Righty after a week's absence its time for another review, so after doing some gaming lately I thought I would do one on one of my favourite series of games, the Hitman series, and this review will be Hitman: Blood money. Blood money was the fourth installment in the series so with that let's do the usual, look at the plot for starters, which I will only cover partly.
The game's story is centred as usual around the hitman, agent 47 (voiced by David Bateson) who is a genetically enhanced human clone, with a barcode on the back of his head. 47 at the beginning of the game is given an assignment by his handler, Diana to kill Joseph Clarence, an amusement park owner on which there were over 30 deaths on an accident on a ferris wheel in the park due to poor maintenance. 47 carries out the hit, and after receives a string of contract hits from Diana, from clients who are impressed by 47's work. The story is also told in flashback with the events leading back from 2004 up until 2006 (the year the game was released) in which a journalist discusses 47's hits during this time with former FBI director Alexander Cayne. During their discussions they reveal that the Agency that 47 worked for had a rival contractor who used two clones to kill off the Agency's hitmen, which ultimately only leaves 47 and Diana, and it is soon revealed that Cayne was the one who founded the Franchise. And as the game reaches its climax its down to 47 to try and bring down Cayne and save himself.
For me Blood Money is the best game in the Hitman series as it has the perfect mix of stealth and action, and once again the sandbox nature of the game leaves the gamer plenty of options in how to complete the missions. In Blood Money there are several improvements over its predecessors and after the rather lacklustre Hitman Contracts, it really delivered on the gameplay and the quality of the missions. To quickly mention some of my favourite missions in the game which include "Curtains down" where 47 infiltrates an opera house where he is to kill a famous opera singer, who has questionable taste in relationships. "Flatline" is another where 47 is required to smuggle out another agent from a health facility, while he is also given the option to bump off another couple of guests at the facility. "You better watch out" is another great one where 47 is required to kill off a bachelor who has a history of abusing women, while attending a Christmas party. And "Till death do us part" is also another favourite in which 47 is to carry out a hit on the groom at a wedding set in the south in Mississipi.
Getting on to the gameplay itself which is great, as in Blood Money there are several improvements in 47's movement, combat and action. For starters 47 can now climb in and out of windows and he can also jump from ledges and balconies, and he also has the option to perfor melee attacks by disarming characters in the game and even using them as a human shield. 47's stealth creep movement is also now faster as before in Hitman 2 it was woefully slow, but this was something that was addressed in Hitman contracts. 47 can also now dispose of unconscious or dead bodies in containers as opposed to in previous games where 47 had to try and conceal their bodies in a corner of a room (although the containers seem to get fewer as the levels carry on!). As for 47's weaponary he has a great variety of weapons, both firearms and melee weapons, and a new feature in the game is that 47 can now upgrade his weapons, including ammo, add-ons, as well as body armour, and other devices such as lockpicks.
Similar to the previous games 47 will also have stealth metre, which measures the noise level he makes or when his behaviour becomes more violent or noticeable to other characters. And in other improvements 47 now also has the option for non-lethal take downs, as before he used sedatives in chloroform form, which had a limited time before they wore off, but now 47 can use a sedative syringe to knock out someone, and they remain unconscious for the rest of the level (and you also sometimes hear some amusing groans from the characters as well!). 47 can also use syringes to kill his targets too as they can be injected with poison which will kill the character immediately, but usually you will find the fibrewire, is still 47's most trusty form of stealth kill. Another addition to the game is that 47 can now when entering an elevator he can climb into the shaft and wait above for his target, which he can then use his fibre wire to garrot them from above (where we see that rather sick by nifty shot of the target's dangling feet being pulled up!). And as usual of course 47 can change into a number of different outfits to disguise himself, which can be anything from a police officer to big bird! (which he dresses up as in the "Murder of the crows" mission).
Getting onto the game's graphics they are easily the most impressive in the series up to this point (until Absolution last year) and due to the variety of different missions the environments are all very impressive and varied. One of the levels that stands out graphically is "Curtains down" at the opera house as we see a great level of detail in the design of the house. Also another great scene that shows off the visuals is in the mission "Murder of the crows" in the scene during Mardis Gras when 47 walks out on a busy street filled with people as we see floats going by. The character models are also quite impressive for their time as well and at last we get a 360 degree turn view of 47 as before the camera only turned 180 and we could only see the back of him. Also another feature in the game is that 47 can also carry detachable sniper rifles in a special case, which he can carry around with him. But what you can do for fun is unpack the rifle in a public place in full view of people and instantly 47's wanted level goes right up! (actually I do that just for a laugh more than anything else!). However it does raise the fact the emphasis on action in the Hitman games is stealth as if you try to kill your targets head on you will be gunned down by cops, agents, guards or whoever else is in your way.
Which brings me onto one of the game's strongest and best aspects which is its music score by Jesper Kyd, which is superb, and its features many wonderfully dramatic passages of music. The score was performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and in addition to that there are several electronically scored tracks, which are terrific and very ambient and suspenseful. This was unfortunately the last score Jesper Kyd did for the Hitman series, as he didn't score Hitman Absolution, but it is a real highlight of the game and it remains one of the best video game music scores in recent years. Also quickly I can't forget to mention the voice acting which is as always excellent, and David Bateson once again does a great job was 47, as he has a very distinctive voice, and his somewhat calm and almost monontone delivery are what helps make the character work so well.
As for the game's flaws well there are the odd one or two, but the main one for me is that game save system, as it only allows you to permanently save the game after the end of each mission, so if you want to exit the game during a mission, it won't store the game saves you've made, which is a bit annoying, which means you need to start the mission all over again! The game also suffers from the odd bit of glitchy AI but that's to be expected in these games as sometimes the characters might not behave in the way you would expect.
Anyway that's it for my look at Blood Money, which as I said is for me the best in the series and if you are a fan of stealth action games and haven't given this one a go then you will be sured to enjoy it.
So with that, that's that.
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