Played on:
Windows
Pentium M 2GHz CPU
GeForce Go 7800GTX
2GB RAM
The Hitman series of games has been delivering violent action and rewards for those who can be the stealthiest for years. It’s become a fan favorite; some players just enjoy getting through the levels any way they can, while others must master each level and achieve the "Silent Assassin" rating. The developers at IO Interactive have been working hard to increase the fun for both types of players, and as a result Hitman: Blood Money is quite possibly the best game in the series.
Blood Money has Agent 47, the world’s deadliest assassin, taking on a series of increasingly difficult and complex missions that will require him to kill one or more specific targets, and possibly complete some additional objective. The player has to choose how to complete these objectives, and while each level is not terribly massive, the developers have given you enough of an open-ended style that this game will really reward those who will keep trying out new ways to kill people. You’ll have several choices for killing each of your targets, and some will raise the notice of local security or law enforcement while others may not. While 47’s got a nice complement of both melee and ranged weapons (either of which can be used at any time in first- or third-person view), some hardcore Hitman players are of the opinion that a true assassin makes every kill look like an accident. And you can go a long way to doing that in this game; you can push people off balconies, drop something heavy like a chandelier onto their heads Phantom of the Opera style, or poison their drink so that they just keel over thirty seconds after you’ve left the room.
This game is actually quite violent, and those who play Hitman: Blood Money are going to have to ask themselves early on whether the fun of killing those security personnel in a huge gun battle is more rewarding than sneaking past them all and just taking out the target. I’ve tried both methods in past Hitman games, but I had always found that the bloodbath method turned out to be not near as much fun as the stealth way. Well, this is the first Hitman game I’ve played so far where either method is really a whole lot of fun. With the new ability to take a hostage as a human shield, IO Interactive has reinforced the gunfight method, but they still will only reward the players who leave no trace, no witnesses, and only the minimum number of dead bodies required to finish the job. And by leaving no trace, they really mean it this time: make sure you leave the mission in your original outfit along with all the custom weapons you brought, because on higher difficulties failing to do so can incur some tough penalties for later.
The environments in Blood Money are better than ever. From a Paris opera house, to a casino in Las Vegas, to a riverboat on the Mississippi River, you’ll find a wonderful mix of atmospheres in this game. If those aren’t enough, then there’s the well-guarded complex down in South America, an abandoned amusement park, and even a mission right in the middle of Mardi Gras (complete with hundreds of people partying and walking around in the streets). The special effects have been turned up as well, and while you can turn them off on slower computers, you’ll be treated to a very visually impressive game if your PC has the horsepower to manage all of it at high resolution. I was very impressed by the game’s great support for the newest technologies, yet the minimum requirements are low – the whole thing scales very well for a huge range of computers.
But let’s get back to the whole hitman thing. One thing I noticed here is that unlike many games, sneaking is not nearly as important as you might expect in a stealth game. Sure, sneaking behind one guy alone in a room will allow you to get behind him without alerting him, but the only way you’ll be able to go around undetected in outdoor or well-lit places will come through other means. Your ability to avoid detection - which is not required to beat a level but will be required for a high rating – depends mostly on studying the movements of security or law enforcement personnel and simply not being in the room with them. Finding an outfit that lets you blind in will also get you pretty far, but in some cases you might be forced to knock someone out to do so. Just try not to stand too close to anybody for too long while you’re in disguise, because someone will eventually realize that you don’t belong to the security force or that construction crew.
