Hitman (computer game)

Hitman is a video game franchise available on most formats. It revolves around 47, a genetically engineered assassin for hire, whose skills place him in high demand for jobs. The games have a considerable amount of violence and are rated Mature by the ESRB.

The games were developed by Danish developer IO Interactive, now a division of Eidos. Three games have been released in the series: Hitman: Codename 47 (2000), Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002), and Hitman: Contracts (2004). A fourth installment, titled Hitman: Blood Money, has been announced for a spring 2005 release.

Description

Weapons featured include the trademark Hardballers (custom Colt 1911 .45ACP pistols), silenced Beretta pistol, fiber wire used to strangle victims, and variety of submachine guns, sniper rifles, assault rifles, machineguns as well as knives, golf clubs and other more exotic weapons.

The character of the Hitman may be at least partially inspired by the villain Necros from the James Bond film The Living Daylights. Like 47, Necros was a Hitman with a fondness for disguises and garotting his victims. His most memorable moment was when he infiltrates an MI6 safehouse disguised as a milkman (having killed the real milkman), then proceeds to dispatch the MI6 agents using milk bottle bombs.

Basic gameplay

The Hitman is not particularly manueverable; he cannot jump at all, let alone scale walls or mantle up ledges (there are a couple pre-scripted places where he can jump from one balcony to another, but these are rare). This generally limits the Hitman to a single plane of movement, although he is often presented the opportunity to move to higher or lower areas through the use of ladders, stairs, or hills.

In terms of action, the Hitman series runs a middle ground between pure shooters such as Quake or Doom and stealth games such as Thief or Splinter Cell. Unlike most stealth game protagonists, 47 can survive considerable damage before dying. Combined with the game's impressive arsenal, this allows for some high-action firefights. At the same time, you are unable to heal your health in the middle of a level, which tends to encourage the player to avoid as much damage as possible (especially in later levels, where enemies begin carrying high-powered weapons such as shotguns or sniper rifles that can kill you in one or two hits).

The game also maintains a "realistic" atmosphere in terms of the abilities of you and your enemies. The genetically engineered Hitman can survive a couple dozen bullets to the chest, but a single sniper rifle shot to the head or a couple of shotgun blasts will quickly kill him. Almost all of the game's enemies die after only 2 or 3 pistol bullets, and even heavily armored SWAT troopers die after 5 or 6 shots. Sometimes, at the end of the game, the player will encounter a special "boss" character who, like the Hitman, can survive a few dozen pistol shots to the chest, but even these special foes die in seconds from headshots or automatic rifle fire (most can also be strangled, poisoned, or sniped without a fight).

Games

Hitman: Codename 47

The Hitman, Mr. 47, wakes up strapped to a sparse bed in a padded room, dressed like a mental patient. A disembodied voice over a PA loudspeaker releases him and sends him through a series of obstacle courses where he is instructed in firearms and murder techniques. 47 is eventually led to a pair of guards, whom he murders in order to escape captivity. A few years later, we rejoin 47 as a professional assassin in the employ of the International Contract Agency. 47 is sent around the globe on a series of mission to eliminate 4 global criminal masterminds, all while trying to unravel the secret behind his origin.

The first game in the series. Unlike most games where the player is thrust into a hostile world and must kill to survive, Hitman: Codename 47 mostly takes place in neutral environments such as hotels, restaurants, or city streets, and the impetus is on 47 to initiate the violence. On a technological note, Hitman: Codename 47 was the first game to use the now popular ragdoll physics.

Compared to later games in the series, Hitman: Codename 47's gameplay is more simplistic. There is no "suspicion" meter, so guards will always leave 47 alone as long as he's wearing the right disguise and not waving a weapon around. This is true regardless of your behavior, whether you're running around, dancing on the furniture, or breathing down their necks in preparation for a quick strangulation from behind.

Unlike later games in the series, violence is mandatory and there are several levels where getting into a massive shootout against dozens of guards is inevitable. This is particularly true concerning a level that takes place in the Columbian jungle where you battle South American drug soldiers, a level criticized by many players as being inconsistent with the "stealthy" tone of the game. The final battle, a deathmatch-style showdown against a "respawning" opponent who moves and fights like a Quake bot, is a particularly large departure from the game's stealth gameplay.

Despite being generally praised for its novel gameplay and good graphics, the game was heavily criticized for having an overly complicated control scheme. The menu system used to manipulate objects in the world was criticized as being unintuitive and difficult to control. Additional, the control scheme deviated from the standard FPS control formula, including separate keys for walking forward and running forward, as well as a button that toggled your aim from a standard mouse-look to a practically useless aiming mode where you moved the cursor around the screen without affecting 47's movement. Finally, the inability to save within a mission was a major point of complaint, especially since PC gamers are generally used to being able to save anywhere they want.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

After learning all about his dark past and unnatural conception at the end of Hitman: Codename 47, Mr. 47 seeks refuge in a monastery in Sicily, attempting to put his murderous past behind him and begin a new life as a simple church gardener. Unfortunately, 47 is brought out of his soul-searching retirement when his host and friend Father Vittorio is kidnapped by the Mafia. 47 attacks their fortified mansion in an attempt to rescue him, only to find the priest has already been spirited away by Russian thugs. The Agency who gave him info on the Mafia want a job in return. Soon 47 is once again performing hits for money, initially to fiance the search for Father Vittorio, but eventually simply because he's fallen back into old habits. As in the previous game, the hits form an overall pattern, as a single influential client sends 47 across the world on the trail of components of a Nuclear Weapons System.

Hitman 2 was a significant step forward in terms of the series' gameplay. Many of the criticisms of the original game were addressed in the sequel. The control scheme has been streamlined to be more along the lines of a standard FPS game. In fact, an optional first person perspective was added for those who want to play the game as a straight shooter. The stealth element was also improved with the addition of a "suspicion meter" that showed enemies become increasingly suspicious of 47 based on his behavior (such as running indoors, carrying a weapon, or trying to sneak up behind their backs), causing them to attack him when the meter went high enough. Hitman 2 also introduced the "Silent Assassin" system, in which the player is given a different rank based on the way he plays the game. A highly aggressive, non-stealthy player who kills everyone on the map will be branded a Mass Murderer, while a stealthy player who manages to complete a level without being noticed and only killing the intended target will be rewarded with the highest rank, Silent Assassin.
Despite the general consensus among critics and players that the game was significantly improved over the original, some points of contention remained. Many players complained that the new suspicion system was too sensitive, as guards would often open fire on you for little things like running indoors. Additionally, some features from the original game, such as reflective surfaces and physics that allowed bodies to float in water, had apparently been removed to allow the engine to run well on a console system.

The game caused controversy on its release due to a level featuring the killing of Sikhs within a depiction of their most holy site, the Golden Temple. After a campaign by international Sikh groups for the game's recall, Eidos announced that it would modify any subsequent releases of the game to remove the offending elements.

Hitman: Contracts

Published in 2004.

The hunter has become the hunted, as 47 is seriously wounded by one of his own targets, who seemed to have been expecting him. Taking refuge in a nearby apartment, 47 drifts in and out of consciousness as an army of heavily armed SWAT units converge around the apartment complex. In his stupor, 47 is bombarded with hallucinary flashbacks to previous assignments. These flashbacks to the past make up 11 of the game's 12 missions, with the 12th and final mission involving a newly motivated 47 attempting to escape from his predicament.
Unlike the first two games in the series, there is no over-arching plot tying the missions together. Instead, the game is a series of independent missions. Hitman: Contracts is about 50% new content, and 50% "remixes" of old missions from the original Hitman: Codename 47 redesigned for the new gameplay style. Almost all of the major missions from Hitman: Codename 47 have been re-made and included in Contracts. Essentially, Contracts appears to be a way to give console gamers a way to play most of the content from the original, PC-only game. The presentation is also considerably darker than the previous 2 games, most levels take place at night or in the rain and even indoors the environments are dimly-lit and dreary.

In many ways, Contracts is akin to Hitman 2.5. The general gameplay is more or less the same as Hitman 2, but minor tweaks and improvements have been made in response to complaints about Hitman 2. The "suspicion" meter is less twitchy and unpredictable than it use to be, enemies generally won't see through your disguise unless you stand right next to them for several seconds or enter a restricted area, and will no longer start shooting at you for little things like running indoors or brushing past them. The graphics have also been polished and improved somewhat (although the engine is still clearly the same).

Hitman: Blood Money

Major or re-occurring characters