Way, wayyyyy back in the day, you know like, right around the time Final Fantasy 9 got released, there was a little game Eidos put out called Hitman: Codename 47. It played kinda similar to Deus Ex, but you weren't allowed to just go around killing EVERYONE. There were consequences. Like you had to pay money to the Agency to have them do "clean up". Deus Ex was released first, and was also the deeper of the two games, and hence ended up being the one that people remembered, and bought. So, learning from their past defeat, Eidos decided to make the sequel, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin much richer, much deeper, and oh wait, no, they just made sure to release Hitman 2 before Deus Ex 2.
For those of you who don't remember the story from the first game in the series, you're a bald guy. You start out in an insane asylum, where you get instructions to break out, and become an assassin. Unfortunately, in the span of time you've had from the first game to now, you haven't figured out how to get the barcode on the back of your neck removed, or get a tan. (Come on, Eidos...he's working outside in the garden in the intro. He's got to have SOME skin color by now!)
So, after a couple months of working in the fields where he harvests his grain, 47 feels the need to confess his sins to the nearby Priest. After that confession, the Priest gets kidnapped, and they drag 47 back in. Hmm...didn't see that one coming, did you? 47 opens a trapdoor in his room and takes out all his weaponry, and re-contacts the Agency to find out who took the Priest, and how to best go about killing all of them. Such is the clichéd beginning to Hitman 2.
Unfortunately for fellow Netjak writer Rock On, there's only one way to play a game that requires you to have finesses on your aiming and still be able to manage your inventory. It's called a keyboard and mouse. So while Rock's fumbling through his PS2 controller trying to run & shoot, I'm lean, mean, assassinating machine on my PC. The problem with trying to bring an FPS from the PC to a console is that the designers are thinking PC the whole time, and that's the way the game gets made. At that point, it's nearly impossible to dumb down the controls enough to make them usable on a controller. I'm not saying this excuses Eidos any, I'm just saying that if you're trying to decide between a PC version and a PS2 version of Hitman 2, put your money on the PC.
I find the controls fairly good. I just set-up the keys as I'd basically use in any first person shooter, so I can run, crouch, sneak, reload, use items and drop weapons with the touch of a button with one hand, and the other takes care of aiming and shooting. When you encounter an object that has multiple uses, simple hold down the key you assigned to "Action" and then use the mouse wheel to scroll through your potential action choices.
Speaking of sneaking, it's a pretty important aspect of the game. Enemies will hear you if you come jogging up behind them. In some cases it doesn't matter...that mailman can't outrun a trained assassin with Fiber Wire! Not so Speedy after all, are we, Mr. Speedy Delivery! However, if Mr. Speedy were say, oh, carrying a gun, he'd turn around and pop a cap in your chrome dome. So being able to switch between run and sneak quickly are very important. Especially if you're on a surface that will betray your position, say snow.
The maps are improved over the ones in the first Hitman. Now you can use the mouse to zoom on certain sections of the map, and there are helpful legends that will tell you what all the little marks on the map are. Unfortunately, I haven't found any way to have the little "Point of Interest" icons tell me exactly what they are, which I figure is a bit counter-intuitive...I mean, in theory, didn't MY character put those marks there? Shouldn't he know what they are? Anyway, be careful while you're using the map...it doesn't stop time or anything.
You've also got a vast array of weaponry. If you go back after you complete a mission, you see a huge wall with little outlines of all the weapons you don't have. There's probably well over 40 different guns you can use in the game. Most of them are pretty similar, and there's some really fun physics involved when you go and nail someone with the shotgun. Woo! Flying dead bodies!
Missions will range from free-form, where you won't be fined for the bad guys you take out, as long as you hit your eventual target, to mission where I will frequently end up losing money, because I killed punks who got in my way. (I had to...they were wasting system resources!) You'll frequently be presented with different ways to accomplish the mission, the sleek, silent, elegant way, and then the Max Power! way. My missions usually start with me looking pretty sleek, up until I get to the 3rd guy, and then I have to fill a sewer grating with dead bodies.
At the end of each mission, you'll be presented with a screen that rates you on various things like Stealth, Aggression, Kills, etc. For Aggression, I generally end up "Mass Murderer", but I don't have a problem with that...I mean, they were all very, very bad people. The types of people that cut in front of you in line, take 12 items to the 10 items or less lines, I mean real scummy types. The types of people you don't want to see in your neighborhood.
Speaking of seeing, there are plenty of nice visuals in Hitman 2. The intro looks very nice on my GeForce 3, the fields, the tomatoes, all the cutscenes, when they aren't completely dark, look fabulous. Overall, the game is much, much better looking than the last 3rd person shooter I played, Mafia. One of the things they didn't fix, was the fact that dead bodies still clip into one another. What I like to do is to drag 4 bodies and drop them so that their heads are all joined together, and it looks like I killed the Human Ninja Star. Or you can just drag them into compromising positions...especially if you just stole one of their clothes. Sound isn't anything to write home about, some big orchestra did the music for the game, but it's not like I noticed any of it.
I'd have to say that I enjoyed the PC version of the game a lot more than it looks like Rock enjoyed his time with the PS2 version. I think deep down, there's a good game at the core of Hitman 2, you just gotta play it with the right setup to realize it. Maybe if you all buy some Netjak t-shirts, Rock On can get a machine that wasn't from back from a time where the years started with a number 1. Plus you'll look stylish. Trust me...the ladies dig them. (Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Netjak.com.) So, I'd give it a big "please don't shoot me" thumbs-up, and I'd recommend picking up Hitman 2: Silent Assassin to anyone who's got a PC and who likes stealth types games. Or shooting lots of people.
By the way, in case you happen to be part of a particular group of people (There are two groups of people, people who know violent video games don't beget violent behavior, and then idiots.) say, oh like, writers from the Washington Post who think that a game like Hitman 2: Silent Assassin might prompt someone to out and oh, say, go on a sniping rampage...let me ask you this...Did anyone try and go out to relive Vietnam after watching Rambo? Enough with the demonizing of the youth. Games are games, and your kids aren't stupid. They know this. It's time for you to get on pace with them. Step outside the Idiot Box.
