Right well I thought I would finish off the month with another one of them reviews and so this time I've opted to do another video game and the game will be Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, which features the professional human cloned killer, agent 47. So let's give this one a look....
So a bit about the plot which starts with Agent 47 (voiced by David Bateson) who has faked his own death after the events of the first game and unofficially resigned from his contract agency. 47 since then has retreated to a church in Sicily to try and find peace with himself and works as gardener for his best friend and mentor, Father Vittorio. However one day, the father is kidnapped and a ransom note is left for 47, who decides to go back to his old just as an assassin in an effort to try and track down the father. 47 then goes back to his old agency handler, Diana Burnwood and says in return for becoming assassin again he wants Diana's help in trying to locate Father Vittorio to which Diana agrees. 47 also tells Diana that Father Vittorio was kidnapped by the Mafia boss Guiseppe Guiliano. And from here agent 47 heads back to his life of contract killings and as the game progresses 47 follows leads in hope to find his good friend and confidant, father Vittorio. (well that was quick!)
Hitman 2 for me remains one of the strongest entries in the series and it for its time its presentation was very impressive and it was reportedly a big improvement over the limitations of the first game in the series. The gameplay itself is also very good and largely straightforward and 47's mission objectives are given at the start of the level which are followed by cut scenes. The missions themselves are actually very varied and there is no set way for 47 to kill his targets as he can either kill them directly (shoot or stab them) or find other more stealthy ways to bump off his targets. And this has always been part of the appeal of the Hitman games in that it allows for the player to make their own choices in how to reach the objective of the mission (i.e. how they decide to kill the guys!). 47 can also of course change disguises in the missions as he takes the clothes of people whom he has either killed or incapcitated and use them to get into places, e.g. police stations, heavily guarded areas, etc.
Weapons wise, 47 has a variety of weapons to choose from and he always has his trusty dual ballers (silenced pistols) as well as his fibre wire, which at times can prove to be the most effective weapon in the game when 47 wants to try and make a clean kill without attracting too much attention. 47 has access to a variety of other weapons such as assault rifles, sub-machine guns, shotguns and sniper rifles, as there are some missions where 47 will be required to take out subjects from a distance using a sniper rifle. In the game however 47 has to use his weapons carefully as the emphasis of the action is mainly stealth based if he goes in all guns blazing he is sure more times than not to be killed outright (although he is suprisingly quite strong and can take a fair amount of bullet damage before he finally goes down!). 47 also has the option to incapacitate his enemies without killing as he can use chloroform to knock out them out, which agains for 47 to pinch their clothes and move on.
Graphics wise Hitman 2 also looks great for its time especially considering the fact the game is now 12 years old, the visuals are very impressive and the character models are also even good and it also helps that the game got a visual upgrade when it was released for the Xbox 360 as a remastered version in HD. The game's environments are naturally very varied as well as 47 travels to different locations throughout the world such as Russia (to St Petersburg where 47 kills a Russian general), Afghanistan (where 47 travels to kill some soldiers involved in the Afghan war) and Japan (where 47 goes to kill a Yakuza crime boss). The game also makes good use of its heads up display (HUD) where we 47's health bar and also the suspicion system, which is a bar that rises when 47 attracts too much attention from nearby strangers and will ultimately result in going red if 47 blow his cover.
And another very strong aspect of the game is its music score by Jesper Kyd, which is superb and it is a very dramatic and atmospheric score as well, which is well worth checking out on its own and it suits the tone of the game perfectly. Kyd makes strong use of both orchestral and electronic arrangements in his music and both are carried off superbly as Kyd utilises the national orchestra of Budapest in the orchestral moments and his own synthesized tracks. The voice acting is also very good and David Bateson once again excels as 47 in providing his intense and low voice providing 47 with the right amount of icy coolness and menace.
As for flaws..... well Hitman 2 does have one or two niggles, for starters I feel that 47's movement is still a bit sluggish here, as he walks quite slowly although he can run a fair bit faster, but worst of all when 47 is in a crouched position he creeps forward at a painfully slow pace! And this proves to be quite problematic when he tries to sneak up on enemies to kill them with his fibre wire as it can take an age for him to get into place and by then the enemy may already have moved off! This also applies to when 47 tries to move dead or unconscious bodies as he drags them rather slowly and messily across the floor, which takes too long and is bound to end up with 47 being rumbled and again highlight the sluggishness of 47's movement. Another issue probably also lies in the fact that 47 can't really conceal his weapons very well, i.e. larger weapons such as sniper rifles as he has to try and discreetly holster it in his arm, which isn't very inconspicuous. The game's difficulty level is also quite tough at times and may leave players a bit frustrated when trying to complete a level and also given the large area of some of the levels it is all too easy for 47 to get lost and out of place for when he is trying to locate a target. The difficulty level naturally rises toward the end of the game with the last mission where 47 tries to save Father Vittorio particularly being a pain in the ass when 47 has so many baddies to kill.
I also thought the inclusion of the chloroform in the game whilst it is a good idea to let 47 use non-lethal methods to dispatch his enemies, the chloroform effects don't last for the rest of the level, so before you know it the person 47 has knocked out is soon back up and walking around again, which will no doubt cause them to alert others of 47's presence! Then there is the game's save system which is also a pest as it won't allow you to save your progess during a level and exit the game, it will only save your progress while you play the game. This continued to be the case in Hitman blood money, which was a great game as well but it also marred the gameplay experience as well as it would be alot better if they allowed you to permenantly save your progress when you exit the game so you can go back into it, but no someone at IO interactive just wasn't having it! (the game's publisher of course).
But that all put aside, Hitman 2 is an excellent entry in the game's series and is well worth revisiting and still holds up well after 12 years.
And I shall leave yee there and see you all in October!
No comments:
Post a Comment