Hitman: Blood Money Reviewed
Hitman: Blood Money is a stealth game developed by IO Interactive, published by Eidos Interactive and directed by Rasmus Højengaard. It is the fourth entry in the Hitman video game series and was released on May 26 in Europe and on May 30 in the United States, 2006 for the PlayStation 2, PC, Xbox and Xbox 360. A Mobile Phone version under the same name was also released but with drastically different gameplay, graphics and overall style.
The story follows the life of professional hitman Agent 47, as narrated in cutscenes by a former director of the FBI to a journalist who is interviewing him at his home. The wheelchair-bound ex-director recounts how his agency tracked 47 over a two-year period. The tone of Blood Money, in complete contrast with the dark and depressing mood of the previous game, is operatic and often veers into the larger-than-life, recalling elements of the ‘world-traveller’ grandeur of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. The game also differs from the original three in that several contracts are carried out in civilian areas, as opposed to the “covert ops” settings of Codename 47, Silent Assassin, and Contracts missions. A sequel has recently been announced by Eidos
Blood Money received generally favorable reviews upon release, with an average critic score of 83% for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 versions and 82% for the Xbox and PC at Game Rankings.
Many critics felt the game was an improvement over the previous Hitman titles, with Official PlayStation Magazine UK calling it “without question the best Hitman yet”. Other critics shared this thought, despite feeling that the basic gameplay elements were similar, if not unchanged from the previous installments, with GameSpot stating the “the underlying stealth action is mostly unchanged” while “a diverse sequence of imaginative scenarios gives Blood Money its own fair share of violent thrills. GameSpy praised the expanded scope and options in each level, such as making kills appear as accidents, that “the game features enough choices and entertaining kills to have you playing some missions more than once, striving for that elusive Silent Assassin rating.”
The soundtrack was also considered one of the game’s strong points, with IGN noted the “impressive orchestral compositions”, while Game Trailers felt it “drives your emotions throughout each evolving mission and was even nominated for Best Original Music in GameSpot’s Best and Worst Awards 2006.
While new features and additions to the series were praised, some critics felt the Notoriety system was “underutilized” and “half-baked” while others pointed issues from the previous Hitman games still being present, notably with the AI. Game Trailers found that “some enemies behave erratically in specific situations taking you out of the experience”. TeamXbox said they couldn’t “really see any more alertness or cleverness on the part of the CPU than in Hitman Contracts”. The Xbox 360 version was singled out by some reviewers given the high price compared the other versions considering the graphical enhancements not fully utilizing the system’s capabilities.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitman_Blood_Money
Short URL: http://www.mygameplanet.net/?p=651
Posted by J.J.
on Jun 30 2010. Filed under Featured Game Reviews.
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