Hitman: Blood Money (18)
Verdict: Accident prone assassin
PS2, Xbox, PC, 360.
3½/5
There’s a misguided, fame seeking attorney in America who brands violent games as ‘murder simulators’. While he’s off the mark, in the case of Hitman he’s very nearly right - as the clone assassin ‘Number 42’ your job is to murder people. The catch though and what said lawyer would probably miss is that you get rewarded for not killing. Confused? Simply put you lose points for killing anyone other than your villainous targets.
As a ‘murder simulator’ the emphasis would be on the killing and while there is plenty of that the real joy is not in the hit but in the faultless execution (pardon the pun) of the overall plan - a complex, methodical act that requires careful planning, precision, timing and a healthy dose of improvisation as it inevitably goes wrong.
Each level offers new targets in bustling locations and it’s your job to take them out as you see fit. Providing you with countless methods and a new emphasis on ‘accidents’ the game allows you to do as you please. The only problem with having so many options is actually trying to piece together which ones go with which. Thus repeated play of each level becomes the norm as you work out the routines of the targets, accident locations and of course whose clothes to steal.
After each successful job the mission synopsis takes the form of a newspaper article detailing the incident and providing photo-fits that vary in accuracy depending on your skill at staying in the shadows. It’s a nice touch and contributes to your notoriety in subsequent levels - having a higher level means it’s harder to blend in with crowds or escape unnoticed. Unfortunately cheaply bought bribes render it void and the game is just too ham-fisted to pull it off convincingly.
As a title that relies heavily on free-form play and character interaction it lacks the fluidity required for truly improvisational gameplay - close combat controls are buggy and unresponsive and the A.I. is unpredictable in a way that mars the games central conceit, which is usually what stands in the way of the perfect hit as opposed to your penchant for random violence.
With customisable weapons that reflect your play style you can be a mythical stealth assassin or an insane, homicidal maniac. It’s this moral playground that defines titles like this - the game doesn’t make me violent - I make that choice.