Hitman Blood Money (PS2) > Reviews > Hitman: Blood Money

Author's product rating:   

Gameplay/Playability	Excellent - great gameplay & playability
Addictiveness	Very hard to stop playing
Graphics	Excellent Graphics - visually stunning
Difficulty & Complexity	A difficult game - needs a lot of patience
Value for money	Excellent value

Advantages:	Good graphics
Disadvantages:	Hard to complete

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Name of the game: Hitman: Blood Money
Platform: Xbox (Also on Xbox 360, PC, PS2)
Genre: Action
My points: 8
Comments:

After briefly playing the original Hitman: Codename 47, and its second successor, Hitman: Contracts, I would be considered new to the Hitman scene. After getting the demo on a demo disc, I decided to give it a whirl.

The first thing I noticed was how 'clean' 47 looks. It may just be that I'm used to seeing him in Codename 47, I'm not sure - but what I am sure of, is, it looks stunning!

The first level, like the demo level, is a tutorial. As you progress you get objectives on the top of the screen telling you exactly what to do next. I found this extremely helpful, not knowing what 47's abilities were, exactly.
After that quick and rather easy guide to the multiple ways to kill, you are shown a few cut scenes, which, again, look amazing.
At this point, I was rather confused as to what was going on, but once the story part was over, I was taken to an objectives list, informing me who my 'hit' was, and an in-depth bio of them, and where and how I was to escape.

The first proper level has you in Chile. Being a proper level, as it was, there were no step-by-step instructions appearing on the top the screen - I was on my own.

The big thing about this game is exploring, and working out how to get the 'hit' done without being seen, heard or noticed what-so-ever, as you are probably well aware.
Just like the previous Hitman games, you 'don numerous amounts of suits to get around undetected into restricted areas and such.

One of the newest additions to the Hitman genre, is 'accidental' deaths. 'Accidents', as its name would imply, are death that the police would see as 'accidental'. These include shoving someone off a balcony ('suicide'), blowing up winches, causing chandeliers to fall on the hapless victim ('accident'). The thing about 'accidents' is that they don't count towards your final kills at the end of the level, allowing you to become a Silent Assassin easier.

I am of the opinion that this is the first Hitman game that you can play fully in first-person. I found doing this made me want to go on a shooting rampage, as I had learned to do on all those FPS, and refrained from going into the view as much as I could.

The thing I liked best about Hitman: Blood Money, was, after each level you'd see your hit reported on the front page of a newspaper. You are given a screen, like many other games, telling you how many kills you got and whatnot, but the newspaper is much more entertaining (yet somewhat time-consuming) of finding out your stats.

As previously mentioned, the graphics are impressive. The sound, unsurprisingly, is very well done too. When you pull out your sniper, aiming for your target's head, you will hear Agent 47 slowly taking deep breaths, same as when you hide a cupboard.

Currently, I have not finished the game, as each level can take a few hours or so, just learning each enemy's routine, and finding ways to get the job done. However, whenever I'm away from the controls of 47, I feel the need to go back and do 'just one more hit'.

If you, like I originally did, decide to just go Rambo into each level, you ruin everything that makes Hitman special - you may feel great because you finished the game so quickly, but there is nothing quite like getting that perfect, undetected hit own your own. To truly appreciate this game, you need time and patience. Otherwise, it might just be another FPS.