With Kane and Lynch taking up the developer’s attention it seems that Blood Money is going to be the last Hitman game we see for a short while.
The Hitman games make up one of my all time favourite series in gaming. Whilst I never got chance to play the original, I’ve played Hitman 2, Contracts and Blood Money. What’s odd is that the formula of the games don’t change much, the scope of the game just increases and so do your options. I still remember the thrill of figuring out that I could cap the Don from near the starting point on the first level of Hitman 2, that 1 silent shot (the prayer for him to fall the right way) and the subsequent stealthy dash to get to his body before the guards noticed it became a defining moment for me.
But it was only when I started playing Blood Money on Professional to get the final achievements that I realised that the game wasn’t really an action game whatsoever, it was at heart an incredibly visceral puzzle game. Finding and setting up the prime kills was one of the most spectacular and stimulating experiences I had while playing games, it actually made you aware of your surroundings and their relation to each other in a way that only the Thief series had done so before. More than anything else it made you part of the game world.
What always helped the game was the sheer imagination in show, despite using the same engine over three games the series never really started to feel stale. Because each level had so many subtle tweaks and nuances that they became their own worlds. What was also impressive is that they managed to get a series which started off with gangland killings and crescendoed with a (vice) presidential assassination (with terrorists, lords, porn barons, and Yakuza warlords thrown in along the way) to feel like one continuous, natural experience.
There was also always something pleasing meaty about the violence in the games, despite the rag doll engine now being largely defunct the game used it to fantastic effect giving every weapon a merciless and clinical feel. Truly scoring a sniper kill never FELT quite as good as it did in the Hitman games.
Despite the difference in settings and style the games always felt like they were part of one distinct narrative strand and the world that had been created always managed to maintain legitimate even when the limits of suspension of disbelief were being pushed to breaking point (killing Ninjas in an old castle in Japan, assassinations dressed as Santa and the Matrixesque penultimate level in Blood Money almost ruined it).
Anyone else a fan of this series?
The Hitman games make up one of my all time favourite series in gaming. Whilst I never got chance to play the original, I’ve played Hitman 2, Contracts and Blood Money. What’s odd is that the formula of the games don’t change much, the scope of the game just increases and so do your options. I still remember the thrill of figuring out that I could cap the Don from near the starting point on the first level of Hitman 2, that 1 silent shot (the prayer for him to fall the right way) and the subsequent stealthy dash to get to his body before the guards noticed it became a defining moment for me.
But it was only when I started playing Blood Money on Professional to get the final achievements that I realised that the game wasn’t really an action game whatsoever, it was at heart an incredibly visceral puzzle game. Finding and setting up the prime kills was one of the most spectacular and stimulating experiences I had while playing games, it actually made you aware of your surroundings and their relation to each other in a way that only the Thief series had done so before. More than anything else it made you part of the game world.
What always helped the game was the sheer imagination in show, despite using the same engine over three games the series never really started to feel stale. Because each level had so many subtle tweaks and nuances that they became their own worlds. What was also impressive is that they managed to get a series which started off with gangland killings and crescendoed with a (vice) presidential assassination (with terrorists, lords, porn barons, and Yakuza warlords thrown in along the way) to feel like one continuous, natural experience.
There was also always something pleasing meaty about the violence in the games, despite the rag doll engine now being largely defunct the game used it to fantastic effect giving every weapon a merciless and clinical feel. Truly scoring a sniper kill never FELT quite as good as it did in the Hitman games.
Despite the difference in settings and style the games always felt like they were part of one distinct narrative strand and the world that had been created always managed to maintain legitimate even when the limits of suspension of disbelief were being pushed to breaking point (killing Ninjas in an old castle in Japan, assassinations dressed as Santa and the Matrixesque penultimate level in Blood Money almost ruined it).
Anyone else a fan of this series?
