Pros: more weaponry, crisp graphics, real stealth action
Cons: storyline, moderate level design, forgiving AI
The bottom line: Fans dig it. Critics find it mediocre at best. Anyone else would find it boring. Not the best, but its above average.
Somewhere during the evolution of gaming, there was a relatively small genre know as stealth-action who’s main focus was on government spies or assassins of some sort. It wasn’t mainstream but it had big names such as Splinter Cell, Tenchu and Hitman to represent it. Most stealth actions take place on an alternate society where a spy operative destined to stop terrorist acts. On the other hand, some are staged in an ancient but mystical world luxuriant in demons and ninjas. These are polar opposites of each other but both occurring in an artificial world. Hitman is different from most stealth games because it could happen to anyone, even you. The people in Hitman aren’t expecting their death, while you strive in the darkness and manipulate every aspect with your devious mind games. And as everyone knows, mind games really screw up a person’s head. That’s what so exciting about it. Sure, you can’t climb walls or fighting big robots but you possess a repertoire of real-to-life weaponry amongst other things. You get to play as Agent 47 and he’s bald, what else do you want?

Back when Hitman 1 was unleashed on the PC, there were mixed reviews but 60% of them were bad. Hitman 1 respectfully earned every bad review though because it simply had too many bugs and the premise wasn’t interesting enough. Ofcourse, that concerned IO a great deal and they were faced with two choices. Either they accept their losses and exit quietly or risk everything, including their reputation, and tread onward. This is a rare case however because it seems the company repent from their mistakes, and the sequel was a major financial success. Built on the hot success of Silent Assassin, Hitman 3: Contracts steps back into familiar territory as you once again gain control of the infamous bald anti-hero.

Contracts started out with the all too familiar scene of the opposition (which is you) trying to make a hit on his unsuspected prey. However, things don’t quite work out as they do in those James Bond movies and you end up getting shot. Right here is probably the climax and most stealth games concentrate heavily on plotting and storyline (Splinter Cell, for example), however Hitman took the ladder. Aside from the tension-building introduction, Hitman’s storyline is rather vague and awkward, intentionally there just to push the game forward. It also makes you feel ripped off after having beaten it since there is a huge surprise waiting at the last level. (Given that fact, don’t read on if you don’t want it to be spoiled.) *SPOILER* There’s actually only one level in Contracts that agent 47 participate in and that is the last one. All the rest of the stages consist of Agent 47’s mind at work, causing him to reminisce on previously accomplished missions. *END SPOILER* There are an array of missions, ranging from the locales of China to Alaska filled with the trademark mafia and film noir characters the game been known for. The layout is also grittier compared to its prequel, presenting a more mature theme, depicting some rather harsh times in the poor Hitman’s life. Unlike Hitman 2, none of missions follow a specific pattern or connection; you’ll know why if you’ve read the spoilers. Rather, it’s just a mixed bag of random missions in various parts of the world and some of them will even bring nostalgia to those who played previous entries.

This time around, Contracts is even more focused on their mature theme rating, making Silent Assassin look like another Barney episode. Everywhere you look there is blood (especially the meat factory level) and gore, making Contracts one of the rare few games (like Manhunt) to truly use these effects efficiently, rather than just throwing them around for show. The imagery painted in Hitman is beautiful yet it maintain crispness throughout. Most of the time you’ll view the scenario in a sort of post-apocalyptic setting, complete with dark skies and rain, a world filled with crazed demented soul, pretty like the world of our own. The lighting effect is absolutely gorgeous as it renders in real time; you’ll be amaze as the moonlight rolls off the Hitman’s sleek attire and how darkness consumes your presence, allowing you to extract your kill. The movement of 47 is somewhat jagged, making it seems like there’s an unseen force controlling his movements. There are a few occasional slowdowns, and most of them occurred during massive gunfights, but that won’t likely happen much. Sometimes bigger weapon do tend to overlap the environment, and it’s silly since Hitman had always taken itself seriously. Even as superior as Contracts might be, it can’t seem to avoid these things, the little specks that plague action games the most. Overall, the graphic presentation is exceptional, though it could’ve used some more polishing and refining.

The audio department is quite phenomenal, even though it’s quite different from previous entries. Jesper Kyd produced an amazing arrangement of various genres fused together seemingly, providing 80’s style music to the more mundane soft rock. Each stage has its own unique flare, but the soundtrack seems to fit right in the theme and more than ever, silence is presented in a large amount. It’s strange to say but silence works perfectly in a game so surrealistic, building up tension faster than thriller movies of today. As far as voice acting qualities, Agent 47 talks a lot more in this sequel. There’s a very limited sub-character dialogue, due to most of the game remains utterly calm and secluded. Most of the time, the rain or snow effects conceal most of the activities that are going on; like footsteps, gunshots and unclear dialogue that you can only make out to be a murmur. The weather also cloak a soldier’s dying moan as you penetrate him with a meat hook. Use that to your advantage.

Rather than setting you loose with massive firearms and bombs, the game designed a variety of ways for you to make the perfect kill. You might not see these strategies right away but with the help of a guide or multiple retries, it’ll become evident. It’s not always “fun” to play Hitman though, especially if you don’t know what to do and the frustration slowly builds up. Everything, from footsteps to timing, affects your performance; ranking you from “Silent Assassin” to the more common “Mass Murderer”. Sure, Hitman is a rather slow and tedious game but it’s the perfect choice to get away from the Hollywood-inspired plague of games nowadays. Besides flashy visuals and quality audio, Hitman got one of the most intriguing and intelligent game engine presented. Gameplay is definitely the spaghetti and meatballs of any Hitman games and it should be of any stealth game. The idea of “stealth action” should be as implied; silent as the forest, sting like a bee or something of that nature. Yes, you can go blasting everyone you see but you’re missing the point of Hitman, and Hitman ultimately rewards those with patience.

The gist of any good Hitman game is intelligent level designs, which many gamers complained to be non-existence in Contracts. Contract’s level designs are pretty much watered down versions of the superior “Silent Assassin”, mainly due to marketing and to attract a much larger crowd. It’s still no cakewalk but the veteran might say otherwise. There are actually a handful of stages inspired by various books or movies (like the Beldingford Manor, inspired by a novel but I forgot the name). However, as inspirational and unique as each level may be, there aren’t any memorable stages. Most of the levels are quite forgiving (on normal) and allows you to make more than a few mistakes. One of the adjustments that IO made was that running doesn’t always raise suspicious, a welcomed addition for the newbies. Other than that, Contracts’ level design is mediocre at best; giving the impression that IO did kind of rush through this. All of the later levels taken place in China actually could’ve been compromised into one since it’s so straightforward.

To aid your epic, there are an insane number of weapons scattered throughout the game. Most of the weapons are really fun to use but others proved futile. Nonetheless, you’d likely try them all to see their unique effects since they all vary in firepower, range and rate of fire; like real-life weapons. The newer arsenals merely added variety, instead of strategy and the game probably would’ve worked fine without them. The syringe was a replacement for the bottle, but the knockout effect also last longer than before. Most of the time, you’ll be frisk more than anything in the game. After the frisk search, only the fiber wire and syringe remains in your arsenal so you’ve basically been forced to tread stealthily. The AI still remains the same as Hitman 2; they call will backup if they spot you and ruthlessly shoot you down without question. One of the things IO should’ve fixed but didn’t is the infamous door kill trick; where you stand on the side of the door and perform head shots on anyone who walks in. That seems to me, is the only noticeable drawback to a should-have-been outstanding game.

What’s different about this new addition is that it’s not a sequel nor a prequel, it’s more of a side story that is basically there to give players a chance to explore the deepest abyss of 47’s mind. While the box art may attract attention, Contracts is, without a doubt in mind, the worse Hitman yet. IO guility knows that they needn’t prove anything this time around, simply because they already have with Silent Assassin. Even in the midst of Contract’s release, IO already announced a fourth coming in the seemingly perennial series. Unlike Silent Assassin that raised the bar of stealth games so very high, Contracts is just there. IO didn’t try to take the series into new heights or different directions, or add any innovations whatsoever.

I didn’t want to rush and review Contracts because I wanted to spend more time playing it before giving it a verdict. To put it short now, Contract is inferior to Silent Assassin. The control schemes, graphical showcase and arsenals (and other things) in Silent Assassin are also here. It’s the level design that damned the game the most. It appears that they’re not as random as before and the whole emphasis is squarely based on memorization. What happen to the intelligent and memorable levels of old? It also seems that IO happily embrace the fact that marketing is more important that sticking to values because the very essence that made SA a million sellers, is not presented in an ounce here. The difficulty is what I’m talking about. Sometimes you could just walk up to a guard without him noticing you, and that ultimately ruins the “stealth” experience. The syringe that replaced the anesthetic is also a cheap weapon because it knocks out a guard for at least 30 minutes. Most levels are just a mess of ideas put together without planning at all. Also, running doesn’t attract attention but IO shouldn’t let it be abused so much.

Before you go and think this is a bad game, well it’s not. It’s just that sometimes listening to fan’s request is a bad idea and a company should stick to what made their games popular in the first place. While the greens may still roll in, I strongly urge IO to go back and plan the future of this series with care because Hitman is slowly showing signs of decay. No doubt, fans of previous will still lust for more stealth action and this will temporarily deliver until Hitman 4 comes out. As for newcomers, it would be better for them to look for previous installments, especially Silent Assassin.