Manhunt - PS2 - Level 1 - Born Again (Blind)
This dark stealth / shooter was released in 2003 and was developed by Rockstar North of GTA fame. You play a guy called James Earl Cash, a death row convict who inadvertently finds himself the star of a twisted reality show, where the object is to kill or be killed. It's a similar premise to the Stephen King book (and Arnie movie) The Running Man but a lot more violent and sinister.
It was a very divisive and controversial game at the time and was even banned in a few places and erroneously implicated in an actual real life murder. People either hated it's slow burning, brutal gameplay or loved it. I'm personally in the latter camp and thought it was amazing, it's easily one of the most intense and enjoyable experiences I had during the PS2 era and I'd never experienced anything like it. Even to this day there hasn't been much, though games like The Last of Us have come close (even the arguably darker Manhunt 2 didn't reach the heights this game does).
The two things it does really well are atmosphere and pacing, it's essentially a challenging, no frills stealth game punctuated with some extremely visceral and ferocious gunfights. You're a tough guy but still vulnerable, you can't take too much punishment, as would be the case in real life, so have to pick your battles carefully. As a result the stealth parts are tense and when you get to use guns it's oh so satisfying.
This is a VHS capture of my one and only playthrough and was recorded shortly after the game was released. As such it's very possibly the first ever full recording of this game, YouTube wasn't a thing back then and capturing games was seen as a fringe activity to say the least, not many people were doing it. I was though and this has been sitting in my box of tapes for years. With October here it seemed like a good choice to kick off what will be a month (possibly more) of some of the darker games in my library. In a way VHS really works with this game, given the subject matter.
This is played blind, I was just recording as I went, as such don't expect top ratings for every mission, though I don't do bad in a few of them. I did test out the first half of level 1 to get a feel for the game but the rest is blind. I think the blind aspect of this playthrough gives it an edge that a well practiced run with constant good ratings just wouldn't have though.