Hitman Blood Money

Other products by Eidos

Product Features

• Take on a rival agency of deadly assassins as Agent 47
• Make hits look like accidents; hide bodies in boxes and enclosed spaces
• All-new glacier game engine with revamped NPC and AI system
• U.S. locations include Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New Orleans
• For 1 player

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0009V9OY8
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: May 30, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,051 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

From the Manufacturer

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.

Features:

• Money talks, silence pays: This time you not only get paid for your jobs, but you get to make a decision on what you do with your hard-earned cash. Do you spend money on getting the latest weapon upgrade or do you bribe the police to clean up the last job so none knows you did it?
• Competition heats up: Agent 47 is up against a rival agency of deadly assassins, who are not only competing to take out high-priced targets, but may even be targeting Agent 47 himself.
• New U.S. locations: yes that’s right folks, 47 is heading for the U.S. and as part of his tour de force he will be making his presence felt in such iconic American cities, such as the gambling world of Las Vegas, the bright lights of Los Angeles, and mysteries of New Orleans.
• Prepare to make a killing: New to the world of getting paid for killing? Then don’t worry, just like Leon in the Professional, we will not only give you a hand in how to play, but have introduced a new game play mode to make sure the Rookies amongst us can get in and play the game as we want.
• Accidents happen: What better way to make sure that latest kill doesn’t come back to haunt you than to make your hits look like an accident? The all new accident system allows you even more freedom in your choice of how take a target out--drop a priceless chandelier, use a remote bomb, create a nasty slip into a turning paddle wheel--all designed to terminate your targets without creating alarm or suspicion.
• All-new glacier game engine: Since his last outing, 47 has found himself in an all new gaming engine. Now with a number of new moves and a revamped NPC and AI system, the world of being an assassin has never been more realistic.
• Sick of getting caught? 47 now has the ability to hide bodies in boxes and enclosed spaces.

Product Description

Hitman: Blood Money places gamers once again in the role of the worlds greatest assassin, Agent 47. When assassins from Agent 47s 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.

When assassins from Hitman's contract agency, The ICA, are systematically eliminated in a series of hits, it seems a larger, more powerful agency has entered the scene. For Hitman, it's business as usual, until suddenly he loses contact with The ICA. Sensing that he may be the next target, Hitman travels to the United States, where he prepares to make a killing.

Features:

Welcome to the USA: Agent 47 is heading to the U.S. making deadly stops in iconic locales such as Las Vegas, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Mississippi.

All-New Game Engine: Now with a number of new moves including the ability to create accidents and to dispose of bodies as well as a re-vamped NPC and AI system, the world of being an assassin has never been more realistic.

New Blood Money System: Use your hard-earned cash to bribe the press, keep your picture out of the morning paper. Or you can customize and upgrade your weapons to match your personal style of assassination. The choice is up to you.

Assassin Rivalry: Agent 47 is up against a rival agency of assassins competing to take out high-priced targets, and may even become the primary target himself.

New Online Stat System allows players to post stats in a variety of different skills and feats. Compare and compete with other players around the world.

Rookie Training: New to the world of assassinations? New rookie mode and levels of difficulty will give you all the training needed.

Environmental Danger: Drop a priceless chandelier or use a remote bomb all new accident system allows for more freedom

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 47 at his best!, August 3, 2006

By	Andrew C. (USA) - See all my reviews

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

I am a big fan of the Hitman games, with Hitman 2 being one of top-10 favorite games of all time. So when I claim that Blood Money is the best Hitman yet, that's a big statement for me. The developers have taken everything that was great in the previous games and made it better. The levels are bigger, the AI is (slightly) improved, replay value is greater, and the game looks beautiful. There is still room for improvement, but not much.

Gameplay: Like the previous 3 games, you are cast as an assassin working for an agency that provides contracts. This time, all of your missions (except 1) are set in America, where you'll have to get to the bottom of a plot to destroy the agency. Unlike the other games, you're paid for each hit, and you can use the money to upgrade weapons, buy other items (like bombs, protective vests, health boosts, etc.), and lower you notoriety level. The payment are very generous, and I ended up with $2.5 million at the end of the game, which seemed rather excessive. Also, there is really no need to spend money on upgrading most weapons, since an upgraded silverballer and a sniper rifle will do just fine for any mission. Regarding notoriety, this is a 0-100 meter that goes up if you are seen while doing a job. You can bribe witnesses to lower the rating. It's an interesting touch, especially since the notoriety rating affects how the newspaper will report your actions and appearance after each mission and how difficult the next mission will be.

This game is more about stealth than the previous ones, and it's a bit harder to earn the highest ratings. I played on expert difficulty (which I recommend for most people familiar with these kinds of games), and you can't just blast your way through most level (or you'll probably end up dead). Anyway, doing so would take a lot of the enjoyment out of the game. The game is at its best when tension sets in and you're wondering if your disguise is working, or whether anyone is going to find that dead body you hid, or whether you can make it to the exit without tipping off the guards. Thankfully, this game adds a lot of new gameplay elements to make things interesting. You can hide bodies in containers, hide in closets, climb and scale things, take hostages, push people off ledges, and more. And finally, Agent 47 has a melee attack which is pretty potent. Of course, all of the old moves are there, such as poisoning by syringe, strangulation by fiber wire, death by sniper rifle, etc. All of the levels are large, so you'll have to do some trial-and-error runs to get a sense of where things are as well as the possible angles that you can approach the target(s). And since there are usually a few to several different ways to kill targets, the game has some replay value.

Since I have a thing for blowing people up with remote-controlled C4, my best rating was "Professional." To get the highest rating (which I assume is "Silent Assassin"), expect to work on a mission for a 2-3 hours (at least on expert difficulty or higher). Altogether, there are 12 missions which will take 25-35 hours to complete, if you are playing them as intended (stealthy). Generally, the AI is convincing. However, as in the previous games, there will be a few occasions when guards seem to know things that they shouldn't, or seem to not notice things that they should.

Graphics: The visuals are great, especially the environments. Las Vegas looks phenomenal, as do the White House and suburbia levels. The game has a very refined, stylist quality about it. Character models are pretty good, but not vastly improved over the last two games and many are repeated. The game has many more animations, especially for Agent 47.

Sound: Everything works well in this department. Solid voice acting, nice ambiant sounds, and another solid soundtrack by Jesper Kyd. All of the weapons sound appropriate, but this is a game in which you want to be as quiet as possible!

Technical Issues/Stability: I played this game with the patch that came out right at the release date. I have had no problems: not a single crash, freeze, or hiccup. I was able to play smoothly at 1024x768 resolution with most settings on high (I have a P4 3.0ghz, 1 GB of RAM, Geforce 6600GT video card). The game is well polished. The manual is decent, and the first mission is a tutorial that will familiarize you with the gameplay.

Yes, this is indeed the best Hitman game yet (though Hitman 2 is still a sentimental favorite of mine). The game has a cliff-hanger ending, so I assume there will be a sequel. At least I hope so. If you like the Hitman games or stealth games in general, I highly recommend this one.

Overall Rating: 4.5 stars

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome addition to the Hitman series, June 6, 2006

By	G. Vajnadepava (Lexington, KY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

I've been playing the Hitman games on PC since the very first one, and I must admit this one really is great, with some minor elements.
On the plus side: good graphics, great sounds, great atmosphere, good story, multiple ways to complete each level, improved enemy AI, more actions Mr. 47 can execute, lots of hidden humor.
On the minus side: The levels are smaller, but more packed, and fans of Silent Assassin will feel a tad disappointed; sometimes the ragdoll effects are a bit off; not all objects are useable, so sometimes you might want to do things, but what you want to do might not have been taken into consideration by the designers; certain actions preclude others (like stuffing a corpse in a container will prevent you from collecting the clothes, since you can't take the corpse out again).
I wish it was there: more dynamic environment (like being able to move furniture - I keep getting stopped by unmoveable chairs, apparently nailed to the floor), better/more realistic physics (better ragdoll effects, but more than that, sounds should behave differently - like the fact that opening fire with a SMG in a small room should definetively be deafening).
In my drunken stupor I dream of: A very large, very dynamic, very complex serie of levels, where actions in one will modify the next one, and where failure IS an option which will change the goals of the next mission, if not changing the game entirely.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It feels so good to be so bad., December 28, 2006

By	K. Childers "Juggernaut" (Ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

I've saved the world from terrorists, aliens, foreign armys, mad scientists, evil kings, and a giant lizard named Bowzer. And at the end of it all, I've had medals pinned on my chest, crowns placed on my head, and made sweet, sweet love to many damsels in distress. Not in this game.

Here you play as Agent 47. Agent 47 is a Hitman; an assassin for hire. He gets paid money for killing people. He is not a good guy. The developers of this game tried to lesson the moral implications of being a cold-blooded killer by creating missions in which your target is someone who deserves to die; child rapists, drug smugglers, and mob bosses seem to be your prey most of the time. I haven't finished the game yet, but I don't expect to see a mission sending me off to kill a second grade school teacher during class. That would just be wrong! But for some reason, it seems less wrong, maybe even right, to kill the gutter slime for profit.

And that's the other thing that Hitman: Blood Money is about; money. After every mission, you are paid. You have to spend money on "clean up" for the previous mission (disposing of bodies, bribing witnesses, etc), but the remainder of the funds are spent on upgrades for your weapons (scopes, silencers, laser sights, etc). Money makes Agent 47's world go round. (You would think that with all of that money, he could afford a nicer hide-out. In the game, it's pretty much a dump.)

Hitman plays like a stealth game, but not the same kind of sleath action that fans of the Splinter Cell games are used to. You can still turn off or shoot out lights, but the darkness isn't as important for moving around. You'll spend most of your time watching your target and planing an attack. This might involve killing or knocking out a guard or maintaince worker and changing into his uniform in order to get close to your target. Or you might prefer to find a nice vantage point and shoot your target from a distance with a sniper rifle. You could try planting a bomb when the target isn't around and detonating it as he walks buy, or simply poisoning his bottle of water. You can always walk in the front door, guns blazing, and shoot your way through the mission if you want to. That's the greatest part of this game; the freedom to plan your attack according to the conditions and your own mood.

The rating that you recieve after every mission, as well as how much money you get to keep, depends of how well you were able to stay unnoticed. Lots of innocent dead people and bullets flying everywhere will take a pretty big chunk out of your pay. But if only the target is killed, and nobody saw or suspects you of being the one who did it, then you can pocket a few hundred thousand dollars for a good hit.

One problem with Hitman is becoming obsessed with performing a clean kill. It's easy to run through a mission killing everyone is sight, but that isn't the MO of a professional assassin like Agent 47. The reality of the game is that you'll likely spend several hours of trial and error on a single mission until you find what works. And the constant repetition gets old. After 50 trys with no success the game starts to become tedious.

The only other problem with the game is the AI. That's not to say that the NPCs are stupid, but rather that they are too smart. Unrealistically smart. You hide in the shadows and take out your target with a silenced sniper rifle, but for some reason the guards know exactly where the shot came from and come running. You can't just run away before they get there either, because they've managed to get a real good look at you from 200 yards away, in the dark, and have already faxed a sketch of you to every guard in the building who is ready to shoot you on sight.

This game isn't better than certain other stealth games such as Splinter Cell, but it doesn't try to be either. Hitman does something unique with its gameplay and is a fun, if at times frustrating, diversion of your afternoon. Most of us are good people who would never think of starting a profession as a murderer for hire. But with Hitman: Blood Money we can get to play as the bad guy for once.

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