Hitman: Blood Money

 

Sniped, fiber wired, and stolen the clothes off of random people with the help of Gamer Jay

So, you listened to that voice behind you that told you all you needed was under your seat, huh? Well you must have, or you wouldn’t be reading this right now. There is good news and bad news with you reading this, there is no money with this paper yet I do have a set of missions in store for you that I’m sure the violent killer in you will greatly enjoy. This time, we venture into the world of Hitman Contracts, a man on an assortment of missions to please his employer, with the utmost discretion and finesse only a trained assassin could do. From .... Russia.... , with love may I add, .... China.... or possible Japanese, I couldn’t honestly tell but they all looked the same while I was there, and even more spectacular… wait for it… uh huh… A meat factory! Then there’s the opium club… now I’m just gonna not think about that one. See that hitman recruiter that told you would be visiting exotic places, and kill exotic people, you have proof right there. Your weapons are given to you at the start of each mission, basically a set of pistols, a silenced one, a syringe full of an unknown substance, a fiber wire and whatever else that I never really used. Some of the stuff they pill into your coat and pants, haha… in your pants, the majority of the weapons given are not even used, even if you plan on either sneaking around or run and gunning your way through the innocent people as well as the intended target. They tend to give you more than you can handle in some cases, you get loaded on more than enough ammo and guns as you progress through the level, I ask why you where given a syringe you quite possibly don’t need except in one case, or possible a few, and you are only given one of them, how does that help if you were in a tight situation and needed to take out 2 or 3 people in a line down a hall with the syringe and you only have one on you? I did like, however, the amount of realism on the power of each blast from a gun, from pistol to shotgun, the power of a shotgun blast takes away more health than a pistol to the leg or chest.

The game is a sight to behold, yet if you haven’t played the first or second ones, you are really lost, and can’t honestly tell what happened. I never played the originals and when the first cut scene came on I was honestly confused for the first levels. I was kinda hoping for a more of an explanation but got over it, slightly when I hit a level that made me think more than any other, I lost sight that I was confused and went onto plan my strategy out. Some aspects of this make me question the design of the game, it’s called a Hitman, and they usually become silent, and stay silent, there are a few levels where you have to run and gun, because there is no silent way around it, unless you trained for like years or cheated. I was really not that much of a silent assassin anyway, I either got professional, assassin, or mass murderer, kinda differed depending on my stress level on my surrounding or my feelings towards the level at hand. It does take some practice, which is a good thing they have the training session to train you, if you need that kind of thing, or if you would rather die repeatedly on the first level trying to figure out how it works you can do that too. The graphics are good, I thought the cut scenes needed to be smoothed out a bit, the pixels seemed to wanna jump out of the screen than stay with the face it was assigned to be with. But within the actual game play the graphics performed remarkably well, with lighting effects and the design of walls and buildings around you is rather impressive. The sound creates a since
of ambiance where you go and changes due to area or weather or not your cover has been blown, yet it does get rather lack luster in the variety department, the same sounds and music can be heard over and over again, and does get annoying if you are trying to sneak over to something or someone, it gets repetitive and makes you sometimes forget the goal.

The control scheme is confusing at times, if you don’t like memorizing the schemes then it kinda makes it hard for you to play this game, play it well anyway, hell even most games are like that now days. I tended to get the buttons confused, either dropping the weapon or not remembering how to reload the weapon, in bad fights against a guy you need to assassinate, I ended up dieing rather than completing my objective, and me not being a guy who remembers to save often, I usually had to start all over again. This is one of those few games that make me think, which happens very rarely, leaving me wanting more from the next installments they have out and even going back to play the originals. I sometimes hated the A.I. due to stupidity, standing right in front of me when they could shot me yet just staring at me, as if he was checking his outfit in my shinny dome. The final level, one that tested my run and gun skills but not my stealth, the swat
member held his shotgun in my face yet never shot at me, giving me and my pistol the time to place Mr. Happy Friendly bullet in his head. An un-responsive A.I. kinda makes me think less of an already great game, making it a harder decision to rate it on.

My final verdict: This game was great, the graphics were great during actual play time but within cut scenes made it look choppy and sluggish, the sound was perfectly chosen but possibly the over use of it makes the value of the perfect music ware off. The character design had a good look yet the same style seemed to be over used, a little more variety in the model would of showed a better expansive world or in this case each level. I saw the same people in the same places over and over again, I gave kudos on the life like weapon power and looks yet they dropped the ball because all people look different and it would have showed a bit more trying in their favor. The weapons were of a small variety, but exactly what was needed for a Hitman, so I gave props for that but the lack of certain ones kinda disappointed me, a few more syringes, even one more would be nice, and why use the goggles or the binoculars, no use half the time. And the final mark off was on the A.I.’s stupidity at moments make the game not as much a thinking or strategy using game that it should be, so lets hope in the game they brought out after this one improved on it. Grade: 8.5 out of 10, taking off for the A.I. fumble and the lack of certain other things 
 
Alright people, I know this one isn’t probably up to par with my others but it’s been a trying session on me and some of the Torched Perceptions team, I have been working with them hard to try to get the site up as well as some personal issues and what not. I promise, the site will be up sooner than you think, just give us some time. I must be off, on both the search for the next game to review and the power needed to get the site up and running. I will return with a Chaos Emerald in one hand and a Plasma Grenade in the other, ready to fight any game villain you have to throw at me. For more reviews or past review requests for back issues, email me at gamerguy18@gmail.com or leave me a message at my Myspace www.myspace.com/torchedperceptions