In order to carry out executions, players must approach a hunter from behind, undetected. To facilitate this, each scene is full of "dark spots" (shadows where the player can hide). Enemies cannot see into the shadows (unless they see the player actually entering the area). A standard technique in the game is to hide in the shadows and tap a wall to attract the attention of a nearby hunter. When the hunter has examined the area and is moving away, players can emerge from the shadows behind them, and execute them. The game has three levels of execution, with each level progressively more violent and graphic than the last: "hasty" executions are quick and not very bloody, "violent" are considerably more gory, and "gruesome" are over-the-top blood-soaked murders. Players are entirely in control of which level they use; once players have locked onto an enemy, the lock-on reticule changes color over time to indicate the three levels: white, yellow and red.
Over the course of the game, players can use a wide variety of weapons, including plastic bags, baseball bats, crowbars and a variety of bladed items. Later in the game, firearms become available (which cannot be used for executions). Should players take damage, their health depletes; health can be restored through the use of painkillers, which are available throughout each scene. Players also have a stamina meter which depletes as they sprint, but automatically replenishes when remaining stationary. Manhunt also makes use of the PlayStation 2's optional USB Microphone and the Xbox Live microphone feature on the Xbox in their respective versions of the game. When such a device is connected, players can use the sound of their own voice to distract in-game enemies. This adds an extra element to the stealth aspect of the game, as players must refrain from making noises such as coughing as these sounds too can attract the attention of any nearby hunters.
Plot
In 2003 in Carcer City, the story opens with a news anchor (Kate Miller) reporting on James Earl Cash (Stephen Wilfong), a death row prisoner recently executed by a lethal injection. In reality, however, Cash awakens to hear a voice coming from an earpiece, revealing his lethal injection was only a sedative. The voice, who refers to himself as "The Director" (Brian Cox) promises Cash his freedom, but only if Cash follows his instructions: he must move through an abandoned section of the city being patrolled by a gang of corrupt cops called "The Hoods", murdering them as he goes, all being filmed by CCTV. Cash dispatches the Hoods, but despite the Director's promise of freedom, he is beaten and thrown into the back of a van by a group of private security experts called "The Cerberus".
Cash is then told by the Director that he reneged on their original deal and that he has more to do before the night is out. Cash is subsequently taken to various locations around the city and forced to face off against a series of increasingly dangerous gangs. First, he is pitted against a group of white supremacist and neo-Nazi white power skinheads called "The Skinz" in a scrap yard. Then, he faces a gang of military-veterans-turned-mercenaries called "The Wardogs" in an abandoned zoo. Here, Cash has to save members of his own family who have been kidnapped by the Wardogs and are being used as bait to lure him out. Following this, he fights a gang of Satanic Latino/Hispanic occultists with several gang members also known as Skullyz, along with other more demented gang members which include perverted pedophiles known as "The Babyfaces" and together are called "The Innocentz," in a derelict shopping center.
During this encounter, Cash discovers that the Director had his family killed despite his promise to let them go. After watching their deaths on a TV set up for him by the Director, Cash vows revenge as the Director coldly tells him "I'm all the family you need, now." After again facing the Innocentz in a graveyard and abandoned factory, Cash is forced to face off, in what is supposed to be the final scene of the film, against a gang of schizophrenic psychopaths called "The Smileys" who have taken over an insane asylum. Here, Cash unexpectedly survives, killing the Smileys (and a man dressed in a rabbit costume) and escapes the asylum after killing several Cerberus. This becomes an unexpected turn of events, as the asylum was intended to be the place where Cash would meet his demise and not progress any further, thus concluding the "film". As a result, the Director deploys the remaining Wardogs, led by the vicious Ramirez (Chris McKinney), to hunt Cash down and kill him.
As Cash escapes the asylum and enters an abandoned apartment complex, he is caught by Ramirez and the Wardogs, who decide to play a game of cat and mouse with him. Cash manages to kill the gang and Ramirez before backup arrives. Upon fleeing the area, the journalist reporting on Cash suddenly arrives in her car and rescues him. She explains that the Director is actually Lionel Starkweather, a former film producer from Los Santos who was popular in the '90s, but was forced to leave the industry due to a scandal. The reporter has been putting together evidence about Starkweather's snuff movies for months, and now she has enough to expose him but needs to retrieve some of this evidence from her apartment. Meanwhile, Starkweather orders the chief of the Carcer City Police Department, Gary Schaffer, to bring Cash and the journalist to him, blackmailing him that he will expose his corruption to the Liberty City Supreme Court if he does not comply.
