Pre-E3 2006: Hitman: Blood Money

May 2, 2006

If you haven't ever played a game in the Hitman series, the experience is much like solving an action puzzle. Some folks would even go so far as to call it "stealth action." I would go so far as to call them all crazy. As the protagonist, Agent 47, a deadly iconic assassin bent on killing for money, you are presented with a multi-path environment in which you must avoid being detected by feisty AI while infiltrating some sort of base or public place, stealthily killing the enemy or target, and escaping. IO Interactive more or less nailed the notion with Hitman 2, and the European developer has been refining it ever since.

Hitman: Blood Money proposes the most changes in the series to date, improvements that take place in both the game proper and in between levels. Don't worry, though. Blood Money is still essentially Hitman, the game you played back with Hitman Codename 47. The first and third-person perspectives are available; you strip enemies of their clothes and impersonate them, you wield garrotes, needles, handguns, shotguns, sniper rifles, and strange random items like kitchen knives and shovels. And the game still has the rather stiff, panhandle movement and camera work. But IO Interactive has worked on everything to improve it: from the rather awkward controls to the trial-and-error gameplay, to quick and improved melee combat, a greater sense of accessibility, and finally, the more comprehensive and engrossing story.

IO's iconic killing anti-hero stars in a game with greater graphic effects than any previous game because the team rewrote its code from the ground up. The framerate is speedy, the visuals are impressive, and everything is prettier than in any other previous Hitman game. Instantly noticeable is Agent 47's more defined facial features, clean physique, and everything from his clothes and muscular physique appear far better looking than ever. Add to that excellent lighting techniques and lush, detailed backgrounds, and you've easily got the most impressive looking Hitman ever.

A lot of little things aid in creating a more believable game, too. Agent 47 is far more expressive and animated than before. When you bring the camera up close to his face, you'll see his eyes darting around. When he dies, the screen turns red and slows down in time, just like in Contracts, but his face progresses through a range of emotions from fear to pain and anguish to shock.

The near-final we were recently shown is a much more encouraging game than the earlier build we received. This build is practically reviewable, showing way more polish and completeness than the other builds, which makes us far happier. This is the Hitman build we've been waiting for. Plus, it comes intact with all the in-between widgets and features that make this title so distinct. For instance, the game logs all of your actions. If you shot 50 people in level 4, that number will translate into a certain amount of cash deducted from your total paycheck. If you leave bodies around, those require clean-up, so your trail is clean and unambiguous. But it costs the agency money to do so, and you have to pay for it.

Even the way you kill people is mentioned, though IO has created two ways to track your actions: 1) through newspaper articles and 2) through summary menus at the end of each level. The news articles are pretty formulaic stories from fictitious newspapers packed with several articles either directly related to your crime spree or indirectly related to your rival -- another hitman, who incidentally, is tracking your every move - or your agency.

In between levels you'll also have the opportunity to upgrade weapons. These improvements come in the form of better silencers, less kick on your weapons, bigger ammo clips, longer scopes, and the like. The whole notion of earning money works well here, as you'll really want to upgrade your chosen weapons -- my favorites are the ballers and the Dragunov sniper rifle -- to improve your ability to remain stealthy under the harshest of conditions.

The game is also funny in its own way. In other words, while Agent 47 is the epitome of stoicism, IO is clearly having more fun with him this time around. The range of weird suits and outfits he dons is impressive. Country farmer? Check. Handyman? Check. French secret service man? Check. Actor? Check. Giant chicken? Check. Chicken???!!! Yes, indeed. While on a special mission in New Orleans, Agent 47 finds that part of the festivities include people dressing up like lunatics. You won't have to dress like a Big Bird assassin, but there must be some way in which you find yourself dropping that lovely feathery suit on yourself. Even better than that is when you shoot someone else with a chicken suit on. And there are usually multiple people with chicken suits on, too. When you pop a chicken-suited baddie, feathers fly everywhere. It's like a cloud of dust, but fluffed up with yellow fluttery feathers. Truly good times.

I must mention the level design, too. The levels all seem rather big, plain, and unconnected at first. But that's not the case at all. Just like all the best levels in previous Hitman games, Blood Money delivers a startling brilliance when it comes to level design. There are so many ways to do things that you won't leave a single level believing you'd seen or done everything. In the third level, which follows Agent 47 to a South American wine makers winery (he also happens to have a large cocaine lab underneath the walk-in wine cave), you can infiltrate using outfits, use the sniper rifle to find the best time to pick off the baddies, or explore the level's secret pathways. I was amazed at how many possible paths there were. The amount of replay value built into each mission is really astounding.

In the end, Hitman: Blood Money is a realization and a maturation of IO's technical, commercial and creative teams. The game provides superb graphics, a more mature level of accessibility -- from the basic controls to close combat -- a good sense of humor about itself, and some of the best level design in any stealth game you'll ever see. Hitman: Blood Money is still an acquired taste, but that's the nature of stealth games, which, I've learned, aren't for everyone. But as I gush about the great level design and improved graphics, I must put all things in perspective -- this is a real-time puzzle game, a fast-moving chess match that requires skill, smarts, and best of all, your imagination.