Played "Hitman: Blood Money"?

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-31 06:41pm

I didn't like Silent Assassin or Contracts that much - it just seemed bland, and I missed the cool control system from the first game. And that snow level? WHAT THE FUCK.

And dammit, the fucking game isn't out in AU on PC until the 6th. Grrr.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-06-01 06:40pm

Chirst, Stark, does anything satisfy you?

Anyway, the general atmosphere, music, setting and gameplay is quite polished and executed. The snow level from Hitman: Silent Assassin was not seen as that popular anyway by most Hitman fans (although "Shogun Showdown" was quite a strong level).

And I also don't think Hitman: Blood Money is bland at all and the missions mostly being set in North American is far more satifying than being set in Europe or Asia (like Silent Assassin and Contracts mostly were).

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-06-01 10:17pm

How does that work?

Necroid · Post by **Necroid** » 2006-06-01 10:22pm

I just finished it, and it’s really awesome. Much superior to any of its predecessors.

*Spoiler*
I loved the ending, but the first time I played the Requiem level I didn’t understand how you were supposed to revive 47 so he ended up being cremated. Once I figured it out though, the slaughter began. I felt bad about killing the priest and the reporter though, but I guess it had to be done.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2006-06-01 10:43pm

Vympel wrote:
Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:Been playing the shit out of this game. I'm about halfway through, and I have to say that this is hands-down the best Hitman game ever made. I liked 3, loved 2, and only played the demo of 1, but this blows them all out of the water.
What're the improvements over the previous games?

2 was superior to 1 as well as three, btw. I'd say 1 is easily the weakest of the games.

Really? Odd. I like the original above II. Haven't played III yet. I like the money based game v the arbatrary 'Silent Killer/Phyco' system better.

That said, all of the games I've played so far, start out with amazing options on how to eliminate your first target, yet the further you get in the games, the more limited you options are.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-06-02 05:47am

I always loved 1 over 2, simply because some of the most awesome maps ever. The hotel in Budapest or the Sanitarium at the end are still great, no matter how much you played them

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2006-06-02 12:55pm

Heh, poisoned doughnuts of doom! (or sedated if you're going for the SA rating). Maybe I'll try mugging the clown for the next one.

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-06-04 04:08am

I just reached the Nawlins level. Fucking awesome.

I cheated (well, Hitman type cheated) through the Witness Protection Level by walking up to the van which just screamed "COVERT SURVEILLANCE", opening the doors, popping both agents with a silenced baller. Then walking right up to the front door, popping the two guards and then having my own little party inside...

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-06-04 10:36am

It's even better when you see it in motion. I still don't understand how they managed to put that many actors onscreen without a big performance hit. Anyway, even with the impressive crowds, that's been my least favorite mission so far, because they take the target down so fast after they announce it that there's really nothing you can do unless you've already killed one of them and are close to the other. Also, if you get the cops after you, they all see you perfectly in a crowd of thousands, which is simply ridiculous, and they have no qualms about firing into the crowd, killing dozens of innocent bystanders, just because you walked into a nightclub when you weren't supposed to. Finally, the most logical way to do the mission does not work, and for an asinine reason. Minor spoiler: It makes the most sense to kill the sniper and then use his rifle to take out the accomplice as she approaches the podium, but as soon as you tote a rifle to the balcony, every cop in the city starts shooting at you and you're trapped. First of all, why didn't they start shooting at him when he came out with his rifle, and secondly, if there's no way for me to escape without a serious firefight after I squeeze off a sniper round, it means the bastard had no escape route. What kind of idiotic design is that?

Macross · Post by **Macross** » 2006-06-04 06:08pm

Necroid wrote: *Spoiler*
...

*Spoiler*
Im glad you mentioned this. I missed it the first time too. I was thinking that maybe you had to beat the game with a certain rank or on pro- difficulty to unlock this level.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-06-05 06:36am

Arthur Tuxedo, a possible explanation why the local police behaved the way they did on "The Murder of Crows":

The New Orleans cops are very corrupt, so they could easily be in bed with The Franchise and allowing the assassination of the local politician to take place. The police did not act in a hostile manner towards the Franchise operatives and were stopping suspicious people from entering buildings that were sheltering Franchise agents. The street cops were actually looking out for people who were getting in the way of the three assassins in the crow suits.

It makes partial sense if The Franchise has heavy connections with the FBI, CIA and NSA, plus was led by a former FBI director.

Or it could be the irrational AI typical of the Hitman series...

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-06-05 10:58am

Big Orange wrote:Arthur Tuxedo, a possible explanation why the local police behaved the way they did on "The Murder of Crows":

The New Orleans cops are very corrupt, so they could easily be in bed with The Franchise and allowing the assassination of the local politician to take place. The police did not act in a hostile manner towards the Franchise operatives and were stopping suspicious people from entering buildings that were sheltering Franchise agents. The street cops were actually looking out for people who were getting in the way of the three assassins in the crow suits.

It makes partial sense if The Franchise has heavy connections with the FBI, CIA and NSA, plus was led by a former FBI director.

Or it could be the irrational AI typical of the Hitman series...

That still doesn't explain how they could magically pick one guy they don't even have a line of sight to out of a crowd of thousands. If they didn't have the ability to write AI code that would lose the target in a large crowd, they should have waited until the next game to implement the concept.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2006-06-05 06:42pm

Okay, I got the game yesterday, been playing it a fuckton.

Hard, but very fun. I can't wait to replay some of the levels and try out different strategies.

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-06-06 05:33am

The clown - it, it killed EVERYONE!

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2006-06-06 08:34am

You win Ando. You fucking win.

DocHorror · Post by **DocHorror** » 2006-06-06 09:59am

I'm both loving & hating this game. I love it because its so good. But I'm hating it cause I'm trying to get Silent Assassin first time through. And while I've worked out how to do it I'm being frustrated by getting spotted by one fucker.

Still - grr great game.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2006-06-06 04:52pm

Good god, the last level is just so awesome.
Also, Schubert's Ellens Gesang makes me really sad for some reason.

Jaepheth · Post by **Jaepheth** » 2006-06-06 08:24pm

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2006-06-08 01:59am

Are you feeling alright, Jaepheth? Cause this sort of behaviour is obviously a cry for help.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2006-06-08 01:38pm

Eleas wrote:Are you feeling alright, Jaepheth? Cause this sort of behaviour is obviously a cry for help.

That is nothing. I literally killed everyone on the wedding level (except for the bride.) So fun.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2006-06-08 11:44pm

Captain tycho wrote:
Eleas wrote:Are you feeling alright, Jaepheth? Cause this sort of behaviour is obviously a cry for help.

That is nothing. I literally killed everyone on the wedding level (except for the bride.) So fun.

That level pissed me off, for the same reason Arthur Tuxedo mentioned in the New Orleans level. So I'm sitting in the attic with the WA 2000 kitted out for the max for stealth purposes. I figured I'd wait until the two lovebirds have said the final words just to make it that much more ironic (and because I'd figured the girl was my employer, so it couldn't hurt for her to be as married as possible before I offed her hick of a husband). He says, "I sure do," then immediately dies. Before I even see the result properly, the gun is down and I'm scrambling to put it back in the case.

That's when the whole congregation bursts into the attic to gun me down. Apparently, despite all eyes being on the wedding and away from the window, each of them somehow knew exactly what had happened and where I was, and at that point started running.

These are rednecks, folks! Drunk rednecks. And yet theirs is the kind of response Secret Service could only dream of.

Now, killing Vaarna Ketlin by pushing her into the shark tank... that made my whole day.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-06-08 11:54pm

Okay, I like the game (shame bout the crashes) but there are irritating omissions. Not just the psychic guards either.

When I find a sleeping/resting/whatever dude, I want to be able to jack him full of sedative or poison... but I can't. I've found *sleeping* people, in fricking bed, and I have to pop them in the face with a gun. Why can't I inject them? Who knows.

Of course, there's still the fibrewire 'oh look my hands went through your back and you've seen the wire sticking out of your chest, now you kill me' problem all HM games have had. Not being able to load games in the stupid red zone is pretty irritating, too.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2006-06-09 12:56am

I am on a very tight budget this summer. But this game is going to get purchased.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2006-06-09 01:33am

Stark wrote:Okay, I like the game (shame bout the crashes) but there are irritating omissions. Not just the psychic guards either.

The recent patch (which, I know, shouldn't be necessary...) fixes its eagerness to crash.

When I find a sleeping/resting/whatever dude, I want to be able to jack him full of sedative or poison... but I can't. I've found *sleeping* people, in fricking bed, and I have to pop them in the face with a gun. Why can't I inject them? Who knows.

I had a similar problem with the final mission (in which, not to spoil things, you get to shoot a lot of people very dead). I had killed everyone but the priest, the Franchise leader and the journalist. So while the two civilians are pounding on the gate in a desperate bid to get out, I'm sneaking up on the cripple, stiletto in hand. But, since apparently the designers though it would be more dramatic to gun him down Western-style, all my attempts att slitting his throat availed me was a well-ventilated torso courtesy of his machine pistol. Which kinda sucked.

Of course, there's still the fibrewire 'oh look my hands went through your back and you've seen the wire sticking out of your chest, now you kill me' problem all HM games have had. Not being able to load games in the stupid red zone is pretty irritating, too.

This particularly becomes a problem in the final level, because I was generally gunned down while reloading, and reloading those dual silverballers takes long enough that I died anyway, almost every time. Doesn't help that the silverballers only have nine shots or so.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-06-09 01:39am

Oh, I got the v1.1 thing already, but I always crash after a few minutes in the opera level. I can't beat it in that time.

What's with the red thing anyway? It's slowmo with infinite ammo before you die... but sometimes you don't. Seems to be random?