Hitman: Blood Money

Agent 47 (the lead protagonist in the Hitman series) is a hired assassin, the best at what he does and highly respected amongst the criminal underworld. In Hitman: Blood Money, Agent 47 is placed in the midst of a war between two rival contract agencies. When assassins from his agency, the ICA, are eliminated in a series of hits, it seems a larger, more powerful agency has entered the fray. Suddenly, Agent 47 loses contact with the ICA and must go it alone, unsure of where his allegiances lie. This time things are a little different. Like the last games, 47 is paid with large sums of cash for carrying out jobs across the globe; but now there is an emphasis on how the money is spent rather than it being something in the background. Now your hard-earned bucks can be spent on various tools of the trade and what is more the choices that are made here affect 47’s journey through the game world. Money can be spent on new weapons, but also upgrades for weapons which affect things like recoil, accuracy, sound, rate of fire, damage and zooming ability. The main new addition to the game is a Notoriety level which basically tracks how well known Agent 47 is at any given time. So in reality this means that should 47 act like Rambo in one mission, gunning down everyone in his path with no regard for stealth or cunning – later in another mission people will actually recognise him and make 47’s life a lot harder. This holds true especially if you want to suddenly revert to being stealthy again, which in some cases might just be a little easier. Going back to the money side of things for a moment; the cleaner the hit, the more money you will earn which means access to better equipment. Other new features in the game play are things such as the techniques which are available to Agent 47 to aid in accomplishing his goals. Things like causing distractions, or untimely accidents, body disposal, human shields in gun battles, decoy weapons and more. That’s not to say that 47’s job is going to be any easier by any stretch of the imagination as the guard AI has had a major overhaul. Guards will now follow blood trails left behind; they will investigate suspicious items and more importantly, Agent 47’s behaviour especially when he is disguised. A new pathfinder engine provides improved tracking and movement resulting in realistic enemy behaviour and interaction. All of this makes Blood Money one of the best Hitman games to date.