Peter Suciu

Manhunt 2: Proof that the ESRB Needs Improvement
November 6, 2007

Controversy is nothing new in the video game arena. Controversy is actually seldom avoided. This is because controversy is good for business, because controversy helps sell games. Developers know it; publishers know it too. And as with the music business, the bigger the controversy, the bigger the possible sales will be — so controversy is good for business. 

The newest controversy is over Take 2 Interactive/RockStar Games’ Manhunt 2, a game that features numerous scenes of torture and executions. As an inmate in a secret government facility, the player must escape — and to do so kill everyone and anyone who stands in your way, including guards, other inmates, nurses and doctors.  

But it isn’t merely killing and escaping. It is the aforementioned addition of torture and executions by the main character that has caused this latest hullabaloo. But what is possibly most shocking of all is that Manhunt 2 was released last month for the Nintendo Wii, a system known for more family-friendly games. Manhunt 2 is clearly the most brutal game developed for the system to date. As such, the game is currently rated M for Mature, but it had been rated Adults Only when it submitted by Take 2. 

The Electronic Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rated it AO for Adults Only earlier this past summer. The game was deemed so brutal that it has been banned in the United Kingdom by the British Board of Film Classification. After toning down a few sequences, including the option to use “pliers on genitalia,” the game was resubmitted to the ESRB and earned a Mature rating. 

Even before its release, Manhunt 2 had come under attack from notable anti-game critics including TV shrink Dr. Phil and Florida attorney Jack Thompson. No doubt this controversy has helped sell a few more copies — for a game this reporter believes actually lacks any real creativity or innovation. Manhunt 2 is all about shock value, and is little more than torture fantasies lived out through a game controller. 

There have been plenty of bad and even pointless games. But Manhunt 2 is really bad for the video game industry as a whole, especially given the Mature rating, which was never intended to be a free pass for developers to make games where “anything goes.” 

According to the ESRB, “Manhunt 2 was rated Mature by the ESRB for ages 17 and older for intense violence, blood and gore, strong language, strong sexual content and use of drugs.” 

But since the game’s release, a hack has surfaced that allows players to remove special filters that were put in place to obscure “certain violent depictions.” While this hack doesn’t work with the Wii versions, it will unlock graphic content in the PlayStation2 and PlayStation Portable versions of the game. 

As a result, the ESRB issued this statement from its president Patricia Vance: “Manhunt 2’s rating makes it unmistakable that the game is intended for an older audience. The unauthorized hacking into the code of this game doesn't change that basic fact. Parents need to be vigilant about monitoring what their children are downloading on the Internet and ensure that they are not making unauthorized and oftentimes illegal modifications to software and hardware that remove the controls the industry has so diligently put in place for their own protection.”

This is a worrisome for many reasons. We’ve already seen “blood patches” – because removing blood from a game is often the difference between a teen and mature rating. Let’s hope that this isn’t the beginning of a new trend, where developers remove content to earn one rating, only to allow a hack to unlock that very same content. If this happens then we really can’t trust the ratings.

Posted by Peter Suciu on November 6, 2007 | Comments (4)