Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

This game has seriously deprived me of much needed sleep this past week since playing it for the first time.

What can I say? There's so much depth and different variables in each mission alone, there are more than enough missions to satisfy the most hungry tactical-shooter fan.

When you've successfully completed a mission for the first time, you'll want to go back and try different methods, approaches to get a higher score (=more stealth and less violence), the ultimate score being that of Silent Assassin where basically nobody sees you and you only kill your designated target with one bullet or stab (or strangle).

Another old game that I've been a fan of is Ghost Recon, a tactical shooter with many simulation elements. The thing is, to survive in "Hitman 2" you can use the approach of methodically killing every baddie in sight. This can also be fun to relieve stress and frustration of repeatedly failing a mission.

For a 2002 game, the graphics are still beautiful and a pleasure to behold, in combination with the excellent atmospheric music (with strong Star Wars influences in some places) these elements make a fantastic game for the lovers of tactical shooters.

Regular FPS 'run and gun' players steer well away. This game needs brains and not just in the blown-out variant.

10 out of 10 with a subtraction of 1 for stupid ethnic stereotyping in *some* missions. So in all 9 out of 10 but still I can't stop playing it!