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
Product Marketing Lead | |
Product Manager | |
Creative Manager | |
PR | |
Localisation Manager | |
QA-Manager | |
Tester |
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Translation |
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Special Thanks |
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Programming | |
Additional Programming | |
[ 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)
Takes the incredibly cool Walther 2000 sniper rifle and shoots itself squarely in the foot.
The Good
This game has got to be one of the most wished ideas ever developed. After the way movies romanticized the hitman profession in such classics as The Killer, Nikita, The Professional, etc. it remained to be seen if videogames could do the same.... well, let's see!
For starters the game begins on the right track by setting itself apart from the pack with a distinctive style and feel thanks to a streamlined interface and some clever gimmicks (like the almighty hitman's laptop). The game takes you through a completely linear campaign that is subdivided in several open-ended missions. Each mission involves taking out someone, how to do so is entirely up to you (though there is just one or two "correct" ways). Each assignment seems to weave a larger plot-line that will ultimately reveal itself in the latest missions, however each mission is excellently crafted with a great sense of progression, and an open yet defined aproach to each.
There is a pretty large arsenal of weapons to experiment with, and equally, you'll get to experiment those weapons on a pletora of enemies and (get out of the way!) innocent bystanders. But if you are clever enough, you'll find that one of your best weapons is sneaking and infiltrating your enemies. Not only does the game allow you to sneak around and take your enemies clothes, but it also includes a lot of classic adventure touches that make the missions much more than just finding the right way to shoot your target. You'll have to extract information out of deranged sanitarium inmates, bartenders, prostitutes, or some of the other npcs that inhabit the slightly jaded world of Hitman making for a much more varied gameplay experience. Furthermore, Hitman's world is brought to life by a pretty spiffy graphics engine. The folks at IO really managed to create some cool visuals with many smoke and lighting effects as well as coping with an astounding amount of gameworld detail (take your character's tie, or the shadows for instance).
Of course the meat of the game is in the killing aspect of it, and the game deals almost perfectly with it. All of the weapons behave realistically, with great sound effects to go with them, and the enemy animations are incredibly cool when it comes to getting shot, strangled, dragged or even when they roll around trying to avoid your shots.
The Bad
Well, did you like all the nice things I wrote over there? Well don't get too excited, because this game takes all of that incredibly cool premises and shoots itself in the foot with them. There are just so many things wrong in this game that I don't know where to begin first, so I'll just go at it randomly, ok?
The control sucks. Pure and simple. As a previous reviewer noted you have a separate key for running... so what, right? Well, regardless of the fact that this is rather cumbersome and annoying Hitman apparently doesn't like it whenever you press both the running and regular "forward" key at the same time so our baldy friend just stops dead in the middle of a firefight whenever you do that. Cute, isn't it? The game handles using items and equipments via pop-up menues, which has worked before, but stops the game dead, since there isn't a quick way to access your weapons. You have to predict that you will be facing a confrontation and be ready to select your weapon or take a couple of seconds browsing through your equipment menu if you get surprised (or things just don't turn up as you figured)while your enemies chew you up (believe me, that "fast and furious" action will get a LOT more furious after a couple of these incidents). As for handling items, the game only makes available some options the closer you are to them, and always chooses the worst one first (one would think you would want to drag a dead body out of the way and then take his clothes, but what the heck, right??).
As for the enemies themselves they happen to have an incredibly stupid AI. They can be funneled into any corridor you want, and they will actually shoot themselves. And just try to confront someone at hand-to-hand combat for fun!
Something that is particularly offending, and that delivers a completely devastating blow to this game, is the fact that it doesn't take advantage of it's premise. Lots of movies have taken such moraly disgusting professions like the hitman's and cloaked it in an aura of romanticism and adventure while not condoning it completely. Hitman does practically none of these things, so it leaves itself wide open for a moral-bashing of epic proportions. And whose fault is this? Mr. 47 I'm afraid. You see, unlike other hitman characters, 47 doesn't react in any way to what happens around him. The plot revolves around his past, but you don't see him even reacting to that. He could actually be a way-wussier Terminator if you think about it! Blankly going from place to place spouting short and controlled (but terribly voice-acted) phrases, and taking out his guns from time to time. In essence, it is terribly hard to connect in any way with the character, he can't be neither our alter-ego, nor a credible character, since the game presents him to us in a very defined and cinematic way (effectively cutting our freedom of interpretation) but he is a complete Nimrod.
The most grievous flaw in this game however is the lack of a saving option. Lazy coding or over-pretentious game design? ("it adds to the atmosphere, c'mon, only wusses use savegames!!).... you be the judge. The fact of the matter is that most missions start with a slow pacing that requires you to judge everything and move inch-by-inch, and then end in an confrontation. Cool, uh? well, what this translates to WITHOUT a savegame feature, is that you will be wading over-and-over through lots of tedious, meager tasks you have figured out hours ago, only to try and see if you can beat that guy, or find that nuclear bomb before time runs out.... yet again.
It's downright cruel, cheap and incredibly frustrating.
The Bottom Line
Whoa... that was a lot wasn't it? Well I'll make this short then. Hitman has a lot of promise and gloss, but after you take a good look at it you find out that this is no Nikita. Heck, it's not even Stallone's Assassins!!
Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2002
The Good
The Hitman game series succeeds on the simple truth that there is nothing quite like a the prospect of killing in cold blood to get the blood pumping. On that front at-least, this game delivers.
The Bad
I am sure you have all heard of the Hit-Man series? Unfortunately, not many people know that the early games in the series are rather unimpressive. So what is it that makes it such a poor game? It's not the graphics, they are acceptable and it's not the physics they are good. It's not even the A.I. because that more than suffices. The sad fact is that the game is impossibly hard, even on the lowest level of difficulty. I never got past the first two levels! The game does have a tutorial, unfortunately this only tells you how to fire a gun and the basics of the movement. For the first mission you are sent to a unknown city block and told to assassinate a gang leader in the Buddhist park there. What you are not told, is how to evade the 30 or so guards, how to avoid the chain gun wielding helicopter and then how to leave without being spotted. The guards are paranoid of anything that moves and the moment you pull out a gun they shoot you to oblivion. Turns-out (I read a walk-through) that you have to climb a unknown elevator somewhere in the area and get to the roof, assassinate the gang leader and then hide before the manic copter sees you.
To be fair to the game, I am sure it appeals to some people, if you are a fan of the genre or just like impossible problems you may enjoy this. Still If you get anything out of this game you have done very well.
The Bottom Line
It's Not: very understandable, fun
It's: Very twisted
Windows · by Lance droy (4) · 2007
The Good
MobyGamesâ rigid review structure is sometimes annoying. ;-)
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
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.