Hitman: Blood Money

Finally, Agent 47 comes shooting back after a two-year hiatus. His killer antics remain the same: devious, sly, and conniving--a mark of a true Hitman game.

Notorious A.4.7

In this fourth installment of the series, you once again play as Agent 47, a ruthlessly skilled assassin who will get the job done at any cost. This time, however, his missions are meant to weed out a mole that's responsible for killing off your peers.

Of course, Blood Money's story isn't the highlight. As any faithful fan will tell you, it's the non-linear gameplay that makes this game a...er, hit. Like its predecessors, you can fulfill your contracts in a number of different ways. The point: you can run-and-gun if you'd like, or be incognito by dressing the part, getting close to the target, and then making a silent kill.

In Blood Money, though, the new notoriety system doesn't necessarily support the run-and-gun tactics. In each mission, you're responsible for "dealing" with witnesses, hiding bodies, and not getting caught on video tape. If you're not careful and become sloppy, your notoriety rises at the end of each job; too much notoriety and newspapers will print likenesses of you, which in turn guards and other sentries will be more suspicious of you. Essentially (and happily), the notoriety system forces you to be much more sneaky, smart, and patient on how to complete your objectives.

Deadly Cos Play

Using your sharp wits more than your fast trigger senses is the core of Blood Money. And the game offers a glut of tools and multiple paths to help fulfill your underhanded ways. You can switch clothes with just about anyone you knockout, climb through windows, rappel down drain pipes, and pick locked doors. Options abound of how you dispose of a target, too. Strangle them with a wire. Stab them with a kitchen knife. Set up a bomb to detonate at will. Shove them over a rail or inject them with a deadly serum. And, of course, shoot them with an armory of weaponry.

Shotgun. Check. Sniper rifle. Check. Submachine gun. Check. Automatic rifle. Check. Silenced handgun. Check. Indeed, no hard-hitting sanction is complete without Agent 47's stockpile of guns. Each of his reserved weapons can be upgraded (at a price, of course) with much more powerful bullets, varying scopes, extra clips, and laser sites. The amount of upgrades is more than satisfactory, but why can't you upgrade the weapons you pick up during each mission?

The Sandbox Sanction

The expansive level designs enable the deep flexibility in assassinating your target. In fact, each level is as diverse as the ways you can kill someone. Each level houses multiple levels, multiple rooms, and multiple scripted events happening at the same time. There is usually no one way to enter or exit a structure, and at each replay there's a good chance in discovering a new path or tactic to get to the target. In fact, the replay value is pleasantly high due to the robust gameplay as each mission can be finished in so many ways.

The open, expansive world of Hitman is certainly what makes this game an enjoyable experience. There's a good mix of stealth and action, and your enemies are smart enough to give you a challenge to the very end. Hire this Hitman for multiple contracts--it's well worth your blood and money.

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