Hitman: Contracts

Technically a standalone expansion/ direct spin-off to Silent Assassin, Contracts is a dark follow up to the former game and easily the darkest game in the series. But it isn't flawless.

The story is disjointed and weirdly presented. It feels abrupt but still ideologically works within the game's themes of fever Dreams. It's a chopped up narrative that takes us into the mind of Agent 47. The overall writing is pretty good. The dialogue is well written, but the underwhelming and bad voice acting from foreign characters brings down the quality and impact of the overall dialogue.

The atmosphere, sound design and soundtrack is by far the best part of this game. For a 2004 game, Contracts has some of the most impressive sound design you can find in a game. It's punchy and adds to the grim and suspenseful atmosphere. The soundtrack is grimy and haunting. Far ahead of its time for a videogame soundtrack.

The gameplay and level design is similar to Silent Assassin with a few helpful improvements. Some unpolished game mechanics from Silent Assassin feel SO much more useful this time around. The AI has been vastly improved and the overall gameplay feels authentic and feels like what Silent Assassin should've been as a game. (Although, Silent Assassin still has the much better story)

Once again, we are in the shoes of 47 as he makes a living off death. Hit-man: Contracts is the third game in the Hit-man series from Eidos Interactive.

In the opening sequence of the game, we see 47 wounded in a hotel room fading in and out of consciousness. The various in-game missions are played as flashbacks in 47's mind.

If you have played the original Hit-man: Codename 47 game, you will no doubt recognise some of the missions such as Traditions of the Trade or Deadly Cargo. Thankfully, most of these mission levels have been redesigned to give them a fresh feel.

There are some great new missions as well, such as Beldingford Manor and the Meat King Party. These take place over a variety of locations and cover a variety of different environments, from slaughter houses to biker hideouts.

Most of the missions are very open ended, giving numerous ways for the player to take out the target. This adds to the replay value of the game, trying to discover interesting ways to make the hits.

Another great feature of Hit-man: Contracts is the score by Jesper Kyd. He manages to make a good and dynamic score that fits a variety of gameplay situations, and he makes it different from the previous games while still giving it that Hit-man feel.

The most noticeable improvements over the previous two games is in the graphics department. Graphics have been improved with the inclusion of reflections (including in pools of liquid), post-processing effects and excellent use of real-time shadows and lighting.

Beyond that not much has been changed save the inclusion of some new hand weapons, and the return of the minigun. While this is good as it keeps true to the Hit-man lineage, there could've been more innovation to keep gameplay elements fresh.

This is a definite purchase for fans of the other games, but players new to the series will enjoy it just as much.

The strongest aspect of the latest Hit-man game is its visual element. Running on a new graphics engine, which seems to suggest Japanese Anime, "Hit-man: Contracts" delves deep into the mind of a professional killer. Set before the events of "Hitman 2: Silent Assassin", it opens with Agent 47 seriously wounded in a Paris hotel. He's haunted by the memories of his past killings and the game takes place almost entirely in his head.

It's the psyche of Agent 47 that brings this title to life with a surreal atmosphere and the disturbing presence of the macbre. Unlike "Manhunt", which bordered on the pornographic in its depiction of violence, this game is more of a psychological shocker. Every level is a variation on the "it was a dark and stormy night" scenario and the first mission establishes this with a very bizarro style.

It takes place in a strange European nightclub/slaughterhouse. The owner is an overly obese man who's twin brother tortures a young girl upstairs while listening to oldies on a .45 record. Agent 47's assignment is to kill the owner and his lawyer who dopes up in a private room. The whole place is a like a Halloween party gone bad where the clients dress up in S&M-like attire and get wrapped up in lapdances.

"Hitman 2" was a huge improvement over the original and proved to be a great stealth game in the vein of "Splinter Cell". However, this third installment, while it does visually impress, isn't as innovative. It merely smoothes the gameplay of its predecessor and has made the missons more open-ended. Stages now have at least two different ways of how to neutralize the "mark", but this can be either a blessing or a curse depending on the player's tolerance for self-discovery.

In fact, Hitman fans will either love or hate the programmers' decision to include only a few number of original levels for "Contracts". The bulk of the game consists of recreations of assignments from "Hitman: Codname 47". This is disappointing considering Eidos' had first said it was not interested in doing a remake of the first game. The best mission is a new one set at a British manor which the company claims was inspired by Robert Altman's "Gosford Park" (Go figure).

If I seem to be negative in this review, rest assure, I am giving "Contracts" a thumbs up. This is a good game, I did like stepping into Agent 47's shoes once again and its strenghts certainly do outweigh its weaknesses. I only wished the title had been a complete original, then it would've been a great game. 3 stars out of 4. Grade: B

When I first played this game I found it hard and didn't want to play it but then a friend helped and I completed it in a number of weeks. It is a complicated game i can assure you of that. Very good game though. Enough violence to satisfy me. Could use more language though. Excellent graphics with the blood to make it look almost real. The first level is intense, picks up after the end of Hit-man Codename 47. Dead clone agents everywhere. 8/10 is a definite. 9/10 for the blood. Great game you should play it. The plot was the thing I din't get but it was a hard game. Buy and play it, the second level is really confusing.

Pretty decent game considering it was released in 2004. The story links up a lot with some missions from hitman 2 and blood money, which is always good and gives a sense of continuity to it. Surprisingly i didn't run into any crashes or any major bugs that could ruin the experience, exept for some weird bug that made the camera shake a little during dialogues with npcs. Overall a good game