Hitman: Blood Money is a stealth action/shooter game. You play as Agent 47, a hitman who is hired to kill dangerous (or just bothersome) people around the world that present a threat to whatever client is paying you to do the job.
Gameplay: 9.5
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
Hitman: Blood Money is a clear evolution and step in the right direction from it's predecessors. It cleans up on many flaws, which ironically didn't seem like flaws, in previous Hitman games.
Hitman has always been notorious for making various ways to complete a mission and various ways to play the game. The "right" or more fun way to play is to be as silent as possible, taking people out with ways that might look like accidents or ways that nobody will ever notice the target is dead before you leave the area. They have wonderful intricacy within their levels that might provoke you to take one path over another and will usually lead to completely different experiences while still completing the same mission objectives.
Hitman has always been great for the ability to knock out/sedate or kill random people and take their clothing, while hiding their body in a dumpster, crate, in some weeds, sewers, etc. You can then take their role within the map and pretend you are them, and still carry out your job as you're able to access areas you would otherwise be shot down for.
After every mission you get paid money based upon how well you did the mission, and can buy weapons and upgrades for those weapons. The sniper is a good gun to invest in with the potential to be a sniper assassin as opposed to trying to work your way into areas via disguises or trickery.
You can always shoot your way in/out of the area, if you really want to, but you do get notoriety for every bit of damage you cause that is unnecessary, gaining you notoriety and making you easier to spot in later missions. Because of this, it's more fun to play the game on hard and save often so you can explore the area, find a quiet way to do the mission and get out with almost nobody noticing. Shooting your way out is a cheap way to do a mission, and a lot less fun. The good thing to prevent you from exploiting this too much is that each area usually has tons of well-armed guards.
Their notoriety system actually sucks, because it's way too easy to pay off whoever you need to pay off and suffer absolutely no ill effects from doing a mission "the wrong way", except receiving a little less money for the job. I wish this system was explored a little more. If you run in there shooting everyone, it should be basically impossible to erase your notoriety, but then again, if that's your objective on every mission, I guess it won't matter much if people recognize you and start shooting, right?
Finding and eliminating the target(s) of the mission has always been fun, too, and this game takes it to a whole new level. Around the map you can find common items, like hammers, knives, etc and do a variety of things to your target - shoot em, whack em, stab em, poison their drink, push them off a balcony, drop something on their head, rig things around the map to explode when they go to use them... it's a ton of fun finding unique ways to kill your targets, and even better when you study them enough and find a vulnerability to exploit that makes for a hilarious death.
The environments themselves are so excellently crafted that just looking around at the level of detail they implemented to make it work is entertaining within itself. A lot of the people are on routes, which is understandable for a game like this, but these routes can be something like rehearsing a play or pulling off another espionage job in an attempt to kill your character!
The game does take a fair amount of study and exploration if you want to do the mission the right way, but that learning process and actually executing it is very rewarding. I will say that this game can often take a lot of patience and studying in order to figure out what you're supposed to do, which some people might find annoying (but that's a stealth game for you!).
In terms of stealth games, this is the mother of them all when it comes to unique gameplay, setting up wonderful spy scenes and giving you a ton of ways to pull it all off and exit, undetected.
Presentation: 10.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
At the time, I played this on the original Xbox when the 360 was brand new. On the original, it looked spectacular and, for the time, even on the 360 I'm sure it looked nice. Absolutely no complaints about graphic or audio presentation. The environments are very surreal and it's easy to get sucked into the game.
Hitman has always had really good music to go along with good gameplay, and this game doesn't disappoint. Correlating music goes along with you successfully pulling off a disguise, entering an area undetected, getting caught, etc. It all sets a very good mood and keeps you in the mindset required to enjoy a game like this.
Theatrics: 9.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
Hitman: Blood Money's story is about you, the Hitman, and the government officials trying to track you down because you're such a big, uncontrollable threat. The main characters are people following the timeline of events from your missions, reading them in archived news papers. This game has very good dialogue, but the missions are obviously just strung together to give varying gameplay, rather than very important story details.
It's hard to knock this game very much for it's story, because while the story is simple, it builds up very well up until the end of the game, and it's very nicely crafted. You'd swear by the final mission that you were James Bond instead of Agent 47, but even more cool and calculated.
The environments themselves can hold stories and the developers did a really good job of creating a wide range of memorable characters and situations you can get yourself into.
Controls: 8.5
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
Since Hitman: Blood Money introduces several new concepts, like taking a person hostage, it has some awkward controls sometimes. They give you good pointers to tell you what you're doing, but you can make mistakes by pressing the wrong button at the wrong time and it can coincidentally have pretty big consequences.
Sometimes the controls on the movement are just too sensitive, making your character spin in circles almost uncontrollably.
Replay Value: 10.0
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
Hitman is a campaign-only game, but they give you a lot of ways to complete the missions within the game. Studying the environments and experimenting is a lot of fun. I played through the game at least four times, and plan on doing so again. One play-through on a high difficulty level (basically meaning you can't just shoot your way in and out), trying to do everything as quietly as possible will easily give you 25+ hours of gameplay.
Fun: 9.5
How much fun was the game?
Very fun game, and very memorable. It's hard to even point out many problems. Sometimes the AI within the game can be frustrating, and sometimes losing control of the situation can be frustrating. This game takes a lot of studying, patience and time to get things done the right way, so be forewarned.
My Overall Rating: 9.4
Suggested Gaming Experience Level: Medium/High
What kind of experience playing video games do you need to really appreciate this game?
Gameplay: 9.5
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
Hitman: Blood Money is a clear evolution and step in the right direction from it's predecessors. It cleans up on many flaws, which ironically didn't seem like flaws, in previous Hitman games.
Hitman has always been notorious for making various ways to complete a mission and various ways to play the game. The "right" or more fun way to play is to be as silent as possible, taking people out with ways that might look like accidents or ways that nobody will ever notice the target is dead before you leave the area. They have wonderful intricacy within their levels that might provoke you to take one path over another and will usually lead to completely different experiences while still completing the same mission objectives.
Hitman has always been great for the ability to knock out/sedate or kill random people and take their clothing, while hiding their body in a dumpster, crate, in some weeds, sewers, etc. You can then take their role within the map and pretend you are them, and still carry out your job as you're able to access areas you would otherwise be shot down for.
After every mission you get paid money based upon how well you did the mission, and can buy weapons and upgrades for those weapons. The sniper is a good gun to invest in with the potential to be a sniper assassin as opposed to trying to work your way into areas via disguises or trickery.
You can always shoot your way in/out of the area, if you really want to, but you do get notoriety for every bit of damage you cause that is unnecessary, gaining you notoriety and making you easier to spot in later missions. Because of this, it's more fun to play the game on hard and save often so you can explore the area, find a quiet way to do the mission and get out with almost nobody noticing. Shooting your way out is a cheap way to do a mission, and a lot less fun. The good thing to prevent you from exploiting this too much is that each area usually has tons of well-armed guards.
Their notoriety system actually sucks, because it's way too easy to pay off whoever you need to pay off and suffer absolutely no ill effects from doing a mission "the wrong way", except receiving a little less money for the job. I wish this system was explored a little more. If you run in there shooting everyone, it should be basically impossible to erase your notoriety, but then again, if that's your objective on every mission, I guess it won't matter much if people recognize you and start shooting, right?
Finding and eliminating the target(s) of the mission has always been fun, too, and this game takes it to a whole new level. Around the map you can find common items, like hammers, knives, etc and do a variety of things to your target - shoot em, whack em, stab em, poison their drink, push them off a balcony, drop something on their head, rig things around the map to explode when they go to use them... it's a ton of fun finding unique ways to kill your targets, and even better when you study them enough and find a vulnerability to exploit that makes for a hilarious death.
The environments themselves are so excellently crafted that just looking around at the level of detail they implemented to make it work is entertaining within itself. A lot of the people are on routes, which is understandable for a game like this, but these routes can be something like rehearsing a play or pulling off another espionage job in an attempt to kill your character!
The game does take a fair amount of study and exploration if you want to do the mission the right way, but that learning process and actually executing it is very rewarding. I will say that this game can often take a lot of patience and studying in order to figure out what you're supposed to do, which some people might find annoying (but that's a stealth game for you!).
In terms of stealth games, this is the mother of them all when it comes to unique gameplay, setting up wonderful spy scenes and giving you a ton of ways to pull it all off and exit, undetected.
Presentation: 10.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
At the time, I played this on the original Xbox when the 360 was brand new. On the original, it looked spectacular and, for the time, even on the 360 I'm sure it looked nice. Absolutely no complaints about graphic or audio presentation. The environments are very surreal and it's easy to get sucked into the game.
Hitman has always had really good music to go along with good gameplay, and this game doesn't disappoint. Correlating music goes along with you successfully pulling off a disguise, entering an area undetected, getting caught, etc. It all sets a very good mood and keeps you in the mindset required to enjoy a game like this.
Theatrics: 9.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
Hitman: Blood Money's story is about you, the Hitman, and the government officials trying to track you down because you're such a big, uncontrollable threat. The main characters are people following the timeline of events from your missions, reading them in archived news papers. This game has very good dialogue, but the missions are obviously just strung together to give varying gameplay, rather than very important story details.
It's hard to knock this game very much for it's story, because while the story is simple, it builds up very well up until the end of the game, and it's very nicely crafted. You'd swear by the final mission that you were James Bond instead of Agent 47, but even more cool and calculated.
The environments themselves can hold stories and the developers did a really good job of creating a wide range of memorable characters and situations you can get yourself into.
Controls: 8.5
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
Since Hitman: Blood Money introduces several new concepts, like taking a person hostage, it has some awkward controls sometimes. They give you good pointers to tell you what you're doing, but you can make mistakes by pressing the wrong button at the wrong time and it can coincidentally have pretty big consequences.
Sometimes the controls on the movement are just too sensitive, making your character spin in circles almost uncontrollably.
Replay Value: 10.0
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
Hitman is a campaign-only game, but they give you a lot of ways to complete the missions within the game. Studying the environments and experimenting is a lot of fun. I played through the game at least four times, and plan on doing so again. One play-through on a high difficulty level (basically meaning you can't just shoot your way in and out), trying to do everything as quietly as possible will easily give you 25+ hours of gameplay.
Fun: 9.5
How much fun was the game?
Very fun game, and very memorable. It's hard to even point out many problems. Sometimes the AI within the game can be frustrating, and sometimes losing control of the situation can be frustrating. This game takes a lot of studying, patience and time to get things done the right way, so be forewarned.
My Overall Rating: 9.4
Suggested Gaming Experience Level: Medium/High
What kind of experience playing video games do you need to really appreciate this game?
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