Hitman: Contracts

The Good
Changing into other people's clothing for disguises was excellent. Of course, in any case, you're still bald! Being a hotel bellboy, walking into a room, and pumping some shells into the head bad guy with his prostitute is just good fun.

Gunning down a bunch of Le Chapelier Frenchies in their SWAT outfits was great as well.

The wide selection of weaponry.

Controls were a little tricky at first, but eventually got used to them.

Game is fairly challenging, but not to where you'll be banging your head against the wall. Can be won with moderate preserverance.

The Bad
Actually, pretty much nothing. If there was something wrong, I would say the lack of cohesion in the story. All of the hits you go on seem pretty unrelated, and I don't really understand the backstory that it tries to show with its flashbacks. Of course, that's probably because I never played the first two games! Best I can tell is you're some kind of cloned dude specifically designed for assassination (the first level is riddled with dead bodies of guys who look just like you).

The Bottom Line
Basically, you're a hitman (duh!) who is hired out by various clients to knock off various people around the world. You never meet these clients, however, and all the deals are done through an intermediary, a British woman who is never identified.

An extremely fun game. Has the look and feel of a Grand Theft Auto type game, but with a hint of seriousness. I played the whole game not realizing that 'Silent Assassin' was the rank to aspire to for each level, and I wound up getting the rank 'Mass Murderer' all the time. But I didn't care, it was awesome! Just machine gunning down 50+ people and dominating the entire level was the way I went. No witnesses!!

If you achieve the Silent Assassin rank on a level (ie. you meet a certain amount of stealth requirements), then you receive a bonus special weapon to use in future levels. Plus, you can go back to get secret weapons on earlier levels that you couldn't originally access (like the minigun on level 1).

I've grown tired of 3rd person shooters in recent memory, but this one was actually real good. Definitely worth picking up for $20!