Spoiler Warning: Plot details, ending details, or both are in the text which follows.The Project, also referred to as The Pickman Project[2], is a top secret organization in Manhunt 2.
They are funded by the United States government for defensive biological weapons development, hiding behind the guise of a powerful conglomerate and pharmaceutical corporation that manufactures a wide array of medications. They control several areas of Cottonmouth in the Southeastern United States.
Description[]
Little is known about The Project's background. Dialogue from Leo Kasper's therapy sessions conducted by Dr. Laura Whyte indicates that The Project is an assume name for a secret intelligence branch of a unidentified government agency. [3] In-game files also mentions the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for provisional episode titles[4]; however, it is never specified through in-game dialogue if this is true to the established lore.
The head scientist for The Project is Doctor Pickman, known for his Pickman Bridge invention.
The organization is shown to have full control of the Dixmor Hospital for the Criminally Insane and several other businesses in Cottonmouth, including an entire television network and an insurance company, as well as having some base of operations mounted inside adult businesses in the Red Light District, where select people are abducted and recruited for the organization.
Their main facility is located at the Project Labs in the City Hall neighborhood, where several illegal brain experiments on humans and animals are conducted. The facility includes an auditorium, where brainwashing experiments are conducted. Experiments with animals, such as cats, dogs and chimpanzees are conducted inside the veterinary lab. Inside the facility, human fetuses with deformed brains inside jars can be found in several areas of the facility, further indicating this is a site for brain experiments. Conjoined human fetuses and disembodied hands are also found in jars, with an unspecified context.
Several documents describing in detail the procedures of illegal human experiments conducted by The Project were available on the promotional website for Manhunt 2.
History[]
The Project is known to have been active under the pharmaceuticals disguise since at least the 1980s, releasing the Vitamin X supplement in 1984.
Known Experiments and Tests[]
Archived files from the promotional website, containing information on six previous experiments conducted by The Project prior to the Dixmor Hospital riot.
- Main article: Manhunt2.com § Patient Files
Erigo 5: Field Test[]
- Main article: Erigo 5
Vescor 32: Experiment FR32[]
- Main article: Experiment FR32
Pravitas 0: Project Pravitas[]
- Main article: Project Pravitas
Eminus 1: Field Test[]
- Main article: Eminus 1
Umbra 13: Project Milton VI[]
- Main article: Project Milton VI
Cavus 1: Field Test[]
- Main article: Cavus 1
Revera 7: Usage Simulation[]
- Main article: Revera 7
Events of Manhunt 2[]
Before 2001[]
Daniel Lamb joined The Project at some point after leaving his position as an associate researcher for the biotoxins division of McKenzie Druchner circa 1989. Years later, a brain stimulant drug named Cortexa is manufactured by The Project by Daniel Lamb, not intended for commercial use. Lamb collaborated in Doctor Pickman's subsequent project, the development of the Pickman Bridge named after the head scientist of the organization, a brain implant used to remotely trigger a second personality into a human's brain with the intention of creating a perfect assassin with no emotions, and be used by the government's intelligence agency against threats — two minds in one body, unaware of each other.
Circa 2001[]
The Pickman Bridge was implanted into Daniel Lamb's brain, who volunteered for the test. However, the bridge malfunctioned in his brain, causing his implanted assasssin personality to take control of his brain. Lamb's split personality, named Leo Kasper — a cold-blooded former government assassin with a hatred against The Project and the agency behind it — poisoned Lamb's mind against the organization, using his body to kill several key people behind the Pickman Bridge development, including their main source of funding.
In an attempt to cause guilt on Daniel to completely overwrite his personality, Leo used Daniel's body to murder his own wife in front of his children. However, shortly after the murder, The Project managed to capture Daniel and brainwash him to forget all of his memories about working for The Project and the night of the incident; however, it did not affect the implanted personality of Leo Kasper. Despite the capture and brainwash, Daniel was locked at the Project-owned Dixmor Hospital with the malfunctioning Pickman Bridge implant still on his head.
Circa 2007[]
In a span of six years, the scientists of The Project attempted to repair the damage on the brain implant through therapy sessions, fearing that the removal of the implant might cause a worse damage. Daniel Lamb (and Leo Kasper) managed to escape the Dixmor Hospital during a riot. Leo's personality guided Daniel throughout the city while being pursued by several bounty hunters and hired assassins from The Project. In reality, Leo wanted to use Daniel's body to "persuade" The Project's scientists to remove the Pickman Bridge and permanently take over his brain. Doctor Pickman is killed by Daniel (as Leo) after refusing to remove the implant and using a pre-programmed trigger to hypnotise him.
Laura Whyte manages to capture Daniel Lamb at the TV-MK Studios Backlot, before revealing to him all the incidents that happened due to the implant malfunction, and helping Daniel overwrite Leo's personality by himself while in a deep hypnotic state. The implant is then removed, with Leo's personality and Daniel's memories along with it. He is given a new identity and house by an annonymous member of The Project, heavily implied to be Whyte.
Project Creations[]
Medications[]
- Cortexa – Brain stimulant developed by Dr. Daniel Lamb. Not released for market purposes.
- Vitamin X – Health supplement created in 1984.
- H4PP1 – Anti-depressants.
- Hingmyralgan – Painkillers.
- Chill Pills – Anxiety drug.
Inventions[]
- Pickman Bridge – Brain personality implant.
- Mk-Cut-N-Shut – "Search and destroy" brain tool
Project Properties[]
- Project Labs – Main research facility.
- Dixmor Hospital for the Criminally Insane – Mental asylum for failed experiment subjects.
- Le Papillon Rouge – Recruitment area.
- Bees' Honey Pot – Recruitment area.
- Bright Shire Alliance Offices – Offices desguised as an insurance company headquarters.
- Cortex Storage Facility – Storage warehouse.
- TV-MK Studios – Television network studio complex used to store filming reels related to The Project.
Other[]
- Pickman Facility – Facility, mentioned only.
- The Project Manor – Unknown purpose. Questionable existence, only seen in Daniel's mind.
Influence[]
The Project appears to be inspired by the real-life CIA's defunct Office of Scientific Intelligence division, while The Project's background appear to be inspired by the Project MKUltra, a code name for a mind-control research and illegal human experimentation program conducted by the aforementioned CIA division that began in the 1950s.
The organization also share some similiarities with the fictional Parallax Corporation from the 1974 American political thriller film The Parallax View, whose business is political assassination. A scene of the same movie appears to have inspired Daniel Lamb's mind control session scene.
Gallery[]
Posters[]
In-Game Screenshots[]
Trivia[]
- The Project bears some similarities with the both the Zaibatsu Corporation and Sex and Reproductive Systems (SRS) from the 2D Universe canon of the Grand Theft Auto series.
- The Zaibatsu Corporation is a powerful conglomerate who controls most of Anywhere City including radio stations, also involved with manufacturing drugs and medications.
- The SRS Scientists are involved with illegal human experiments and human cloning.
References[]
|
[]
| Organizations and hunter groups in Manhunt 2 | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter organizations |
|
||||||||||||||||
| . | |||||||||||||||||
| Non-hunter organizations | Central Intelligence Agency | Cottonmouth Sanitation Department | ||||||||||||||||