In the past several years, something known as Stealth has come into gaming and since the Metal Gear series, has been a high priority for many hardcore games like Assassin's Creed, the Batman Arkham games and today's game series, Hitman. Hitman is one of those franchises that makes stealth a high priority, while adding other stuff to the mix as well. But do the games succeed when it comes to killing targets? Let's find out:
I would like to point out that this will be a review of the Hitman games in the Hitman HD collection and Hitman: Absolution. The first game will be missed out because I've never played it (and based on our current technology, likely never will) and it's not part of the Hitman HD collection, but some of the HD games do have some of the best elements from that game into some of them. I will also point out that I might not go into too much detail of the first 3 games as I didn't get very far when playing them, so sorry about that.
Silent Assassin
Having abandoned his life as a assassin, Agent 47 (our main protagonist) has now decided to live the life of a gardener at a church in Sicily which is being run by his mentor and best friend, Father Vittorio, who chooses to help 47 find peace. But when he gets kidnapped by a
Sicilian Mafia, 47 gets into contact with his handler from The Agency, Diana and asks her to help him find and rescue his mentor. Diana agrees to do that, but only if 47 does some contract assignments for her, which they both agree on doing. For the gameplay, the game is all mission based which may result in having to kill one or more targets along with doing other stuff along the way. An arsenal of weapons are available, including 47's signature Silverballer pistols and fibre wire and you get more weapons as you play the game. The majority of the missions don't have a specific path for the player to take and the player can do the mission, their own way. 47 can also disguise himself to blend in with his enemies, but this will start the suspicion bar next to the health bar and will begin to start going rapid, should 47's enemies look through his disguise. Upon completion of each mission, you will be ranked for how well the mission was handled. This includes being silent and not attracting attention, what weapons you've found, how many disguises you used etc. As for the graphics, they aren't that great but considering when this game was released originally, that's to be expected. The only problem I do have, is the control functions, which don't always work and can have you going too slow when using stealth. This happens especially when using the guns, because unlike Absolution, there is no targeting system. Overall, considering all the things I said, the game is OK for the most part. There is definitely some stuff that should have been working on, but otherwise, its an OK game. 7/10
Contracts
This game is basically the original Hitman, but with all the missions played in reverse, in the form of memories that begin as 47 enters a hotel room and collapses. The main differences between this game and the original game (I have seen footage of the original game so don't bother trolling me) is that the graphics, maps and AI have been improved upon greatly. The graphics look good, the maps work pretty well and the AI is good too. Overall, while the game is just the first Hitman in reverse with all the missions reworked, the game is still pretty good and is the closest your going to get to playing the first Hitman game, if you don't mind playing the first game in reverse. 8/10
Blood Money
In this game, 47 is hired to kill an amusement park manager, which he does and is then given more contracts from various American clients who want to hire the legend that he has become. The game also sees the downfall of The Agency as they are under attack by their rival "The Franchise" and its all down to 47 to prevent The Franchise from taking over. The game continues to have a mission based system, but this time, all missions involve 47 killing a target whilst trying to avoid guards, witnesses, security checkpoints and other obstacles along the way. The game also has the map system return which works well, just like before and the majority of elements from other games in the series are bought here and all work pretty well. New elements include better hand-to-hand combat, the ability to hide bodies in containers, using NPCs as human shields with the use of a weapon (which can knock out the NPC being used as a human shield afterwards), the ability to climb more obstacles, improved animations for the characters, upgrading your arsenal of weapons and equipment and a new game engine. Unlike before, each mission has got elements that can make even the hardest of assassinations look like an accident, such as pushing the target off a balcony for example. Improvised weapons such as nail guns and a child's air rifle can be used to make each assassination more interesting and fun. A common stealth thing known as Notoriety is introduced here which will go up if CCTV or witnesses see 47 do some very suspicious activity. On those occasions, 47 would have to find the security room and acquire the tape before it gets recorded, or stop the witnesses from alerting the guards. Either way, the higher 47's Notoriety is, the harder it will be to complete a mission with all the guards hunting for you. Lowering notoriety can be done with bribery and sorting out what I said earlier about the witnesses and CCTV. I won't go into too much detail about everything else as there is quite a lot here. Overall, the game looks and plays better than previous instalments, making it, so far, the best game in the series. However, that may change as I have one more game to get through. 9/10
Absolution
Currently the only seventh generation game to be released, Absolution is considered to be a more easier and accessible game to play, but trying to retain elements from previous games. Diana, who has been 47's handler throughout the course of the series, has gone rouge and has carried out a catastrophic sabotage that has included publicly exposing the Agency. Agent Benjamin Travis, reforms The Agency and has 47 go to find and kill Diana, while also acquiring a girl named Victoria, which Diana has been looking after for a while. 47 finds Diana, and chooses to wound her and then takes Victoria to an orphanage, where she will be safe (for the time being anyway) and 47 himself chooses to betray the Agency and hunts down the people who have an interest in Victoria. In this case, it would be Travis, The Agency and the head of Dexter Industries, Blake Dexter. The game has the majority of previous gameplay elements from previous entries return here, along with something known as Instinct, which can allow 47 to track enemy movements and also blend in with them when using disguises. Instinct works in a similar fashion to Eagle Eye in Assassin's Creed and Detective Mode in the more recent Batman games. The game has also been improved to give players a more third person shooter experience, while retaining all the stuff that the series is known for as well. There is also an online mode where the player can replay a mission from the main campaign, but can assign their own target instead of the main one, which can come to a total of 3 and the mission has to be completed in the way that the maker did it. So that's the execution and the departure. Overall, while the game may have missed some elements from previous game, it's still a solid game that has some of the best voice acting as well as some pretty good graphics, which compared to previous games, is superior (but with the other games being released way before the 7th generation of gaming, that is to be expected). Great game. 9/10
Overall, the series does have its flaws, but is otherwise a strong, solid series that any hardcore gamer will enjoy (or get frustrated, depending on the difficulty you pick). 9/10
UPDATE: Thanks for the 200 views.
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