Game 30: Manhunter 2 - Cook the King of Vermin

Manhunter Journal Entry 5: “I am finally starting to piece everything together, but there is still much that I do not know. Once I figured out that Noah Goring was the scientist behind the mutants, I was able to discover much by investigating his house. Files described why he began his experiments in the first place (to help the Orbs) and it’s clear that at some point he regretted his part in their rapid journey towards the destruction of the planet. I’ve also discovered that the slaves from the mines are helping the Dragon-branded gang to rise up and stop the Orbs' progress, so I’m hoping to join forces with them at some point. For now though, I have a whiff of Phil’s path, and I plan to follow it for as far as it leads me. Taking him down is my number one priority!”

I'm not even certain whose piss this is, let alone what it might be used for!

My last post finished with me investigating the doctor’s house where Phil had recently murdered a slave and the doctor himself. I’d collected urine in my flask from the sample on the desk and also found a letter on the doctor that went some way to explaining the Orbs' purpose on Earth. The letter was signed off by someone named N. Goring, and given the author had talked about his “creations”, I’d figured it was likely to be the man in the newspaper clipping I collected way back at the start of the game. His name in the article was Noah G., so I opened up my MAD and typed in “noah goring” to see whether I was right. I was, and I was rewarded with the profile of the scientist behind all the genetic experimentation, including his address! I had no hesitation in bring up the map and heading straight over to his house to see what I could find.

The man that thought that rat / dog / human mutants was a wonderful idea

My exploration of Noah’s apartment revealed quite a few things of note. Firstly, when I looked through the window I could see Coit Tower, Alcatraz Island and a building called Julius Castle! Could this be the castle that would turn out to be “the Gateway to Hell”? I could only assume so! Unfortunately just seeing it through the window was unlikely to put it on the map so I could visit it, but at least I knew what to look out for. On the table in the apartment was a pack of matches and a white thread and needle. I was able to pick up the matches, but not the thread and needle, which seemed odd. When I looked at the matches, I could see that there was one missing, and the writing on the inside said “Comments to the authors can be sent to: Everyware Dept. MH 2 Box 5204 Olympia, WA 98503”. I assumed that the matches would serve another purpose other than as a contact advertisement, but couldn’t think of any at the time.

Well now I know where it is, can't I just walk on over there? 

Before I could put the matches into my robe, I was shown a rather unusual cut scene. In an underground cavern, a mutant sat upon a throne made out of a car, with bikini clad mutants sitting alongside him. The crown on his head and the cape around his shoulders suggested that this was the king of the mutants, and he had some sort of device in his hand which he waved around in triumph. All of a sudden Phil came charging into the room and stabbed the king to death with a large knife while numerous mutants simply watched. He then picked up the crown and placed it upon his own head, then picked up the device. The Murry’s appeared on screen with the message: “The Rats call Phil King and that’s a bad thing. He came out of the sewer, now he has the Viewer!” I have to say that this whole cut scene was pretty damn laughable, with horrible graphics and animation, not to mention how awful the little “poem” was at the end. Still, it got the point across, and gave me some new information to chew on!

Seriously, I just drew a better rat king on my daughter's magnetic drawing board

So Phil now had the viewer that I’d read about on the sign at the Ferry Building. What was this device? Was I supposed to remember something from the first game? I took a quick look through my old screenshots but couldn’t find any mention of it there. I put the device out of my head for a minute and continued my investigation of the apartment. There were a bunch of folders on the floor with papers spread out around them, and on closer inspection, I was able to read four of them. In order of date, they read as followed: “5/11/02 – Received Orb Directive! A better worker is needed in the harsh environment below. Humans tire and die much too quickly! My talents will finally be put to use. A Glorious Day indeed!” “27/9/03 – Eureka! After many failed experiments, the new Rat/Dog/Human subjects appear to have all the right qualities. 100 are being tested below. Confidence is high...” 7/1/04 – FAILURE. Test subjects could not withstand unexpected dry heat encountered below. Orbs are angry. Must Not Fail Again! Subjects loyal to the Orbs to be released in the Fisherman’s Wharf area...” 20/8/04 – What have I done!? I have been a pawn in their evil plan! They are almost there! I must save mankind. But what can I do?”

Am I supposed to think that Noah left in a rush or that someone has broken in and gone through his stuff?

Hmmmm... So Noah Goring was creating mutants to help the Orbs do whatever it is they’re doing beneath the Earth’s surface. Noah’s letter I found on the doctor suggested their aim was to kill the Earth so that they could live, but I knew no more than that at this stage. At some point Noah had begun regretting his work for the Orbs and begun trying to save mankind, and the letter also suggested that the Orb’s suspected that he had “the card”. I don’t know what the card might be, but it’s obviously important to the Orbs and Noah had intended to deliver it to the doctor. Could it have something to do with the slave that was “delivered” to the doctor? I couldn’t see how, but it might be worth another look at some point. Perhaps it was what Phil was after when he raided the doctor’s home and killed both he and the slave! Man, this game really drip-feeds information to the player!

This is too random to not have a purpose at some point

Before I left the scientist’s house, I tried using a few items with the needle and thread. I doubt it’s there for no reason at all, but I had no luck with anything in my inventory at the time. I then opened up my MAD and checked the tracker recording to see where the two suspects that left the slave at the doctor’s house went next. Interestingly, they split up shortly afterwards, just as a third marker entered the screen at high speed. The marker I was viewing left the screen just as the other two markers were about to collide, but I decided to see where the one I had would end up for now. As soon as I saw that its next destination was a laundry, I got pretty excited. Finally I was going to have a place that I can use the laundry receipt I’d picked up outside the Bank of Canton on Day 1. The suspect entered the laundry and joined up with two other people inside. It was here that the target movement ended, so I brought up my map and eagerly made my way to the laundry to see what happened there.

A laundry! Could this be an obvious puzzle solution!?

On arrival I was very disappointed to find that the laundry was closed. I’d figured I would be able to break in somehow, but my pixel hunting revealed nothing and I wasn’t able to use any of my items on the door (including my mallet). It appeared that whatever I was going to do at the laundry wasn’t going to happen just yet. I therefore opened up my MAD and ran through the tracker recording, this time switching to the second suspect prior to reaching the doctor’s house. As expected, the two suspects separated shortly after leaving the house, and the third marker entered the screen and raced towards my current marker. Just before the two markers collided, my suspect entered a cable car barn. Apparently on a cable car, the suspect marker followed what I assumed was a track, before jumping off and spending some time in front of one of the nine boxes held within some sort of boundary. After a short amount a time, an opening appeared in the boundary which the suspect moved through.

Hmmmm...what did he do to cause that opening in the boundary?

The suspect then spent some time standing in front of what looked like a stationary cable car, at which point a slave entered the room, interacted with the suspect, and then exited through the opening they’d originated from. At the same time as this took place, the red marker I’d seen racing across the screen outside entered the cable car barn and got into a scuffle with the suspect. Clearly the victor of the confrontation, this marker (which I assumed was Phil) left the suspect I was following in the cable car and then left the barn. The recording stopped at this point, so I brought up my map and went straight to the cable car barn to try and figure out what the hell just happened! Standing outside the barn, I had two entrances to choose from, being a set of glass doors and an archway through which I could see the cable cars passing by. I chose the glass doors, through which I could watch what was going on within the large room. I watched as the cable car followed the track through the room while robots whizzed around dangerously. I noticed that the robots stopped to let the car pass whenever it was near, but other than that I could find nothing of interest to do or see through this entrance.

Great! More robots!

I left the room and entered the archway, which caused my character to hop on the cable car and begin the route through the room. If I stayed on the car long enough, it would simply pass back out of the barn, leaving me standing outside, so I was going to have to hop off at some point. I soon found out that touching any of the orange sections of the screen, including the rectangular boundary, fried me, so I was going to have to figure out what the suspect did to make the opening in the boundary appear. After a few failed attempts I made it to the box that the suspect had interacted with, at which point my view changed to a singular large lever. Pulling the lever opened up the section in the boundary, and I raced through without getting hit by one of the robots. As soon as I was through, my character automatically moved up to the stationary car that the suspect had visited, and eventually been left in.

Another "avoid the robot" arcade section

Here my view changed and I was able to investigate the stationary cable car. The first thing I discovered was some advertising on the side of the car for Manhunter: New York and most interestingly, Manhunter: London. I’d read that the Murry’s had planned to make a third Manhunter game based in London, but I hadn’t realised that they’d gone as far as advertising it within Manhunter: San Francisco. The second thing I discovered was the body of the suspect, stuffed in the side of the car alongside numerous other bodies. Having a closer look revealed that the suspect was part of the dragon gang (he had the dragon branding on his hand), and it also revealed that his killer was indeed Phil Cook (the body had a P carved into its forehead). Most importantly though, I found a note stuffed in the suspect’s belt, which I eagerly removed and read. “STOP THEM! They have almost reached life. Bring us to Hell and we will show you Freedom. Beware the Surface Robots. Please Hurry!”

I'm assuming that writing says "London". It could be anything!

If my guess was correct, this note was given to the dragon member by the slave, which meant the slaves wanted to be taken to Hell (which I figured would be accessed from within Julius Castle) and that they could help stop the Orbs from achieving their goal. It also seemed likely that the slave I saved from captivity might be the key once I got to that point, but despite having a pretty good idea of what was going to happen later, I was going to have to follow other leads first. That meant loading up my tracker recording and watching to see where Phil Cook went after he murdered the suspect in the cable car barn. I really hope that following him will open up other leads for me, as I’m rapidly running out. I’m still very intrigued by Manhunter 2! It’s more complicated than the first game for sure, but I’m enjoying the challenge. I still have that feeling that I’ll be completely stuck any moment now, but am making progress nonetheless. I’m about to get back to it, so here’s hoping for another successful session.

Some of the corpses in this game look like they're moments away from reanimating

Session Time: 1 hours 00 minutes

Total Time: 6 hours 00 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: I've written a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!