Hitman: Blood Money (Xbox 360, PlayStation 2)

Hitman: Blood Money places gamers once again in the role of the world's greatest assassin, Agent 47. When assassins from Agent 47's contract killing firm, The ICA, are systematically eliminated in a series of hits, it seems a larger more powerful agency has entered the fray. Sensing that he may be the next target, Agent 47 travels to America, where he Prepares to Make a Killing. The Hitman series has never been repetitive, it was never boring, it was unique and challenging. Agent 47 is a ruthless killer and he will never stop killing for money... Blood money, which ironically is the name for his new game, Hitman Blood Money. The story is relatively simple, but to understand it fully, you should play the previous games first, but it isn’t a big deal if you’ve missed them. Anyway, the story is told through Jack Alexander’s point of view, he’s telling his story to Rick Henderson (a journalist) and saying that every single assassination and murder on big crime lords isn’t a coincidence and isn’t your average hitman, he’s convinced that it’s the legendary Agent 47...a myth. The news papers are the primary sources for agent 47's killings, and Jack is trying to find and kill agent 47. But how can you kill a man who isn’t there? A man who can never be seen...A ghost...A myth. The graphics are stunning, Eidos really wanted to make the environments feel alive, and they did. The open environments are what really make these graphics stand out, and they are so incredible to look at. Excellent textures on everything, weapons, boxes, walls, buildings, vehicles, characters (I had no idea agent 47 was so built up) etc... in some missions there are over 500 people on screen and the game doesn’t get choppy. There are a lot of similarity’s between the characters, but a lot of times they look different. You get a good ambiance when your in most missions, for example, when your doing the Mardi Gras mission, you get a sense that there’s a big party going on, simply because of the amount of people on screen, another mission involves being in a private area/street/suburb where there are only big houses and rich people living there, you walk around and see people gardening, jogging, garbage men taking out the garbage etc... The cut scenes are also very well done. Overall, excellent graphics. The sounds are amazing, from music to sound effects. The sound effects are very well done, when you fire a weapon onto a cement wall, dry wall, wood etc... it sounds exactly as if your doing just that, when you choke a guy and hear bones cracking it sure sounds real, and makes you happy. Every single aspect of sound is greatly done. The voice overs are most of the time very well done, but it might happen that once or twice during certain missions you’ll hear stupid conversations and notice that every single cop is talking french (in Paris) and when you go in a restricted area they tell you to get out..in french, but out of nowhere you end up in a room and you take out your gun they end up yelling at you in English, strange? Maybe... Or when they talk they sound like there mouth is stuffed with food and you can berley hear them. The cut scene voice overs are very well done, sometimes they might sound a little low or fussy, but berley noticeable, overall the cut scenes are very well done. The music is also extremely well done, the fantastic orchestral music is incredibly well done, kinda sounds like church music sometimes but with a little kick. The music changes when you’ve done something right or wrong, which is great. Overall, great sounds. The gameplay is the same as the previous games, and we all know that its fun gameplay. Although your not a spy, you definetly do spy actions. You are a hitman/assassin, that means you must kill the target anyway you can, get the job done. You must descuise yourself a lot, you must set traps, rig objects etc... keep this in mind, your best friend isn’t your pistol, its your fibre wire, this game is about using the least weaponry possible. Every time before a mission you’ll get a choice between weapons to carry along with you, but they just get in your way because when a guard searches you he’ll find the pistol (or smg, shotgun etc...), but they don’t find your syringe poison or mines of fibre wire. Most of the missions you can kill your target several ways, some missions lets you poison there drink or food, let’s you rig something and blow something heavy to crush your target. You must hide every single body you kill, because if you kill someone and leave them on the floor, a guard or civilian will see it and report it, they might even find out who that dead person is and know what clothes he was wearing before you stole it and your costume will be comprimised. If you want you can go all rambo on everybody , but it just makes the missions a little tougher. If you make the hit look like an accident(ex: someone’s weight lifting and you choke them with the weight bar, then the cops will think the bar fell on him, or if you push someone off a balcony, there considered a jumper..) You’ll get a couple of gamer scores also. There’s a notoriety feature in which if you get cought killing someone, then after a mission you’ll have to pay off the people who saw you and when you do pay them off, then they’ll forget about you. The only problem I thought about the game is that sometimes it gets difficult, you can’t find your target( or it just takes a really long time) or you don’t know how to kill your target without getting cought or avoiding suspission. Overall, great gameplay. Overall this game is amazing and shouldn’t be missed for fans of the series, or just stealth action games. You won’t be disapointed.