Well, Agent 47 tried to retire two games ago but it became apparent that once you’re a hitman, you’re one for life. This time, his agency is under heavy fire as agents are disappearing left, right and centre. Agent 47 has to make his way back into civilization through a number of assignments. The story (yes, there is a story involved here), is told from a unique perspective and even if you haven’t played Hitman before, it’s not too difficult to pick up. The only issues are that it is somewhat bits-and-pieces, as it isn’t exactly continuous and that it ends rather abruptly.
So how does Bloody Money compare to previous assignments. Well, like so many of the better sequels available, it keeps the core gameplay intact while adding a few substantial improvements. However, Blood Money plays like Hitman deluxe, as you’re given new abilities that make the older versions lame in comparison, the levels are larger but not always in terms of raw size and the objectives tend to be much more endearing, such as requiring you to take out as many as seven people in one mission.
Just make sure you don't get noticed.
One criticism of the Hitman games has been that they’re quite unfriendly to gaming newcomers. Unfortunately, despite the best intentions of Blood Money, the larger and more endearing nature of the game is, in a way, offsetting parts of the universal appeal that the game tries to achieve. Still, the game contains a very concise and informative tutorial and the HUD has been modified to intuitively display most of the necessary and possible actions. The tutorial is actually quite easy, especially if you’ve played Hitman before and your hand is being held throughout. It’s actually not a very fair indicator of how difficult the levels really are. So anyone who is new and breezes through the tutorial will be in for quite a rude shock once they get into the real game.
That’s not to say that it’s a bad thing, it’s just that the real game is at a much higher level of intensity. As with previous Hitman games, you are briefed on your mission, left to examine your objective and pick (and now upgrade) your weapons. You’re then dropped off into the level and left with your own devices to carry out your objectives. There are thirteen levels in all, a number that is down from previous games but these levels here are much more demanding than previous ones. Apart from the tutorial, every level has more than one target and a few have optional targets and different objectives, such as one level that requires you to rendezvous with a fellow agent. This makes for a very good amount of variety.
To achieve your goals, there are two approaches a player can take. There is the approach of the silent assassin and that of the heavy hand. Often players resorted to the heavy hand approach over the silent approach, only to go back and be silent later. It was a good way to become familiar with the level and pick up some decent weaponry. With the way that Blood Money is structured, it’s not really plausible to regularly practice the run-and-gun approach. Simply because it is much more likely to be over-run by the guards and police in the level. Essentially, you are a tad forced into being a silent assassin, but you can get away with some running and gunning when you’re on the escape or at the very end of a level. Thankfully, you are given a few more abilities to help you out.
Umm ... I found him like this.
One of the aspects that makes Hitman somewhat unique, is the way you can go about your hits. You can, of course, shoot the targets in cold blood, but unless it’s silenced or in a remote area, it can become a messy and noisy affair. You’ve also had options that include garroting people with a piano/fibre wire, poisoning them, slicing their throats and so forth. To help you get around, you could knock-out guards or other people of interest and steal their uniforms. In Blood Money, Agent 47 has further evolved from being a rather clumsy fellow, to someone who actually moves like a six foot plus, beefed-up guy. He is much more robust than in Contracts and is much better at climbing and clambering around hard to reach places such as balconies and open windows via drain-pipes.
Yes, Agent 47 is much better at getting around but the environments are much more helpful this time around. In each level, there are a large amount of potential accidents that can occur. These can be in the form of crashing chandeliers (assisted by remote mine placement) or rigging large flammable objects like barbeques or something as simple as pushing someone over the edge of a railing. These accidents add a lot to the game but when you don’t utilise them, you are going to have to clean up after yourself. The game now adds in several garbage dumps and storage containers in most levels that allow you to clean up any loose bodies with simplicity and ease. Do it properly and that’s one less potential alert that you’ll have to worry about. You’ve also got the ability to strangle people in elevators and leave their bodies in the hatch above, where they won’t be found either. These additions are very useful and open up a large amount of possibilities.
Blood Money has also added a new aspect known as the “notoriety system”. Basically, the cleaner and quieter the hit, the less notoriety you gain and the less likely it is that someone will know who you are in the next level. It measured on the basis of how much noise or violence occurred and on things like whether you were caught on camera or whether there were any witnesses. You are entertained to a newspaper excerpt at the end of the level and they’re quite novel (if you manage to hide one of the target bodies, they won’t be mentioned) but ultimately they become repetitive. Unfortunately, the feature feels underutilised because it is way to easy to “buy” anonymity. In the very least, it encourages the player to be more of a silent assassin.
Accidents happen.
The AI throughout the series has been steadily improving and Blood Money is no exception. Guards and security are fairly lenient, as they will let you approach and will tell you to go away if you can’t enter somewhere. You can even run around a lot more but not if that running sees you enter a forbidden area. However, at times the game is still hit-and-miss, as sometimes you’ll be let off for some crazy actions while at other times, you will be attacked for seemingly doing nothing. The behaviours in general, are fairly realistic but there is still a few too many characters that are programmed in a behavioural loop. It makes their actions very predictable.
Probably the biggest issue with the game is that it requires too much trial and error. Where as in previous games you could fight off the incumbent guards, it’s much, much more difficult in Blood Money. You could upgrade your weaponry but that needs money, which in turn needs the higher end-of-level ranks (a conflicting scenario). Even if a level can take fifteen minutes to complete, it isn’t until you know virtually all of the in-and-outs and intricacies that you can successfully pull off your kill. It can become quite frustrating, especially if you’re really gunning for the top ranks or restarting the mission for the multiple times. A few other issues come in the form of the controls. They’ve never been absolutely spot-on and it’s made the impression that Agent 47 is a bit clumsy. They get the job done here, so long as the player is able to come to grips with the game as a simulation rather than an arcade run around. Again, they are an improvement over previous titles.
Oddly, as you reach for the higher ranks, it seems that your options become more limited. As open-ended as your options are in general, it seems that there is only one way to get the perfect kill and attain the highest rank of “Silent Assassin”. Despite these issues, Hitman: Blood Money provides a very unique sense of accomplishment when you actually get it right. A single play through is likely to take around 15 hours, but for those who want to go back and improve their ratings, there are several more hours of game play and four separate difficulty settings. For those who play the Xbox 360 version, there are a substantial amount of achievements, some of which are very challenging to obtain.
Agent 47 needs some lunch money.
This review is based on the Xbox 360 version. Graphically, Hitman: Blood Money looks good but not really next-generation. The game looks like it were running off a PC but otherwise, it’s just like an Xbox or PS2 game that’s been enhanced. There is some nice work on the intricate details and aspects such as texturing and lighting are top notch. However, aspects such as character animation, occasional “plastic” environmental fixtures (such as garden hedges), clipping and some ugly (not technically) and repetitive character models keep the game from excelling visually. When something important happens and you’re not in the area, such as a body being found or an “accident” taking place, the screen splits to show you this but the frame rate takes a fairly noticeable hit. The only other time the frame rate is hit is during one of the levels where it is snowing.
The audio portion is excellent. The sound effects are excellent with respect to pretty much all of the game's needs, as everything sounds as it should. However, the sound is also incremental to how the game plays. Surrounding NPC’s will hear gunshots, dropping objects, footsteps on surfaces such as wooden planks and of course, explosions. These aspects will affect how you go about yout business. The game has very good voice work, especially in cut scenes and mission briefings but can sometimes be repetitive within the missions and levels. The musical tracks have been conducted by Jesper Kyd, just as they were in previous games and they do a superbly unique job of creating the appropriate mood in the game.
Hitman: Blood Money is the embodiment of continual improvement that ought to be seen in games. Not only does it successfully improve on most facets of the previous games, it successfully delivers on what it sets out to do. While it is difficult to comprehend this when the you’re restarted a level for the umpteenth time or when the difficulty seems to out of reach, it is definitely felt when the perfect and refined “hit” is achieved. In terms of the Xbox 360 version over the other console versions, you’re not likely to find a next generation experience. However, you will find here, the best assassin simulator available in gaming.
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