Manhunt review

In the mood for a ruck?

Then, if you're a particularly jaded soul with a taste for ultra-violence, this brutal offering from the creators of Grand Theft Auto might just tickle your fancy. Casting the player as James Earl Cash, a convicted killer on death row, Manhunt plucks you out of prison and spits you out into a run-down urban hell. There, you're hunted by grotesque thugs as a baying TV audience watches on, waiting to hail the next cold-blooded kill with an approving roar.

If you can get past the questionable subject matter and summon enough courage to plunge into Cash's 'Kill Or Be Killed' world, you'll find a tense, well-made action game masquerading as a stealth-'em-up.

With a pitifully inadequate visibility monitor to display how visible and audible you are to opponents, Manhunt lacks the tension of either Splinter Cell or Thief: Deadly Shadows. It makes up for these shortcomings in part with an array of stealth kills that involve sneaking up behind unsuspecting enemies and dispatching them with brutal techniques such as clubbing, hacking and suffocation.

Execute these moves (and your enemies) correctly, and you're treated to a gory hidden-camera viewpoint of the kill that'll send shivers down your spine and a sick Cheshire-cat grin curling across your lips.

However, these silent yet deadly executions aren't always possible, especially when you're spotted by a group of gang members - a regular occurrence, thanks to some infuriatingly clumsy camera controls - and forced to fight hand-to-hand instead. And as if this weren't bad enough, you then have to wrestle with a combat system that's so cumbersome it's usually safer to run for your life that be beaten to a bloody pulp.

With a bit more care, Manhunt could easily have been one of the most tension-filled games ever created. As it is, it's only sporadically gripping. If it's stealth you're after, go for Thief: Deadly Shadows. If you want lashings of brutal violence, Manhunt will satisfy your lust for gore and may even take over your life. Why stay up late watching Big Brother's latest clutch of goons when you could be garrotting someone down a dark alley?