Hitman: Blood Money

As a fan of the Splinter Cell series, I was curious about what the Hitman series was like. With only a Tomb Raider knowledge of Eidos, I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

In terms of a storyline, the game follows the exploits of a clone known only as 42. Over the span of about 14 missions, the story is mostly told during the cut scenes from one of his enemies. As the plot progresses, a bit of intrigue and drama is injected in, to keep the player interested. While this game centers around killing people, it should be mentioned that 42’s targets are criminals that are outside the law.

Now, I had never played the previous Hitman games, but one of the additions to this new version was a notoriety system. This means that if you decided to kill single person around during your mission, it will carry over into your other missions. To prevent such notoriety, you can hide bodies, steal CCTV security tapes, etc. The less obvious proof you were involved with the objective, the less chance of notoriety. Do it right (killing only your targets) and you achieve the rank of Silent Assassin for that mission.

This brings me to the game-play. Overall I didn’t have a problem with the controls or the responsiveness. You have a number of different weapons, but to be honest, the least shooting you do the better. This also brings us to one of my favorite things. The game is VERY open ended. By this, I mean there’s no one way to do complete your mission(s). You can rig an accident to kill your target (my favorite) or simply snipe them from a balcony. You have to keep in mind though; you don’t want to attract the attention of any witnesses. If you do, it makes it all that much more difficult to complete the mission.

Which brings me to replay-ability. Like most gamers, I don’t want a game that costs over $50 and play it for a few hours. The 14 missions are duplicated over 4 difficulty settings. What is interesting is that the added difficulty isn’t just better IA. What Eidos has done is make things harder on various levels. On the easiest difficulty (Rookie), you are given infinite amount of bookmark like saves. This way if you screw-up after one part of the mission, you don’t have to completely do it all over gain. As you go higher up thru the difficult settings, the less saves you’re allowed. Same thing with the map/radar system. On “Rookie”, you have a map of the environment and indicators of targets, witnesses, guards etc. On the hardest difficulty (Professional), you have your map & your targets. Overall, the challenge of each difficulty settings extends the life of the game.

Visually, while it’s not Splinter Cell graphics, its pretty decent for Xbox360 graphics. Mostly the environments are the prettier things, as opposed to the characters. Sound is also pretty decent as well. Given the fact that a key to stealth is knowing whats going on around you, hearing footsteps growing closer or a guard’s conversation with his fellow guard is key.

Overall I would definitely recommend this game. A bit less stealthy than Splinter Cell but a lot more open ended than SC too.