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Hitman: Blood Money

by Matthew Perry
09/22/2006

Between Andrew and myself, Andrew's normally considered the calmer half, with me always filling the role of a brash Irishman, loud and cranky when provoked. Andrew plays games like WoW and Diablo II; I play Unreal Tournament and Battle Out Of Hell. Make no mistake; Andrew enjoyed God of War and gets in a few rounds of UT here and there, but we've agreed that while he is the RPG King, the crown of 'Twitch Gamer' between the two of us rests clearly upon my slightly thick skull. But like all things in life, there is an exception to this rule: the Hitman series. Created by IO Interactive and published by Eidos, it's now entered into the fourth iteration of the series, placing you once more into the role of Codename 47, the shiny headed and impeccably dressed hired killer for the ICA.

The games are known for their open-endedness; on nearly any mission, you can go about executing your targets in a variety of manners, be it a a well thought out 'accident' or a brutal massacre where only a few manage to survive their wounds. Discretion, however, is the name of this game (sorta) and it is always well rewarded.

I finally had the chance to pick up my own copy of Hitman: Blood Money, and I've prepared this review of the latest entry into the crimson soaked franchise.

Gameplay:

I'll start off with "Wow." The first Hitman game, Codename 47, felt... clunky, and while Silent Assasin and Contracts were most certainly steps in the right direction, I was worried that I was going to be disappointed. Blood Money is, if you'll forgive the pun, right on the money. IO has fixed what's been wrong with the series all of these years and finally created a Hitman game that makes you feel like you're Mr. Big International Contract Killer. Gameplay is fluid and smooth, even during the slower sequences (dragging bodies always sucked in the other games), and the action sequences are finally a lot more involving. The game before felt almost like an adventure game where you had to sneak around to find the best tools to do the job at hand - now it's actually fun to sometimes just go nuts and use the (finally) realistically modeled weapons to create mass mayhem. The AI is greatly improved as well. On lower levels of difficulty, the game is more trial and error - you save, try something, and if you feel like an idiot, you just reload. On higher levels, you only have one chance to do the job, and you'll have your hands full and your brain strained trying to fulfill each contract perfectly. The notoriety system in the game adds to the realism, and another series first is the fact that you're actually rewarded for a job well done; money comes in based on witnesses, suspicion, etc, and that money can go towards new weapons, modifications, and other tools to help out with future jobs. There's a cinematic feel to it (not like those damned WW2 games), though it does require a good deal of patience to be fully enjoyed. If you don't mind letting the anticipation build (or you have ADHD medication) then you'll definitely find the game a blast.

Graphics:

The point of the Hitman games has never been to summon up exceptional visuals, and the same can be said of Blood Money. But while there's no HDR or high-poly models, I was surprised at the quality of the new engine they used. It's no UE3 or F.E.A.R., but the game isn't an eyesore at all. I have to wonder if IO had an entire team of programmers working just on the quality of the blood - reflective sanguine pools are common, creepy, and amazingly well done. I felt that some of the GPU-dependent post-processing effects and filters were a little much, but IO was kind enough to provide a fairly comprehensive graphic control panel to allow pretty decent end-user customization. Another added benefit of the not-over-the-top graphics is that the game can run on a much broader range of hardware; how can that ever be a bad thing?

Sound:

Gruesome, awesome, and worrisome, series composer Jesper Kyd took the orchestral reigns once more to produce the best Hitman soundtrack to date. The dynamic music is amazing, and Kyd's mixture of classical and electronic influence again proves that cinematic games don't need to have a Saving Private Ryan soundtrack to be good. The sound effects are also incredibly crisp and clear, and some of the audio engine's effects (for example, EAX's handling of material filtering and bullet impacts) really help add to the feel of the game. The voice acting, while a bit dry and seemingly forced, is not so bad as to completely ruin the rhythm of the game (ed: can you say PS1 Resident Evil?). And, to be completely fair, if you're playing the game well, the most you'll hear out of other people is a gurgle as you garrote them from behind, or perhaps a strained gasp when they realize that the poison you slipped into their brandy is causing their throat to quickly seize up and suffocate them.

Controls:

The controls for the Hitman series have always been one thing that the games got panned for. Learning from this, IO has pushed for a much more fluid control scheme. Being able to jiggle a mouse (or analog control stick) to control the strangulation of some rent-a-cop who fell victim to your fibre wire is somewhat disturbing, but also strangely satisfying. There's also a lot more environmental context actions that compensate for the still quasi-static options for interactions that you're capable of performing. I do wish that there were more things that you could do with the engine (why can't I just hang off that ledge like Sam Fisher can?!) but with all that they have done, I'm really impressed and excited to see what they're going to do with the next game.

Closing Comments:

Blood Money is a great follow-up to a pretty original and innovative series. I enjoyed it a great deal and I think that most people would at least find it worth a rental. Playing the other games does add a little to the back story, but even if you've never heard of 47 before, the story's a quick pickup. Check it out on your favorite console.

Overall Score: 7.5 / 10

Pick it up for:

Windows XP

Xbox 360

PlayStation2

Xbox

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