Hitman Blood Money
Hitman Blood Money is the fourth game in the hitman series. You play Agent 47, a bald clone assassin who is motivated by Money. Taking any job that comes his way, as long as the price is right. The game revolves around remaning hidden, blending in with crowds, taking disguises to get close enough to the target, so that you may kill them without being discovered. There are many ways to do this, many paths to take, weapons to use in the aims of striking your victim in the most discreet fashion.
You start the game with a selection of custom weapons which you can modify and upgrade through the money you earn. This includes things like bigger ammo clips, sights, scopes and silencers. The primary weapon is a Silverballer, a handgun which is easy to conceal, accurate and powerful. You are also equiped with syringes, two filled with poison, which kills a target when injected, and two sedatives, which merely put them to sleep. The game is based around stealth, stealing identities to access restricted areas and sneaking past gaurds to get to your victim. The ultimate aim is to finish a mission with the rating "Silent Assassin", a rank given when the enemy is killed without any other casualties and without being discovered as an intruder. Ranks are based on how many people are killed, how many times your cover was blown and how many witnesses were left. The higher the rank, the better the bonus cash.
The game is played in 3rd person primarily, but can be switched to 1st person perspective which helps with aiming. The camera is 360 revolving around Agent 47 so you can see everything around you. This helps make the game accessible and easy to play, with you being able to see enemies before they see you.
The story for this game sees the Agency that Hires Mr 47, slowly being destroyed by an enemy company. The story is told from the perspective of a CIA agent, telling the story of how he captured 47 to a reporter, and the victims he's accumalated. This seems to be slighlty biased and details are missed or mis-reported. The missions show how things really happened, and all comes to head by the end of the game.
The game looks great, graphics running smoothly, with minimal slowdown. The AI tends to be predicatble, with paths and routes taken by the gaurds, being very predictable. You cantake different paths and finish the target in different ways, but it really doesn't take much effort. The difficulty level doesn't mean anything with this game, as if you're playing properly, you won't be seen, and all the targets are in the same place as they are on the other difficulties. You could walk through every mission without any trouble once you know where you're going and where the enemies were. This does make for an easy 1000 achievement points though.
Overall, the game is great if you're a fan of the stealth genre. Working you way through the missions again and again, trying different ways is fun but ultimately not very rewarding. The game looks good, the camera is useful and doesn't hinder you. The AI isn't challenging if you've played a mission once or twice but good for something to play when you don't want to run around shooting everyone and everything in sight like most other games
