P
Phryxus
Guest
I'm not sure if this has been done before, if I may have just blundered into something i've missed, but i haven't noticed any critical talk about games anywhere on the forums and my fingers are itching for some reviewing!
To start the ball rolling, i thought i'd give a review of Hitman: Blood Money a go, both because it's quite different and i don't think it's getting the praise it deserves from the real review sites. Here it goes then...
Hitman: Blood Money
At its core, the whole Hitman series can be described as a 3rd person stealth puzzle game, with elements of action and general tomfoolery with other people's clothes. Blood Money, the fourth in the Hitman franchise, is no different in this respect, casting the players once more into the shoes of the chrome-domed killer 'Mr. 47', who also happens to have a penchant for sharp suits and punching clowns, combined with an unhealthy affection for firearms.
Whilst the initial gameplay might strike you as something akin to the last game, Contracts, the reality is that Io Interactive have made marked improvements to both the engine, featuring top-end graphical bells and whistles such as self-shadowing and dynamic lighting, and the controls and animation of the world - no more sliding for 47 this time, the heavily modified Glacier engine instead providing more fluid and believable movements, complemented by a new free rotating central camera that now functions independently from the player character and allows you to take in the mostly impressive visuals.
It is this upgrade to what used to be only a perfunctory section of Hitman that allows it to pull off one of the most important changes that sets it apart from most other 3rd person action games these days - heavily populated crowd scenes bristling with people, lights and noise, numbering well into the hundreds for some of the more ambitious levels. If you ever missed the feeling of carrying out a hit whilst dozens of pairs of eyes roam about in your vicinity, Blood Money makes up for it in spades, adding that last bit of ambience to what was essentially quite a lonely concept and inserting that frisson of danger and excitement. Be warned that character models do repeat, the same figure of a bearded man used many times over, but for a visual spectacle that doesn't cause your FPS to give a silent whimper and expire in a corner, the technology is unmatched.
Now, don't get me wrong, nice visuals add a lot to any game, but without exciting gameplay to back it up, the experience falls short of gaming greatness. Whilst more a case of evolution than revolution, the general concept has moved further towards the original 'cash for kills' theme that the series started with, instead of just a rating depending on how well you conducted your assignment. The result is something that feels more like an actual Hitman experience, true, the overall story of genetic engineering and political intrigue is still for show in this installment as well, but the monetary reward coupled with the ability to spend it upon modifying weapons - adding silencers, scopes and even fancy cases for some - really makes more of an impact. In fact, there's nothing quite like whipping out your newly upgraded silenced pistol and pulling the trigger from a concealed spot, your creation bursting into life as it simultaneously ends someone else's.
Just as well then, that the tradition of complex and genuinely interesting locales, the historical strong point of Io, is still in full effect here. The world's best assassin would be nothing if he didn't have new and action packed surroundings to explore, and through the course of the game's twelve complete missions, that can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours to complete (depending on your style), 47 is whisked off to locations including, but not limited to, the vibrant Vegas strip and the Parisian opera house - all unsuspecting of the wolf in their midst and the impending chaos and brimming with multiple pathways towards your objectives, which, happily, also vary - although mostly in how many people you're tasked with liquidating.
It's quite easy, when you've been stalking your targets for hours, to get absorbed in the magic of it all, but it's not all plain sailing - especially for those that have picked up the title on impulse. For one, the story, whilst neatly summed up, can sometimes make little to no sense for the uninitiated outside of the separate mission briefings, past allusions going right over your (hopefully more follicular) heads. The tendency for missions to also seem both overwhelming and under-described is also in full display, the trial and error nature of some levels and the finding of the 'right' solution to the puzzle sometimes buried under multiple retries of a level, a fact exemplified by the confounding inability to view a level before you enter, yet having the fully enabled GPS map when you do.
Effectively, Blood Money is a game of patience and slow reward. You could take it all at once, blast through the levels and slap yourself on the back with a job well done, but as they say, the devil is in the details. The aforementioned multiple pathways make actually reaching your objective more exciting than just pushing the right switch, for example, your target may move only in one area, but if you were to tamper with something, he might stray from his previous interest to somewhere more accessible - somewhere whereupon you can enact your vengeance in the manner of your choosing, perhaps making it appear as an accident by employing a fatal shove, watching in maniacal glee as his lifeless cadaver hurtles towards its vertical doom - the choice as they say, really is yours. If you were to 'Rambo' all of the levels in succession, you would miss the interactivity with the environments, hopping from balcony to balcony for example, and the disguise mechanism, a staple of the series that allows you to assume another's identity and further scope out a level, maybe even convincing the target you're someone else just to get them alone. It's unfortunate that in this sense, the title isn't as forgiving as it should be, as few people can be bothered to repeatedly play through the same level just to do it 'the way the developers intended', a crying shame, due to their intricate nature.
It's this one choice that really makes or breaks the game, do you go silently, taking out only your targets or simply subduing key personnel, or do you screw it all and break out the big guns? One way, you see everything, the other, only part of it. If you take the time to 'do it right' the Hitman series can be one of the most rewarding experiences you've had, if not, the simple combat AI makes for one of the least distinctive shooter experiences there is - albeit with more realistic guns and a novelty bullet time feature before you die, after soaking up too many bullets with your face. Give it a try, although it's not for the faint hearted....
Final Score: 89% Hit-Tastic!
Now that i've posted my review, if any of you can add in your own lengthy piece of literature and enlarge this (hopefully massive) collection, it would be great!
P.S: if you were disappointed with the lack of detail in my review, if you wanted more examples and locations, i tried to keep it as spoiler free as possible (unlike some publications, naming no names, Pc Gamer...)
To start the ball rolling, i thought i'd give a review of Hitman: Blood Money a go, both because it's quite different and i don't think it's getting the praise it deserves from the real review sites. Here it goes then...
Hitman: Blood Money
At its core, the whole Hitman series can be described as a 3rd person stealth puzzle game, with elements of action and general tomfoolery with other people's clothes. Blood Money, the fourth in the Hitman franchise, is no different in this respect, casting the players once more into the shoes of the chrome-domed killer 'Mr. 47', who also happens to have a penchant for sharp suits and punching clowns, combined with an unhealthy affection for firearms.
Whilst the initial gameplay might strike you as something akin to the last game, Contracts, the reality is that Io Interactive have made marked improvements to both the engine, featuring top-end graphical bells and whistles such as self-shadowing and dynamic lighting, and the controls and animation of the world - no more sliding for 47 this time, the heavily modified Glacier engine instead providing more fluid and believable movements, complemented by a new free rotating central camera that now functions independently from the player character and allows you to take in the mostly impressive visuals.
It is this upgrade to what used to be only a perfunctory section of Hitman that allows it to pull off one of the most important changes that sets it apart from most other 3rd person action games these days - heavily populated crowd scenes bristling with people, lights and noise, numbering well into the hundreds for some of the more ambitious levels. If you ever missed the feeling of carrying out a hit whilst dozens of pairs of eyes roam about in your vicinity, Blood Money makes up for it in spades, adding that last bit of ambience to what was essentially quite a lonely concept and inserting that frisson of danger and excitement. Be warned that character models do repeat, the same figure of a bearded man used many times over, but for a visual spectacle that doesn't cause your FPS to give a silent whimper and expire in a corner, the technology is unmatched.
Now, don't get me wrong, nice visuals add a lot to any game, but without exciting gameplay to back it up, the experience falls short of gaming greatness. Whilst more a case of evolution than revolution, the general concept has moved further towards the original 'cash for kills' theme that the series started with, instead of just a rating depending on how well you conducted your assignment. The result is something that feels more like an actual Hitman experience, true, the overall story of genetic engineering and political intrigue is still for show in this installment as well, but the monetary reward coupled with the ability to spend it upon modifying weapons - adding silencers, scopes and even fancy cases for some - really makes more of an impact. In fact, there's nothing quite like whipping out your newly upgraded silenced pistol and pulling the trigger from a concealed spot, your creation bursting into life as it simultaneously ends someone else's.
Just as well then, that the tradition of complex and genuinely interesting locales, the historical strong point of Io, is still in full effect here. The world's best assassin would be nothing if he didn't have new and action packed surroundings to explore, and through the course of the game's twelve complete missions, that can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours to complete (depending on your style), 47 is whisked off to locations including, but not limited to, the vibrant Vegas strip and the Parisian opera house - all unsuspecting of the wolf in their midst and the impending chaos and brimming with multiple pathways towards your objectives, which, happily, also vary - although mostly in how many people you're tasked with liquidating.
It's quite easy, when you've been stalking your targets for hours, to get absorbed in the magic of it all, but it's not all plain sailing - especially for those that have picked up the title on impulse. For one, the story, whilst neatly summed up, can sometimes make little to no sense for the uninitiated outside of the separate mission briefings, past allusions going right over your (hopefully more follicular) heads. The tendency for missions to also seem both overwhelming and under-described is also in full display, the trial and error nature of some levels and the finding of the 'right' solution to the puzzle sometimes buried under multiple retries of a level, a fact exemplified by the confounding inability to view a level before you enter, yet having the fully enabled GPS map when you do.
Effectively, Blood Money is a game of patience and slow reward. You could take it all at once, blast through the levels and slap yourself on the back with a job well done, but as they say, the devil is in the details. The aforementioned multiple pathways make actually reaching your objective more exciting than just pushing the right switch, for example, your target may move only in one area, but if you were to tamper with something, he might stray from his previous interest to somewhere more accessible - somewhere whereupon you can enact your vengeance in the manner of your choosing, perhaps making it appear as an accident by employing a fatal shove, watching in maniacal glee as his lifeless cadaver hurtles towards its vertical doom - the choice as they say, really is yours. If you were to 'Rambo' all of the levels in succession, you would miss the interactivity with the environments, hopping from balcony to balcony for example, and the disguise mechanism, a staple of the series that allows you to assume another's identity and further scope out a level, maybe even convincing the target you're someone else just to get them alone. It's unfortunate that in this sense, the title isn't as forgiving as it should be, as few people can be bothered to repeatedly play through the same level just to do it 'the way the developers intended', a crying shame, due to their intricate nature.
It's this one choice that really makes or breaks the game, do you go silently, taking out only your targets or simply subduing key personnel, or do you screw it all and break out the big guns? One way, you see everything, the other, only part of it. If you take the time to 'do it right' the Hitman series can be one of the most rewarding experiences you've had, if not, the simple combat AI makes for one of the least distinctive shooter experiences there is - albeit with more realistic guns and a novelty bullet time feature before you die, after soaking up too many bullets with your face. Give it a try, although it's not for the faint hearted....
Final Score: 89% Hit-Tastic!
Now that i've posted my review, if any of you can add in your own lengthy piece of literature and enlarge this (hopefully massive) collection, it would be great!
P.S: if you were disappointed with the lack of detail in my review, if you wanted more examples and locations, i tried to keep it as spoiler free as possible (unlike some publications, naming no names, Pc Gamer...)
