Xbox

Hitman: Blood Money

Although he may not be a household name outside of the gaming world, Agent 47 is certainly one of the industry's most recognizable figures. The assassin's bald, aerodynamic dome (complete with barcode) and calm, cool ways of dispatching enemies are hallmarks of Eidos' popular Hitman series. The series violently exploded onto the PC in 2000 before making the leap to consoles with Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, the game that rocketed the series into gaming's stratosphere. After a brief, disappointing detour (Hitman: Contracts), Agent 47 is back in Hitman: Blood Money, but he's gone from being the hunter to becoming the hunted.

In the end, Hitman: Blood Money does come out on top as the best title in the series. Blood Money makes up for most of its faults and shortcomings by offering a load of new features and entirely new ways of completing mission objectives. There’s a lot of content and replay value here that should keep you going for awhile. The new notoriety system is by far one of the best additions to the series, and it’s even taken farther given the fact that you can actually upload your results to a server and compare your scores with other players. It may be more difficult for someone who’s new to the series to just jump right in and start playing, but if you’ve been a fan of the series from the start, Blood Money is a definite must buy.

Overall, Hitman Blood Money is not a game for the faint of heart. While you won’t necessarily see a character’s head get chopped off, there is enough blood and violence to make some people nauseous. The game’s best qualities are not just technical, but the gameplay mechanics are what will win you over. Each mission is so open-ended, that the replayability is absolutely endless. So if you are looking for a great game to add to your collection that you will actually enjoy playing again and again, Hitman Blood Money is definitely a good choice on any platform.

It is whispered among the criminal underworld that the man in the starch black suit and smooth baldhead is not a myth. For years this phantom seemingly picks off his targets and disappears without a trace and some say that he eerily assumes the identity of those around him like a human chameleon. He has many names in the criminal network but only the really connected know him as 47. In Hitman: Blood Money for the Xbox, we witness yet another chapter in the life of our favorite hitman and it’s a very good chapter indeed.

In Blood Money, though, the new notoriety system doesn't necessarily support the run-and-gun tactics. In each mission, you're responsible for "dealing" with witnesses, hiding bodies, and not getting caught on video tape. If you're not careful and become sloppy, your notoriety rises at the end of each job; too much notoriety and newspapers will print likenesses of you, which in turn guards and other sentries will be more suspicious of you. Essentially (and happily), the notoriety system forces you to be much more sneaky, smart, and patient on how to complete your objectives.

The bald-headed contract killer known only as 47 is in good form, primed and ready for more work in the latest installment in the dark, stylish Hitman series. Though very similar to the last two games in the series, the open-ended stealth action gameplay offered by Hitman: Blood Money is still just about as tensely exciting as ever. A few new twists to the formula, an intriguing story, and a memorably diverse, cinematic sequence of missions further make Blood Money worth it.

Unskilled players that play on easier difficulties will find that the game is a lot shorter; the later levels are only unlocked on the two harder difficulty settings. Going through different difficulty settings and trying to unlock more missions is the extent of this game's longevity, since there's not a single multi-player mode, but it's safe to say that you'll want to perform missions at least twice to see just how many different ways each one of them can be finished. Though there are a few flaws, this is a great entry to the series and a nice addition to any gamer's library.

On nous aura fait miroiter bien des nouveautés pour ce quatrième épisode de Hitman, au final, elles sont bien maigres vu leur utilité plus que limitée. Heureusement, Io Interactive parvient à surprendre par la qualité et l'envergure des missions proposées. Dommage pourtant que l'intelligence artificielle n'ait toujours pas fait ce bond en avant qu'on attendait d'elle et que finalement, Hitman reste Hitman, pour le meilleur et pour le pire. Agrandir les niveaux ne suffira pas toujours, il va falloir envisager d'innover vraiment.

IO Interactive made its mark on the videogame world with the first Hitman game in 2000 and planted a flag with Freedom Fighters in 2003. The world, especially Europe, loved Hitman, and rightly so. IO has designed a stealth game that, while suffering from some easy-to-notice flaws here and there, boasts some of the most distinguished and well-honed level design in any game of its kind. Perhaps equally important, IO gave birth to a long-lasting, brooding iconic antihero with Agent 47.

I’m no assassin, but it seems to me that the biggest skill of a gun for hire is crowd management. Get in, cover your tracks, get out, and stay unnoticed among the game’s throngs of NPCs. While there’s a lot to love about this series, and this entry in particular, Agent 47’s world still doesn’t offer the subtlety necessary for this great premise to really be satisfying.

In Hitman: Blood Money, the tides have turned a bit on our anti-villain, as there’s a sneaking suspicion that the next contract may be out on the guy that comes right after forty six in the depth chart. The tension created by 47 possibly being hunted down by the ICA is palpable, and helped along by the well-directed cut-scenes that seem to pop up every five minutes. I don’t mind the number of cut scenes much this time around, as the story is much more intriguing, thus making it worth the down time.