Manhunter 2: San Francisco

The Good
Manhunter: San Francisco picks up where Manhunter: New York left off. The last game saw him chased Dr. Phil out of New York and the two attempt to fight it out on the other side of the States – in San Francisco. Now in the Manhunter series, we are able to explore one other city other than just NY.

The gameplay elements from the previous game are here. You can find information about people using MAD (Manhunter Assignment Device), track people throughout the city, and investigate bizarre deaths. Not only that, but you must also investigate why innocent people have been mutated into monsters and rats. There are lots of arcade sequences that you can play, and there are more challenging mazes that you will need to get through.

Your investigation takes three days to complete, but the tasks usually take much longer to accomplish. More often than not, I found that these tasks are more interesting than those in the previous game. A few tasks can often lead to danger. You may get eaten alive by a creature, for example, or bump into a hazard in the non-interactive sequences. As for the locations, I don't know whether they are real like those in the first game.

The quality of the sound and graphics in Manhunter can be traced back to the first game, where Sierra used their old-style AGI graphics, giving the game a 16-color palette. They still looked great during the 1987-89 era, and the graphics are drawn nicely, despite their pixellated edges. As for the sound, you will hear the exact sound effects as you heard from the first game, but the music is different, even though each piece doesn't last long.

The keyboard is only used to control the Manhunter's actions. You can see the Sierra mouse cursor during the game, but since this cursor is not used, players are expected to slowly perform their actions, usually by moving the cursor over to something interesting, then pressing [Return] to interact with it.

The Bad
The crap ten-second theme song is back. I expected the theme to be much longer in the second game, as this game is meant to be bigger than the first.

Some of the arcade sequences are fun, but they are quite hard to master. There are three settings that alter the difficulty of these sequences, and these are “Easy Arcade”, “Normal Arcade”, and “Hard Arcade”. I felt that they did not make a difference. So the user has no choice but to save/restore their games when they get further in the sequences.

Although there are no dificult mazes in the game, the one that I found a bit annoying was at the end, where you need to carefully move a drill through a maze full of lava, so that you don't fall into it, and have to start all over again. I like the last maze in the first game much better.

The Bottom Line
I usually hate it when the last game in a series has the words “To be continued...” in the ending, and the creators don't even bother to make just one more game just to complete the trilogy. The second game is an example of this. A third Manhunter game looked promising, but it ended up not being made, probably due to poor sales.

This game was made in 1989, so I expected to see this game made out of the SCI0 engine that Sierra used for many of their games of that year, such as Leisure Suit Larry 3 and Space Quest 3.

The second, and final, game in the Manhunter series is quite long, and the challenging mazes and arcade games should keep you hooked for a while. Too bad that Sierra still used their AGI engine back in 1989, when they knew straight away that the game would look better with their SCI0 engine.

The Good
I'm not quite sure if Manhunter: New York was a success, but the developers of this game expected it to become a trilogy, and if you already played the first game, you would have found out that having bombed several New York landmarks, such as Bellevue Hospital and the Empire State Building, The Manhunter chased his antagonist all the way to San Francisco.

Like before, Evryware decided that they would not be putting any old location and be done with it. They actually visited San Francisco, memorizing both its layout and its actual locations, and use that as a basis for the game. It is set in a post-apocalyptic future where Orbs invaded the Earth, so every outdoor location looks run-down. But the indoor locations, often resembling labs or apartments, are well-designed. And even though the game has a low resolution, the detail that Evryware put into the graphics is excellent, and this includes the posters you see every now and then.

There are those death screens where the developers give you advice on how to deal with the situations that got you killed in the first place, as well as an opportunity to try again. The death screens are well designed, with the three developers wearing robes like they did before, and Dee Dee Murry looking cute as ever. The dead trees in the background blends well with the game's setting, and the epitaph looks good. The deaths themselves are pretty funny to watch since the game has a bit of humor thrown in. My favorite deaths are the ones involving ninjas you meet early in the game.

When it comes to gameplay, all the mechanics are still there. You can still track people throughout the city; use the Manhunter Assignment Device from time to time; and play those fun arcade games that have you avoiding droids, blocking shurikens, and trying to avoid falling in acid, and more. What's unique about these arcade sequences is the way you can set the difficulty of them at any time.

The game is split up into three days, and their structure is the same as in the first game. The first thing you do is track as many humans as you can to reveal new locations, then the rest of the day is spent on adventuring and getting through arcade sequences. I like the last day because you get to hear the backstory of the Orbs, that the Orbs may not be evil after all.

That intelligent cursor is still there, changing whenever the player hovers something interesting on the screen, a technique similar to games like King's Quest VII. One difference that I noticed is the "3" icon, meaning that the game switched to third-person view and you can see the Manhunter on screen.

Sound-wise, both the music and sound effects are good, especially coming out of the Tandy speaker. You have the same catchy theme song and sound effects used in the first game.

The Bad
As I said in my last review, the engine used for Manhunter 2 is rather outdated, since Sierra games around that time used the company's newer SCI engine, which boasted better graphics and sound card support. So had the game been developed with this engine, it would have looked and sounded better.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, Manhunter 2 has similar mechanics and structure that was present in the previous game, but there are some differences, such as the change of city and some minor tweaks. The graphics and sound is good, and the developers have hinted about where the third game would be set in. Unfortunately, this was never made, although Evryware have told The Manhunter Shrine that they are in the process of making it. If it gets made, I would be happy to see what it is like and the features the developers have put into it.

The Good
It is much better than the first, more deaths (The first is from when you land your ship on some poor bystander) better plot, same old crappy sound, new detailed locations.

Story: After crashing in San Fran after pursuing the bad guy off Manhunter:New York, you are contacted to investigate murders. People are being attacked by something that seems to be a beast. A cult and the last bad-guy of the previous manhunter also add to the great involving story

Gameplay: More interactive than before. You use the inventory to a greater scale and can now interact with objects a bit more. Arcade parts are in the game with a scaling difficulty setting. The same look, watch and listen is added, but with a twist. Break that beaker that is important, you still continue but with different results in the game. The puzzles are bloody hard with the "Bat Vomit" on the door being one of the more puzzling. The gory death scenes are still in.

Sound: Usual bleeps and blips.

Graphics: Same as the last game, only fresher.

The Bad
The puzzles are VERY hard, the game is best with two people. the arcade parts are annoying after a while, and some things just don't make sense.

The Bottom Line
Get it, it is worth it. But be prepared for long nights with a cup of coffee.

The Good
The story was compelling. Got deeper and deeper making you really want to work through the game to see how it turned out.

The Bad
Hard. Very hard. But then again for some people that is a good point.

The Bottom Line
Great graphics for EGA. Great story. I still carry my "Manhunter: order of the orb" card in my wallet :)