Hitman: Contracts

The assassin who looks like a pre-chrome-accident Destro remembers his greatest hits.

47 is a complicated man. Not only is his name a number, but he also begins Hitman: Contracts in a state of delirium, reliving past hits in a sort of hazy, fever-dream consciousness. Not so good for 47, but good for you because you get to play these hallucinogenic missions in a slightly altered Hitman fashion.

Contracts? missions begin in the sanitarium moments after the end of the first Hitman game, and the game's trippy nature is clear from the start. Developer Io Interactive has employed a post-filtering process that enables it to take final rendered graphics and apply effects, such as distance blur, soft-focus, and color correction, giving the game a look not unlike what you see after rubbing your eyes hard for a few seconds. Not only will the graphics appear blurry, but you'll also see surreal little touches?say, a mental patient chopping up a clone of 47 or strippers walking around with pig faces--that will subtly remind you that you're not just playing another of 47's typical missions.

Even considering that the missions are all whacked-out flashbacks, Hitman: Contracts doesn't change the successful Hitman formula too much. You still have several ways to solve any given problem, and you can still perform stealth kills, take fallen enemies' clothes, and poison beverages to get through a level. The PS2 preview version we played (the game is also coming to the Xbox and PC) showed a familiar (and still clunky) control scheme and the same sort of try-it-til-you-figure-it-out gameplay style for which Hitman is famous, but the strange mood of the game was already evident. Mixing Hitman?s decidedly gritty and realistic world with a dash of the surreal ought to give the game the shot it needs to avoid being "just more Hitman."

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