Big Bad Spoilers Ahead
The controls are very fluid now. 47 can move along ledges, climb pipes and climb obstacles by simple key movement. Inventory management is better with a quick conceal/draw last weapon button. BM allows you to hide bodies in containers or over ledges and other minor improvements like an auto-sneak feature with the fiber wire, human shields, pistol whipping people to knock them out etc. There's also a notoriety system where if you are seen by witnesses, your next job will be slightly harder since you are more suspicious but I believe this system wasn't executed that well. Spend a few dollars and notoriety won't be a problem. Hell, it isn't that noticeable to begin with.
The story begins with a reporter named Rick interviewing some CIA G-man named Jack. Jack narrates the tales of our beloved hero 47 and all the people he's put out of their misery. Jack narrates the story mission by mission but we actually play through it. It becomes obvious later on that he isn't a very reliable narrator.
47 is in the United States and almost all missions are set there. Of course, its a basic all American tour as 47 goes to Vegas to kill some guy, dumps bodies in the Mississippi and even kills a bunch of people during Mardi Gras in N'awlins. Now, The Agency is getting hammered by their rival, The Franchise. The Agency's operatives are getting killed one by one and some assassins even try taking out 47. They all fail miserably of course. It is revealed that The Franchise was responsible for 47's near death in Paris.
Now Jack mentions how the CIA attempted to kill 47 right about the same moment you encounter rival assassins in the game. Jack is the asshole running The Franchise and he wants 47 dead for a reason. Jack knows 47 is a clone and much of 47's backstory is brilliantly explained in the game although from a villain's perspective. Jack wants 47 dead and burned so nobody can use 47's perfect DNA in his bone marrow to make more clones while in truth, Jack just wants to monopolize the whole clone army market with his own clones. (Inferior models of 47) Eventually, The Agency is reduced to just Diana and 47. Interestingly, 47 doesn't seem to give even half a rat's ass. He just wants his money. 47 is a really greedy asshole in this game. I wonder whats he's gonna spend it on. He basically lives in a damp, dingy basement somewhere like some World of Warcraft player.
Eventually 47 is cornered but Diana gets to him first. Diana tells 47 about her plan to escape but 47 is all like, "Gibe moneys first lololol." Diana then stabs 47 with a syringe and 47 says a bad word for the first time. Some time later, the reporter is bought to 47 lying in state in some church awaiting cremation. The reporter believes the whole thing now and can't wait to write the scoop of the century. Diana approaches 47's body and puts his trademark pistols (which are loaded heh heh...) over his corpse and kisses him on the lips.
But wait! The syringe Diana injected him with was not filled with poison but rather an experimental fake death "deep sleep" drug and the antidote to revive him was in Diana's lipstick! In what could be described as the most incredible, awesome, jaw-dropping moment in video game history, 47 gets up and kills everyone IN HIS OWN FUCKING FUNERAL. No witnesses. Jack dies. 47 escapes. Diana escapes. Goddamn.
The Graphics in this game are gorgeous. From the colorful, yet sinister environments to the fine details of 47's suit, this is one of the games where cool graphics is just icing on a delicious cake that isn't a lie. The soundtrack is superb and fits the game perfectly as usual. We're back to orchestral although there's also a bit of dark electronica left over from Contracts but its a good blend of the two styles. Man I love Jesper Kyd's work on this game.
Well there you have it, an awesome video game series. It's rare for a game to get better and better with each installment. I'm cautious as to Hitman 5. How could they possibly improve on this game? Well, as I mentioned, BM is the high point yet it exposes the limitations of the Hitman formula. AI is still dumb as a rock in combat. Characters models are recycled too much. They need better gimmicks than a notoriety system. Despite this, I'm sure 5 is gonna be good. Hitman has never dissapointed before.
If you were expecting a spirited romp in exotic locales like in SA then you're in for a surprise. There's none of that fun crap here. Shit gets serious. Even the orchestral bombast of SA is replaced by dark electronica with sinister ambiance. The atmospheres are dark too with weird green lightsources and candlelight-like effects against dark foggy levels. It's raining on every level. Yup, no single ray of sunshine in this game.
The story goes like this. 47 is in Paris doing a job killing some shmuck when he gets ambushed by the police. Worse is that the police seem to know who he really is, an international assassin. Even worse than that is 47 gets shot in the gut and is slowly bleeding out in a dim hotel room. The missions are actually flashbacks playing in 47's head in between moments of consciousness so yeah, you're basically going inside the mind of a killer.
This game is dark. It's really dark. For example, there's this mission where you must assassinate some guy called "The Meat King" and his lawyer, who is no doubt evil just for being one. You must also rescue a young woman believed to have been abducted and is being held in the Meat King's place. Get this, you have to infiltrate the Meat King's party dressed as a butcher. Why? Because the party is being held in a slaughterhouse. Oh and it's an S&M party. You have to look for the Meat King while wading through the dance floor full of people in tight black leather grinding and fornicating against the blood splattered walls amidst the decaying carcasses of cows and horses strewn about. The air is freezing and thick with opium smoke. Yes, they're doing all sorts of drugs. The Meat King himself is a grotesque, morbidly obese glutton who fancies eating whole chickens for breakfast. Oh, and guess what? The young lady is dead and her mutilated corpse is hanging upside down from a meathook being violated by the Meat Kings brother. You end up having to take her severed arm as death proof. THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST MISSION.
Thought I was kidding? It gets worse from here. I won't elaborate but there's a mission where you see an actual ghost. The other missions are "retellings" of the missions of Codename 47 or so I've heard.
The gameplay in Contracts is a vast improvement. 47 moves better. Command keys better respond to context sensitive situation but you can still hold it to see other options. AI hasn't changed sadly and is still stupid in combat. The best thing in contracts is there a situation specific commands where if the situation is just right, 47 can do something special. For example, if the target steps into a sauna, 47 can execute a command near the valve and crank up the heat to kill the sucker. The target in that sauna mission had a heart problem so giving him a nice old-fashioned heatstroke was pretty cool. There are other examples.
While Contracts isn't the best Hitman game or has the best soundtrack, it is the most interesting for me. 47 really is one sick, disturbed individual but still badass nonetheless. In the climax of the game, 47 gets patched up thanks to Diana sending over a doctor from the Agency. 47 has barely enough time to recover when he hears the police storm the building. 47 manages to get out unseen anyway (It's possible to do in game) and to add insult to injury, he fucking kills the police inspector in charge of the whole thing while he's in the middle of the street without anyone noticing. (It's also possible!) Nobody messes with the bald killer clone.
Hitman: Blood Money next time...
There are four games in the series namely and in order: Hitman:Codename 47, Hitman 2:Silent Assassin, Hitman:Contracts and Hitman:Blood Money. There was a movie released based on the Hitman series but that deserves its own article about how hilariously stupid and unfaithful it was to the games and how incredibly average it was. There were tits in the movie though so it wasn't all bad. There's also a novel but shit, who wants to read a novel based on a video game? Come on.
Characters
The main character and titular hitman of the game is a man known as Agent 47. Well, he's not really an ordinary man. 47 is a genetic experiment, a clone made from the DNA of five of the toughest sons of bitches in the world. His name comes from the end numbers on the barcode on the back of his shiny bald head. He has many aliases but let's just call him 47. While he's not a super human, his strength, speed and intelligence are far above the average Joe Sixpack. He's been created, raised and trained to be a perfect assassin and good lord is he ever. His favored method of assassination is strangulation via his trademark portable fiber wire garrote. As far as personality goes, 47 is sarcastic, cold, distant and emotionally detached. He likes animals though like little bunnies and canaries. (I'm not kidding) His morality and personality is explored in the different games. I shall expound on this later.
His handler is Diana Burnwood who acts as 47's support as well as provide him contracts from "The Agency". Most of the time she's just a voice...a sexy, sexy, voice over a laptop providing 47 with intel on the latest target of assassination. She seems to care about 47, at least, enough to save his life on two separate games: in Contracts and Blood Money. The relationship of Diana and 47 is an interesting one.
Agent Smith is an American CIA agent who has connections to The Agency. He's mostly comic relief. Every game has a mission wherein 47 has to save his sorry ass after being captured often in his underwear. Smith is very patriotic as evidenced in one crazy awesome mission in Blood Money where he payed 47 to rescue the goddamned President of the United States.
Mei Ling is a Chinese woman abducted into put into a brothel by Chinese crime lord Lee Hong and later prostituted herself to a Japanese crime lord, Hayamoto. 47 saves her both times. She's the only person ever to have kissed 47 and he wasn't to happy about human contact. 47 almost chocked on his own vomit if i remember right.
The International Contract Agency or "The Agency"(duh) is 47's employer. They have ties to CIA, KGB, M16, NSA, the UN and probably every major intelligence network in the world. They are mostly neutral and most people they have 47 kill are drug lords, criminals, pedophiles, crime kingpins, corrupt politicians, and really naughty people. Their motto is Merces Letifer.
The Franchise is The Agency's rival and the antagonist in Blood Money. The Franchise also handle assassinations but they use poorly made clones that can't hold a candle to 47. They figure prominently in Blood Money where they almost destroy The Agency and 47 along with it. They even employed assassins to try and kill 47 but he promptly blows them away with ease with his pimp hand like the amateurs they were.
Our hero, ladies and gentlemen...
