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Pros: Best story telling yet in storyline, fun gameplay Cons: No multiplayer, just a port
Concept: Kill for $ |
Soon Agent 47 will be a mainstream video game character. With Vin Diesel soon to play our favorite assassin on the big screen, your mom will soon know who the guy with the bar code on the back of his head is. Hitman: Blood Money is the fourth game in the series and the first time it appears on a next-gen system. Sadly most of the game still feels last-gen.
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Gameplay has not changed. Though you play an assassin your overall mission is not to slaughter hordes of bad guys. The game has a good measure of stealth gameplay for missions to play out the best. The goal is for no one to even know you were there, not set off the alarms and go on a frag fest. To help you accomplish this Agent 47 can wear a mix of uniforms and costumes to help walk through areas undetected.
Blood Money offers some very nice levels to play through as well. The game primarily takes place in the United States in locales ranging from a Northern California rehab clinic and a Las Vegas casino to a Mississippi riverboat and the streets of New Orleans during Mardi Gras.
To help you traverse the huge levels the game offers you will have a handy GPS system that will let you track everything from the movement of your enemies to any points of interest in the expansive levels.
This becomes a very important tool throughout the game. With stealth being a main focus it let’s you do a lot of planning with a distance. Hitman: Blood Money is not the game to play if you are looking for run and gun gameplay. During my playtime I would spend countless times plotting the perfect way to take out my mark. Creating the illusion of an accident is always the best strategy and it can take time to play out perfectly.
At the end of missions all your careful planning is graded. Blood Money features the Notoriety system which will actually grade you on a scale from 0 to 100 after every mission. The less notorious you are the better in your profession. Leaving custom gear, killing civilians or being recorded on security cameras will all give you a lower score. Based on your notoriety you will be rewarded your cash money for the mission. This can be used to pay off witnesses or change your identity to lower your notoriety. Having a high notoriety will take a decent cut out of your payday. Keeping a zero notoriety is best and it actually is not too hard to accomplish this either.
Despite all your hard planning though the A.I. can screw it up for you without a problem. At lower difficulties I had times when I would accidentally step right in front of a bad guy and jump out of the way real quick expecting to be engaged. Instead it was like he wasn’t even paying attention. On higher difficulties though the game feels hyper sensitive and will jump you at any given time.
The other major problem I have with Blood Money is the inventory system. Overall it just feels clunky and out dated. Though the game finally gives us some nice melee moves for surprise encounters using the inventory system just plain sucks. Holding X will open the menu and from there you spin your inventory until the item you need is highlighted. Six or seven years ago this was a great idea. Today this just kills the gameplay by forcing players to hunt for what they need in their own inventory.
Graphically this game offers some very large well put together levels. The graphics though are just higher resolution then they are on the Xbox or PS2 and remind you this game is just a port. They look sharp but Hitman is not the killer app for Xbox 360.
Voice acting is dead on yet again. The audio department did a real good job all around with some great ambient effects and great musical track.
Overall despite no multiplayer I still had a good time playing Blood Money. Once you get past the problems with the inventory and A.I. you will find a very deep and rich story line to follow and plenty of options to take out your target. The replay value is high on this title thanks to this and should provide a good deal of gameplay for those looking to perfect the assassination.