Hitman: Blood Money

"Hitman: Revamped"

The fourth game in the Hitman series, Blood Money is the latest game to see Agent 47 go up against some of the most lowliest scum in the world. But just how does it compare to its three predecessors? It excels greatly.

1. Graphics 10/10: Nothing to complain about. Much improved over ‘Contracts.' No blocky or rigid characters. All very realistic. The atmosphere of the levels is not dark like they were in Contracts, because there are several missions that take place during the day, and only one mission has rain.

2. Sound 10/10: Not bad. The song that plays during the credits, ‘Tomorrow Never Dies' is by the Danish band Swan Lee. As implied by the name, it was going to be the theme song to the Bond flick in 1997, but they foolishly went with Sheryl Crow. Mini-rant aside, it's a very catchy song.

3. Story 10/10: The story makes a new chapter by leaving narration to the leader of a neo-political organization that is attempting to kill 47. There are also rival clones you face off against every now and then. Simply put, the story is quite dramatic for the Hitman series, as it brings political implications into the fold.

4. Gameplay 10/10: Many new changes, some of which take some getting used to. As a player, to survive in later levels, you must be discreet and tactful. Running and gunning is simply out of the question for a few reasons.

- Notoriety: This is one of those reasons. If you run and gun in a level, there are consequences. There are security cameras and witnesses that are left behind. This goes to my next point:

- New statistics screens: After the usual stats screen (violence versus stealth, kills, shots fired, etc), you can read about your notoriety and ranking in a newspaper, where your hit is front page news. From here you can see how "popular" you are, as increased notoriety will lead to a continued development of the police sketch. However, not to fear. You can keep your notoriety low by being sneaky as always, and if you bungle a job you can use your earned money to bribe witnesses at the stats screens. This leads to my next points:

- Funds: Just a mini point. When you beat a mission you earn money that you can use to bribe witnesses or upgrade your custom weapons. The amount of money you earn depends on how sneaky you were, how much "clean up" had to be done, if you ended the level with your suit on, etc. Now to my next point:

- New killing methods: To make your hits not look like hits, there are now "accidents." Think of them as like Bond moments (you know in the movies where Bond is a badass but also super clever?), but more morbid. Of course you can always go in when your target is unaware and blast the living hell out of him, it's your choice. You can also incur "accidents" on characters who are not targets. This usually involves them losing their balance and "falling" over rails to their death below. Fun stuff.

- New points of interest in levels: Besides the usual disguises, there are security rooms where the camera feed is taped, large boxes to toss bodies in, as well as ICA emplacements. The latter involves the International Contract Agency (the agency that 47 gets his assignments from) placing your more overt weapons in select ICA boxes throughout the level. For example, at the mission briefing, you choose a SPAS-12 or an M4 (IE non-concealable weapons). Instead of starting out the mission with one of your big guns, it can be found in one of the ICA boxes, which can be located on your map.

- Rankings: Plenty and plenty of rankings, based on how you kill, who you kill, what you kill with, etc. The biggest change and departure from the last two games is the decrease in importance of the Silent Assassin ranking. Sure it's cool to get (because in this game it means having a 0/100 notoriety, which is what you want), but in HBM you can no longer earn awesometastic dual/silenced weapons. Which leads to my next point:

- Weapons: While in previous games you could earn upgraded versions of basic weapons (usually silenced or dual versions, like dual Desert Eagles or a silenced AK74), that has now been modified. Instead, at the weapon select screen, you have customizable weapons: Silverballer, SPAS-12, M4, SMG, and W2000 sniper rifle. To customize these, you use funds earned from your hits to max them out to their best. There are roughly 12 upgrades for each weapon, along with upgrades for your other items (body armour, sniper rifle case, painkillers, lock pick, etc). Of course that doesn't mean you can't use weapons you found from other levels. Any weapon you have on your person when you beat a mission allows you to select and use that weapon for later missions. As usual, no melee or improvised weapons are saved, only guns.

- Profiles: No longer do you have to play a saved game, quit, and then choose "current game." You can now have your own profile. A few things. Your saved games do not last: they are short term that only last for as long as you play the level. If you save, quit back to the menu, you can not load that save game. There are also four difficulty levels, but they are all on their own "tier." That is, if you beat the game on normal and unlock all the levels, it doesn't mean you can go back and play them on rookie. Unlocking the levels on one mode does not unlock them on other modes.

- Easy to use HUD: In the upper left corner of the screen, the Y, X, and B buttons are highlighted to show what you can do with them in any instance, say if you walk over a weapon, a body, behind a person (for use as a bullet shield), next to a door. You have your health and notoriety meters in the bottom left of the screen as well. Helps for players who are new to the series.

- Intel reports: In each level you can use funds to buy pieces of intelligence provided to you by the ICA. Honestly? Don't bother wasting your money on them. Instead, check out SirSlimShady2's Intel FAQ here at GameFAQS.

- AI: Not shabby. A little annoying though, as whenever you walk by them they'll look at you for several moments longer than one would like. If you do something stupid (like killing a person in plain sight but no one sees it anyway), civilians will start pointing fingers. Kind of silly. Of course if you feel like relaxing after an exhausting day, there are always crowds of unarmed civilians in the levels. Terrible really, but just saying it's healthier then actually killing a real person. Because that would be very very very bad.

ANYWAY

5. Replay value 6/10: There's not much to do in going back through levels, except for figuring out how to enable the clever "accidents" the devs. intended for players to use. And of course for figuring out alternate means of going through levels, because there are tons and tons of strategies and tactics for getting through any level. That's the beauty of the Hitman games. It's not like the original Splinter Cell games where you were forced down a specific path. You can really do anything you want. But you also can't earn any money for levels already played. Still, it's not a bad idea to go through levels again just to see what you missed, and what you can do better with the next difficulty mode you play.

In all, the game is a great revamping of the series, appealing to old fans, and easy to get into for new players. The only reason I'm keeping it from a 10 is due to the difficulty of getting used to the new "accident" methods of killing your targets. Because to do them really requires that you be devious and sneaky to begin with, but we're not all psychotic so it takes some adjustment to get used to what the devs. designed players to do. Still, it's nevertheless a great game. Rent at least, and if you like it, buy it!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/09

Game Release: Hitman: Blood Money (US, 05/30/06)