The first of its kind; Codename 47 is an innovative third person shooter. Amazing graphics for a game from 2000.
It came out in November of 2000, I remember the day my brother brought it home, I was only ten years old, and I loved to massacre those levels. And now, eight years later, I am still playing this game, and I am still doing a horrible job doing things correctly. Either way, this proves to me that it is entertaining and despite what game magazines and even GameSpot says, it does have replay value, that is, of course, unless you are a perfectionist and do things right the first time around. I am more of a shoot everything with a pulse and two legs first and figure it out later kind of person.
The graphics in Codename 47 are absolutely beautiful for when it came out. You needed a pretty high-spec system to be able to run this in 2000. Every level had a unique look to it; most of them were not even in the same country, or even on the same continent. You go from what I believe to be somewhere in Russia (the person on the loud speaker sounds Russian), to Hong Kong, to Columbia, to Rotterdam, and a few other places. The architecture, colors, decorations, and the character models themselves are extremely high quality (for eight years ago).
Codename 47 was probably the first game that actually used ragdoll physics as part of the gameplay, although sometimes they were absolutely hilarious (close range shots with a powerful rifle can send your enemy flying through the air). One of the key points of this game is making sure that the people you kill are hidden; to hide them, you have to drag them into a storm drain in an alleyway, behind a pile of trash bags, or over a ledge. It was also the first game that I had ever seen to use disguises as part of the gameplay. If you need to get to a certain point in the level, you can't just stroll in wearing you're suit and tie; that will end in you getting turned into swiss cheese. You have to kill guards for their clothes, and then the other guards will rarely question why there is a white bald guy with a barcode on the back of his head in the Chinese Triad. If you have the guard clothes, you're good.
The difficulty in this game at times can be frustrating, but that's a good thing. It's incredibly hard to do things wrong and still just as hard to do things right. The difficulty makes the game last; it's lasted for eight years with me. The clunky controls do add to the difficulty as sometimes you will do something you do not mean to do, such as take out a weapon when you mean to take out an entrance card to a hotel or something like that.
Overall, I would have to say that this game is absolutely amazing. It's nearly flawless design and just the fun of the game in general makes for a great single player experience. This is the game the started it all. All of you who have missed out on this game need to go out and find it. It's available online if it isn't in any stores near you.