Even though it doesn't offically look 'next gen'..get ready for a challenge because this is the best game in the series.
The first Hitman game really didn’t appeal to me that much. I played it for a couple of hours and then I got rid of it. As far as this installment of the game goes, I was surprised by how smooth the game play seemed to be. One thing I found I found interesting was the fact that you have different ways of completing missions. There is the ideal way of playing the mission where you use stealth to take people out and then hide their bodies so there is no trace. Or you could go into the mission guns blazing, taking out whoever gets in your way. The latter isn’t the smartest way to go because you won’t be rewarded properly and your notoriety will sky rocket. The more notoriety you accumulate the harder it is going to be to complete missions because people will begin to recognize you no matter what your disguise is. At the end of every mission you are given the option to spend money to knock your notoriety down.
As many people know the Hitman series is all about sneaking around and strangling people in order to get a disguise. Blood Money sticks to that formula. This time around Agent 47 visits different areas around the USA. There are missions based in New Orleans (Marti Gras), LA, Mississippi and Las Vegas. There are many different weapons and supplies in the game. You can choose what type of weapon you want to use for each mission. Plus there is an option not to actually shoot your targets each mission. Agent 47 can rig certain things to make the enemies deaths look like it was an accident.
The graphics are a little disappointing for the 360. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t horrible; they just don’t look like it is a next generation title. One impressive thing about the graphics is the environments. The Mardi Gras mission in particular was impressive because of the number of people on that level. The New Orleans streets were full with NPC’s all walking around and doing their own thing. Another impressive mission is Dance With the Devil, where 47 hits up a rave. There seems like there are hundreds of people on the dance floor and the animations are still very smooth.
As far as the sound goes the voice acting is very good. Agent 47 actually speaks in this and his voice definitely fits him. I also enjoyed some of the conversations that the NPC’s would have during certain missions.
There are a few gripes I had with the game. For starters, it seemed that the game was just a little too hard for my liking. It was almost a little too challenging. One thing that made the game hard was the fact that the levels just are huge. In a way it is good but then again there where times where I was confused on where I was supposed to go throughout the level. Another problem was the AI. There were a couple of occasions where I shot an enemy and bodyguards would run in and just stand around while I was still in the room. It was surprising because I was ready for them to start shooting, but they never did.
The replay value is very high. There are many different achievements in this game that you can accomplish. After the achievements are taken care of there are upgrades for all of the weapons in the game. Plus you can replay missions to see how stealthy you really can be.
In conclusion, Hitman Blood Money is a game that no doubt is the best in the series. Although it might not have that next generation look, the game play surely makes up for it.