5. Manhunt
This is a game you may have heard of, but not exactly from reviewers. Manhunt was easily one of the most controversial of all Rockstar Games' output, and that's really saying something. Taking place in various grimy locations, the player is put in the shoes of James Earl Cash, a death-row inmate who finds himself being forced into making a number of snuff films for an ex-film producer, now underground director. The game takes you through the makings of these, with extremely graphic killing animations mixed in with a "mature" tone and story, to put it lightly. Manhunt garnered a number of positive reviews, but it was through the controversy that the game stirred in which it gained its reputation. The drama and noise continued to heighten when the game was accused of motivating a real-life murder, but this accusation was later rejected by investigating police and legal forces. Moving on, Manhunt is a stealth-based psychological horror, taking place in twenty levels, renamed "scenes", and involves Cash performing executions on foes and inmates in intensely graphic ways. To give an idea on how far these executions go, the tamest one is where you place a plastic bag over someone's head and suffocate them to death. The game is an intense study of psychology and survival instinct, as well as a study of morality in an immoral landscape, and it's worth playing through just for the experience alone. However, for all the squeamish gamers out there, this may be one to avoid, as it is unrelenting and unflinching in its violence.