Hit-man: Blood Money (played on the PS2) creeped me out right from the start. Not in a manner quite like Contracts, the 2004 installment of the awesome series, but in a different way. The main menus consist of what appears to be the protagonist's, Agent 47's, funeral, while Schubert's Ave Maria plays softly yet hauntingly in the background. This is just one of the many ways that Blood Money twists with your mind and makes you question your morality and sanity. This is, no doubt, one of the best games of the year so far, and aside from a few glaring flaws, is the best installment yet in the Hit-man franchise.
The major flaw in Blood Money is the way it begins. The beginning is dark, melodramatic, and moody, taking place at an abandoned amusement park, but the structure isn't as smooth as levels in the other Hit-man titles, and the game leads you by the nose for the entire level, effectively removing the open-ended nature of the series. But when you are past this training level, it's Blood Money to the Big Leagues time, with 47 taking no prisoners in a dark, violent tale of conspiracy and intrigue. It's a very compelling story, combining the international appeal of Silent Assassin with the brutish, disturbing nature of Contracts.
One of the best additions to the game is the Accident system. This will change the way you play Hit-man. It allows you to place explosives, poison foods, switch items and loosen bolts to sabotage your target's lives in cunning displays of ingenuity. These 'accidents' (ranging from pushing people from balconies to fake suicide, to forcing chandeliers to fall large heights before hitting anything remotely resembling a target) play perfectly into the Notoriety system, which tracks your mission stats and compiles them into a faux newspaper clipping. These stats, including your hit ratio, number of times seen, and the amount of people killed, factor into how well the enemy will recognise you in the next mission. It's a great concept, but don't worry about this one in the lower two difficulty levels; Notoriety is barely recognizable on the Normal setting, and doesn't even exist on Rookie.
Hit-man: Blood Money is a very good game in danger of being overlooked by the average gamer this year. In 2006, we've seen the jaw-dropping Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, a game I consider the best stealth title ever. Later this year, we'll be getting Splinter Cell: Double Agent, promising a true, next-gen experience on the Xbox 360. Hit-man: Blood Money, however, should not be overlooked; it is a near-perfect example of how to do a game right. It is, by far, the most mature game I've ever played. The story is deep, involving, and serious. The games industry has a problem with maturity, leading to many doubting the veracity of gaming as a whole. Hit-man sets the bar for maturity, and all other games strive to that mark. Jesper Kyd's orchestral-eletronica soundtrack is also phenomenal (as always), being the best thing to hit my ears this year.
If you play any games at all, and care for intelligence in your entertainment, by all means, play Hit-man: Blood Money.
Now.
