Manhunt Review

The execution mechanic is the whole design: hold the button longer before you strike and the kill becomes more elaborate and more grotesque, so the game rewards patience with brutality. It is a coherent idea and the presentation commits completely, with a grainy camcorder filter, a superb unseen performance from Brian Cox as the director, and level design that keeps you in shadow and short of ammunition.

It is also genuinely unpleasant in a way no amount of satire fully covers, and the game is smart enough to know that and not quite smart enough to say anything about it. Mechanically it is thinner than its reputation suggests: the stealth is one trick repeated across every level, the combat the last third forces on you is poor, and tension gives way to ordinary shooting exactly when it should tighten. Remarkable atmosphere, limited game underneath it.