No, Really.Īs for the Al, it's embarrassing. Sure, it's more fun to do it the stealthy way and get a nice rating, but there should be more incentive to make you want to do this than a few new weapons. The fact that you can get away with this is symptomatic of the sloppy PC conversion, where the difficulty level hasn't been ramped up to accommodate mouse and keyboard control (see also the crap physics, dodgy animations and awkward inventory system). You can just run through most of the levels mowing people down and the only penalty will be a 'Mass Murderer' rating on your score screen (rather than 'Professional' or the ultimate 'Silent Assassin'). Worse still, you don't actually have to be stealthy. There's also a huge degree of freedom available to you, and you can generally accomplish a mission in any number of ways though there's Even the outfit-switching idea is starting to wear thin.
The tension this creates is very different from lurking around in the shadows, and allows you to feel like even more of a smart-arse when you finally pull the trigger on someone. The stealth dynamic is still pleasingly different from the competition, being all about balls-out brashness as you parade around in broad daylight wearing someone else's identity. Saying all that, the game retains much of the charm of the previous titles. Steal the pass-key, hide a few corpses, lay a bomb on a submarine - it's all stuff we've done a hundred times before. And the various killing techniques you can employ are both numerous and occasionally hilarious.īut in many ways, Hitman's brand of stealth is one that's barely evolved since Goldeneye. It may have seemed clever at the time, but the result is a fractured, incoherent structure that feels more like Hitman: The Lost Levels than a proper sequel always a kind of 'ideal path' if you look hard enough). Much of the game is told through a series of flashbacks as our hero, the coldblooded 47, passes in and out of consciousness. On this last point, Contracts is particularly guilty. The stealth dynamics still rely mainly on stripping unconscious men and stealing their clothes, the Al is still laughably forgetful and the characters and plot uninspiring. Indeed, rather than the bold new direction we were promised, what we have is a mixture of rehashed missions from previous games, obvious filler and only a scant few levels that recall the series at its best. Sadly, they're also the exact things that are lacking in Hitman: Contracts, which is defined more by mediocrity, repetition and a saddening lack of ambition. If cinema's taught us anything, these are the hallmarks of the successful hired assassin. Precision, audacious courage, elegance of execution.
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