HITMAN: BLOOD MONEY

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : IO Interactive

Publisher : Eidos Interactive

Engine : Glacier

Genre : Stealth And Modern Action Adventure

Release Date : May 30 , 2006

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : Intel Pentium 4 Processor / AMD Athlon XP 2800+

Memory (RAM) : 1 GB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video Card with Memory 128 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 6800 Series
ATI : Radeon X800 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 5 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

The bald-headed contract killer known only as 47 is in good form, primed and ready for more work in the latest installment in the dark, stylish Hitman series. The starting mission leads you by the nose through one of 47's typical assignments--to eliminate a shady theme park operator, whose negligence once cost the lives of many innocent people. This man, called the Swing King, even entered the drug business in the wake of his theme park's collapse. 47's employer has asked that a photo of a deceased loved one be the last image that the crook ever sees...but when you finally reach him, he's just this sad worm of a man who grovels at 47's feet. Despite the number of armed thugs you'll need to get through before putting the Swing King out of his misery, this mission is easy, provided you follow the step-by-step instructions you're given. Subsequent missions are substantially tougher and less linear, but this first one still is representative of the types of moody, affecting scenarios you'll encounter in the game. There are more than a dozen missions in all, and most of them are set somewhere in the United States, such as a Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, an Egyptian-themed Las Vegas casino, a rehab clinic in Northern California, a stately riverboat traveling the Mississippi, a posh Los Angeles suburb, and more. The game does a great job of realizing each of these different settings, making them feel appropriately large, complex, and alive. Mardi Gras is particularly impressive, its streets jam-packed with people partying. All of these places tend to be filled with armed guards as well as civilians, so you'll need to exercise caution in order to take out your targets and escape undetected. However, if you slip up you can always try to shoot your way out. As in the previous games, Hitman: Blood Money rewards stealth and careful planning, but if you want to try to run and gun your way through the levels, you have that option. You can instantly switch from the default behind-the-back perspective to a first-person viewpoint if you prefer, and the game lets you use a whole bunch of different, realistically modeled real-world pistols, rifles, and submachine guns against your enemies. Of course, it's possible to finish most missions in Hitman: Blood Money without squeezing off a single round, if you're careful and observant. You don't need to shoot your victims, because you have access to poisons, explosives, knives, and other means.

Figuring out these trickier, cleaner kills is naturally gratifying, and it also tends to earn you a higher ranking (and more money) once you've escaped and your mission is accomplished. As in the previous games, planning your strike is easy thanks to a GPS-style real-time map that's accessible at the touch of a button, which shows you all other characters in the vicinity at the normal difficulty setting, including your targets. Tougher settings show you fewer characters on the map, make enemies more lethal, and also limit your ability to save your progress during a mission. As in the previous games, your enemies' artificial intelligence unfortunately doesn't hold up to close scrutiny, but at least it puts on a good show if you don't start messing around. When you're just observing, you'll find that the AI in Blood Money does a convincing job. You'll see characters chatting or lounging about, while guards casually patrol the premises. Someone might stop for a bathroom break or go outside for a smoke, not realizing the danger of splitting off from the crowd. Your notoriety can make you easier to detect in the next mission, though by paying an affordable fee in between missions, you can reduce your notoriety back down to nothing. So this turns out to be a negligible aspect of play, but having some sort of continuity between missions still helps the game. The money you earn from each contract can also be used to buy new equipment and customize your main weapons, outfitting them with larger clips, laser sights, scopes, silencers, and more. During missions, you may now do such things as hide in closets to ambush your foes, use enemies as human shields, throw knives and other sharp objects, steal surveillance footage of your criminal deeds, and stash bodies in dumpsters or other large bins. But these aren't key additions, since you can go through the entire game without doing any of this stuff. Some missions, especially Mardi Gras, are much more crowded than any of 47's previous assignments, but the crowds are mostly for show. Another great soundtrack from series composer Jesper Kyd effectively sets the tone with a combination of choral tracks and downtempo electronic music. Realistic sound effects and generally good voice acting round out the audio. Some excellent atmospheric lighting and subtle animations, as when 47 hides a kitchen knife behind his back while approaching an unsuspecting victim, further add to the ambience. Enemies shot dead still die the same rag-doll deaths as they have since the original Hitman game, and you'll spot some repetition in the civilians and guards roaming each area. Yet the different mission areas in Blood Money definitely capture the overall look and feel they're supposed to. So in turn, when you successfully complete an assignment in one of these ominous areas, chances are you'll feel a sense of grim satisfaction, having experienced Hitman's potent formula again--or maybe for the first time. While the underlying stealth action is mostly unchanged from the previous Hitman games, a diverse sequence of imaginative scenarios gives Blood Money its own fair share of violent thrills.

GAME REVIEW :-

8/10

Hitman: Blood Money Trailer :-