'Videogame nasty' is a term we've not had to use much around these parts. That's set to change with the carnage-driven Manhunt. The newborn baby of the GTA team has already caused as much controversy as its big brother thanks to its extremely graphic nature and a passion for televised violence. Every area of the game has a dark and disturbing element to it, making you feel weird and macabre for playing it. It's good but it's not quite right.

The no-holds-barred warrior rampage takes place in Carcer City, which could have been an abandoned set from The Running Man or Escape From New York movies. It's grim and anything goes. The only thing anyone cares about is sport, but we're not talking about a BBC quiz hosted by Sue Barker and a panel of sporting has-beens. Oh no. This is very different. You play James Earl Cash, and you're the sport. Your death has been faked, so the hoods have the time of their lives hunting you down like a three-legged dog. Your incentive is to keep Cash alive long enough in the hope that he might find out who did this to him.

From the buzz surrounding the game you'd think that ultra-violence is your main weapon of survival, but you're actually encouraged by a mysterious voiceover man to use stealth and stealth kills more than anything else. Think Sam Fisher and Solid Snake, add in too much swearing and violence, and you have the basic formula for Manhunt. Stick this on loop and you more or less have the entire Manhunt experience.

The only area that stands out is the close-up TV-style stealth kill. Creeping up on hoods and smothering them with a plastic bag is very disturbing. As is knocking someone's block off with a baseball bat or choking one to death with a length of steel wire. Core gameplay revolves around Cash creeping through the shadows, just like you would in Splinter Cell or Metal Gear Solid, but without the high-tech gadgets.

An icon in the corner of the screen keeps you clued up about how visible you are to enemies and a self-refilling stamina meter tells you when a run quickly becomes a walk. Even when you've been clocked, you can lose the hoods like loose change in a perforated pocket by running madly and diving into the shadows. The AI isn't that good and the hoods soon forget that the only possible place you can be hiding is behind that lone wheelie bin in the corner of the room.

Each area you trundle into acts as a level that must be completed before you can move into the next. But it's not quite that straight-forward. Little objectives pave the street of gore, such as a chained padlock securing the gate you need to get through. You can rattle it as much as you like but you'll need a crowbar to prize off the lock. Similar things happen when you hack a rope to death with a blunt machete and so on.

To splice up the hit and run (if you get caught) gameplay, Manhunt occasionally asks more of you. One level sees you having to rescue a tank of gas in order to power a huge crane. But Cash can only walk very slowly while holding the can. When spotted, you have to drop it, hide, and take out the hoods before continuing. As soon as you fill it up, hoods come running from everywhere, but you now have a powered crane to drop fridges on their heads. Nice.

Adult gaming, no questions asked.

1. Tense gameplay
2. Stealth kills
3. Simple to pick up
4. Quality characters

1. Poor controls
2. No multiplayer
3. Repetitive gameplay
4. Simple AI
5. Too hard at times

Power
Looks sharper and is much faster than the PS2 version but pales next to most Xbox stunners.

Style
The story and gameplay are as thin as Victoria Beckham after a 40-day fast.

Immersion
Looks dark, sounds dark, plays dark. It's a disturbing experience that gets progressively sicker.

Lifespan
No multiplayer means that once you've dealt with the single-player game, you won't look back.

Summary
A simple top-shelf adult action game that'll provide just enough laughs to cover its cost. Don't believe the hype.