Enter the depressing existence of James Earl Cash, a prison inmate "rescued" from a death sentence and forced into an unlikely game of cat and mouse. The events are being filmed by an unseen voice known as "The Director," who leads you around by invisible strings and encourages you to commit gratuitous acts of violence for reasons unknown. Whether the voice in your head is real or not, your goal (and gameplay) is quite simple: work your way through a violent city and stay alive by being the killer instead of the killed. In the process, you’ll engage every possible type of scum known to the modern world, from gang bangers to Nazi skinheads, as you slaughter your way through the mean streets of Carcer City.

The gameplay forces you to duck into shadows, hide in the dark and peer around corners, looking at every angle to find the scumbags sent to kill you. You’re also equipped with a unique radar that only allows you to "see" enemies on the radar when they make noise within earshot or talking amongst themselves. This also works in your favor, though, as you can kick boxes, knock on walls and throw bottles and bricks to lead those hunting you into a trap… for the ultimate execution.

Stealth and the stealth attack are clearly the focus of the game. After you’ve taken safe cover in the dark (presuming enemies don’t see you run into the shadows), you can approach an enemy from behind and target him or her with the L1 button. As soon as the reticule flashes white, you hold down the attack button and dish out the pain. The longer you hold the button down, the more brutal the execution, but don’t hold it more than over 6-7 seconds or you lose your attack and have to start over.

Manhunt uses a standard "swing meter" system that works in 3 colors, white, yellow and then red (for the most extreme kill). The closer you are to the red area the more likely you’ll witness a decapitation, dismemberment, disembowelment, or any number of other sadistic "disposals." This isn’t just for eye candy. The more extreme kills you get, the higher your score at the end of the level, and if you’re particularly brutal, you can unlock bonus areas.

Interestingly, even if you’re a nonviolent person, you’ll want to be brutal and get those new areas, though, because the level design on the whole is pretty linear. There are some areas where you need to backtrack to find a specific item, but even then it’s a pretty simplistic formula: wipe out the baddies in one zone, and then get access to the next zone, repeat until finished. All told there are 24 levels, four of which are bonus levels, but the linear gameplay model is pretty similar among them all.

The AI in Manhunt is not as random as you may first think. The enemies definitely patrol their turf, often whistling or talking to themselves, but if they see or hear you, they'll leave their territory and chase you like no tomorrow. That is, until you get out of sight and crawl into some shadows, when they’ll lose you like guards lost Sam Fisher. Also like Fisher, James Earl Cash is much faster than the baddies and remains almost universally safe in the shadows, even if enemies come within one foot of him and seemingly look straight at him. If you’re in the shadows, they do nothing.

Manhunt sets itself higher in the graphics department than other PS2 Rockstar title. Motion capture technology was used for the character models, and it shows. Character models are unique and well-animated, and the cut scenes depict human movement and behavior almost too realistically as they piece together the story. The textures are just as superbly detailed as the character models, and still there are no framerate drops. As a result, Manhunt is quite easily one of the best-looking titles on PS2 this year.

The sound is also above average, on all levels, and takes full advantage of Dolby Pro Logic II. The executions deliver gut-wrenching realistic audio and sound as sadistic as they look. You can also hear Cash’s heartbeat in tense moments, and the dialog for gangs and "The Director" (acted by Brian Cox) is acted quite convincingly. You almost start to like the guy… almost. Cash himself, though, isn’t one for words.

Being a stealth-based game, Manhunt easily provides a good 20-30 hours of gameplay for average gamers, while hardcore gamers might find 10-15 hours of play. The game is repetitive, but not in such a way that leads to you just shutting it off and saying "why bother?" There are no multiplayer modes, but they’re not really needed for this type of game.

With that said, Manhunt is the kind of game that when people come over, you want to show it off, but it doesn’t offer much replayability other than that. There are only two difficulties available, Fetish and Hardcore, and the only real difference is that Hardcore has more baddies.

Overall, Manhunt is an enjoyable if explicit romp into an alternate reality (or is it?) where anything goes. As such I wouldn’t suggest it to anyone who’s easily offended This game is rated M for Mature, and there’s a good reason why; profanity is used like a verb, and violence is used like a noun. But it wouldn’t be a Rockstar title if they weren’t, now, would it? In the end, Rockstar has delivered yet another standout title with Manhunt, and the game has become one of my personal Top 10 PS2 choices for 2003.

See more screens on the Manhunt media page