The start take place after Hitman: Blood Money, Diana Burnwood, Agent 47’s handler with the International Contract Agency or I.C.A goes rouge and sabotages the agency by exposing them to the public. Now with the Agency under Benjamin Travis control he decides to send Agent 47 after Diana and his mission is to kill here and retrieve a girl called Victoria that she took from the Agency. When Agent 47 finally break’s into her home (prologue mission) he has to sneak past her own private security and confronts her in the shower he shots her but only wounds her, she then makes Agent 47 promise that he will take Victoria and keep her away from the Agency and their doctor’s then Agent 47 kill’s her.
Keeping his promise he take Victoria and hide’s her in an Catholic orphanage with the help of an old friend Sister Mary. He then contacts an old agent from the Agency nicknamed Birdie who tells him the main antagonist Blake Dexter owner of Dexter Industries may have the information that Agent 47 is seeking on the girl. Agent 47 then goes to eavesdrop on Dexter and learns his plan to kidnap Victoria and auction her off to the highest bidder, so now Agent 47 must make new friends and enemies as well as do everything to keep his promise to Diana as he himself knows what it is like to be treated by the doctors at the agency.
The game uses a point where you can gain or even lose points depending on your action for instance hurting a non-target will lose you points but hiding their body will gain you points but the amount will be smaller than you lost, you also gain a large amount from completing your objective. Timing can play a big or small part depending on the level sometimes it’s a simple as waiting five or ten seconds for an elevator or waiting a minute in a crowd of people. The wide variety or objects, collectables and way’s to take out target’s will have fans replaying the game multiple times to make sure they get everything.
In the game you have a health bar shown in blue at the bottom left of your screen your health does not regenerate over time which I think is a good idea as it add more tension and excitement to not get caught or shot it throughout the game, although do not fear there are first aid cabinets throughout the missions so you can get back your health although they are quite small and could be easily missed if you are not paying attention.
You also have a yellow bar on the right hand side of your screen which is your instinct this helps you see items and other useful tips through the missions and is also used to help you keep your disguise when sneaking past people but beware it will run out but can be filled up by doing certain actions. It also allows you to be able to see enemies through walls but beware this will only work if they are within a specific range.
The controls are well thought out and mapped which is always nice when you have a good few actions to be able to choose from so it’s nice to feel like the developers actually took their time to think them out.
There was a good amount of enemies some different in areas as well as some the same but I don’t think you can complain as it does make more sense to see police guarding railway stations after an incident than a gang of drug dealers protecting the law so you can’t fault the developers there as it does keep with realism which in my mind does not hurt. Regarding the A.I with the ability to spot Agent 47 they do have a good consistency to spot you but there are times where the sight meter will be a split second away from full then they turn around and it’s gone and I know some people may be like why would you complain about not being spotted but it usually is small inconsistencies that do seem to stand out but don’t fear the A.I is up to the standard of any triple A title these days and on the harder setting it will give you a run for the money as they spot you easier and faster.
There is a vast variety of weapons available to Agent 47 throughout the game too many to list individually but I have together a list of the different category of weapons which would do any First Person Shooter proud. I like the fact they have added in a large amount of weapons as I feel it allows more players to play the game in their own style which in turn helps widen the games audience for instance if you want to be stealth you can use silencers that can be equipped or unequipped when you like or you can distract enemies by throwing picked up weapons such as books or bricks and sneak past or you can even go in gun’s blazing, this means player are tied down to a certain style that could bore them and put them off the game.
Agent 47’s signature silenced Pistol’s Silverballer’s that come Dual wields or single
Pistols
Snipers
Knifes and swords
Submachine guns
Assault riffles
Shotguns
L.M.G
Various pick weapons including fish, bong and gasoline
Explosives
You can also subdue from standing behind them and being behind cover enemies and NPC’s and you have the choice to simple knock them out or snap there neck depending on how you feel or value your score.
I would consider the disguises to be a weapon in their own right as they allow you to accesses certain places to obtain and carry weapons to be used, there is around sixty six of them in the game a few of which are gardeners, chef, police and drug dealer. You can also complete challenges for collecting or wearing all of them in each mission.
The graphics overall are very nice in my opinion and you can see they took time on details as the characters have scares and stubble on their faces like the this addition in games because it adds a bit of definition to their face as not everyone has a smooth face, the eyes on the characters as well have a lot of detail in them which again is a nice addition. A lot of the game does take place at night but it is to be expect as you play as a Hitman and a lot of these people or criminals so their usual working hours are at night, so this mean sometimes there is not a lot of colour in the level’s especially in the more derelict buildings you are in. But do not worry some missions do take place outside during the day and you can notice a lot of colours and this is always welcome to me in games as it makes it more pleasing to the eye’s and a bit of colour and I feel some developer forget this as the tend to learn towards repeating the same colours in their games.
The cut scenes in the game are nice they run on the game engine so the look matches with the game which is always a plus. The movement of the mouths in them match up very well with the audio apart from one part where one character was talking but here mouth didn’t not move at all you only saw it for a second or two it wasn’t annoying it just seemed strange they missed that part or it may have just been an issue with my copy.
The voice acting was done to a great standard you could hear all the emotion from all of the main characters with every word they said no matter their mood, also David Bateson done an amazing again at job at Agent 47 I feel his voice suits him very well and was glad he got a lot of lines compared to the normal protagonist you see in video game’s.
Over all the audio was very nice I enjoy all the little bit’s they put in such as having crowd members talking about normal everyday thing as well as enemies getting negative results from the doctor and being all happy before you grab them out the window.
In one of the missions one of the characters you met during a cut scene was wearing cowboy boots and I liked the addition of them putting in the noise of the spurs but there was one part where they stopped making any noise.
Overall I would give the game a 9 out of 10 and would tell anyone weather they were a fan of stealth or the Hitman franchise or not to definitely pick this game up and they will not be disappointed and are in for hours of fun and even more if the go back for all the collectables and do the contracts.
When Hitman 3 recently changed its name to Hitman World of Assassination, fans had no idea how meaningful the moment was. On the outside it looked like a simple thing: Hitman 3 would now be known by this name and include levels from Hitman 2 and 3 - the trilogy would all be in one place. But on the inside, at IO Interactive, much more was going on.
You mean destroyed it with this tethered single-player campaign BS... And only the first few levels of the third modern game were on the disc! I'll never support this crap at any price-point! They've lost me as a customer.
The last 10 years of Hitman have been full of highs and lows. And David Bateson and Jane Perry have been there with the series through this eventful decade.
Hitman is, and has been, a remarkable series developed by some of the best. Some are better than others, but every Hitman is challenging and fun.
Sure, there have been some stumbles and fumbles, but always in pursuit of the perfect Hitman game. The most recent trilogy is a masterclass in level design.
With the release of Hitman 2 upon us, it just seems right to reflect on everything that's come before it, and see how it compares with its predecessors.
Good review. I got this during the big xbox live sale and I really enjoyed it. For me the fact that I actually enjoyed going through the game again when my save file some how got erased part of the way through is a testament to how fun the game is. I feel like it this game is at is best when you fully understand the game and all the options you have to complete a mission. Nothing better than pulling of the perfect most bad ass assassination and seeing that score go through the roof. I know a lot of people had mixed feeling about this game but it's most definitely worth a play through.
Even though I was disappointed the game didn't have the same freedom previous games had or the ability to choose and purchase weapons before hand. It seems to have lost of of that Hitman identity it once had but was very enjoyable and even though my save file got corrupted it didn't feel like a chore to play through it again. It was the second time my file got corrupted that I gave up on it.
I would of like to have been able to choose contracts to carry out, weapons and an option to purchase information from informants about targets, locations etc. would have added a lot to the game.