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| SLOPPILY EXECUTED |
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 ’m no assassin, but it seems to me that the biggest skill of a gun for hire is crowd management. Get in, cover your tracks, get out, and stay unnoticed among the game’s throngs of NPCs. While there’s a lot to love about this series, and this entry in particular, Agent 47’s world still doesn’t offer the subtlety necessary for this great premise to really be satisfying.
The character and the universe aren’t to be blamed at all. The tortured and soft-spoken Agent 47 has a great backstory and operates in a world of high-society intrigue. His clients have their own motives, but our flawed hero is focused on professional efficiency and in Blood Money, that includes a new Notoriety system, which has some really fun and rewarding features. A dynamically generated newspaper clipping lets players check the relative amount of information that cops, reporters, and marks might have on them. If you become too recognizable, future jobs are in jeopardy before you even start. Since 47 actually gets to manage his finances this time around, you can choose to upgrade weapons or, sometimes more usefully, pay off the cops to wipe your trail clean.
The setups and locations are also really well established and interesting. A killing during an opera is elaborate and devilishly clever. Consistently, the game shows ingenuity with 47’s means and methods, and the environments (along with great cheesy-dramatic soundtrack choices) make the entire game’s mood that of privilege, danger, and high drama.
Blood Money’s good looks aren’t enough, though. For every ounce of effort put into the grand locations, I wish that double that had been invested in AI. The crutch of this title’s gameplay isn’t mood or appearances, but in trusting that the rules of the universe will stay consistent and predictable. Threat levels rise without much obvious reason, enemies will call in the cavalry almost randomly, and the real-time map is more of a hindrance than a help. A stealth game is successful when it lets players think that they’re being smart and that they’re managing the situation in a clever way. This is only possible, and therefore success is only possible, when the universe behaves in an understandable and predictable way. Blood Money’s citizens do not, and in that way the game fundamentally fails.
But even with this big problem, I still really love elements of the Hitman series and Blood Money in particular. The care in mission design, the new options to choose your equipment (and how it’s upgraded), and the main character himself all make this a bitter experience for me. Hitman – the franchise and the character – deserve better than this sometimes buggy entry, and I hope that future releases really let me live the life of a paid killer. Vicariously, of course, that could be great fun.
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Hitman: Blood Money is like trying to eat a delicious chocolate cake with no fork while wearing mittens. There are some tasty morsels to be had, but getting to them is a mess. I love so many things about this series – Agent 47 is a great character, the devious scenarios are packed with intrigue and tension, and your host of deadly gadgets and abilities give you a number of cool ways to approach every mission. However, there are still too many serious flaws with this game for me to give it a glowing endorsement. For a title that requires precise stealth, pulling off basic actions is way too tricky (He’s right in front of you! Just strangle him, dammit!). Also, the laws of AI that govern the NPCs are extremely suspect. Sometimes, you can walk circles around your target without raising their curiosity, other times, you will walk into a room and be instantly targeted by the guards. Also, like all the other titles in the series, you spend far too much time looking at the real-time map, waiting for the right moment. A great game marred by sloppy execution. |
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7.75 |
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| CONCEPT: |
| Take the awesome Agent 47 character and make his world even more complicated |
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| GRAPHICS: |
| Beautiful locations, nice lighting designs, and great cutscenes push this series into the big leagues |
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| SOUND: |
| Chamber music never seemed so tongue-in-cheek, but it totally works |
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| PLAYABILITY: |
| Clunky control schemes are the second biggest problem in the game and a total bummer |
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| ENTERTAINMENT: |
| Agent 47 is still a great character and the setups are really inventive, but poorly implemented details mar the whole experience |
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