Manhunter – Review
Manhunter is a game that has been around for a while and it has recently been introduced to Steam. It’s a low budget action FPS made by independent developer Silden. These kind of low budget games can look real promising at first, but usually turn out to be a huge mistake when you decide to buy them. Luckily, we reviewed this game so you don’t have to waste your hard earned money on it.
Story
The story in this game is pretty much non existing. You play as John Gullivan, ex SAS, a skilled sniper and veteran of many operations. You’re not ready to retire so you decide to take on the less legal side of business as a hired gun. You then get sent off on a bunch of random missions where you usually have to take out a target and escape. However, you’re not alone. Max, one of the best hackers there is, helps you complete your missions by hacking communications and telling you which routes to take in order to avoid enemies and take out objectives.
Graphics
The graphics are pretty rubbish in general. The game is full of graphic glitches and some things even miss animations. Grenades, missiles and barrels will pose no threat as they have no explosion, they just create an invisible shock wave that kills everyone. There is also no bullet impact to be seen and during cut scenes your mouth is glued shut even though you are talking. Video settings offer a little amount of customization but they don’t even matter. For example, there is an option to disable the birds but in some levels the birds are just stationary and glued to the sky.
Sound
Music in this game is pretty terrible. There are about 2 tracks and they’re very short ones. Whenever you enter combat (whenever enemies see you), the music starts from nowhere and keeps looping until you killed everyone and then it suddenly stops again. On top of that, the music is also pretty dull so it doesn’t make the game any more exciting.
Sound effects don’t contribute a great deal to the game either. They’re pretty basic and boring so there’s nothing cool to be found here. Also, there is a bug that sometimes happens where the music doesn’t trigger at all, that’s when you realize the game is even more boring than you thought.
Gameplay
Controls in this game are pretty much what you can expect from an FPS game. You have directional keys, use key, sprint, crouch, etc. There aren’t any things that stand out from your typical FPS. There is however a nifty zoom feature, there is a hold and toggle zoom at the same time. If you press the right mouse, it toggles. If you hold it and then release it, it stops zooming. Apart from that, the gameplay has a lot of flaws.
For a starter, guns have little to no recoil. You can simply run around spraying with your AK and you’ll probably kill everything. Enemies also seem immune to pain, as they will not squeeze a muscle or stop running when you are shooting them. Enemies are also pretty creepy, once they get a lock on you, they just shoot and stare right into your soul (not really, but it’s… weird). They also have godly accuracy, they never miss a shot with a rifle even though they’re 800 feet away and you’re sitting there having trouble hitting them with a sniper.
Getting hit by an enemy will show you the angle of attack on your HUD, as well as marking the enemy on your minimap in the lower left corner. This may appear handy, but sometimes it’s a real pain to find the enemies when they are 800 feet away from you lying down in high grass. Killing all the enemies that have seen you will usually result in a slow-mo death cam of the last death, which is pretty cool but gets boring after a while.
There are about 7 or 8 different weapons in the game, but one of your snipers will be your best choice. The snipers actually take bullet drop and wind into account, but instead of giving you the trouble of adjusting your rifle, you simply have a “second” crosshair which shows your actual bullet destination.
The game also has this nasty quick save feature and out of bounds region. The quick save actually pauses the game until it’s completely saved and after that you can continue your mission. If you stray too far from the battlefield you’ll get a countdown from 5 seconds which hardly is enough time to get into the mission again, so that’s a guaranteed re-load from your last checkpoint. Sometimes you can even get it to the point where it saves just as you’re out of bounds, which results in a broken and unplayable game.
Conclusion
Manhunter is a low budget action FPS and it’s noticeable when you play it. It looks like it should have belonged on the shelves about 6 years ago but it somehow made its way to the present. The game has a lot of flaws and feels unfinished. Maybe a newcomer to the genre or a sucker for bad games will like it, but it’s not worth your time if you’re used to playing high budget FPS games.
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