Consider for one moment that in Manhunt 2 you can, Wii remote and nunchuk in hands, use a pair of pliers to clamp onto an enemy's testicles and literally tear them from his body in a bloody display; and if that weren't enough, you'll take one of the poor victim's vertebrae along with his manhood. Or, if you'd prefer, you can use a saw blade and cut upward into a foe's groin and buttocks, motioning forward and backward with the Wii remote as you go. But believe it or not, there is much more to Manhunt 2 than mutilation and mayhem. This is a game that begins with the subject of psychosis.
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Manhunt 2 in Wii could be described as Splatter Cell because it is quite obviously filled to the brim with gore, but as you use the nunchuk's analog stick to control Danny through the levels you will also be doing your share of sneaking, Sam Fisher style. You will hide in the shadows and creep up behind enemies and the game rewards you for your stealthy ambitions with greater levels of violence. For example, it is entirely possible to run directly up to an enemy and throw punches his way, or even use one of your many weapons to dispose of him in some bloody fashion. However, these face-to-face kills will rarely be as dramatic or as entertaining - whether you gauge entertainment by the satisfaction of using stealth or by the level of blood and chunks that result - as a sneak attack. There's a whole mechanic built around it, in fact, and this is one of the areas that the Wii version of the title is much improved over the PS2 one.
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In the PS2 version of the game, you merely hit a button to trigger the whole animation, which is far less engaging. On Wii, you act out the execution with a series of gestures timed to on-screen cues. If you're cutting into a man's skull with a saw, which you sometimes do, you might have to make a forward/backward motion with the Wii remote, hit the B trigger to a visual cue, and then gesture quickly upward with both controllers to put the finishing touches on the attack. It's much more immersive both because motion-based controls are inherently so and also because you're stringing together these attacks in the Wii build, while they are canned animation sequences in the PS2 one.
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We've focused on the game's killing moves, but you will also be exploring environments and solving some basic puzzles. In our demo with the Wii version, we saw Danny crawling through ventilation shafts, crashing through windows, and unlocking doorways by triggering a series of latches, to name a few. In the level known as The Honey Pot, Lamb explores an S&M club complete with leather-bound sex offenders and torture devices. As he violently kills some of the club's inhabitants, he picks up their bodies and hides them in the shadows so he's not discovered - again, a mechanic clearly inspired by Splinter Cell. And an unpredictable storyline complemented by moody music and well-delivered voice acting brings everything together.
The Wii version of Manhunt 2 looks noticeably better than the PS2 version. Rockstar Toronto has used the extra horsepower that Nintendo's console delivers to "up the gore." This is done in a few key ways. For starters, character models in the Wii version will display realistic blood splatters, bruising, gunshot wounds, gashes, and head wounds. In addition, blood will actually spray the screen during combat and executions in the Wii iteration, just as it will accumulate on Danny as he explores the asylum. Considering how important the gore factor is to Manhunt 2, these are all welcomed additions. The title meanwhile looks very sharp on Wii, moves at a steady 30 frames per second, and runs in both 480p and 16:9 widescreen modes.
