Intro

Hello everyone!

So last time around March I did a feature all of March I called "Metal Gear March" in which coming freshly off of playing Metal Gear Rising I went through the entire Metal Gear Solid game lineup from MGS1 - Peace Walker. Well, its early in the year again and besides picking up Tomb Raider next week I've got a few weeks to kill with nothing on the horizon. I also well... bought every Hitman game on steam the other day?

So after clicking the purchase button I sat there and pondered. Would these games just sit in my steam library doomed to never be played like the majority of my other games? Around the same time I've been starting recording my Spelunky Daily runs and uploading them to YouTube. So, two and two game together in my head and I figured that for fun I'd record me stumbling my way through the games.

First up is Codename 47 the very first game in the series and the only one that I've never played. As of this writing I've done two play sessions and recorded them. Now why am I posting this here?

For a few reasons namely by putting this out in public now I've kind of put the fire to my feet to actually go through with this and go through all five games. And if any of you care to actually watch me stumble through these games well you're welcome to come along for the ride.

As I post new episodes I'll try to throw out a quick synopsis or highlights of that days run. I'll also post my overall feelings about each game as I beat them. I probably won't do this every single day but considering I've been having fun with this you can more than likely expect 2-3 a week. Below I'll be making a grid separating the games and the episodes as I go along. Also, any feedback on the videos would be welcome as this is my first time really trying to commentate and play a game at the same time. But, you know don't be a jerk about it. Also I totally realize the first two episodes have weird aspect ratios and some of the screen is cut off. OBS wouldn't direct capture the game so I had to capture the window and for whatever reason it did that. Don't worry though I think I have that issue sorted out. Thanks guys.

Episodes

So first real update. In a horrible decision last night at 12am (a.k.a I had to be up for work at 6am) I decided I should take a run on the level I was currently on. Well this turned into my longest episode thus far at 1hr 20 minutes.

The positives are that I also figured out that OpenGL is way more friendly to OBS than Direct3D is. So now I managed to capture the entire screen at an acceptable resolution. And honestly, its the largest resolution I can even run this game at. This thing does NOT like modern computers at all.

What resulted from this episode is not a whole lot of forward progress except the fact that I now know my basic route for the level ahead. Codename 47 is a very broken rigid game. I find it fascinating as a longtime hitman fan but lets just be blunt there are some things that make no sense at all in this game.

That being said I'm the one taking the bullet here so for the few of you taking this journey with me we're almost ready to ditch Hong Kong. We meet a few new friends (a love interest whaaaat?) and get endlessly lost in the basement. The original post is updated with the latest episode. I'll record the next episode either tonight after my spelunky run or tomorrow afternoon since I have off.

Update for today. In the latest episode we finally (thank god) say good bye to Hong Kong as we finish up the Lee Hong assassination mission. Next up is the jungle where we make quick friends with the locals and play Rambo gunning down the lackeys of an apparent drug lord?

The good news is here that we are almost half way done with Codename 47 now! I can't wait for Silent Assassin!

I loved the Hitman series back in the day, and completed Codename 47 and Silent Assassin around their release. I remember Codename 47 being really hard and "rigid" as you say, but still fun. Silent Assassin was a big improvement in every way. Despite loving the series so much, I haven't played through a Hitman game since. I bought Blood Money and Absolution recently and plan on playing through those soon though. I'll try and watch some of these episodes as I'm curious to see the old games again. Good luck with your playthroughs!

Doing a big update today and posting two episodes since one of them is extremely short. Whew, so, today's update is interesting. Part 6 took me literally 7 or so tries even after I found the optimal route through the level why? Bugs!

Codname 47 abhors modern machines. A known former bug that causes the entire executable to crash was back in full swing on my version. Causing the final objective of blowing up the drug lab in the last jungle mission to crash the game...every...time. Finally got it to work, thankfully. Needless to say you can quite tell that I was a tad worn out by the time I got it to actually work. Good news is that I'm nearly done with Codename 47 and I'll soon be able to play WAY more interesting Hitman games. If anyone is sticking with me through Codename 47 on this thanks! Cause man, this game is rough! Original post updated with links to part 5 and 6.

Hitman 1 and 2 don't really hold up very well if you ask me. So many missions only have one way to get a silent assassin in both those games. The series really up its game with contract and the fantastic blood money. But let's not talk about absolution, that game is garbage.

@pyrodactyl: I'd have to disagree actually. While I don't think it was nearly the high mark that some of the earlier games were its still all things considered a fun game even if they did rely on linear stealth levels a little too much.

@demoskinos: Let's replace ''garbage'' with ''a huge disapointment''. Scripted checkpoints that respawn ennemies when you load, no manual saves, disguises, the stapple of the hitman series, are mostly useless on normal and completly useless in higher difficulty levels. Two thirds of the levels were just linear guard fest reminescent of splinter cell but without any of the fun stealth mechanics or gadgets that inpower the player in those games (the early splinter cells at least). Finally, the handfull of open ended levels were way to small and easy compared to most of contract and blood money levels.

So here we go! First episode of Hitman Contracts! I was going to do Hitman 2 but that game doesn't like modern machines and I couldn't get it to capture. First video is really short and just the opening prologue mission but we gotta start somewhere right?

The episode guide for Contracts has been added in the OP as well as the full roster of Codename 47 episodes. Appreciate anyone who takes the time to watch/like/share the videos thanks! =)

Okay, yet another update! Episode 2 of Contracts is up and this time I tackle one of my favorite missions in Contracts "The Meat King's Party"! I really love the music on this level Jesper Kyd really out does himself on nearly every track he made for this game.

As always thanks for anyone who watches/comments/likes the video. I'll dive into the next mission soon!