Game: Hitman Contracts
Game Type: Action
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Developer: IO Interactive
Rating: M for Mature
TORONTO, Digital Journal — For me, the Hitman franchise is one of those diamond-in-the-rough series. There’s always goodness to be found, you just sometimes have to polish real hard to find it. Hitman Contracts clicked with me more than the previous two games, though I still think it’s a feature or two away from crossing the Good Game border into Great Game territory.
The game takes place between Hitman 1 and 2, with Number 47 flashbacking to the “Greatest Hits” of his career, shall we say. We start with Number 47’s escape from the asylum that ended the first game.
As with Hitman 2, the areas tend to be wide open that allow a number of approaches. You might try a stealthy entrance, disguising yourself as someone the guards expect to see and won’t shoot on sight.
However, you’ll need to make your kills a little more ingenious, since guard will often search you anyway. Guards also get suspicious if they see you loitering or running around like you just killed someone and need a quick getaway. Avoiding and outwitting the guards is one of the game’s treats.
Or, you can forgo the subtleties, draw your piece and kill everyone in sight. Both methods can be a lot of fun, but I did find that you can get away with being a Terminator a little too often. Being stealthy is a lot trickier than being psychotic, so the incentive to try the action approach is just a little too strong. I would like to see Hitman lean a little more towards the Thief series or Manhunt because the stealth approach is often vital to your success in those titles.
I found the controls a bit smoother this time around, but quirks remain. In particular, there is a button dedicated to dropping an equipped weapon, but to cycle through weapons requires you to open a menu screen. These processes should be reversed — one touch dropping of a weapon that is probably your lifeline in an action game is never a good idea.
The graphics don’t stand out as much as one might hope, but they’re not that bad, either. The asylum is part dilapidated mansion, part high-tech lab, and both areas are convincing. The character animation could be smoother and some modes just don’t look right. In particular, night vision looks more like a glitch than a special vision mode.
Hitman: Contracts, like previous entries in the series, is a decent game. The series certainly has its hardcore advocates (as I once discovered for having the effrontery to give Hitman 2: Silent Assassin a mere 7 out of 10). But I can’t help but think that inside this decent game there’s something amazing struggling to get out.
PlayStation 2 version reviewed. Also available for PC and Xbox.
