Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
PC
Io Interactive / Eidos

Hitman 2 is the sequel to a very disappointing game. The concept of playing as an assassin is great, but the original was only average. Fortunately, this one fixes many of the first one's problems, but it still falls short of what it could be. The game begins when the hitman, 47(yeah, that's his name), is forced out of retirement to save a friend. You travel around the world killing people. To complete the levels stealthily, you have to steal disguises, hide in shadows, and on several levels crawl through the sewers. Many of the missions are very well designed with many paths to your objective. On one level you can disguise your self as a mailman, grocery boy, or you can steal a guards uniform. If you want you can just sneak in or go in guns blazing killing everyone. Other more disappointing levels have only one way to complete it. To make more people go in quietly, the game rates you at the end of every level. If you get the rating "silent assassin" on a level, you are rewarded with a weapon. Instead of buying weapons before a missions, you now collect them. Every time you end the level carrying a weapon, the weapon will be yours. They are stored in a tool shed which you visit between some levels. You have to play through some levels more than once to get them all, because you can only carry one rifle at a time. One of the best improvements is the ability to save during a level, even if you only can do for a limited number of times. They also improved the map, but they improved it a little too much. It shows you where every enemy on the map is, and where some points of interest are. The map is disabled on the highest difficulty. Some cool features are the ability to look through keyholes and shoot through doors. The physics to the game are excellent. An enemy hit by a shotgun will be sent flying! The AI for the enemies is horrendous. Sometimes they detect you with no warning, other times they stand by and watch you waste a few of their buddies. The game's graphics aren't that great, but it was co-developed, for PS2 and Xbox. Overall the game is very fun, but far from perfect.

Score: 8.2

Wise Duck