Hitman: Codename 47
Description official descriptions
A third-person shooter that emphasizes stealth and tactical thinking, Hitman: Codename 47 is a mixture of action and puzzle gaming.
You play the mysterious, nameless Hitman, whose perfectly lean body and UPC-stamped head indicate a somewhat unnatural childhood. Waking up one day in a cell, you escape your imprisonment and are shortly contacted by the Agency, an organization as mysterious as yourself. Offering a job in what you do best (delivering death), you embark on a career as an assassin. But the shadow of your past creeps up on you...and the last thing an assassin needs is something creeping on him.
A 3D game done nearly entirely from the third person (first person is used for aiming certain weapons), Hitman may initially draw comparisons to the Tomb Raider series. Although you can play in such a mode, there is also another mode where the mouse is more free to roam. Reflections, muzzle flashes, bodies that obey physics and slump and fall when necessary, and impressive shadows attempt to make the world feel realistic.
A wide array of weaponry are available, from knives and piano wire to silenced pistols to sub-machine guns and even heavy machine guns. Although such weapons are available, stealth will be your friend. The A.I. reacts to shouts, gunfire, and other odd occurrences, sometimes even getting suspicious if you're running around and so silence and sneakiness are your two best allies. Take down lone guards, hide their bodies and steal their uniforms. Then move in closer to your kill. Multiple methods of completing most of the levels are available, although one or two are the most efficient and therefore earn you the most money.
Spellings
- Hitman: ĐĐłĐľĐ˝Ń 47 - Russian spelling
- çťćĺşĺŽ˘: 䝣ĺˇ47 - Simplified Chinese spelling
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Credits (Windows version)
110 People (98 developers, 12 thanks) · View all
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[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 78% (based on 47 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 109 ratings with 10 reviews)
The Good
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Please start reading belowâŚ
The Bad
Avid computer gamers mustnât be oversensitive. Weâre used to a fair amount of violence in our favourite hobby. Weâre well aware that âproblem-solvingâ often involves a machine gun. Although we wouldnât admit it in public, weâre proud to define progress by the number of limbs that can severed from a digital human body. With technology came realism, with realism came gore, you know it, whatâs the big deal? Indeed, whatâs so special about a game like Hitman? A game that isnât exceptionally gory, in which not a single limb can be severed? Itâs the single fact that Hitman declares cold-blooded, insidious murder an acceptable subject for home entertainment, with a realistic directness never known before. Itâs the disturbing certainty that modern entertainment has breached the last boundaries, those of morality as well as simply those of taste. And itâs the alarming realisation that we donât care.
We should care. Not because of a new-found conscience or a sudden prudery, but because the ever-increasing tide of violence threatens to wash away our common sense. The alarm bells are ringing: Hitman introduces a new quality of aggression.
What discriminates the game from the Counter-Strikes and Soldier of Fortunes of this world is the perfidy. The hitman does not react to hostility, he anticipates it. His victims are not his enemies. In any given 3D action game, your choice in a hostile world is to defend yourself or die. However poor this justification may be, it is still somewhat reasonable â call it self defence, call it second degree murder. In normal 3D action games, you react. In Hitman, you act.
The world of Hitman is peaceful. The one who starts the bloodshed is you. You have to take the initiative, attack without having been provoked, backstab unsuspecting humans. Cowardice is a virtue in Hitman, and so is unscrupulousness: you have to kill innocents â passers-by! â to prevent them from alarming the guards. Whatâs worse, and what discriminates Hitman from all those related movies from âLĂŠonâ to âAssassinsâ is that the game has no critical undertone whatsoever. In Hitman, killing is an end in itself, and a fun one at that. The perversity is the complete absence of alternatives â you have to KILL, there are really no other options, not even to knock someone out. This gives your actions a gruesome logic: the previous murder justifies the next one. Those are the lessons that Hitman teaches, and believe me, youâre going to learn them quickly.
But hey, itâs only digital! Weâve heard all that fuss about violence hundreds of times before, itâs only the scaremongering of the ignorant. Yes, possibly. But itâs not that we gamers are blessed with immunity against ignorance, especially when our hobby is criticised. We know nothing about the influence of the media on personality, but that doesnât prevent us from having a conviction: we are sure that computer games do not reinforce aggression in kids. After all, weâre the best examples for this thesis, arenât we? Even if we suspect deep down that our confidence is one third optimism and two thirds indifference, we prefer to cry out: Heck, whatâs wrong with wanting to have some fun? And we certainly insist on our right to decide for ourselves whether violence means fun for us or not. Entertainment is our ultimate justification.
So whatâs the problem with Hitman? Is it about morality, that outdated value? No, it isnât. Itâs about responsibility. The responsibility of the developers for their target group, which simply cannot be denied. To propagate violence without a though about the consequences is blatantly ignorant. But thereâs also the responsibility of us, the gamers, for our hobby. When the uninformed public, prodded by the yellow press, looks at computer games, they notice a Hitman. They notice the blood, the violence, the killing. You know all too well which judgements are formed on the basis of such impressions.
If we justify games like Hitman, we gather voluntarily in our niche as a blood-thirsty minority. We are doing ourselves no favour with that. The gaming scene is grown-up enough to accept its responsibility for itself. We should declare Hitman as what it is: the ill-considered perversion of a game.
The Bottom Line
Do we really need a murder simulation to have fun? I for one donât.
Windows · by -Chris (7762) · 2000
Please, sir, may I have some more?
The Good
Graphics: They are outstanding. Despite some walkthrough (bodies' going through walls and/or floors) they are great. The Hitman looks good, and with high enough graphics settings, you can actually see the numbers of the barcode imprinted on his head. The smoke effects from fire are good, and the world the Hitman operates in looks like a real world. Stuff flows with the wind, mirrors cast accurate reflections, water reacts realistically to your walking, walls look good with no sign of jaggies (usually on edges of objects which look like stairs), and overall good quality.
Presentation: The game is presented great. It has a fairly easy learning curve, lots of missions that aren't repetitive, a good selection of real-world weapons (no alien shrinkray here), stealth and action combined in a seamless transition.
Controls: Excellent. Hitman responds accurately to your input and without delay. Moving is as simple as pressing a key and using your mouse. Inventory, binoculars, sniper scope...everything is easily reached from the regular "WASD" setup.
Atmosphere: Creepy, yet real. Walk too close to a person and they will track your movements with their head, giving you a sense of being watched. This actually has some value, because if you kill someone or pull out a gun, they will always recognize you, even if you change your clothes. Speaking of clothes, when you kill someone, you have the opportunity to change into their clothes, thereby allowing you to blend it, which lets you walk around with more freedom.
Physics: Hitman has a great physics engine. Kill a guy sitting on a chair, and his body will slump over in the chair, just like you'd expect it to. Kill someone on top of a staircase and they will tumble down the stairs, laying correctly on top of the bottom steps and floor. In most games, you'd expect the body to just lay flat; well, not here. Here's another great example. You're dragging a body to a sewer grate to dispose of it. Let the body sit on the side of the grate with one leg hanging over the opening. The physics engine, combined with the weight engine, will let the body gradually seep into the opening until most of it's mass (depending on the bodyfat of the victim) gives and drops the body into the grate. It is amazing and must be seen to fully understand it's addition to the game.
The Bad
Almost nothing. The camera is awful, and tracks you in a over-the-top, third-person perspective. Not that there's anything wrong with that camera position (Tomb Raider anyone?), but it just doesn't suit the game.
The Bottom Line
The first game in the so-called "murder simulation" genre, Hitman: Codename 47 is an excellent game well worth your cash. It'll satisfy all your needs.
Windows · by JPaterson (9502) · 2001
The Good
Though it isn't perfect it is a great game!
The array of weapons is nice, many different "killing toys" to choose from.
The reality of the sniper scope is... well... realistic. The scope bobs up and down, it doesn't stay perfectly still, this not only makes the feel more real but adds to the difficulty. The story behind the game plays out very nicely and ties in very well once you complete the game. Hitman is very addictive, i began my game and played for a while... four hours later i decided it was wise to take a break (it seemed like an hour passed at best).
The graphics are sweet, as one reviewer noted, on high res mode you can nearly read the numbers tattooed on the back of his head, sweet!
Another reviewer was complaining about the separate run button... why? The separate button makes it very convenient to change from running to sneaking up on a dude and cuttin' his throat. i found that assigning the 0 / Ins key on the numpad makes it very easy to toggle between the two.
The Bad
The AI can be too smart at times, it seems that if one guard knows i'm "not on the level" then nearly all of them do.... but it doesn't happen that way every time.
The cut scenes aren't half bad but i find myself cranking the volume up to hear what the hell they say and most of the time i can't understand them anyway due to the foreign accents. The voice overs are... "without enthusiasm" a bit of feeling would have improved this aspect but it's not that big of a deal.
Again with the AI, sometimes enemies will walk through doors or they will be near a wall, i'll fire away and they'll fall through the wall.
The game runs smoothly... until loads of guards etc., hunt you down or the area you are in becomes cluttered w/ crap, the game slows badly and gets quite annoying. However don't let this all discourage you, it's still a killer game!
The Bottom Line
Being 4 years old now you can probably pick this one up very cheap, by all means grab it!
Windows · by MrSuperGod (54) · 2004
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Guards' room in "Traditions of the Trade"? | Daniel Saner (3503) | Feb 15, 2013 |
Music in Windows Vista | Daniel Saner (3503) | Oct 2, 2008 |
Trivia
BPjS/BPjM index
On April 28, 2001, Hitman: Codename 47 was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here: BPjS/BPjM indexed games.
Trivia originally contributed by Xoleras on 18.12.2005.
References
- Pablo's line "Say hello to my little friend" is an obvious reference to the movie Scarface.
- The entire setup of the third mission, "The Massacre at Cheung Chau Fish Restaurant", is extremely similar to a scene of The Godfather, with both the setup (negotiation in a restaurant with gangsters and police), as well as the execution (hiding a gun in the bathroom).
Trivia originally contributed by EboMike on 18.12.2003 and 08.06.2004.
Naked strippers
An earlier beta of the game featured the strippers found in the game with no clothes.
Trivia originally contributed by Zovni on 13.02.2001.
Real-world locations
In an interview with fansite HitmanHQ, lead animator Jens Peter Kurup of Io Interactive stated: "The different locations were either constructed with picture reference or by actually visiting the different places to get the atmosphere right. [...] The Hotel in Budapest actually exists [...], and some of the guys checked it out in details. Then it's modified to fit the gameplay."
The game's Thermal Bath Hotel GallĂ rd in Budapest mentioned in the interview, as visited in the mission Traditions of the Trade, is inspired by real-world Danubius Hotel GellĂŠrt, also in Budapest.
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Hitman: Codename 47
Official Site - Eidos Interactive
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Ray Soderlund.
Additional contributors: Zovni, Daniel Saner, tarmo888, Sciere, Stratege, CaesarZX.
Game added December 15, 2000. Last modified March 14, 2024.