Hitman Blood Money

Hitman Blood Money. It’s a game about being assassin, obviously. It has beautiful graphics and excellent detail to the weapons. It is a great game. You have a dozen levels to murder through in more or less any fashion you choose: from guns blazing to sniping with one bullet; poisoning the target in his sleep or making it look like suicide. It is by far the best in the series but of course I’m going to complain anyways.

First of all you are supposed to be this silent assassin that is feared around the globe for the hits you’ve done. I respect that, sounds pretty good so far, however you’re actually a super human clone manufactured by the franchise. You’re bald and have a bar code tattooed into the back of your head. Well I assure you, if you were notorious then people would probably be able to pick you out of a crowd let alone a line-up. You are this tall muscular guy who does nothing but brood and look p*ssed off. Of course you wear an expensive suit with a blood red tie making you stand out just that little bit more. So I ask you, in theatre, or a pool party would you stand out? I think you would. Oh I know you can change clothes by undressing an unconscious guy or finding an outfit in a bathroom but how he changes is ridiculous: he bends down and touches the guy; instantly he’s wearing another outfit. Yeah that’s how they keep the game realistic. But the point I’m trying to make is, unless he’s wearing a mask of some sort then it doesn’t matter what he changes into, he’s still going to be bald with a bar code on his head. Its insane, he couldn’t stand out more if he has an arrow on his head saying: “I am suspicious; look at me.”

There are some great parts, the gun are fantastic and there are a fair few to pick from at the start of every mission, also the cleaner your kill is the more you’ll be paid. The money goes towards bombs, upgrades for you weapons, better lock picks and so on. It’s pretty fun but it could be better.

The AI is stupid, they fumble around and walk the same routes over and over, once knowing a mission inside out there’s really nothing to the game. There are a number of ways to play the game, but it doesn’t really make the game any better. You find a way of playing that you enjoy and don’t often try playing it any other way; that could be said about almost every game these days.

The thing that annoyed me most was the seriousness of the game. First off I can’t take a bald idiot in a suit serious, secondly if its so serious then why do they keep adding stupid things into it to be funny. I quite like a joke here and there, but some of the things in blood money are so annoying and out of place it drives me crazy. An example would be a level set in a theatre, kill two targets: the usual. I take aim from the rafters with a high powered rifle at my target. He stands proudly on the stage acting his heart out. I fire a single bullet and he dies. Its all great then my other target runs down to see what happen, I take aim again and watch him run all the way down the runway to the corpse. Its a predetermined path: the man trips and falls comically to the floor and lies there for a full three seconds, then he gets up and continues on his path. I raise an eyebrow and look at ceiling. He fell because there is a light you can rig to fall, naturally the idea is for the light to fall on him. It is cool, but its too deliberate. How can you rig the light knowing that its going to fall and kill one of your targets without playing the level through first? That kind of thing really annoys me, and there are dozens like it in Blood Money.

I do complain, much more than I should. I know this. But I would like to see a game done right. Why couldn’t they have made Blood Money customisable, why didn’t some say: “Wait a minute, how the hell is the player gonna’ know that the target is gonna’ do that?”
I get they wanted to keep it in with story from the first game, and fair enough. I just want a game that doesn’t make me feel like I’m controlling a retarded neanderthal who’s obsessed with luxury suits.

Hitman Blood Money, asides my former complaints, is a well put together game with excellent replay value, an eye for weapons and cold executions. Don’t expect it to be flawless but you will still be surprised.