Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

Moby ID: 7369
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

The perfect hitman, Agent 47, tries to distance himself from his violent past and becomes a humble church gardener. But he is tricked into returning to his trade when his friend, a priest, gets kidnapped by an Italian mafioso. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is a third-person stealth game. As a titular hitman, you have to complete a number of missions all over the world. Each mission generally involves assassinating someone and possibly fulfilling a couple of other objectives.

Typically, your target will be protected by numerous guards. While there's a large arsenal of weapons available to you - ranging from stealthy weapons such as a garrote or a silenced pistol, up to machine guns and sniper rifles - your main weapon will be stealth. Agent 47 can sneak around to remain undetected, and he can disguise himself in clothes from killed or stunned guards.

The guards aren't completely stupid, however, as they will investigate suspicious noises, and they'll react if they see you waving around a gun. They'll get suspicious if they see you running around, raise alarm upon finding a corpse, and if you hang in a disguise around them too long, they'll eventually realize you're not one of their buddies.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin brings something new to the series: depending on your stealthiness, you are given a rating upon completing a mission. Going trigger-happy on everyone will result in being called a "Mass Murderer", while only the most patient and skilled players will manage to receive the "Silent Assassin" rating, which generally involves stealthily eliminating the target without raising any suspicion.

Spellings

  • Hitman 2: Бесшумный убийца - Russian spelling
  • 终极刺客2:沉默杀手 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

211 People (190 developers, 21 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 65 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 145 ratings with 5 reviews)

Wow, it's the PERFECT game!

The Good
I loved everything about this game, but most of all, I loved the realism and the way that Hitman interacts with the world. For example, if you brush past a tree, the tree will play actually brush past hitman, not go through him. Also, I loved Hitman's head tilt while he's walking! It looks so real!

The Bad
It crashes every once in a while. Also, it's too expensive. Thats about it.

The Bottom Line
This game is a must buy!

Windows · by James1 (240) · 2002

Ups the ante on first (or third) person sneakers...excellent!

The Good
I never played the first Hitman, having read somewhere that it was an ambitious, though heavily flawed, game. Hitman 2, I can happily report, seems to have fixed the problems that apparently plagued the prequel, because this is an excellent, tightly-woven first (or third) person sneaker.

You play the titular character, also known as Agent 47, who at the start of the game is in seclusion at a monastery in Italy. From there, you become embroiled in a lengthy adventure requiring you to assassinate a variety of shady characters, including mafia bosses, Russian generals and Japanese yakuza.

The beauty of the game is its open-ended design. Although every level has preset objectives that MUST be met, how you meet them is entirely up to you. There are usually many different ways you can hit your target, from stealthy sneaking to Full Metal Jacket-style firefights. Your performance is rated at the end of each mission, letting you know what the game thinks of your style. On one mission, for example, you have to guide 47 to a tunnel entrance. Between you and your objective lies a huge, snowy field, dotted with trees and numerous ninja guards with itchy trigger fingers. Should this prove too daunting, climb down an access ladder into the subterranean transport tunnel, which can take you to your objective...if you can bypass the guards and checkpoints, that is. I died numerous times trying to navigate aboveground. Finding this unrewarding, I sent 47 down in the tunnel and reached the end point, but only after slaughtering numerous ninjas in a hail of automatic gunfire. The game called me a "mass murderer." Humph. Not satisfied, I reloaded the level, took a more stealthy approach, and wound up as a "shadow." Not too shabby, I thought.

Another bright spot in Hitman 2 is the AI, which is usually so disappointing in these games (Metal Gear Solid 2 immediately springs to mind). The guards in this game, while usually predictable, are no dummies. They'll spot you from a long distance, especially if you aren't disguised, and they'll do their damnedest to plug a few new holes in you. For that reason, you have to carefully plan out your route to your target.

You can go about your business in either first- or third-person view, which I appreciated. Additionally, the weapons and items selection is diverse and interesting, and the game always seems to throw a new toy or two at you in each new mission. Finally, I liked the fact that Italians speak Italian, Japanese speak Japanese, and so on. This breaks the cycle of ridiculous cultural imperialism that usually plagues electronic entertainment.

The Bad
If you choose to play on "professional" difficulty, be prepared for a REALLY difficult game. Patient (and skilled) players will count this as an asset, however, as it provides for a very rewarding experience when you finally complete a level.

The Bottom Line
Take Metal Gear Solid 2, throw out the whiny protagonist and stupid plot, mix in creamy deliciousness and pepper with nearly insane difficulty and you get Hitman 2.

PlayStation 2 · by Lucas Schippers (57) · 2003

Great Shooter Game

The Good
The guns in this game are nice. Very nice. My personal favorite, the sawed off shotgun. From 9mm's to 50 cal sniper rifles, this game has a nice, wide selection of weapons to choose from. Don't want a gun? Just use the axe, katana, or golf club, or even a knife. The game even is realistic in the fact that you can't carry a whole ton of different guns (it only allows you to carry one rifle size weapon at a time). The way you obtain the items is also very clever, carry it out of the level, and its yours permanently.

The gameplay is very good, and easy to get used to. The addition of a difficulty selector makes the game better for those of us who don't like the hero being able to take shot after shot without dying.

Nice splatter too.

The Bad
the overall limpness of the corpses you drag. They flop around like dead fish without any bones. Legs fly around limply and backs bend without any semblance of bone structure being present

The Bottom Line
A good buy if you enjoy a challenging espionage style shooter, or if you just enjoy the bloodbath style of play.

PlayStation 2 · by Boris Stovich (26) · 2004

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

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The TV ads were made by the developers, not by an agency.

Extras

On the CD, you will find some goodies: The Hitman 3D Studio Max model, some early screenshots of the game, which are quite humourus, and some wallpapers.

References

  • In the Shogun Showdown mission, there's a big security workstation on the castle's 3rd floor that monitors the entire stage. On its main screen however, you can see a screenshot of IO's upcoming (at the time anyway) Freedom Fighters! Though if you look carefully (use 1st person view = F1) you can see a few changes in the interface, such as a radar screen added next to the health bars.
  • In the "Jacuzzi Job" mission check out what's on top the small counter in the bedroom... That's right! It's a Dopefish spring-toy! And for further Id related sightings check out the monitors in the previous "Graveyard Shift" mission: most of them are playing Quake III: Arena. Even the sysadm!
  • At the very beginning of the "Graveyard Shift" mission, you can see a video camera pointed at a coffee pot. The camera plays a part in one of the in-game puzzles in that mission. What you might be wondering is why anyone would dedicate a video camera just to watch over a pot of coffee. It's possible the coffee pot camera is a homage to this.
  • On the mission "Shogun Showdown", 47 enters a room with a lot of monitors and a big red button to press. In this same room, there is a bookcase. Looking on the titles of the books, you can find one titled "Vamos Arregaçar". This is Brazilian slang for something like "Let's kick some ass!". It looks like they had a Brazilian guy in the development team...
  • In the first St. Petersburg mission, there is a building called "Zaitsev Building". It was obviously named after the famous soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev (immortalised in the movie Enemy at the Gates). Quite fitting, if you think about progress of the misson.

Sergei Zavorotko

The game's main villain, Russian arms dealer Sergei Zavorotko, bears a remarkable resemblance to a character in Arnold Schwarzenegger's Eraser movie that introduced us to the joys of railguns.

That character, also named Sergei, was also a Russian arms dealer and a secondary villain who showed up at the end of the film. Both he and the Sergei from Hitman have surprisingly similar appearances. Both have shoulder length hair, a thick moustache, and both wear wool turtlenecks under a red leather coat.

The Sergei from Hitman is balding on top, while the Sergei from Eraser isn't, but otherwise the two characters look almost exactly the same. It's possible the character design for the Hitman Sergei was inspired by the character from the Eraser movie.

Information also contributed by Alan Chan, Carlos Aquino, James1, SGruber and Zovni

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by POMAH.

PlayStation 3 added by CaidKean. GameCube added by Kartanym. OnLive added by firefang9212.

Additional contributors: Felix Knoke, tarmo888, Stratege, CaesarZX, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added October 7, 2002. Last modified March 17, 2024.