Staging accidents is the name of the game, and damn is it fun.
The fourth release in the Hitman series, though not risk taking in anyway as there isn't that much in terms of innovation, is an extremely fun game.
The game is shorter than Silent Assassin, with only 11 (13 if you count the unnecessary final one and the tutorial mission that requires 47 to act in an unprofessional manner) missions, but unlike Contracts: they're all original (unlike Contracts), and like always 47 will be sent to several different locations within the Americas.
Some of the old problems of the series still persist, namely, the A.I. still kinda sucks when it comes to navigating around a doorway with hundreds of other dead bodies around it. This was a big disappointment, but we should expect that anyway. Pretty much everyone should be in agreement with the idea that Hitman means "lots of stupid and dead guards at doorways."
The notoriety system isn't very fleshed out, and the newspaper at the end of the mission is only a clever way to disguise the old mission scores. However, within the articles there are nicely hidden hints to the next levels and references to what is happening in the game world.
Gun play is still kinda disappointing, though the attempt to add customizations was a good idea, it just sucks they're limited to a few of the guns. Granted, it is pretty cool to reenact "No Country for Old Men" with a silenced semi automatic shotgun, but it (as well as the use of guns) doesn't fit the style in which I love to play this game. Though, all I really want is a Mauser C-96 (the gun you swap with a prop during the mission in the theatre), but maybe it is too much to ask for beyond one mission (blame my interest in World War 1 armaments).
Luckily, the iconic fiber wire is still in (as well as sedative/poison syringes) and in addition to those are more improvised weapons (introduced in contracts, but not as fun), the ability to throw knives (sweet! just a little clumsy), coins for distracting (awesome, just a little over powered as you can throw a million coins leading a specific character anywhere you want), plant (or throw!) radio controlled mines, and the ability to, FINALLY, push people over ledges and to their deaths. It is nice to know that on certain missions there is no use at all for firing a gun or strangling someone.
In addition to the many new ways of dispatching your target, there are so many other ways of getting to them, and almost all the missions take place in large and lively maps that allow for tons of possibilities, and are fun to explore at the same time.
Oh, and the new random camera angles take some getting used to (like fiber wiring someone in an elevator shaft), but it is a really cool and stylish addition to the game. It is also a good way of letting you know if a body was found, as opposed to give you a message in red telling you "guards have found a dead guard, guards are now looking for a suspicious guard," like seen in the earlier games of the series. Now we get a view of what was found: a visual queue to restart the mission.
Blood Money; a good game, just doesn't do nearly enough things new or have enough content (missions) to make it the best in the series.
I just hope the next Hitman game will build off the changes made in this game, but incorporate far more options and more missions like in Silent assassin. But seeing how Kain and Lynch did, and how the next Hitman game is supposedly going to be tied in with another movie (which will suck like the first one) I'm a little skeptical. Okay, very skeptical… okay, I have no hope in the game being good. And it is real shame.