No Testicles in Pliers in Manhunt 2 Anymore

So, what exactly has been toned down in the new, ratings-friendly U.S. version of Manhunt 2?

It seems that Rockstar has reduced the gore-levels of the death animations in the game and removed that testicles in pliers scene, as the first details emerge on the version of Manhunt 2 that’s finally going to see the light of day in the States this Halloween.

As SPOnG has covered in some depth, the original version of Manhunt 2 was refused an 18-certificate by the BBFC in the UK and hit with an Adults Only rating in the U.S., essentially barring the game from ever being sold as Nintendo and Sony will not touch AO-rated games with a proverbial bargepole.

A toned-down version of Manhunt 2 was recently judged to be acceptable to receive an ‘M for Mature’ rating by the ESRB in the U.S., while Rockstar in the U.K. is still in the throes of attempting to override the BBFC’s refusal to classify the game.

Meanwhile, reports are emerging that a pirated version of the original un-toned-down version of the game is doing the rounds on torrent sites which, if true, is curtains for Rockstar.

So, what changes has Rockstar in the US made to Manhunt 2 to keep the ratings board happy?

IGN reports that, “the majority of main gameplay functions are intact, violence, gore and all. If Danny beats a hunter with a mace, the carnage will play out uncensored, and blood will splatter onto the main character's clothes.”

However, the reviewer also adds, “there have been some unfortunate content omissions, too… a particularly nasty death sequence, in which Danny could use a pair of pliers to literally rip the testicles off a hunter… has been completed removed from the updated build of the game.”

“The biggest and most disappointing change relates to the major death strikes. When Danny sneaks up on an enemy, gamers can hold the A button down, at which point they will be given the option to pick from three different murder animations (on Wii, they get to act them out with Nintendo's motion-sensitive controllers). In the AO-rated build of Manhunt 2, we could clearly see these over-the-top and horrific animations. In the M-rated version, Rockstar has added both an extreme blur effect and in most cases darkened the graphics so that it is nearly impossible to make any sense of what is going on.”

Do not fret too much though, gore-fans as Danny “can still saw into the heads of enemies, or bludgeon them with a blunt object, or stab them, or use a syringe on them, or even use the environments to take them out. In one sequence, Danny uses a sewer cap to decapitate a hunter, at which point the enemy's body fell into the sewer hole.”

Isn't it good to know that the 'Games as art' debate rages on like cage fighters on steroids in a reality TV show. Sigh.

More on the UK release (or not, as the case may be) of Manhunt 2 as soon as we get it.

^{source: IGN}