''Manhunter: New York'' is a

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

designed by Barry Murry, Dave Murry and Dee Dee Murry of Evryware and published in 1988 by Sierra On-Line. A sequel, '' Manhunter 2: San Francisco'', was released in 1989.

Plot

The opening of the game shows the New York City skyline in 2002 and depicts it being attacked by a mysterious force. The main game is set in the futuristic year of 2004, when Earth has been enslaved by a race of aliens known as the Orbs. The Orbs, who look like giant floating eyeballs, have implanted all humans with global tracking devices, forced them to wear undistinguished robes, and forbidden them from speaking or communicating. The protagonist has been assigned by the Orbs to track down fellow humans who are believed to be forming an underground resistance. Over the course of the game, the player discovers that the Orbs are not the benevolent rulers they claim to be; they are actually harvesting humans as a food source. The player then "switches sides" and works to overthrow the Orbs. The player works against Phil, the antagonist, who is murdering members of the resistance. The game ends with the player flying an Orb ship and bombing various locations in Manhattan before Phil escapes. The ending sets up the game for a sequel, ''Manhunter 2: San Francisco''.

Gameplay

''Manhunter: New York'' used Sierra's Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) development tool. It was different from other AGI games in that it did not use a text

parser Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is a process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar by breaking it into parts. The term '' ...

, incorporated a first-person rather than third-person perspective, and featured a rudimentary

point-and-click Point and click are one of the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse or other pointing device (''click''). An example of point and click is in hypermedi ...

interface. The gritty, sometimes gory visuals, unique interface, and use of real-life locations in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

all helped set the game apart from Sierra's other titles, which were typically more family oriented. The Apple II version of ''Manhunter'' allows the option of skipping the sewer maze because memory limitations prevented saving the player's progress in that section.

Reception

The game sold more than 100,000 copies.

Reviews

* ''

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine edited by Sheila Williams and published by Dell Magazines, which is owned by Penny Press. It was launched as a quarterly by Davis Publications in 1977, after obtaining Isaac ...

'' v13 n6 (June 1989) * ''

Games A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...

'' #98

References

External links