Back Into the Shoes of 47
For those of you who have been in a coma for the past few years (or perhaps a political prisoner in some remote third world nation), “47” is the name of the baddest, baldest, barcode tattoo-sporting clone this pantywaist planet has ever seen. If you need some backstory, check out my review of
the previous game.
This time around, 47 isn’t caught up in some ‘B’ movie plot about his priestly friend getting kidnapped. When you’re a professional killer, after all, business should seldom be personal.
IO Interactive obviously took the time to concentrate on telling a more compelling story this time around. While not quite on par with its film counterparts, the hallucinatory style of Jacob’s Ladder or Donnie Darko is used in this game to present most of the levels as dark flashbacks, perhaps in some internal struggle for answers.
In the previous game, our anti-hero had shown a lot of doubt as to the presence of a soul (and the possibility of divine redemption) in a clone built to exterminate life. That same conflict is essentially what drives the story in Hitman: Contracts, but without the predictable cheese in place of an interesting plot. In Contracts, I actually wanted to finish a level so that I might catch a glimpse of what was happening to 47 in the real world before I dove back inside his head to deal with his demons.
If it Ain’t Broke…
Technologically, Hitman: Contracts changes very little from its predecessor. The interface and control scheme have negligible changes at most, which is fine given that the Hitman gameplay formula is damn near impeccable.
The gameplay emphasis here is on stealth, but not the kind of stealth that has been haphazardly tossed into every action game since Splinter Cell proved that the wall-sidling formula was commercially viable. Instead of hiding around a corner and memorizing the movement patterns of every guard, the player can simply sneak up on someone and perform a silent kill, take his clothes and stroll on through.
It’s not as easy as it sounds, though. The enemy AI is pretty good at sniffing you out, especially if you do something abnormal like breaking into a sprint for no apparent reason or brandish a weapon that differs from those who wear the same uniform. If you walk too close to someone who should logically recognize you (i.e. you are dressed as a guard and you bump into another guard), they will grow suspicious. The trick is to move confidently through an area without drawing attention to yourself (no running, no gunning) and without stopping or getting close enough to the wrong people. There is a genuine sense of suspense that builds up as you try and get close to your target without being noticed, this is where half of the fun in the game lies.
The other half comes when you get found out (and you will, pretty much every time until you learn the level) and you have to slaughter everyone in the immediate vicinity. The guards have many levels of alertness, but after one of them figures out that you don’t belong there your current disguise is pretty much useless. There are times when you can just duck around the corner and find a new disguise, and there are times when you are going to need to make a massive pile of bodies before you can move on.
“Easy to learn, difficult to master” is a mantra thrown around like monkey feces by reviewers when faced with good games, and Contracts definitely falls into that category. With the exception of a handful of scenarios in which 47 must approach his target with caution or risk losing him, any fool can John Wayne his way through this game like he were playing Quake… But Contracts is at its most rewarding when you pull off the silent kill and leave before anyone knows you were ever there.
Fix it Anyway
The graphics have undergone an incremental upgrade, mostly thanks to higher quality texture work and clever level design. Environmental, water and lighting effects look a bit more convincing this time around. The excellent ragdoll physics are still present, but the rest of the world is pretty static and is beginning to look a bit stale in the age of the Havok2 physics engine. All in all, the Hitman engine is effective but it is starting to show its age. Curiously, the graphics aren’t quite as nice as Freedom Fighters, which was released (using an updated version of the same graphics engine) several months prior to this title.
One forgivable quirk that was rectified from the previous game is the perspective skew on the weapons models in the first-person view mode. Before, guns looked a bit tiny and under-detailed compared to most “pure” FPS titles; now the gun models can hold their own against any other multi-platform title out there. While this is a nice change, it is purely cosmetic.
While the adequate limited save system is unchanged from the previous game, the flawed mission selection scheme has undergone some nice changes. Given the nature of the meat of the missions, you are forced to begin them with only your standard load of gear (dual .45s, a silencer, fiber wire, and various gadgets) and pick up needed firepower along the way. When going back to achieve a better score, however, a coherent mission and gear selection system is provided (a feature that was sorely lacking in Hitman 2) to make that coveted perfect mission rating a bit easier to achieve.
Aural Stimulation
All of the good writing on the planet cannot save bad voice acting, and this game falls victim in some areas. When 47 speaks, his usual even tone sounds nice as usual. When NPCs speak in the native foreign tongue of whatever country you are operating in, it is believable. When a character attempts to speak English with the appropriate accent it is, without fail, laughably bad. Not that it has much bearing on the gameplay, but it is hard to immerse yourself in a game world populated by obviously novice voice actors.
The haunting classical score of Hitman 2 has been replaced with a competent techno selection. Normally I would complain that replacing such an ingenious ambient score with run-of-the-mill video game techno is likely a vain attempt to cater to the drooling masses, but this time around it works. The mood set by the disorienting thump of distant electronica mixed with occasional skewed nightmarish background noises really serves to remind the player that 47 is reliving these experiences in his mind.
Weapon sounds and ambient noises are as crisp as ever, again delivering the high quality you’d expect from a successful series like this one.
Final Digs
This franchise is a personal favorite of mine, and although I’d like to see a more complete graphical overhaul, it is understandable given that the game must conform to the lowest common denominator in console hardware. The gameplay formula is as tight and rewarding as ever, and the slightly dated graphics can be forgiven thanks to an innovative approach to the story, logical gameplay mechanics and excellent level design.
Fans of shooters or stealth games should at very least give this game a weekend rental, although given the decent replay potential and high production value this game would make a solid purchase on any system.
