Product Description

Hitman is back and this time he's paid in cold, hard cash. The Blood Money he earns affects his passage through the game and the weapons at this disposal, resulting in a unique gameplay experience for each players. Powered by a new version of lo's stunning Glacier engine, Hitman: Blood Money will deliver the most brutal and realistic sumulation of life as the world's deadliest assassin.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6403 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Eidos
• Released on: 2006-05-26
• ESRB Rating: Adults Only
• Platforms: Windows 2000, Windows XP

Amazon.co.uk Review
In a nutshell:
Agent 47 is back in the game that finally does full justice to the Hitman concept, with huge improvements to the graphics, controls and, most importantly, the number of ways for you to plan your hits – from wading in guns blazing to making it all look like a simple accident.

The lowdown:
Although the Hitman games were always a great idea they never quite worked the way you expected, with an awkward control system and camera and far less freedom than it at first seemed. This latest sequel solves almost all these problems, starting with a standard third person camera over which you have full control. Although you can ask for hints on how to carry out a hit you’ve so many options the game’s almost like a macabre graphic adventure - do you use the remote detonated bomb on the chandelier winch in the ballroom or plug the secretary’s Coke with poison and hide in the cupboard? The new notoriety system seems a bit pointless but otherwise this gets almost everything right.

Most exciting moment:
The game features tons of new additions like grabbing human shields, a quick draw for your gun and the ability to hide bodies. The most fun though is the simple sounding push option, which allows you to sneak up behind someone and send them flying off a balcony by "accident".

Since you ask:
Blood Money includes various references to previous Hitman games, the most prominent being the Paris mission in an Opera house, which acts as a prequel to Hitman: Contracts.

The bottom line:
The best Hitman game yet, that makes a real effort to fix the flaws of the previous games.
Harrison Dent

Customer Reviews

Well Executed (sorry...)
The bald barcoded one is back, and this time he's trying to keep a low profile. The previous Hitman games often gave you some degree of flexibility in how you took out your target; do you snipe from the rooftop, put a bomb under the car, or get up close and personal with your fiber wire?

This time the main addition is that you can off your mark and make it look like an accident. Push them down the stairs, crash a chandelier on their heads, nudge them over the side of a balcony... In fact, excluding the training mission it is possible to finish the game having fired only a single shot!

With the visual effects cranked to the max this game looks great. The sound is awesome, particularly the haunting musical themes. The weapon models are spot-on, and every time you buy an addon like a scope or a RIS module for your M4, it's faithfully attached to the model. Hitman continues to uphold its reputation for being a game which is very difficult compared to the modern slew of games which take you on a quicksave-fuelled conveyor belt ride to the closing credits.

I have two separate character profiles that I play, one who sneaks around undetected causing "accidents", and another who racks his shotgun, blows the locks off, and mows everybody in the level down.

Now this takes me to a slight hitch. Me, I'm a fun of things that go "bang", and the customised weapons are a big deal to me. By the final level you can have a laser-guided hyperacccurate assault rifle, twin pistols, MP5, or sniper rifle (not to mention the shotgun), but there's something a little counterintuitive going on. In order to get maximum money to spend on upgrades, you need to cause accidents without using weapons. So my stealthy profile has got a ton of cash and all his weapons are maxed out. But because he's a stealthy bugger I never get to use them! Conversely my rather aggressive character certainly gets to use all his weapons, he gets a lower payout for each mission with which to buy more toys! Anyway, certainly not a fatal flaw and perhaps one that exists intentionally to encourage replayability.

One final niggle that prevents the game from getting its fifth star. This game is at its best as a stealth game, and like Splinter Cell before it, when it devolves into a shooting match it's less convincing a shooter than say, SWAT 4, FEAR, or Raven Shield. The weapons certainly feel a bit more powerful than they used to, but when there's an alert all the guards just come charging towards you with no AI or planning whatsoever, they just patiently line up to be headshotted (is that a word?).

So, the best installment in the series by far, and another jolt to the system which will keep the franchise going. Let's hope next time they cater us much to the visceral shooting bits as they do to the sneaky quiet bits.

The Best Yet!
I own the entire Hitman series, and when this latest instalment arrived I was expecting more of the same dark, rainy graphics that you get in Hitman: Contracts. But this game is awesome, the graphics are absolutly stunning, the new interface cuts out the endless scrolling down lists of actions to perform, and the new weapons upgrade shop brings a whole new aspect to the mind of Agent 47 as you pick the weapons and upgrades suitable for the mission. This is an absolute must by for any Hitman fan, or just anyone looking for some fun, as you do have the option of going for the phycopath rating and just gunning your way through any mission! Every mission has about 20 solutions, making this a game you can play over and over again!

Good, but WHY can't you save your games????
The gameplay and the rendering of this game are awesome (the political rally where the streets are packed with people is breathtaking)... the only problem is the saving of games, it's idiotic. You have limited saves per level (based on the difficulty setting), and if you leave a level half way through (like, you've got work to do or the game crashes - which it does occasionally) you have to start again from the beginning. WHO thought that was a good idea????