Trivia / Manhunt

---

• Banned in China:
  • Actually, banned in Australia (prior to it mistakenly being released on Steam for 48 hours, before being removed), Germany, New Zealand, Korea. While there was no official ban, Moral Guardians in the UK did pressure shops into taking it off the shelves for a while. In Canada, it's actually sold as a film.
  • The uncensored PC version of the sequel was banned in Ireland, amongst several other countries.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: Scottish film actor Brian Cox voices Lionel Starkweather in the first game.
• Creator Backlash: Former Rockstar employee Jeff Williams admitted that even many Rockstar employees had doubts about the first game prior to its release. A few years later, Rockstar appears to have come around to the game as they rereleased the game as a PlayStation 2 Classic and made references to it in future games.
  Manhunt, though, just made us all feel icky. It was all about the violence, and it was realistic violence. We all knew there was no way we could explain away that game. There was no way to rationalize it. We were crossing a line.
• Dummied Out:
  • It's very common to find hidden, unused weapons in most of the levels of both games.
  • Manhunt 2 has a few unused executions that either had sound recorded or unfinished animation, see What Could Have Been below.
• Fake Nationality: The Scottish Brian Cox plays American film producer Lionel Starkweather.
• Franchise Killer: Even discounting the bans and restrictions that prevented it from being released at all in numerous countries, Manhunt 2 received worse reviews than its predecessor and only a fraction of the sales, killing the idea of a third game.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The first game started development as an adaptation of The Warriors, but Rockstar wasn't able to secure the rights at the time. When Rockstar was able to secure the rights a few years later, they would recycle the game engine and stealth mechanics from Manhunt, making it something of a Recursive Adaptation.
  • The bonus level "Time 2 Die" in the first game is the only bonus level to feature a voiceover from Starkweather and have its own music track, which suggests that it was originally part of the storyline before being repurposed late in development.
  • The Hoodz, Skinz and Innocentz all have unused dialogue that has all of their members threatening and shouting at trespassers, with what sounds like them telling other gangs to get off their turf and that they blew their chance to kill Cash when it was their turn, suggesting that previously fought gangs might have been planned to make a short appearance in later levels after their debut.
  • The level 'Doorway Into Hell' has cut dialogue involving a member of the Hoodz talking as if there's a group of people trying to kill Cash and chastising them for dying, meaning that the random organized fight against the Hood in the closed room might've been planned to have something more dramatic to it.
  • In Manhunt 2, Daniel Lamb and Leo Kasper were two different people until much later in development.
  • There are several executions and weapons that didn't make it into either game, such as a Vending Machine, while this video has a few restored audio clips.
  • There are several hunter groups who were also scrapped, such as The Lost and Camheads. The Smileys were also going to have a leader named the Scarecrow, and some speculate that he is actually the Tramp due to having a lot of similar features and a case of What Happened to the Mouse?.
  • According to one screenshot, the Skinz were originally planned to appear at Darkwoods Penitentiary and would use actually firearms instead of the nailguns they use in-game. Judging by how the mascot of the game is a member of the Skinz and the screenshot, it is possible that the Skinz were supposed to have a larger role in the game or they did, in fact, have a 3rd mission (like the other gangs) that took place at Darkwoods Penitentiary.

---