Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

• Release Date: October 02, 2002
• Genre: Shooter
• Style: Third-Person 3D Shooter
• Similar Games: Mafia (IBM PC Compatible), Max Payne (Xbox), Dead to Rights (Xbox)

Game Description

IO Interactive's sequel to Hitman finds Agent 47 reluctantly pressed into service once again after his close friend and personal confidant, a priest, is beaten and taken hostage by a gang of thugs. As a professional assassin handicapped with a conscience, players will pursue those responsible for this grievous error in judgment to the far corners of the world. Featured locales include Sicily, St. Petersburg, Japan, Malaysia, Nuristan, and India. Missions for each setting are retrieved from a laptop computer, allowing players to witness video footage of their intended target as well as a list of objectives.

After receiving their briefing, players can go about the mission as they see fit, for there are more than one way to complete objectives. Most of the locales are in the heart of enemy territory, requiring players to use stealth, caution, and careful planning to find a safe entrance and carry out the hit without arousing suspicions from enemy guards. Players will infiltrate castles, temples, citadels, and more as they carefully weave their way toward their objective. To make things easier, Agent 47 can change into numerous disguises after subduing their former owners.

A hitman cannot effectively do his job without the tools of the trade, which in this game, come in the form of knives for silent kills, handguns, sub-machine guns, rifles, shotguns, and sniper rifles. Other equipment of use includes binoculars to plan out routes from afar, maps of the surrounding area, and night vision goggles for missions shrouded in darkness. The world in Hitman 2 is not simply filled with pedestrians and enemies. Police regularly patrol certain areas and will attempt to make an arrest if they see someone carrying a weapon in plain view. There are also missions where players are challenged to protect certain individuals or VIPs.

Hitman 2 is primarily played from a third-person perspective, but players are free to switch to a first-person view at anytime. Depending on the difficulty, players can also save at any point while undertaking a mission. Normal difficulty allows players to save up to seven times within a mission, while the hardest setting challenges players to complete a mission in one sitting. No matter which setting is selected, the goal remains the same: make the required hit, finish remaining objectives, and leave the area unharmed. Statistics in such areas as shots fired, stealth, aggression, innocents harmed, and enemies killed are displayed at the end of each mission.

Review: Overall

Despite making its Xbox debut against some formidable competition in the genre with the likes of Max Payne and Dead to Rights, Hitman 2 manages to distinguish itself as one of the console's biggest titles of the year. The secret to Hitman 2's success is not the cool, bald-headed character, the variety of weapons ranging from golf clubs to car bombs, nor even the detailed real-world environments players skulk around in. It is the freedom players have to go about their missions however they desire, the single most important element preventing many good games from shooting up to the level of great ones.

Hitman 2 on the Xbox doesn't overwhelm you with jaw-dropping graphics, and like Max Payne, it is clear the game was developed first and foremost as a PC title. Characters are somewhat blocky and move stiffly at times, especially the title character, who runs so awkwardly it looks like he's storing a piece of cold steel in his posterior rather than a holster. What does impress is the size and look of the environments, whether it's walking outside along the perimeter of St. Petersburg, avoiding ninjas inside a Japanese castle, or crawling around dank, rat-infested sewer tunnels. The realistic sense of scale adds to the game's personality as players get to travel to exotic locales that are actually fun to explore and look around -- like a giddy tourist -- independently of the missions.

Exploration is but one aspect involved with the task at hand, which always consists of taking a specific target out, yet leaves the manner in which this is accomplished up to the player. Players may combine stealth and aggression during missions, or they may focus on one tactic alone. It is entirely possible to complete a majority of levels by eliminating all enemies in an area, but this is not always easy when there are numerous guards patrolling the region who want nothing more than an opportunity for some extra target practice. Plus there are certain situations where this type of action could lead to a mission's failure, causing the intended target or a key contact to flee, or a prisoner to be shot. Maintaining stealth is hard as well, as players who want to attain a mission's highest ranking as a Silent Assassin must complete it: (1) without alerting the enemy and (2) killing only those absolutely necessary to satisfy objectives. The reward for doing so is a unique weapon, like a sawed-off shotgun or an M4 assault rifle.

To that end, players can carefully sneak around the environments, drug enemies with chloroform, drag their bodies to hidden locations, and wear their clothes if so desired. Wearing the appropriate outfits can enable players to walk through enemy locations with the hope of being undetected, but an interesting alert meter that simulates the character's heartbeat (complete with vibration feedback support) will start throbbing more and more intensely if enemies are on to the disguise. Running, for example, will alert them quickly, as will trying to access certain areas the character would have no business going to. Obviously a big part of the fun in this game is testing out various methods, scanning the maps for safe routes, using different weapon combinations, and just seeing what is or is not possible.

In the Kirov Park Meeting, for instance, players are charged with the task of eliminating two individuals who are meeting each other outside in a park. Since they both travel by limo, one option is to use car bombs rather than take them out directly. Once the meeting is over, they will return to their limos and end up as crispy critters. Another is to take the sniper rifle (the agency provides a cache of weapons on each site) to a nearby building with a clear view of the park. If the former is chosen, players have to figure out a way to get near the limos and plant the bomb without arousing suspicion. The latter involves taking two careful shots, possibly one if you are a patient marksman, and then dealing with the potential fallout when the guards are alerted to your presence.

As a multi-platform release, Hitman 2 on the Xbox is the best of the console versions, with smoother graphics and quicker load times than its competition. Yet the PC version offers better control associated with the mouse and keyboard, which is something inherent in all first-person shooters on the computer. It's much easier to quickly aim at a target while guiding the sight with the wrist than a thumb. The Xbox version also uses nearly every single button on the controller. For those used to more traditional first-person shooters on consoles, the interface will take a good 15 minutes to dial in, as there are a lot of things to do. The game makes use of a drop down menu for multiple actions, so when approaching a door players can choose to either open it or look through the keyhole.

Replay value is bolstered by the element of collecting weapons and ammo on previous missions to use in future operations, all of which are stored in a small cabin with distinct wall mounts for each tool of the trade. Since players have the freedom to accomplish missions many different ways, replaying the game to earn different rankings or to find missing weapons is never boring or tedious -- though there is certainly room for improvement in this area. For starters, there is no multiplayer mode. More surprising is that players are awarded money to complete these contracts, but there's no way to track dollar amounts or use this money to purchase items.

It would have been interesting to be able to buy additional equipment to use during the missions, such as the high-tech gadgets associated with a Mission: Impossible or James Bond movie, but Hitman 2 really isn't about spying, just the thrill of the hunt. It is a game that will leave some players frustrated, others appalled, but most with a dogged determination to figure out the optimal way to carry out the required task. Unabashedly controversial in its theme and execution, Hitman 2 is nonetheless a well-crafted game with an enveloping story, quality presentation, and open-ended play that's right on target for those who like to look before they leap.

Review: Enjoyment

Players can go through the mission aggressively, taking out the entire level of bodyguards, or use stealth -- only taking the lives of those absolutely necessary for survival or to complete the hit. Players can even drug victims after sneaking around from behind, perform silent kills using fiber wire slung around the victim's head, or the classic knife across the throat. Obviously this game is not for all tastes.

Review: Graphics

Despite some blocky characters and awkward animation in some sequences (such as dragging bodies), the game offers convincing environments with a great sense of scale. Nice weather effects too.

Review: Sound

Each location features guards and innocents who speak in the native tongues of the region. Voice acting is excellent all around, especially for the title character. Weapons sound eerily realistic, and the music sets the mood.

Review: Replay Value

The open-ended nature of missions means they are fun to revisit, to test out new techniques or use different weapons, such as the crossbow. Completing one's weapon collection and achieving the highest rating on each mission are the primary incentives for replay.

Review: Documentation

The black-and-white manual offers brief descriptions of each chapter in the game as well as a list of weapons and equipment, character types, and mission elements.

Production Credits