The Hitman Series

[Sotha]

I spotted in my local game shop that they sell all Hitman games from I to IV in a single inexpensive package called Hitman Ultimate Contract. I decided to give it a go. I've played a bit these games in the past, so I figured out that it is time to play them properly.

 

I've just completed hitman codename 47. Good stuff. I really enjoyed it, even though it was frustratingly difficult at a few spots. No savegames? Whew.. It is iron man all the way. It really makes you play differently when failure means entire map restart.. Completing a mission successfully is truly an accomplishment.

 

The silly thing was that hitman 1 ran super fast on my computer and was totally unplayable. There is no frame rate limits in the game, so I had to set 24X antialiasing and use turbo utility to slow my machine to 10% of its normal performance to have the game run at normal speed.

 

But once I got it to work, it was a blast. Even it is a really old game, it still looked decent (probably because of the excessive antialiasing), and I have to say that the animation quality in particular surprized me. It really is top notch even when compared to modern games. Sure, there were a few utterly nonsense missions, but those were completed fast to focus on the good stuff.

 

If you see the hitman ultimate contract package in stores for a few euros, I really recommend it.

 

Oh well, hitman 2 is next..

*Checks that the piano wire is in tune.*

[SneaksieDave]

You actually succeeded at the last mission? Whew. That's where I quit some years ago. I did find a walkthrough, and plan on either finishing it with it, or watching the walkthrough enough to enjoy it.

 

I bought, but haven't started Hitman 2 as a result of not yet finishing the first, and having no saves really puts me off. Though, I think H2 relaxes that a bit. I should give it a go. Haven't played my wolfenstein or Farcry yet though either, and I'm about 1 day into STALKER. Ugh, not enough time.

 

Oh and I bought the Penumbra full set. Nice. I just got through a gate with an area with a bunch of dogs (for reference if anyone who's played is reading). Enjoying it, though it's quite unsettling.

[lost_soul]

I've only played Hitman 2 and 3. 2 was a real treat (soundtrack and all). 3 just didn't hold my attention. Perhaps I should give it another chance. I've got it and my PS2 still here.

[aidakeeley]

Kinda funny how we all have the same basic reaction to Hitman... it is a good and even unique game and would be fun, but the no-save thing is a buzz-killer; killed-the-buzz with IGI too. On the one hand "management" is so ready to homogenize and dumb-down games to the such a detrimental degree -- and yet here with this kind of "choice" (non-choice) they really, I think, have lost a lot of potential accolades and $$$...

 

I mean Hitman obviously did well, because it really is a good game series, but IGI could as well have been huge I think. IGI was/is an excellent game but to force the player to start over a 50 minute mission over and over and over is not cricket...

 

I dabbled in at least 2 of the Hitman games and liked them both, but the no-save... just ruins. After a while we come to the "I'll get back to it" stage.

 

...Stalker: another one I've started and stopped a few times. I think I recall being kind of pissed off that though it's an "open" sandboxy kind of thing, you are still railroaded into being a killer for a "side" I would NEVER choose. Yet I know it probably a great game according to the kind of press it got.

[Sotha]

You actually succeeded at the last mission? Whew. That's where I quit some years ago. I did find a walkthrough, and plan on either finishing it with it, or watching the walkthrough enough to enjoy it.

 

Yeah! It was really difficult at first, but then I

 

Took the minigun in one of the closets and guarded one specific corridor through which the clones came rushing in to their deaths. After a while there was a pile of bodies lying around and I could proceed.

 

 

As for hitman 2.. Played just now 3 missions straight with silent assassin ranks. It's even better than the first one! It has limited amount of saves, but certainly enough. The AI is much more dangerous in 2, because you cannot even go close to them as in H1. You cannot run in their view. And you cannot piano-wire/sedate a moving enemy. Never. They must be stationary so you can surprise them. Difficult, but...

 

Really good stuff!

[STiFU]

The hitman series is definitely my all time favorite of all games, even in front of thief. I love the theme, the atmosphere and the beauty of a well planed successful assassination. I played part 1 when I was pretty young, so I cheated my ass of in the ominous last level. Hitman 2 was the one I liked the least to be honest, but the most recent "Blood Money" is just awesome!! Too bad there's been nothing but rumors about Hitman 5 up until now.

[rebb]

I love the Hitman Games, played all of them, even replayed 1 and 2 recently.

 

The franchise for me feels very true to the idea behind the Thief Games, as in you're not actually meant to go into every mission guns ( or bows ) blazing, and it's much more interesting to finish missions with the least amount of "collateral damage" done.

 

Regarding Blood-Money, gotta love the "Last Level"

[ungoliant]

there's something disturbingly epic and awesome about

rising from the grave to stomp ass to the theme of Beethoven's Ave Maria.

Was pretty shweeet. that was blood money, right??? been so long since I've played them. makes me want to go out and get that box set.

[SneaksieDave]

It's pretty crazy to realize Eidos had/has Thief, Hitman, Tomb Raider, Deus Ex... Several of the best games out there (and at least one massive cash maker), and then to try and reconcile that with the whole "let's support Romero and oops! now we have to close down Looking Glass" thing.

[Melan]

The failure of Daikatana aside, Romero is a goddamn hero of computer gaming, and the way he has been "goldsteined" over one crappy and overhyped title is just not right. He had a huge hand in the genius of DooM, Wolf3D, Quake and even the Commander Keen series, all classics in their right. Plus iD could never make a truly great game after he left; the titles since then have been technologically groundbreaking, but all played like glorified tech demos.

[SneaksieDave]

Eh, I don't know. A lot of the old interviews with id about the departure (i.e., firing) of Romero, especially those by Paul Steed if I remember correctly, make it quite clear that Romero was a goof-off who contributed little more than a creative idea now and then, the rest of the time coming in late, going home early (typical workday at id (at least from the brief inside look I got) is noon to 4am, 6-7 days), and gaming in his office in between. Carmack has even been rather blunt about this too. Was Romero doing research? Fostering creative flow? In some sense, of course, and I think he gets credit for that. But meanwhile, the other guys were busy doing the hard stuff. Admittedly, hearsay. Doom 1 and 2 weren't exactly Ultima Underworld.

 

Eidos should've been more involved/aware in "making us Romero's bitch" than just blindly throwing money into a hole.

[Sotha]

Moved on to Hitman 3: Contracts. A true gem!

Hitman 2 was probably the most difficult one of H1, H2 and H3, mainly because of the fuzzy disguise system. You never know if you are protected by the disguise. A guard may pass you and shrug and suddenly he ticks your back full of lead when you pass by. Odd. This has been fixed in H3 which seems best of the series so far.

 

The only thing that sucks is the player hitpoints. In H2 and H3 on normal difficulty an AI has to put something like 5-10 full clips of assault rifle fire to kill you. It is hilarious to get shot by a large caliber revolver and lose half a millimeter of health bar.

 

C'mon! The game is about stealth. It is a sort of immersion breaker to know that you can basically run through the mission and kill everyone with a meat cleaver taking point blank shots from zillion thugs. Stealth should be the focus area because non-stealth approach gets you killed. But it is okay if I forget the hitpoint issue and just keep on sneaking.

 

Curiously sniper bullets can score single shot kill on the player. I wonder why smg and assault rifles aren't so dangerous? What were they thinking?

[Diego]

Great games!

It's also worth mentioning that the music is amazing! Jesper Kyd, I think is the composer.

[DeTeEff]

Hitman is a really great serie of game, but I think I like number four the most. I have completed every one of them but retried the second some time ago and damn is it hard! I was used to the fourth game where the people stay down after you've sedated them. But in Hitman 2 they get back up after some minutes Yes you can adjust how much you will sedate them but they still get back up after a whie...quite frustrating when you suddenly hear the alarmsound that they've found something and you wonder what you've done wrong. Then you see some bastard running around in his panties! Haha. That's when you cock your MP5 and starts going postal!

[Sotha]

Decided to play my hitman collection again. This time I challenged myself in playing it on professional difficulty. No saves, no silenced weapons at map start, enemy gunfire hurts a lot. Getting a hit done successfully without dying is a big achievement.

 

I died a lot at first, but once I adopted an opportunistic, careful yet brutal technique I started succeeding.

 

It's you or them and no reloads. It is better to strangle an innocent rather than letting him live and increase the risks.

 

Changes the way you play a lot. Increases tension and makes the experience more interesting and fun. I recommend it for those who seek an interesting challenge.

[STiFU]

That's pretty sick. No saves in hitman can become very tedious. Which one do you currently play?

[Sotha]

That's pretty sick. No saves in hitman can become very tedious. Which one do you currently play?

 

Contracts. It's not that bad once you get the hang of it. You must be really cautious and observant, avoiding guards even in a disguise.

 

In this type of play the disguise switching gets more important. If you get busted, if possible kill the witnesses and flee. After a while you can strangle some other guard, get a new disguise and be reasonably safe.

 

My worst hit was in the beddingford manor. Killed a guard for a disguise, eliminated the targets with poison since that seemed the safest option. Then I made a mistake and got into a firefight with 3 guards. I was on low health with my cover blown. I took one of the dead guard, hid him and took his clothes. I sneaked to the exit avoiding all the outside guards. They found the dead guards just shortly before I made it to the exit.

 

Expert grade and my hands were shaking as I barely made it out alive from a hit gone bad.

 

Winning is more fun if defeat is more likely. That's why I play L4D2 only on advanced realism with my buddies.

[STiFU]

I usually play the Hitman games on highest difficulty, with the restriction of only harming the actual targets. If I see no other way, I allow myself to use an anesthetic, but I only do that if there is absolutely no way to sneak in and retrieve some uniform lying around somewhere. The shitty thing about this is that there's no actual light-sensitive visibility check for the AI, so sneaking is pretty hard, if not impossible at times.

 

But your playstyle seems fun too. If I should do another playthrough of the games, I'll go for your way.

[Sotha]

I usually play the Hitman games on highest difficulty, with the restriction of only harming the actual targets. If I see no other way, I allow myself to use an anesthetic, but I only do that if there is absolutely no way to sneak in and retrieve some uniform lying around somewhere. The shitty thing about this is that there's no actual light-sensitive visibility check for the AI, so sneaking is pretty hard, if not impossible at times.

 

Cool! That's exactly the way how I played the hitman games earlier. A pacifist way where you use minimum force, use non-lethal ways and only really harm your targets. Savegames allow the player to take big risks to use minimum force.

 

With the added difficulty (no saves, no guards or civilians marked on the map) the playing tactic must be changed to more shamelessly aggressive to give you a chance to survive and accomplish your goals. You do what you must to get away with it: if the innocent cleaning maid spots your red handed, a quick bullet to the neck will buy you few more seconds to make your escape. Better that kind of result, rather than dying and restarting the whole mission.

 

It is fun to find new ways to play old games.

[Xarg]

I just got this on my trip to Australia, gonna be installing it and the other 20 games I don't have installed when I get a new hdd.... how could I have ever thought 250gb was enough

[STiFU]

It is fun to find new ways to play old games.

Yeah, I put challenges like that on myself all the time, too. For instance, no use of brutal-force if possible in Mirror's Edge, though apparently you can't always outrun the AI due to level design, so in that case I'll resort to fighting without using any actual weapons. In some Splinter Cell games I also did playthroughs like that.

[Sotha]

I finished contracts on professional, lots of fun. Some missions were a breeze, some were very very hard.

 

The final mission, for example was very tough. In the end, I made it out alive, but I think there is only one path through the mission, which yields success. And that path has to be timed well. If the swat teams see you, you die within two seconds. A single close range spas12 hit kills instantly. Stealth or death.

 

Most of the missions I passed with professional grade. I got only one silent assassin and a few experts.

 

Now I gots the completed game savegame which allows me to play any mission with the gear I choose. Yay, finally access to silenced weapons!

 

Gotta improve the lee hong assassination since I fumbled my single sniper shot and had to kill the sword charging crime lord by panic emptying a silenced micro uzi on him... I ran like hell and made it out alive.