I just finished playing Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, and it is one great game. In it, you play a hitman who has sneak in and kill people in a variety of great locales. I didn’t play the first one, but, apparently, in the end he reformed his hitman ways and became Catholic. I think this is great, because one thing videogames need is more Catholic role models. He is soon drawn back into the world of killer for higher, though, which makes a more interesting game experience than Catholic gardener. The basic game play is to scope out each area and find a way to quietly kill your mark. The goal is to do it without killing anyone else or alerting people to your presence. To help you in this, you can use chloroform to disable someone and steal his clothes as a disguise. If you don’t feel so nice, you can also quietly take him out with fiber wire or a silenced pistol. But what happens, you ask, if you are discovered dragging a dead body? Does that mean you have to start over? No, because Hitman 2 is an open playing experience, and, if your original plan is foiled, you just go to plan B, also known as dual 1911’s. While getting in and killing your mark without alerting anyone keeps people from testifying to your presence, so does killing every last person in the vicinity. Start by capping the person unlucky enough to discover you, hitting him with two .45 bullets at once and sending him flying back twenty feet (it’s unrealistic, but I forgive). Other guards will be alerted; kill them too. Then proceed to slowly walk the area (you can run, but I find it cooler if you walk in a slow, methodic pace) killing every last person. As long as you also kill your mark, this counts as beating the level. At the end, you get a rating based on your stealth versus aggressiveness. All stealth and only killing your target gets you the coveted “silent assassin” rating. On the other end of the scale, waking into a building lobby Matrix style armed with an M60, an Uzi, a Desert Eagle, and a sawn off earns you the “mass murderer” rating. But hey, whatever gets the job done.
What I liked: Open ended playing experience, rag-doll physics for dead bodies, good voice work, large selection of weapons (which you keep in a shack by the monastery and makes for a great finale when they come after you on your home turf), and getting to kill someone who looks exactly like Osama bin Laden.
What I didn’t like: There was only one level with sword wielding ninjas; that’s not enough ninjas for a satisfying play experience. Also, in one level, you get to snipe a target in a limousine with a .50 BMG rifle. He’s surrounded by U.N. peacekeepers, and, if you “accidentally” kill one, you lose the level. Finally, the hitman is very bald. I mean, I’d be okay with it if he were so-so bald, but he is uber-bald. You will never see someone this bald again in your life. I can’t believe he doesn’t get detected while in disguise, because you’d think everyone would be pointing at him and saying, “Wow, that man is profoundly bald!” Maybe the reason he is bald has to do with polygon counts or something; I’m not a 3D videogame programmer, so I don’t know. Let’s hope in the next sequel they let him wear a wig or a baseball cap.