Hitman: Blood Money

American oriented games flood the market every so often, and it's very interesting when they do. Far from their Japanese counterparts, American games are violent, sexual, and generally what one would consider more “hardcore”. Because of this, it is very often that they copy each other in order to somewhat keep this legacy- by everyone doing super violent games, it almost distinguishes the market. It may be stupid by all means, but thanks to these developers, we have games like Quake, Unreal Tournament, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six- games that are irrefutably American in both their goals and their gameplay.

When the first Hitman came out in 2000, I was somewhat unimpressed. After all, games similar to that had come out previously- ranging from sneaky Rainbow Six missions (Though Splinter Cell had not come out yet), and the Metal Gear Solid series. The over-the-top violent aspect of it, as well as the stereotypical hardcore-cold-action-hero style story just never fit me like I wanted it to, and I generally ignored the series until the latest version, now in 2006. Hitman: Blood Money promised updated graphics, innovative AI, and new ways to kill people- basically fixing what made the older games somewhat mediocre.



Hitman: Blood Money launches off with Codename 47 doing what he does best- discriminate killing. Starting you off just like the released demo, the whole of Hitman: Blood Money is in the routine assassination in different areas. Set in the US, you will travel to places like Mississippi, Washington DC, and even Las Vegas- all to accomplish the standard mission of killing what you need to kill. The whole game is set around stealth- getting to specific people and killing them with minimal noise- and getting the hell out of wherever you are. This is unlike any game on the market right now purely because it places emphasis on not only being stealthy but killing specific people, so the game distinguishes itself among all the standard third person games in the world.

So, when I first booted up Hitman: Blood Money on my PC, I first noted the graphics- and doing a quick check of the XBOX 360 version, it really hit me that Blood Money might have not been the big update I was expecting- and I was right. Hitman: Blood Money is really somewhat of a paltry update to the previous games in many ways, and somewhat fails to present anything truly innovative in your standard quest of killing anything that moves. That's sad- because that single problem places Hitman: Blood Money alongside the Sports Games of the world in that respect- and many gamers will be somewhat irritated at the lack of innovation. Eidos is certainly not known for making things magically new and special, but this was just lazy to the point where it almost felt like they took the original engine from 2000 and just spruced it up and re-sold the game.

But don't get me wrong- Hitman: Blood Money is good fun, for as long as you can stand it, you will have a fun time with assassination. Much like the original games, Hitman: Blood Money is very open ended to the point of letting you do basically anything you want in any way you want, and a lot of emphasis is put into finding out unique ways to kill without being blatant about it. Some gamers may prefer just running-and-gunning (Which is actually virtually impossible), but other gamers may enjoy devising complex ways of killing without even really participating (Such as dropping a chandelier on the victim's head). With all the emphasis on the guns, the guns are used surprisingly little, and this simple complexity leads to some really fun and interesting gameplay.



But I have to stop myself and note that for an open ended game, Hitman: Blood Money is very unforgiving. Open ended, at least in my perspective, means that I should at least be able to sneak around and kill without being insanely punished for it. There are some slight AI issues in this respect, to the point of the enemies sometimes magically deciding to kill you for no reason at all. Obviously, that singular fact is very frustrating, because no matter how cleverly devised your plan is, it can all be ruined by AI that just “suddenly” runs over right where you are and unloads for no reason.

As I mentioned above, the actual graphics for this game are rather underwhelming, at best. For an PC and XBOX 360 game, the graphics look remarkably toned down, and even Agent 47's head looks rather polygon-ish. The graphics really remind me of the Far Cry series with the overdecorated bodies and muscle lines (Like serious indents in arms), and the environments really just “pass” as they are, but nothing really stands out as pretty. This is the kinda thing that I've seen before on the PS2 and XBOX, which basically means that if you drop the extra $20 to pay for this on the XBOX 360, you will be quite irritated.

But let's talk about what's new, if there's much of it. First off, the previous Hitman games were rather easy due to the fact you could run and gun- so to fix this, not only did the team at IO Interactive make it irritating (see above), but they added a cash and notoriety system to the mix. The cash system is basically like Resident Evil 4 in that everything Codename 47 does generally gets scored, and that he can use cash he earns for doing a good job to upgrade his weapons, health, and items. This is somewhat interesting, because much like Resident Evil 4, Codename 47 can end up with insanely powerful guns- but guns that are deadly silent. This matters very little to anyone aiming for a higher score (As the garroting wire is the general weapon of choice to get maximum points), but for those who wish to use their guns more than their brains, it's a viable option.



The Notoriety option is similar- by scoring your actions, the game can increase or decrease your notoriety. Having higher notoriety means that you are known more, and thus can be spotted- whereas having low notoriety means you are a proverbial ghost. While the ways to affect this are a little strange, even the slightest mistake- from being seen on a surveillance camera to leaving a gun at the level before you leave- can result in disaster. Again, both this system and the cash system seem tailor made to prevent blasting through bodies, so gamers who loved that aspect of the previous games will be rather angry.

So Codename 47 has to face the music- his latest game is a tad bit on the mediocre side. Gamers with an XBOX 360 willing to put out $20 for the 360 version may have an interesting time due to the fact that the game is not explicitly bad (like many 360 games on the market right now), but gamers playing this game on any other console will realize that this game is a perfect example of mediocre gaming- and that it will only attract people who are interested in the genre and the concept, and virtually no-one else. Hopefully, future Hitman games will be a little bit more enjoyable.

3.5 star(s) out of 5

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