scenes. &nbsp; The cinematic sections were worth the hassle,&nbsp; though if one could stomach the brutal encounters.&nbsp;&nbsp; Thanks to Rockstar s work with Renderware, the&nbsp; game engine that powered previous GTA entries,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:02] Manhunt s grisly cutscenes appeared stylish.&nbsp; Overall, the visuals warranted praise across&nbsp;&nbsp; the board. Noteworthy lighting effects&nbsp; and detailed character models particularly&nbsp;&nbsp; elevated the experience. This same attention&nbsp; to detail surfaced in the game s environments,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:16] which Rockstar achieved because of&nbsp; Manhunt s comparably smaller spaces. &nbsp; Audio design and music received a bulk of the&nbsp; applause, as well. The soundtrack s synthesized&nbsp;&nbsp; tunes were reminiscent of those that pervade&nbsp; John Carpenter films. Carefully navigating&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:30] environments felt all the more tense due&nbsp; to ambient sounds and enemy chatter. And&nbsp;&nbsp; the Director s eerily gleeful commentary&nbsp; ensured discomfort remained ever-present. &nbsp; Despite Rockstar s storytelling efforts, Manhunt s&nbsp; narrative didn t garner many compliments. In fact,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:45] most agreed that while the premise stimulated&nbsp; intrigue, the story itself failed to offer&nbsp;&nbsp; any substance. Cash merely moved from&nbsp; one level to the next with no payoff;&nbsp;&nbsp; consequently, players would pass through several&nbsp; sections without gleaning new information. &nbsp;
[10:00] To a number of critics, though, even those outside&nbsp; of the gaming press, Manhunt s highs and lows were&nbsp;&nbsp; undermined by what was perceived as gratuitous&nbsp; violence. It quickly earned the reputation of&nbsp;&nbsp; the most violent game ever made. In turn, the&nbsp; stunning visuals, detailed character models,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:15] and exceptional audio design didn t do Rockstar&nbsp; s venture into horror any favors. New Zealand&nbsp;&nbsp; s ban on the title further increased Manhunt s&nbsp; notoriety. So, too, did the harsh critiques from&nbsp;&nbsp; U.S. politician Joe Baca. Though he hadn t played&nbsp; it, the California state Representative referred&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:31] to Manhunt as a tool teaching children how to&nbsp; kill. Regardless of the incessant negative press,&nbsp;&nbsp; no one could ve anticipated the game s&nbsp; implication in a murder investigation. &nbsp;
[10:44] In February of 2004, 14-year-old Stefan&nbsp; Pakeerah was lured to a park in Leicester,&nbsp;&nbsp; England by a friend, 17-year-old Warren Leblanc.&nbsp; Amid what s cited as a robbery gone wrong,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:56] Leblanc stabbed Pakeerah to death numerous&nbsp; times with a claw hammer and knife. &nbsp; Following a July 2004 court hearing wherein&nbsp; Leblanc pled guilty to murder, Pakeerah s mother&nbsp;&nbsp; claimed she heard Leblanc s friends speaking&nbsp; of how he d been obsessed with Manhunt prior&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:10] to enacting the heinous crime that took her son&nbsp; s life. Having read promotional excerpts online,&nbsp;&nbsp; Mrs. Pakeerah believed the game encouraged&nbsp; brutal killing. As far as she was concerned,&nbsp;&nbsp; if Leblanc was obsessed by it, it could well be&nbsp; that the boundaries for him became quite hazy. The&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:25] victim s father agreed; before long, both parents&nbsp; began advocating for the banning of Manhunt. &nbsp; Print media, online publications, and TV&nbsp; broadcasts latched on to the claims with&nbsp;&nbsp; haste. British tabloids notoriously fueled&nbsp; the fire at every opportunity. Moreover,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:40] several retailers responded to the unsubstantiated&nbsp; allegation by pulling Manhunt from store shelves.&nbsp;&nbsp; The now-defunct Dixons famously ceased sales of&nbsp; the game, conjecturing in a statement that it&nbsp;&nbsp; had sparked the murder of Stefan Pakeerah.&nbsp; Similarly, UK-based retailer Game promised&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:57] to no longer stock the product out of respect&nbsp; for the victim. Rockstar and Take-Two responded&nbsp;&nbsp; with a statement, sending condolences to the&nbsp; Pakeerah family, but rejecting any connection&nbsp;&nbsp; between Manhunt and the tragic killing. Instigation from since-disbarred U.S. attorney&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:11] Jack Thompson exacerbated the situation. Thompson&nbsp; had been known for campaigning against the sale of&nbsp;&nbsp; violent games to youth, considering such titles&nbsp; murder simulators. Upon joining the Manhunt&nbsp;&nbsp; discourse, Thompson claimed he sent a letter to&nbsp; producers, warning of potential copycat murders.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:26] The Pakeerah family hired him not too long&nbsp; thereafter in an attempt to sue Rockstar and&nbsp;&nbsp; Sony. But any intended lawsuit lasted a short&nbsp; while, due to an unexpected turn of events. &nbsp; the media falsely reported the game as&nbsp; having been discovered in Warren Leblanc&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:44] s bedroom. By early August, however, the police&nbsp; divulged that Manhunt was actually uncovered&nbsp;&nbsp; among the belongings of the victim, Stefan&nbsp; Pakeerah. Consequently, the Leicestershire&nbsp;&nbsp; Constabulary insisted it could discern no link&nbsp; between Manhunt and the murder; the motive,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:59] a spokesperson confirmed, was robbery. This revelation did little to obstruct the tabloid&nbsp;&nbsp; narrative, however. Within its report on Leblanc&nbsp; s sentencing in September of 2004, one month after&nbsp;&nbsp; police released the aforementioned statement,&nbsp; Daily Mail referred to the Pakeerah case as the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:14] Manhunt Murder in its headline. In an act reeking&nbsp; of yellow journalism, the article later described&nbsp;&nbsp; Leblanc s actions as those inspired by an apparent&nbsp; obsession with a violent video game. Manhunt 2&nbsp;&nbsp; inevitably inherited its predecessor s contrived&nbsp; connection to this particular case. &nbsp;
[13:36] Rockstar s Vice President of Production&nbsp; Development, Jeronimo Barrera,&nbsp;&nbsp; told GameSpot in a 2007 interview the company&nbsp; did not hesitate to develop another Manhunt&nbsp;&nbsp; when the opportunity arose. Apparently,&nbsp; fans constituted a major motivating factor;&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:50] it performed well enough and gained quite the&nbsp; cult following. The studio s love for horror&nbsp;&nbsp; also made the decision a no-brainer. Therefore,&nbsp; production on Manhunt 2 began in 2004; Rockstar&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:05] Vienna stepped in as lead developer, while&nbsp; Rockstar North was hard at work on San Andreas. &nbsp; Instead of a true sequel, Manhunt 2 functioned&nbsp; akin to each GTA successor, expanding upon&nbsp;&nbsp; the previous entry s narrative themes, style,&nbsp; and gameplay mechanics. According to Barrera,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:20] Rockstar wanted to thrust players into a situation&nbsp; reminiscent of Manhunt, then present them with&nbsp;&nbsp; more difficult survival choices borne out of&nbsp; an emphasis on heavy psychology. Apart from&nbsp;&nbsp; outlining these basic tenets, Rockstar initially&nbsp; focused its efforts on fleshing out the story.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:34] Writers were then able to work alongside game&nbsp; designers, guaranteeing gameplay operated in&nbsp;&nbsp; tandem with the carefully crafted world. Not every developer was able to see this&nbsp;&nbsp; vision through to completion. Take-Two shuttered&nbsp; Rockstar Vienna in May of 2006. Rockstar Vienna&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:50] Designer Jurie Horneman divulged in a blog post&nbsp; that Take-Two s decision was reportedly based&nbsp;&nbsp; new console generation. In terms of Take-Two s&nbsp; wider business operations, these growing pains&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:03] paled in comparison to the deluge of obstacles&nbsp; that emerged following the sequel s unveiling. &nbsp; Take-Two announced Manhunt 2 on February&nbsp; 6, 2007 for the PS2, PSP, and Wii. Rockstar&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:18] London had taken over production for the&nbsp; PlayStation versions after the Vienna studio&nbsp;&nbsp; s closure. Meanwhile, Rockstar Toronto, known&nbsp; for the beat em up The Warriors, was assigned&nbsp;&nbsp; Rockstar preemptively addressed the forthcoming&nbsp; backlash, telling MCV the sequel would only be&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:36] suitable for those old enough to purchase it.&nbsp; The statement further acknowledged that certain&nbsp;&nbsp; individuals continued to wrongfully link Manhunt&nbsp; to the Pakeerah case, despite court transcripts&nbsp;&nbsp; proving that no correlation existed. Pakeerah s mother issued a statement of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:49] her own soon thereafter, calling Manhunt&nbsp; 2 s reveal an insult as it had come during&nbsp;&nbsp; the anniversary month of her son s killing. Mrs.&nbsp; Pakeerah went as far as to condemn violent games&nbsp;&nbsp; in their totality. Game moguls, she called big&nbsp; video game companies, steadily obtained wealth&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:04] from morally indecent products. As far as she was&nbsp; concerned, there remained much work to be done.&nbsp;&nbsp; Member of Parliament for Leicester Keith Vaz lent&nbsp; his full support to the Pakeerah family s stance,&nbsp;&nbsp; brought under control. Unbeknownst to Take-Two and&nbsp; Rockstar, Vaz s comments would soon prove true. &nbsp;
[16:25] Evidence of such a crusade first manifested in&nbsp; the return of attorney Jack Thompson. The month&nbsp;&nbsp; following Manhunt 2 s reveal, Thompson shared&nbsp; a press release concerning his intention to sue&nbsp;&nbsp; Take-Two in an attempt to prohibit the sale of&nbsp; Manhunt 2 and GTA IV to anyone under the age of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:40] 17. Because neither had received a rating from the&nbsp; ESRB, Thompson s efforts seemed premature. Still,&nbsp;&nbsp; his bravado served as a boon for Take-Two,&nbsp; which preemptively filed a petition to&nbsp;&nbsp; prevent Thompson from moving forward with his&nbsp; objective. In a rather amusing countersuit,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:55] Thompson accused Take-Two of partaking in a RICO&nbsp; conspiracy, a racketeering scheme that he alleged&nbsp;&nbsp; also involved various games media outlets,&nbsp; including Joystiq, the ESA, and GameSpot. &nbsp; Ultimately, the yearslong Take-Two and Jack&nbsp; Thompson saga concluded with a settlement in&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:10] April of 2007, restricting Thompson from pursuing&nbsp; further legal action against the publisher s&nbsp;&nbsp; games. In turn, Take-Two dropped two lawsuits it&nbsp; had filed against the attorney one stemmed from a&nbsp;&nbsp; contempt of court issue during a case regarding&nbsp; another controversial Rockstar project Bully.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:26] This settlement rid Take-Two and Rockstar of&nbsp; Thompson s interference for the most part. Yet,&nbsp;&nbsp; within months the two companies found themselves&nbsp; dodging slings and arrows from politicians,&nbsp;&nbsp; ratings boards, and other entities hellbent&nbsp; on ensuring Manhunt 2 hit stores shelves in&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:41] as restricted a manner as possible. Days after the Jack&nbsp;&nbsp; Thompson situation s resolution, Take-Two&nbsp; unleashed an official trailer for Manhunt&nbsp;&nbsp; 2. At the time, the sequel remained on&nbsp; schedule for a summer 2007 release. These&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:58] launch plans were eventually derailed&nbsp; by a series of ratings issues. &nbsp; Two of the sequel s most significant pre-release&nbsp; blows came from rulings by the BBFC, then the&nbsp;&nbsp; UK games ratings board, and the ESRB. On June&nbsp; 19th, the BBFC refused to classify the sequel,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:13] banning the title in one of the world&nbsp; s leading markets. Board Director David&nbsp;&nbsp; Cooke claimed the game encouraged visceral&nbsp; killing that veered into a realm of casual&nbsp;&nbsp; sadism. This marked the first time the BBFC&nbsp; had banned a game since 1997 s Carmageddon. &nbsp;
[18:28] Rockstar s horror venture didn t fare any better&nbsp; across the pond, since the ESRB assigned Manhunt&nbsp;&nbsp; 2 an AO rating for Adults Only. An AO rating&nbsp; meant the majority of American retailers wouldn&nbsp;&nbsp; t stock the product Target, Walmart, Best&nbsp; Buy, and GameStop among them. Worse still,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:44] an Adults Only tag guaranteed a title could&nbsp; launch on neither a PlayStation nor a Nintendo&nbsp;&nbsp; platform. By June 23rd, Take-Two had no choice&nbsp; but to temporarily suspend Manhunt 2 s release,&nbsp;&nbsp; while Rockstar went about censoring the project. Rockstar completed its content edits rather&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:01] quickly, resubmitting the sequel for revised&nbsp; ratings in August of 2007. The ESRB found the&nbsp;&nbsp; changes sufficient enough to warrant a Mature&nbsp; rating. As expected, this ruffled the feathers&nbsp;&nbsp; of a few anti-violent video game activists, chief&nbsp; among them California State Senator Leland Yee,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:16] best known for his 2005 legislation that attempted&nbsp; to ban the sale of violent games. Yee demanded the&nbsp;&nbsp; ESRB disclose its reasoning for Manhunt 2&nbsp; s downgrade to an M rating. ESRB President&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:28] Patricia Vance refused, noting that their&nbsp; dealings with publishers were confidential.&nbsp;&nbsp; Alongside the Campaign for a Commercial-Free&nbsp; Childhood, Yee made another attempt to force&nbsp;&nbsp; the board s hand by urging the Federal Trade&nbsp; Commission to investigate the ESRB s rating&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:42] practices. This, too, proved fruitless. Efforts to reinstate Manhunt 2 s AO rating&nbsp;&nbsp; cropped up once more post-launch, after&nbsp; hackers managed to unlock the game s&nbsp;&nbsp; uncensored version on PS2 and PSP. The Parents&nbsp; Television Council and a handful of Senators,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:58] Hillary Clinton included, implored the ESRB to&nbsp; re-review its ruling. Again, the board refused,&nbsp;&nbsp; arguing that neither Rockstar nor the ESRB were&nbsp; responsible for the unauthorized use of software. &nbsp;
[20:10] Take-Two and Rockstar had a harder time appeasing&nbsp; the BBFC. Even after Manhunt 2 was censored,&nbsp;&nbsp; the organization wouldn t budge. According to&nbsp; Board Director David Cooke, the revisions were&nbsp;&nbsp; insufficient, specifically with regards to a&nbsp; number of execution kills that retained their&nbsp;&nbsp;
[20:25] casually sadistic nature. Manhunt 2 finally&nbsp; launched in Britain on Halloween in 2008,&nbsp;&nbsp; following the Video Appeals Committee&nbsp; s overturning of the BBFC ruling. &nbsp; Naturally, such controversy spawned&nbsp; from the game s original version. Thus,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[20:43] the censoring of Manhunt 2 was&nbsp; rather significant. Rockstar only&nbsp;&nbsp; discussed a select number of alterations&nbsp; publicly, but other details concerning&nbsp;&nbsp; excised content surfaced courtesy of the&nbsp; aforementioned hack on PlayStation systems. &nbsp;
[20:56] Though floored by the ratings debacle, Rockstar&nbsp; focused on how best to retain its vision in having&nbsp;&nbsp; to censor Manhunt 2, Jeronimo Barrera told MTV&nbsp; News in a post-launch interview. Interestingly,&nbsp;&nbsp; obscured execution kills served as the&nbsp; more conspicuous changes. Rather than&nbsp;&nbsp;
[21:11] depict bloody encounters in detail, execution&nbsp; animations were blurred and altered with color&nbsp;&nbsp; overlays. MTV News additionally noted it saw a&nbsp; preview build earlier in 2007, which featured a&nbsp;&nbsp;
[21:23] scoring system akin to the original Manhunt. The&nbsp; final product included no such element. Barrera&nbsp;&nbsp; explained the rating fiasco encouraged Rockstar to&nbsp; reevaluate the system s effectiveness. Ultimately,&nbsp;&nbsp; the team decided the sequel flowed better&nbsp; without a score screen flashing between&nbsp;&nbsp;
[21:38] levels. Other pre-release previews had&nbsp; teased the notorious pliers execution,&nbsp;&nbsp; in which male genitalia were gruesomely mutilated.&nbsp; This landed on the cutting room floor, as well. &nbsp; A whole host of other cuts to Rockstar s&nbsp; uncensored build included unused weapons and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[21:53] environmental kills. Some scrapped pieces of code&nbsp; suggest a number of levels were cancelled, while&nbsp;&nbsp; those that remained were shifted around in order&nbsp; of appearance. Arguably, the most fascinating&nbsp;&nbsp; of content cuts emerged via unused audio files. A&nbsp; few files in particular revolve around the Sexual&nbsp;&nbsp;
[22:09] Deviants level that s set in a dungeon beneath&nbsp; a strip club. In the censored version, players&nbsp;&nbsp; encountered a man being tortured near a dentist&nbsp; s chair. Evidenced by the sound of a whirring&nbsp;&nbsp; dentist s drill, uncensored audio clips indicate a&nbsp; female was originally on the receiving end of the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[22:24] torture scene. Other files imply players would&nbsp; ve stumbled across female asylum patients, too.&nbsp;&nbsp; In the end, fans and critics shared mixed opinions&nbsp; about the effects of Manhunt 2 s myriad changes. &nbsp;
[22:40] Narratively, Manhunt 2 centered on Daniel Lamb,&nbsp; a scientist who once took part in a covert&nbsp;&nbsp; neurological weapons program The Pickman Project.&nbsp; Amid the discontinuation of the project s funding,&nbsp;&nbsp; Lamb volunteered as a test subject. He awoke six&nbsp; years later in Dixmor Asylum, mentally insane and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[22:58] completely unaware of his identity. Luckily for&nbsp; Lamb, a power outage gave him the opportunity&nbsp;&nbsp; to learn about his past and The Pickman Project,&nbsp; alongside his companion Leo Kasper. While Manhunt&nbsp;&nbsp;
[23:10] 2 s core story wasn t as inherently controversial&nbsp; as its predecessor s, the execution clearly&nbsp;&nbsp; managed to kick up even more of a stir. The&nbsp; sequel failed to garner Manhunt s praise, though. &nbsp; Reviews for Manhunt 2 were middling. As&nbsp; with the first entry, reviewers agreed that&nbsp;&nbsp;
[23:26] Rockstar managed to craft an intriguing plot.&nbsp; However, the overarching narrative failed to&nbsp;&nbsp; feel engaging. Enemy AI hadn t improved&nbsp; much either. Several critics mentioned&nbsp;&nbsp; running into glitches, citing instances&nbsp; of enemies getting stuck between objects,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[23:40] failing to acknowledge Lamb s presence, or&nbsp; patrolling areas for longer than necessary.&nbsp;&nbsp; These issues were exacerbated by Quick Time&nbsp; Events that triggered when foes prowled nearby. &nbsp; Despite AI-related troubles, and rudimentary&nbsp; combat controls, the game never presented&nbsp;&nbsp;
[23:55] players with a true challenge. Unlike Cash&nbsp; in Manhunt, Lamb hardly seemed as if he was&nbsp;&nbsp; in any real danger. Players simply moved&nbsp; from level to level, engaging in the same&nbsp;&nbsp; monotonous actions. And once guns entered the&nbsp; mix, the challenge only diminished further. &nbsp;
[24:12] The censoring of executions represented another&nbsp; downside; many argued that Rockstar s vision&nbsp;&nbsp; seemed crippled or neutered. Stripping Manhunt&nbsp; 2 of the franchise s identity, then, reduced&nbsp;&nbsp; it to a bland stealth game in some respects. We ll never know if Rockstar s uncensored vision&nbsp;&nbsp;
[24:28] for Manhunt 2 would have culminated in a more&nbsp; compelling sequel, especially given the change&nbsp;&nbsp; in development teams partway through production.&nbsp; Although, it s worth noting that in the wake&nbsp;&nbsp; of Manhunt 2 s release, an ex-Rockstar&nbsp; Vienna producer revealed over 50 former&nbsp;&nbsp;
[24:41] staff members weren't credited. While Manhunt 2&nbsp; received modifications after Vienna s two-year&nbsp;&nbsp; tenure ended, the producer alleged that much&nbsp; of Vienna s work made it to the final build. &nbsp;
[25:05] Despite the controversy, time has been kind to&nbsp; the Manhunt franchise, particularly the initial&nbsp;&nbsp; installment the subject of many a celebratory&nbsp; retrospective in recent years. During his 2019&nbsp;&nbsp; Masterclass with Jeux Vid o, series co-creator&nbsp; Christian Cantamessa posited that perhaps the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[25:21] animosity was a product of the timing not&nbsp; being right for an uncomfortable conversation&nbsp;&nbsp; about society s relationship with violence. At a&nbsp; combined 1.7 million copies sold as of March 2008,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[25:33] a third Manhunt wouldn t be the most lucrative&nbsp; option for Rockstar. And, apart from a recent&nbsp;&nbsp; update to Manhunt 3 s website, nothing substantial&nbsp; suggests that such an endeavor is on the studio s&nbsp;&nbsp; radar. However, the zeitgeist has shifted in&nbsp; favor of more mature games since the PS2 era,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[25:49] so perhaps the time is right for a third trek&nbsp; through Rockstar s sordid world of cruelty.