I wasn't a big fan the last time I tried a Hitman game, and this one
took me two attempts to get into it, but once I did I enjoyed it quite
a bit. The game's not without any flaws, and its sense of design is
aging rapidly. Still, the series has a unique style of play that's
really interesting if you have the patience to get into it.
If
you've never tried it before, it's a stealth action game, but instead
of lurking in shadows and around corners to infiltrate secret bases,
you're ambushing guards and stealing their clothes to hide in plain
sight to get the drop on various assassination targets. There are
several ways you can approach each mission, although usually only one
perfect one that will get you the best rating. You can garrote or shoot
enemies if you like, though there's often a more subtle way you can hit
your objective without it being an obvious murder, like poisoning
something they'll eat or rigging a chandelier to drop on them. It can
be a little frustrating at first when you're just trying to get a feel
for an area and don't know how to proceed, but it's usually not too
long before you get an opportunity for a better outfit and an
opportunity to figure out a game plan. And you can always just shoot up
the whole joint if you want to, but that's never as satisfying as
getting in and out without anyone noticing, especially since you're
wasting money covering it up that could be better used upgrading your
equipment.
For 2005 the game doesn't look or sound too bad, with
adequate characters and environments and some decent music. The
silenced pistols that I used for pretty much the entire game have a
nice distinctive sound to them, and the rare explosions you'll set off
are satisfying enough. The voice acting is mixed, with decent voices on
the main characters but some utterly inexplicable ones from random
people; and while the large crowd scenes are pretty impressive with the
number of people on screen, however in those situations you'll quickly
notice how small the number of unique models per area is. The game has
some technical issues as well, besides a few odd physics problems I
also ran into a couple crash issues, one that forced me to skip a
cutscene and another that occurred during a mission, losing my progress.
The
game's story isn't high art, but it has acceptable twists and turns for
a decent action movie, and seems to tie in well with the previous
games. It's set up with a couple of guys discussing some of Agent 47's
previous jobs while implying that they've finally apprehended him,
although when you look at it it's hard to believe they'd have to cover
all of those situations sequentially in detail to get to the point, and
I'm not sure the concept blends with some later reveals well. The
credits sequence is another good example of what unique things can be
done with the video game medium, and the ending sets up the
now-confirmed sequel that I'm up to try out. When it comes out, I hope
the design is a little more open, because we're in an age of player
freedom in games and Hitman's reliance on one perfect path to complete
the mission feels a little stifled by this point. Still, it was a fun
if not amazing experience.
