Hitman Blood Money

Classically Executed : Agent 47 looks on coldly at his target

Hitman Blood Money is the fourth installment of the series featuring Agent 47 on his assassination contracts from an organization known as the Agency. I've just finished playing it recently and I'm quite pleased to say that I got the 'Silent Assassin' rating for all the levels except for the alcohol rehab centre. I got 'Silent Assassin' for all the levels at Hitman Contracts too but Blood Money was more challenging in that I did not rely on any clues from any websites but just play the game as it is and explore through trial and error. Warning: Spoiler's ahead in the review..

Blood Money is way much more violent and gory compared to its predecessors (except for the Meat King level in contracts). New systems of play are introduced such as distraction using coin, human shield, strangulation from elevator and customization of weapons. Blood Money seriously looks like some murder simulator, in that players had to clear up the mess, steal security tapes and study movements even more than before. There are containers available around the levels to dispose bodies but some of them are meant to distract. One vital pattern that I found out was that death by accidents caused by mines would affect rating but the discovery of the dead body does not affect rating as long as nobody witnessed the killing.

The level of detail has being increased. For instance, especially for head shots, the projectile direction of the bullet would determine which part of the head would bleed or be punctured. For instanced, if you shoot the cheek, only the cheek area will be bloodied, and for the eyes, only the socket will be affected. So, if someone is a sadistic maniac and pumps a few shots in at every part of the head, the whole face would turn into some red bloodied mess. And headshots by the shotgun would automatically turn half the face red.

The venues in Blood Money were quite a variety, although it's less so than Hitman 2. I still remember in Hitman 2 where Agent 47 actually visited the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia! For Blood Money, Hitman travels to South America first, then to France and the remaining ones are in America itself but in different states like Mississippi, New Orleans, Las Vegas and Washington D.C. The gameplay is very open-ended, in that it allows just so many ways for the players to choose to eliminate their target.

The storyline is really good! And I don't understand why the movie didn't adopt even half of the plot from there. The storyline basically revolves around the continued storyline that Agent 47 became so notorious that the FBI are all hot on his trail despite the public's perception that he was just some urban legend. Seems that some folks didn't like the idea that Agent 47 is a living specimen of a succesful clone. So, a government-backed organization called the Franchise set itself to eliminate the members of the Agency and in the end, only Agent 47 and his good pal Diana (the infamous briefing lady voice..haha) are left. But alas, it does seem at first that Diana betrayed 47 when she stabbed him with a fatal dose of injection at their last meeting. However, 47 (and the player) did not realise that the so-called fatal injection was meant to fake the death of Hitman (similiar to the one used to fake the death of Agent Smith in the alcohol rehab center). At the cremation/funeral ceremony of Agent 47, Diana quietly administered the antidote and departed from the area. The epilogue is just fantastic. At first it shows the rolling credits and the synonymous theme song of "Ave Maria" being played for the funeral to supposedly mark the end of Hitman. However, players are supposed to actively engage and press the forward button to revive Agent 47. So, if no action is done, Agent 47 would just be cremated and that's the ending. If 47 is revived, he goes on a killing rampage of all those that are attending the funeral and leave no witnesses alive as he escapes. And the last target that 47 encountered would most probably be the poor nosey reporter at the beginning who is desperately trying to escape the compound. Unfortunately, the gate is locked by Diana and well, it's up to the players then to decide how to finish him off, and being 47, it's probably the point-blank headshot execution style. Now, the real credits roll over with an epilogue cut-scene showing Htman (well and alive) entering into the Blue Lotus gang establishment and this promises that a sequel would be on the way.

One thing which Blood Money achieved is that it successfully tagged Schubert's "Ave Maria" to the Hitman franchise and which the movie used for its trailers too. I think it's really the song encompasses and provides the deathly, melancholic and slightly tragic anthem for the background music to represent Agent 47.

P.S. Ohhh, on the end note, I shall mention about one of the fun Easter Egg that's present in the game. By following certain instructions, players can unlock the zombie mood in the Mississippi boat level. It's kinda creepy cos it feels like Resident Evil! Pack a shotgun to get the feel of Alice..haha. And not only that, after Zombie mode is initiated, the people coming after 47 can only be put down through a headshot. Body shot would just make them lie dead for a while and like the undead, they will creepily just continue coming. I tried to survive the mass onslaught but not possible cos 47 would definitely run out of ammo and the screen lags terribly from the overwhelming amount of characters congested in one area. Here's the screenshot below to show how 47 is being "chased" by "zombies"..lol.

The day when Agent 47 becomes Alice from Resident Evil