An improvement over Hitman Contracts, and a surprisingly good title that is definitely worth playing.
While you can play thru the Hitman games like its a 3rd person shooter, the main goal is to play thru them as a silent assassin by killing only your target objectives. And doing this does not require the use of guns in most of the missions. In the first 3 missions after the tutorial mission, you can finish each one without using a gun at all. And that's the beauty of Hitman. Like I said, you can play thru however you want.
The core gameplay is a 3rd person perspective stealth action game. If you want to use your arsenal of guns, you can click the right analog stick to enter 1st person mode for better aiming, or for sniping if using a sniper rifle. Outside of your guns, you have access to other ways to disable or take out objectives or those in your way. Sedatives, poisons, melee weapons, the traditional fiber wire, and remote mines are all at your disposal. To help with just about every mission, you can take the clothes off of those you kill or sedate to enable you to get into other areas and such. Also, there are plenty of context sensitive moves you can use that range from placing items in toolboxes, hiding in closets, disposing of bodies in containers, setting up remote mines, and more. With all those moves at your disposal, along with a map that at the default level displays everyone in the mission, citizen, guard, and targets alike, you can setup game plans and execute them to try and get that elusive Silent Assassin ranking.
The graphics are very solid, and are very good in a few places, particularly the New Orleans level, as the mission takes place during Mardi Gras and there are alot of people in the streets. The voice acting in the game is solid, as are the various sound effects, mostly from the guns you have available. Basically, all the entertainment value areas are good to great, namely the graphics, sound, and cutscenes. The overarcing story is told via cutscenes mainly before the missions you undertake. Its a good story which leads to a satisfying conclusion with a cool finish during the credits.
Even though the Hitman games are single player, there is plenty of replay value to be had, particularly with the Xbox 360 version and its achievements which can be found in the hints section here on GS. Seeing as every mission is very open ended, there are plenty of ways to make your way thru each mission.
Like I said at the start, I'm not a fan of stealth games. But I was very surprised how much I enjoyed Hitman Blood Money. It is as much of a stealth game as you want it to be. Not to mention that its a very fun game to boot. Definitely worth playing if you like stealth type games, and worth looking into if you like action adventure games.