Hitman: Contracts

"Tobias Reaper is back!! Alas but not the same"

Being a “hardcore” stealth game specialist I was on pins and needles for months in anticipation of the sequel to the awesome highly acclaimed Hit man franchise.
I originally played part 2 first for the PS 2, and then went back and played part 1 for the PC, original game concept and stellar game play make the hit man series an eyebrow raiser in the stealth action adventure genre, but how much originality can they milk the franchise for? Is contracts at the end of the road of this series or does it breath life in to an over saturated genre that needs more original titles?

Read further for your answer

Game Play:
Game play as in the other hit man games is top notch. The entire game is based on missions that you have to assassinate a target, maybe retrieve Intel or complete an objective and make it to a checkpoint or exit area. So what separates this game from the competition? Exactly this; “game play”.
You can walk it to an area with guns-a-blazin' and kill everything in sight to eliminate a target but that's not what stealth assassin espionage is all about. Why not try sniping that VIP from a tower, why not dress as a cook and slip poison in to the crime bosses' drink, or knock out the guard take his uniform and staple the target's Adams apple to the back of his throat with the fiber. Maybe you'll put a silenced pistol (or your choice of weapon) in a stuffed chicken to avoid a weapon search and serve your target “more than just lunch”.
The game play is very open ended and unique. This ultimately is what brings us hit man junkies back for more.
10 of 10

Story:
Story on this is a mixed bag of nuts.
As in the other hit man games there is one main story line, but each mission is it's own separate entity with a mini story/objective.
The story in contracts is told in flashback sequences of 47 between hit man parts 1 & 2 (mainly rehashes of levels of hit man part 1), the game starts with 47 being shot and bringing himself in to a room and he starts having flash backs of previous hits that lead up to the reason why he is were he is.
I give an “A” to I/O for effort on the story and the way they did it in a flash back setting was truly top notch, and I guess this was a way for them to include or bring up to date fans of the franchise who weren't familiar with hit man part one. However I do feel the main story really dragged and you didn't get in to it until about the 8th or so mission
6 of 10

Graphics:
The graphics were well done in this game, they could have been better and of course they could've been done a whole lot worse but there were only slight improvements over hit man two's visuals (not that that's a bad thing but more time could have been put in). I also felt that in some areas the setting was too dark (I know they did it like this for the mood) it just seamed like an over kill IMO.
Other than that lighting effects and some of the subtle extras like blood pools, pre death B & W sequences, and mirror reflections were well done.
8 of 10

Audio:
Audio as always is done decently, the eerie music on some sages and the techno sound track on others (especially traditions of the trade “bomb recovery”) the music is very fitting, and while it isn't “award winning” It's worlds better than some sound tracks I've heard in games as of late. My only gripe some of the weapons like the ballers had an unrealistic booming sound, and there were some major sound glitches (mainly on 2-4th levels) that the debuggers never took the time to iron out but again minor issues that don't equate a low score but slightly lower it.
7 of 10

Controls:
I wasn't thrilled about the control changes from Hit man 2 to hit man: contracts.
It takes a little getting used to the changes and now the lack of a short cut weapon cue was annoying, especially in the later stages or you need to dump or switch to a weapon fast. If I were playing this game for the first time without playing part 2 I would still find the control setup a little awkward compared to similar types of games like metal gear, splinter cell, ect.
6 of 10

Fun factor
Yes!!!!!!!
How many times do you get to murder someone and if you're not satisfied with the end result, you can do it again in a more painful or completely different manner.
9 of 10

Re-playability
Because of the open ended-ness of the game you can play it multiple times to do different things, however it doesn't have a “huge” amount of replay were you'll find everyone will play it over again 50 times.
7 of 10

Good/Bad/Ugly

-Good: Mr. Reaper is back!! (With no psychic ninjas from part 2)
-Bad: The blood stains on the carpet
-ugly: Who the heck are those two fat brothers on level 2?

Buy/Rent
In my opinion buy, however I'd highly recommend a rental first if you are unsure, or possibly getting part 2 first ($20 as a greatest hits title) if you've never played a hit man game.

Overall
In general Contracts is a general improvement over its predecessors, most of the levels and missions are huge and very in depth, the visuals were somewhat improved over the other games, and it bolstered a decent sound track, but the core game was still more of a part 1 rehash rather than it's own fresh new game. In some ways I'm a “little” disappointed with Contracts, a lot of the levels became a bit repetitive (almost every level had rat or regular poison to eliminate a target), the story had a very slow/sluggish feel to it (it did get better later on), and it didn't quite have that same level of originality that you get when you play hit man 1 or hit man 2.
I don't know were or how to put my finger on it, hit man contracts is a good game, with solid game play but if you're familiar with the series it leaves you feeling like you want more. This is a good game but IMO it should've or at least could've been a “GREAT” game.
7 of 10 (IMO it's worth a 7.5 but no half numbers and I don't “give” extra points or round up)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/29/04, Updated 05/09/04