Our job is to delight consumers in their free time, and yet I believe in doing it in a really responsible way.Earlier today, the British Board of Film Classification gave Manhunt 2 a thumbs down, banning it from sale in the UK due to its "unremitting bleakness" and "casual sadism." Now it appears the Entertainment Software Rating Board is ready to hand down its own most restrictive rating to the latest controversial offering from Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games.Ī Take-Two representative told GameSpot today that the ESRB has issued an initial rating of AO for Adults Only to Manhunt 2. “We’re very comfortable letting people know what is in the box before they bring it home,” Mr. Side by side, though, movies seem to be way ahead of games in delivering top-notch gore. As the camera cut in for a loving view of the gaping wound, it was clear why the genre is sometimes called “torture porn.” Unlike the digital models in Manhunt 2, these were real people.īanning the original version of Manhunt 2 may be a good way to demonstrate that the industry can police itself. Later, after someone else is burned to death in an industrial oven, a character cuts a hole into the back of his own neck.
If he does not yank out the key in 60 seconds, his head will be crushed in a spiked metal “death mask” around his neck.
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Instead players spend most of their time thinking about how to move and avoid being swarmed by guards.Īfter visits to two Manhattan DVD stores I found an R-rated version of “Saw II.” (For “Hostel and “Saw III” I could find only the more extreme unrated cuts.) With some trepidation I put it on and the first scene was of a young man in a bleak cell being taunted to find a key by digging into his own oozing eye socket. If a highlight reel was largely made up of such clips, it could give a skewed impression of the overall game. There are three levels of executions, with escalating levels of savagery: Hasty, Violent and Gruesome.īut these execution scenes are optional and don’t seem to last more than 10 seconds. With the motion-sensitive controller on Nintendo’s Wii, that means jerking and shaking the controllers around in vague imitation of the mutilations on screen. Rather than stab him with a shard of glass, you can stab him, wrap a cord around his neck, stuff his head in a toilet and smash him on the back of the head. The problem is that in addition to just hitting a bad guy a couple of times with a bat, there are other options, like slitting his throat, sticking a scythe in his nose and yanking his head back. The story was suitably interesting though not overly creative. Of course there’s creepy music and wacky leather fetish outfits, but that’s de rigueur. You look around for tools like a crowbar to open a door, and figure out small puzzles (like throwing a brick through a window to enter a building). Perhaps the most striking thing about the game is how conventional most of it is. That of course may well have been what its makers intended all along. Whenever it does ship, Manhunt 2 is likely to enjoy a level of public awareness (and potentially sales) that it could never have attained without the ban. The denial of a rating makes it illegal to sell the game there.) The first Manhunt game, which also drew attention for violent scenes, was released in 2003.īut given the structure of Manhunt 2 it should be fairly simple for Take-Two and the boards to reach an accommodation and release a redacted version rated M for Mature in time for the December holiday season. (In Britain the film classification board, citing extreme violence, refused to rate it.
The rating essentially killed Manhunt 2, because Sony and Nintendo have said they won’t allow AO games on their systems. But after playing I found the Adult Only rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board, an independent industry group, entirely reasonable. Instead they base their decisions on a videotape compilation, a kind of highlight reel, of the bloodiest or raciest scenes. American raters, somewhat surprisingly, don’t actually play the games. Manhunt 2, which has been effectively killed in several countries.
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