Manhunter: New York

Overall, Manhunter was plagued by using an outdated graphical engine and having relatively poor design. On the other hand, it featured a very unique world, a groundbreaking first-person view and a quite good atmosphere. For the sake of history, you should try it.

Bottom line. Even though Manhunter: New York is not strong on either the plot or graphics fronts it is, nonetheless, fun to play. The game will certainly test your puzzle solving and detective skills. Long live the resistance.

About a year after Sierra On-Line establishes itself a firm ground in the computer gaming industry, it decides to take a chance with a new development team. The end result of this effort is Manhunter: New York. I can still remember flipping through the company’s game catalog at 8 years old and seeing the advertisement for this game. The Manhunter series has been an experimental project headed by Dave, Barry, and Dee Dee Murray. In fact, the series stands as the last and only adventure series to be produced by the Murray trios, for reasons which soon become obvious in this article.

The game sticks you into the slums of New York with the other various, hooded rabble remaining in the city. You're distinct in that you're a "Manhunter" - a human in charge of tracking human criminals. You're a cross between a bounty hunter and a police detective, and the age-old tale of "cop versus bad guy" is made somewhat more interesting with the inclusion of advanced surveillance and cataloguing technology. Your alien benefactors are spying on every single person in New York, and they've thoughtfully given you the keys. You really don't even need the alien invaders; this could have easily broken out as a 1984 kind of tale, and possibly been a little less silly in the process. But aside from the whole "floating eyeballs from outer space" deal, the game has a very dystopian, Orwellian atmosphere, and the use of real New York landmarks gives the environment a sense of credibility. It's a shame that the game is brought down by a serious identity crisis throughout its run.