Hitman: Blood Money

May 6, 2005

The man named 47 has to be one of the most brutally interesting characters in mature rated video games today. He's uncompromising, violent, skilled, and extremely professional. While we've seen a little bit into his past and slipped into his bloody shoes in the first few games, 47 will have his biggest challenge yet when Hitman: Blood Money gets released to stores. IO Interactive is intent on making this sequel one to be proud of and in turn are adding a ton of new features, a deep story with just as many twisted turns as before, new weapons, and an updated engine. This is one of those games you don't want your children to play, but for those of us that can handle the content and context, Hitman: Blood Money should provide both a thoughtful and strategic experience and a brutal shooter... but this all depends on how notorious you're willing to get.

After so much death, you would think that a man would finally have his fill of blood and pain. But it seems that our bald buddy still has some room in the cracks. At the beginning of the game, 47 is back in the business and working for the ICA again. "Blood Money introduces a great new storyline," states Producer Neil Donnel. "Admittedly when the player begins it may seem like business as usual for Agent 47 but by the second level, they'll know something's up and as they progress through the game, the plot will gradually unfurl and reveal some nasty surprises." Unfortunately, that's as far as Eidos and IO seem willing to go with the details of the story beyond the press release, which clearly states ICA assassins begin getting killed one at a time. After losing all contact with ICA, 47 does the wise thing and picks up shop to begin anew in America.

The trailer, which we have for you exclusively today, actually hints at quite a bit more. It seems as though the CIA may play a bigger role as 47 rises in noteriety and becomes legend. The first few lines speak as though he's a fairy tale. While there's little other than those few clues, we can also clearly see that 47 will be heading down to Las Vegas for some dirty work. Some of the concept art that we've been presented with also suggest the seedier side of the game comes back full force with hints at the , a crazy , and .

Along with the hints of notoriety for 47 come a couple of new game systems that actually take advantage of that idea in a way that should make the way levels are completed more important to future levels than it ever has been in past Hitman games. The first idea is that of Notoriety itself. It seems pretty obvious, but if you're a hired assassin, it's probably in your best interest to stay in the dark and complete missions with the least fuss possible. In and out with no one the wiser. "Think about it, if you are an assassin your career will last much longer if you are able to take out your hits undetected," says Donnel. However, as anyone who has played Hitman games in the past knows, sometimes stealth just aint gonna happen. As before, you will be able to complete missions in whichever way you wish. "If you do choose to play through guns blazing, this will have a natural effect on a lot of the newly improved feature sets but this only increases the depth and experience of the gameplay to follow."

Basically what that means is that "...those who have 'played like a murderous freak' and drawn a little too much attention to themselves, their work won't go unnoticed by the media… The new Notoriety system means that anyone causing a bloodbath worthy of front page news is risking being recognised by civilians and guards in the future." I tend to like this idea. There's still relative freedom as far as gameplay goes, meaning you can play a level through however you wish. But now there's a great amount of encouragement to play the game like an actual hitman.

But the consequence of gaining Notoriety reaches farther than risking recognition during later levels. Those that complete the levels without being noticed and complete the perfectly clean hit will be rewarded with greater amounts of cash. With cash comes opportunity. Enter the Blood Money system. "The player can choose to spend their earnings on fully customisable precision weapons and specialist equipment, or they can buy additional information upon the targets and location at hand, to aid a successful and professional hit." Additionally, if you manage to leave a bloody scene behind, you'll have the option to have it "cleaned up." For a fee, you can make sure that any evidence like a dead body or witness won't cause future problems.

That deadly arsenal, which could easily justify calling in a cleaner, just seems to grow and grow with each passing game. "Other than 47's standard weapons, like his Silverballer pistols and W2000 sniper rifle (which have over 50 customizable options available now) there is a new set of weapons in game. Expect different kinds of silenced firearms, close and long range weapons, household items, poisons. The trusty fibre wire is still available of course…" explains Donnel. If you watch the trailer you can get a look at some old favorites and new goodies, including a nice kill with a set of weights. Heavy lifting indeed. One of the other weapons looks to be a timed explosive... which is super cool. Watch the bodies go flying in all directions. Not the cleanest hit in the world, but certainly exciting enough to let your enemies know you care.

While weapons certainly have a lot of flash and bang, there are several other important actions that can be taken in order to both stay out of sight or just cause a stir. "Expect some other cool new mechanics for 47. He now has greater interaction with the environment which results in a new style of moves, for instance causing accidents and distracting guards. He also has greater interaction with other characters, for instance, he can now use people as human shields and dispose of bodies in some new 'interesting' ways." One other move seen pretty clearly in both the trailer and shows 47 pistol whipping victims from behind. Donnel also added that new moves are still being placed into the game that they aren't quite ready to talk about calling these "just a taste of things to come...."

But even with all of the new moves in the world, one of the most important aspects of a Hitman game is the realistic nature of the AI. It's gotten better with each game up until now, so it wasn't hard to figure out AI might also improve in Blood Money. "The engine and scripts that power the game's AI have been completely re-written," says Donnel. "Expect NPC's to react accordingly to the environment and the people around them, they will follow blood trails and investigate suspicious items and behaviour." While this could potentially make things more difficult, Donnel suggests that it actually opens up new possibilities for gameplay by creating the opportunity to use distractions to draw guards away from sensitive areas. "Additionally a new pathfinder engine provides further improved tracking and movement, resulting in more realistic NPC behaviour and interaction. This enhanced behaviour can also aid Hitman as the NPC's can provide information that'll give the player clues as to how to get passed them or through the level."

Speaking of the engine, Donnel points out that the AI isn't the only aspect that's been improved. "Graphically, Hitman: Blood Money is the first game to be powered by IO Interactive's latest implementation of the powerful Glacier engine. This features a new render engine supporting up to shader model 3.x, allowing realistic refraction based environment effects. Both the Xbox and PC versions will feature dynamic soft shadows, and a new character rendering system consisting of a highly realistic rendering system, utilising normal mapping, self shadowing and rim lighting. If you watch the trailer and look at the shots, you'll notice a definite improvement in the visuals, especially when dealing with detail on the characters. 47's face has a slightly different look than previous incarnations, going for a squarer jaw and meaner face in general. As usual, there's also a pretty large emphasis being placed on detailed texture work to make the environments pop more than they might otherwise.

Along with the signature visuals that Hitman is known for, music will also play an important role to tension and drama. If you haven't heard the music from past Hitman games, you're really missing something special and both IO and Eidos are committed to bringing back that very important piece of the puzzle including the brilliant Jesper Kyd, who has composed the music for previous Hitman titles along with a range of others. "For this game we wanted a very epic score that would match the nature of the storyline and he's definitely delivered. The music was recorded a while back with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Choir." You can even get an earful of what's in store for the final game with the new trailer. While the music was recorded for that trailer and will not be found in the game, it is "inspired and representative of the score used in Blood Money" giving you a good chance to hear the magic early.

Hitman: Blood Money is definitely sounding good at this point. The new features like the Blood Money and Notoriety systems along with the new moves weapons should fill out an already impressive repertoire. We'll be checking out the game in action at this E3, so look back for a first hand account from the show floor starting the 18th of this month.