I sincerely apologize for not being able to post for this long. Real life problems can really be a pain. And I’ll be out of town again for 3 days starting from tomorrow.
Anyways, the hunch I had in Hitman 4 turned out to be true. There is a working title : Hitman 5, and apparently it will have some sort of connection to the second Hitman movie. Nothing is known about the game, and it’s predicted that it’ll be released some time in 2010.
Then there’s Command & Conquer 4. This is the last game of the Tiberium Wars franchise, and luckily, Gamespot had an interview with one of the developers you can check out here.
I loved Tiberium Wars and I definitely look forward to playing this one !
Hitman : Blood Money is the fourth of the series, and something tells me, it’s not the last. It’s also certainly the best of them all, and actually feels like a game rather than a half-baked collection of missions and cinematics glued together.
First of all, the song that’s played in the menu is beautiful. I’ve spent half an hour just listening to it over and over again. There’s a better tutorial in the game, with voice instructions telling you some basic functions. Controls are a bit harder to get used to compared to other Hitman games, and 47 moves somewhat slower when running than in his previous games.
The story is way better, and missions have a better briefing interface. Diana does a good job on doing the voice acting. The story is touching, exciting, dramatic and intense all in different times. And the end… is well, kind of sad : but there are clues that brighten it up.
There are way more weapons in the game. What’s even cooler is that you can upgrade them with things like silent ammunition, butt stocks that reduce recoil, laser sights and all that stuff. They all make the weapons look different, and awesome. There are also a lot of more clothing that you can find in the missions.
Another one bites the dust
There is now also the ‘Rookie’ difficulty level for those newcomers that probably haven’t played the other 3 games. But even then I had trouble getting through all those levels lol.
The combat and methods of assassination are drastically improved. There are tons of new ways you can kill people. Syringe poisons, syringe sedatives, pushing them off a rail, and my personal favorite, using a target as a human shield ! These further amplify the realistic feel of the game. The new recoil reduces the accuracy of the weapons heavily, so you gotta buy upgrades to minimalize this.
Drop your weapons, or I'm gonna blow out his brains.
Three extra things have been added to the game. The first is the statistics at each end of the mission. The second is the notoriety level, which basically means the higher notoriety you have, the more likely you’ll get caught in the next mission. Though you can bribe a police officer to reduce that. Things like witnesses and surveillance cameras contribute to notoriety. So make sure you either kill the witness or steal the surveillance tape. The third, and what I think is the most coolest, is the front page of a newspaper with an article about the mission you just completed. It’s basically an expanded version of the statistics, telling about how many witnesses there were, how many you killed, the priority of the investigation etc. Now this boosts realism to the maximum. There’s no doubt that you actually feel like you’re 47.
There are also other improved gameplay elements such as concealing your victims in dumpsters/containers, or hiding in closets from patrols, or hiding weapons in cakes to pass guards.
Blend with the crowd...
The graphics are drastically improved. The sound effects as well. There’s no more of that cheesy robotic dialogues you might’ve seen from previous games.
My only complaint with the game would be that the AI often acts stupid. You’re hiding behind a column, you’re 70% exposed, but the AI comes closer to you to shoot you.
There is no doubt at all that Hitman : Blood Money is the best of the series. It’s very touching story, excellent realistic gameplay and superb graphics makes it a MUST to Hitman fans.
Hitman : Contracts is the third game of the series, and quite better than it’s predecessors. However, it still has some notable flaws that can also be found in the first two games as well.
If you’re new to the series, Hitman is a bioengineered super-assassin that was ‘’raised’’ in a sanitarium in Romania. He works for an agency that collects contracts from clients to assassinate targets. Unlike the first of the series, Hitman 3 has a story, whereas the first only had a bunch of missions with no connection whatsoever.
47 (his nickname) is wounded from a recent mission, as we see in the starting cinematic. The missions you get to play are basically flashbacks of the contracts he’s completed. So you could call it a story…
Looks like someone misbehaved...
The game starts with the escape from the sanitarium because something went terribly wrong with his clones. The Romanian SWAT, as the game calls it, comes and intervenes, but 47 must escape regardless. The environment in each mission is realistic. You can see startled patients walking around mindlessly, some sitting down, clasping their knees and rocking up and down, making disturbing noises.
The missions are very exciting. Some are new, some are revamped missions from Hitman 1. But they’re all refreshing. There are many weapons, and many ways you can kill your target. You can go all-out Rambo, or you can be a silent, stealthy assassin. The game provides you with the things you need to kill someone stealthily. You can change your clothes either from your victims, or from the ones lying around (as we’ve seen in the previous games), you can scout around the environment and pick up useful things such as rat poison, knives, etc.; you can lockpick doors, you can sneak up behind your targets with piano/fiber wire… all of this gives it a unique feeling that you’re really a pro. I also love it that when you’re near death there’s like this slow-motion thing and the screen turns gray-ish. Then you witness how he bleeds to death.
However, most good games come with flaws. There are some rough textures in the game, there are lots of look-alike characters (such as guards, civilians), but the most disturbing are the in-game dialogues which are very delayed, meaning that it takes very long to get to the next sentence. This makes the conversation very cheesy and robotic. This might not be such a big deal for you though.
Frriz ! Zis is zi Frrench poliss !
The voice acting isn’t credible. I understood the Romanian and English dudes, and they spoke as if they were some machines, so I’m guessing it’s the same for the Hungarians and the Chinese.
Overall, this is a one of the best stealth-action games and also one of the best in the series. The realistic environments and combat gameplay makes up for its crappy voice acting and the ‘clone army’.
In other news,
- Spore : Galactic Adventures was released, and reviewed by Gamespot.com. You can find it here.
- Call of Juarez : Bound in Blood got released and reviewed by Gamespot.com. You can find it here.
- More information about the upcoming Starcraft II can be found here
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