Hitman: Blood Money

"Hitman Blood money, First you get the money, then you get the power than you get the contracts."

Hitman Blood money is the latest installment of the hitman legacy. With the return of the Bald clone assassin Agent 47.

Starting with some of the newest features of the game, which defiantly set it apart from the rest of the games.

Features-
One of the most notable and obvious features of the game is rather than have the agency give you your guns and equipment, you have to buy them with money you receive from executing (pun intended) your assignments. This means that at the start of every assignment you can actually upgrade your main weapons which are your trademark Silver Ballers, Combat Shotgun, Submachine gun, assault rifle and Sniper Rifle. the improvements to the weapons range from simple things like different types of rounds to adding scopes, suppressors, laser sights and even changing the frame of the gun to make it not set metal detectors off.

Another new feature which is intermixed another is the use of a notoriety system that means if you decide to go firing round after round after round into your enemies and bystanders means that in later missions you may be identified by bystanders who alert guards making your job as a silent assassin impossible. This is improved by the addition of a newspaper at the end of he mission that you can read. Which may or may not identify baldy as the assassin. It also tells you how many bullets where fired, along with any deaths caused and whether you hid the body well enough.

Yet another new feature is the addition of some new moves that 47 can do. Such as he can now fist fight should a enemy get too close, which also includes an automatic disarming move, so if an enemy is too close with a gun you can literally turn it on him and shoot. Now one of 47 trademark weapons is the piano wire, which also has some new moves such as climbing through the emergency hatch in an elevator and pulling someone up and strangling them. You can also take hostages and use them as bullet shields.

There are a lot of features that make this game as good as it is. More include the ability to hide in closets, shooting locks on doors for quick entry, mini bombs for causing "accidents". 47 can now also climb drainpipes, jump through windows and across balconies. 47 also now carries his small arms behind his back so when you walk to a guard he does not see your gun.

Now to the basics.

Gameplay: 10/10
This is where all the new features have come into their own and make this hitman game an unforgettable experience for new and old gamers alike. The difficulty at the varying settings are obvious and the easiest setting is still a little challenge. The Character responds well and actions are easy to perform. Also this may fit into the graphics heading but according to my observations and research it is also apparent that EIDOS has created a new NCP engine letting up to what seems like 400 NCP characters on screen at anytime.

Graphics:9/10
The graphics are rich and well made, blood splatter effects are fairly good as well as attention to detail on 47 from face movement to the sheen of his silk suits. However the NCP characters face movements could have been better.

Audio: 10/10
Guns, bombs voices foot steps and voices are well recorded. Enough said.

Buy or rent: buy.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/30/06