PlayStation 2

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

From the moment the game loads, Hitman 2 exudes quality. Its visual and audio presentation is polished to the same degree as its thoughtful gameplay. Its complex, open-ended problem solving is to be commended for providing a fresh, challenging gameplay experience. With exceedingly high production values and carefully designed gameplay, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is among the Playstation 2’s greatest.

Planning out an assignation has never had so many possibilities. Reacting to the environment around you, finding new ways to do the same mission, using disguises, or just plain messing around with enemy guards are all apart of the thrilling and stimulating experience that is Hitman 2. Expanding the gameplay with more real-life objectives, expansive areas, and more weapons equates a totally customizable assignation experience. Sweet baby, sweet.

Silent Assassin doesn't seem like that long of a game, but the missions take forever. The missions are fun though. They seem to just suck you right into the mob world. The game had some great spy techniques and intelligent, but bad looking, enemies to use them against. With over 20 hours of game play full of assassinations and terminations, it will keep you occupied for months to come.

When Hitman first hit (yes, bad pun) the PC in late 2000, it suffered from a few problems. First and foremost was the timing issue. Too many missions relied on a series of events happening in the perfect order. One misstep and it was all over. The lack of an in-game save option was also a source of frustration for players. Developer IO Interactive took the critical feedback to heart and addressed these issues for the sequel. The result is a game that plays well, looks good, and quite simply, rocks.

Over the past few years, one genre continues to intrigue people, whether it is in feudal Japan, present time America, or any other time period. There have been few games that have pulled this off successfully; this genre is stealth action games. Hitman hit the PC scene a few years ago, and was a smash hit. Eidos has decided to give players another chance to be in the shoes of Agent 47 in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. This time they decided to bring the game to the PlayStation 2, to let console gamers know the joys of being a hitman.

There's no mistaking what Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is all about. One look at the bald, sharply dressed man on the cover, grim as death and armed with a hardballer pistol in each hand, and you can tell that this isn't exactly lighthearted stuff. Hitman 2, released simultaneously for the PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 platforms, is the sequel to a PC game released two years ago by Denmark-based developer IO Interactive.

Hitman 2 surclasse allègrement le premier volet de la série. Plus riche, plus beau, plus jouable il s'avère juste indispensable pour qui aime un tant soit peu ce genre de titre. Vivement la suite !

Even with the new shift to stealth games back in 1997-1998, there are surprisingly few extremely good stealthy games on consoles. At least on PlayStation and PS2, only Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 and the Tenchu series seriously approached stealth as a core design element. Thankfully, after Io-Interactive's mixed success with Hitman on PC, Eidos green-lighted the second for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC, to give console gamers a taste of the intelligent, stealthy play. And I'm oh so happy they did, because Hitman 2 nails its mark.

The graphics are very solid and some lovely lighting effects add to the sense of tension and adventure. When a well-choreographed plan comes off, Hitman 2 is a thoroughly satisfying game, but there are moments when it's unforgiving nature has you reaching for the "off" button - but only after much swearing and pad hurling. The free reign turns out to be The Silent Assassin's Achilles heel, as well as part of its appeal, which is why it gets an overall 4 GiN gems.

While definitely not for all tastes, Hitman 2 is recommended for fans of crime-based games and for those who rightly felt the original never quite lived up to its potential.

Eidos ne se loupe pas et fait de 47 un héros charismatique. Pour son réalisme jusque boutiste, ses niveaux variés et ses possibilités nombreuses, Hitman 2 fait sans aucun doute parti des hits du moment. Si vous avez un regard de glace, un sang froid hors du commun et des envies de meurtres (mais pas trop quand même).

Like ninjas or spec-ops soldiers, there?s something appealing about hitmen in a video-game way, and Eidos wisely tries to bottle that in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. In Silent Assassin, you take the mysterious Mr. 47 out of retirement to recover a kidnapped priest, though many other layers to that tale gradually unfold. As you?d expect, the gameplay involves plenty of combat, but what makes it interesting is planning your hits. The fairly open worlds present several alternative methods but few cues, so you have to cook up the one that works best for you. This brew of puzzle-solving and stealth can be heady and fun as you infiltrate compounds, sneak past the bit players, and take out the big cheese?although you?ll often long for craftier A.I. and sharper physics.

Long before the controversy over Grand Theft Auto III when it hit US shores last year, was a computer game that caused so much controversial subjects between angry parents, and that game was called Hitman. The game included a hard-criminal Hitman, where you assassinated different people, along with guards, civilians, or any other kind of murders you’d like to commit. From the success of Hitman, comes Hitman 2: Silent Assassin for the PS2, X-Box, and of course the PC.