Manhunt 2 - hands-on with the game you might never play

One of our favorite executions, of course, is the now-infamous wire-cutter testicle-and-vertebrae-ectomy, which actually made us wince a little while we pulled it off (or, to be more accurate, out). It plays out exactly how you think it does: sneak up on the guy, wait until the screen turns red (signaling that the highest level of execution brutality is ready) and jab the Wii remote forward to jam the wire cutters into his crotch from behind.

Now, here's where it gets really nasty: hold down the B trigger to clamp the wire cutters shut, and yank it back to rip out a chunk of genitalia. Then, while he's doubled over, wait for Danny to bring the cutters down on the guy's back, clamp them shut again and jerk the remote up to tug out a hunk of vertebrae. Nasty, but definitely one of the more entertaining ways to kill a guy we've seen in a while.

All of the motion-controlled kills we performed were a lot of fun, although we do have one complaint: much like with Guitar Hero, we were a little too focused on watching for onscreen prompts to really pay attention to the action. That'll probably change as players get more used to the motions, but considering how elaborate some of the more brutal executions can get, we can't imagine ever memorizing them all.

Of course, the Wii controls aren't limited to performing executions. If you get caught unarmed and need to fight your way out of a situation, you can start punching by swinging the Nunchuk and Wii remote around, just like you would while boxing in Wii Sports. You can swing close-range weapons by swinging the remote, lob throwable items the same way and aim guns by pointing the remote at your enemies (although there's no lock-on feature, something the Wii edition will compensate for by leaving more ammo scattered around). And while players about to get yanked out of the shadows on the PS2 version will have to put in a quick button combination to avoid being discovered, on the Wii it's a matter of pointing the remote at the center of the screen and keeping it perfectly still.

Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.