Even the title of this franchise holds so much weight amongst players and non-gamers, it's easily Rockstar's darkest and most offensive game. The original Manhunt was used as everything from being labelled a 'game that teaches kids how to kill', to actually being linked to a real life murder in the process, but in the end evidence for the latter eventually pointed to the victim owning the game and not the killer - showing just how willing to play the blame game people used to be - and sadly still are. Come the announcement of a sequel Rockstar faced even more intense scrutiny, with an outright ban coming out of the UK and a black and white filter applied to every other version of the game when it came to enacting the signature 'kill scenes'. It didn't help matters that there was also a Wii version which mimicked the action of bludgeoning someone to death with the Wiimote and nunchuck, giving an entire tanker-ful of fuel to the fire behind why the game was this all-seeing all-damning Satan-creator. Underneath all of that though, was a fantastically solid stealth adventure with a killer plot-twist in its final few moments, as well as more trademark Rockstar swagger in terms of well-acted cutscenes and characters who deal only in the darkest shades of grey throughout. The UK ban was eventually lifted, and with the general debate around violence in video games fairly sparse today - GTA V barely got even a news report - hopefully this will receive a release on the Playstation Now service.
