When Warner Bros invested in IO Interactive in 2018, it was nothing short of a miracle. The episodic format of Hitman 2016, enforced by Square Enix, hurt game sales. IOI was on the verge of shutting down and numerous staff were let go. With the WB investment, the studio was saved. The success of Hitman 2 allowed IO to keep operating. When Warner cut ties in the following years, the studio was stable enough that they could release Hitman 3 on their own and collect the full profits. If it weren’t for those business deals, the huge scope of the Hitman trilogy would have sunk the IO ship.

When producing Hitman: Contracts for Eidos, the staff realized that the scope of their game couldn’t possibly meet their Eidos deadlines. So, they arranged a compromise. Contracts would be sort of a Hitman 2.5, remaking levels from Codename 47 into the new Hitman formula. This meant that part of the studio could be dedicated to reshape the direction of Contracts, while preparing for the next big entry.

Its hard to imagine any studio that has the ability to do… anything like that anymore. Game development has gotten so big and so ambitious, there’s no way to shift gears like that anymore. You have to stick with what you’ve made, it’s too expensive to change things up. The burden of smaller games on indies, all competing with each other to feed their own teams. I’m not saying I miss the good ol’ days of the 00s, god no. But ambition can be dangerous when its not tempered. Contracts could only be released in this specific era, when sequels were easier to make and every game wasn’t a complete company effort that could sink everyone if it didn’t go well. When media was allowed to grow an audience over time. Build a quiet little fanbase through word of mouth. Not sure how to get back to that.

In retrospect, Hitman 2 SA’s major flaw was level design. When I maneuvered through levels in invisible mode, I knew I was choosing not to engage with the game properly. But I was content to drift on through because it was more about capturing an atmosphere than anything else. Sometimes that’s what I need from my gaming vibes.

Instantly, Hitman Contracts doesn’t require me to go invisible to achieve my main goal. Vibes are immediate. Vibes are all-consuming. We’re swimming in delicious, delicious vibes.

Contracts begins in media res, with 47 recovering from a bloodshot wound in a hit gone wrong. He drifts in and out of consciousness, struggling to form coherent thoughts. The only thing 47 has to keep him company is memories. The world around him shifts and contorts from an empty hotel room into assassin jobs from his past. The door opens and 47 is thrust into the snowy tundra of another Russian hit job. Or some water drips from the ceiling and he remembers the pouring rain of Rotterdam. It’s a beautiful framing device to connect the different levels together. It’s oddly refreshing compared to the more interwoven narrative of modern games. It adds a dream-like quality to the entire game. I almost wish the levels placed an anachronistic hotel room in each level, just to add another dash of the surreal.

Accompanying the dream-like narrative is the visual design. Most of the levels are centered in the darkness of night. Neon signs wash over the streets, letting these bright colors reflect off 47’s bald cranium, lighting up the darkness. While Silent Assassin could be sparse and empty, there’s delightful detail in all the corners of the maps. I’m more inclined to explore all the different rooms. There’s so much care built into the world. Subtle details that add so much character. In the British manor, two guards appear to be watching porn together, sitting stoically in their chairs. In the seedy strip club, many of the bikers ignore the various sexual shenanigans around them to focus on the ongoing soccer match. It might not even be an intentional distinction, but that nuance is so especially funny a comparison to write for your levels. The whole game is grimy and gritty in such a satisfying fashion. When the game lets the light in, it’s always used to provide a new striking image. Drown a target in his shimmering pool or escape the white void of the experimental facility. The darkness might wear thin for some, but it helps set Contracts apart from the pack. Silent Assassin is a spy thriller. Blood Money is a stylish cel-shaded adventure. The modern games, Absolution included, delight in clashing its realistic design with its cartoonish undercurrent. Contracts is a neo-noir dreamscape and its all the better for it.

Building on all of that is just how much more refined the gameplay is. Even with the game’s overhaul, you can really tell how the team understood what did and didn’t work about Hitman 2 and how to move forward. Running doesn’t alert guards as frequently. Knocking out guards and stealing disguises is quicker and easier than before. And the variety of murder is so well-considered. Smuggle a gun in a target’s chicken order. Sneak upstairs and smother with a pillow, while he son dies via poison whiskey. There’s variety, there’s puzzle work, there’s challenge, there’s fun. It’s a delightful package.

In my youth, I skipped past this game very quickly to move onto Blood Money. I’m glad I returned to it with new eyes. Silent Assassin may be the start of what Hitman could be and Blood Money might be the magnum opus but Contracts? Contracts is something special. Its growing into what the franchise should be, while still distinct as its own thing. An incredible effort from an incredible team.

Hitman: Contracts tem uma das histórias mais artificiais de toda a franquia por seguir mais ou menos como um pre-texto para poder trazer certos "Flashbacks" dos assassinatos passados da vida do Agente 47 de volta, sendo assim, muitas das missões do primeiro principalmente e também do segundo jogo voltam com uma leve repaginada nelas para aqueles que já jogaram os antigos poderem ver coisas novas e também terem diversas abordagens diferentes dentro delas além de missões extras que não necessariamente seguem uma certa ordem cronológica dos contratos. Tudo que se sabe, é que o Agente 47 estaria lembrando de tudo isso, pois estaria no caminho entre a vida e a morte após ter sido atingido por um de seus alvos que já estaria esperando por ele, e assim vai seguindo a trama principal depois de cada "Flashback" mostrado e jogado no game.

Diferente do jogo anterior, Hitman: Contracts não traz nada de muito novo a não ser finalmente a correção dos problemas da Inteligência Artificial dos Inimigos que finalmente aqui não temos mais aquele problema terrível que não podia sequer correr com um disfarce que todos os inimigos ao redor de você te detectavam e atiravam sem nem pensar duas vezes, mas ainda sim, continua sendo um dos jogos da franquia que tem o seu certo charme e a qualidade de um jogo do Hitman em suas missões, além de ser o mais divertido em termos de mecânica de todos os três jogos anteriores por ter corrigido o problema da IA que era extremamente frustrante no segundo e não ter envelhecido tão mal quanto o primeiro, por isso, vale a pena também para aqueles que querem dar uma revisitada ou até jogá-lo pela primeira vez.

Hitman: Contracts is a much more refined experience compared to its predecessors; where Codename 47 served as a blueprint, and Silent Assassin a exploration of the limits of that blueprint, Contracts took what was learned from that exploration and stripped it down to only what worked. The outcome of this is what very well might be the best campaign this series has to offer, so far at least. It offers a level of depth, matched with a level of efficiency, that is unmatched by the prior games; it is exactly the type of experience that you would want from a Hitman game.

I think the best word to describe Silent Assassin is BIG. The game is borderline bloated; the levels are of a daunting size, the amount of options the game gives the player are overwhelming, and the overall run time is the longest in the whole series, World of Assassinations online notwithstanding. But despite that, there was still a lot of good that Silent Assassin did; particularly the complexity of the levels and freedom of approach are innovations of note. Contracts’ challenge was to take those innovations, and condense them down into an experience that isn’t as overwhelming to tackle; and I think it did an absolutely fantastic job doing so. Contracts gives the player roughly the same amount of information per mission as Silent Assassin did, if not slightly less, but the map size has been greatly reduced, making for a much more player friendly trial and error stage. As well, the smaller levels lead to much more dense areas that offer more of the creative problem solving that Silent Assassin introduced. A lot of these strengths can be seen through the remade levels from Codename: 47; the majority of the Contracts levels are remade or remixed versions of the best levels from the first game. The objective is usually the same, and the process of going about it is generally similar, but the levels have been expanded to include more elements of player freedom. Traditions of the Trade makes its triumphant return here, and serves as a great example of this idea. Instead of spawning you at the front of the hotel with no weapons, the game spawns the player to the left with a briefcase sniper rifle, this immediately opens the door for many possibilities. If the player remembers how the level functions from Codename: 47, they can take the rifle to the right side of the building and take out the guard on the balcony of the room one of the targets is in, making that kill way easier. As well, while I didn’t find it, I am almost positive there is a way to get the rifle past the metal detector and into the building because there is a hole in the roof of the swimming pool where the second target usually is; compare this to the way more linear nature of the first game’s iteration of the level. This is just a taste of what the refinement that Contracts offers, as this level is pretty tame in its changes when compared to the more extreme reworks of the other levels, as well as the few original levels.

I still do think there is a bit of an information problem, however. Not to say that the game doesn’t give the player enough information, it gives maybe slightly less than Silent Assassin, which is fine; the problem I had is just with how busy levels are and how much information they drop on the player. For the majority of the missions this is not a problem, as they are again remade versions of Codename: 47 levels, meaning that the player should have some background information as to how the mission functions. But for the few original missions, while they are really good, there is a lot of information to process because of how dense they are. The Beldingford Manor mission was probably the biggest offender of this. This level is full of winding mazes and secret passageways that make for a very complex and intricately designed level; and while I think this mission is very good, arguably the best in the game, it took me hours upon hours just to digest all that this levels has to offer, and left me feeling more overwhelmed than it did accomplished. Though I do understand that this very well might just be a me problem, so take the criticism with a grain of salt. That being said though, there is one level that I think is objectively bad, and that is the remake of Plutonium Runs Loose from the first game, Deadly Cargo. The objectives of this mission are actually simpler from its original incarnation, all you have to do is get on the boat and kill the target rather than kill him and defuse the bomb, but the method of going about it is entirely different. In the original, you had to sneak your way onto the boat by killing one of the crew members and taking their uniform; in this new one you have to infiltrate a swat team that is staked out in one of the warehouses in harbor, and then kill the target as they’re assaulting the boat. The game never hints that you have to infiltrate the swat team, the most it does is tell you that the police have locked down the harbor, and I guess this is supposed to be the hint, but I don’t understand how you are supposed two and two together with that little amount of information. As well, this solution entirely goes against the philosophy of player freedom that the other levels, and the whole previous game had been building. Again, the rest of the game is wholly a masterpiece in its own philosophy; this one level is just a giant sour spot on an otherwise fantastic game.

Overall, Hitman: Contracts is a fantastic game that breaks down and refines the Hitman formula into an experience that not only is much more manageable when compared to its predecessor, but also offers a new level of depth with that approach. While it does have some slight miscommunication problems, those issues are entirely overshadowed by just how fantastic the rest of the game is. I highly recommend and am eager to see how or if it is topped by what comes next, because I think it will be very hard to do so.

incredible atmosphere and presentation. mechanically tight as well. unfortunately the missions are fairly hit or miss

there's highlights (asylum, meat king, manor, hotel, finale) but then there's stages that consist primarily of empty space, following guards and walking long distances. not to mention the four hong kong levels for whatever reason? most of which are mindlessly easy to sa rank with a sniper rifle?? why???

7/10 too much china

There's something really sad about seeing 47 have his life flash before his eyes as he lays mortally wounded, alone in an unceremonious small apartment in France. Truly a horrifying fate and a devastating place to die. But what truly catches my eye is that instead of what you'd normally expect to see in 'near death vision' sequences, like fun family moments or your most cherished memories with loved ones... all 47 ever sees are... his past contracts. It really drives home how tragic 47's life actually is, when all it really ends up being is a series of cold-blooded missions where he takes the life of another. The subtle touch of every of these missions taking place in at night adds to that theme, showing that the light in 47's life is gradually fading out as he clings on to these flimsy memories, the only ones he really cherishes as he struggles to fight for survival. And the game's cutscenes do a stellar job portraying this hallucinogenic ride through 47's mind with great sensible transitions that keep the player second-guessing reality and memory.

Thematic genius aside, the game is great. General movement has been improved greatly, with the optimisations to run/sneak enabling not just easier kills/subduing, but also allowing players to quickly pull up the map on L1 (on a game where map observation is crucial, this is a GODSEND). Most of the levels, including the remastered ones, are all in my opinion much better than most of Silent Assassin's missions, with Beldingford Manor, The Meat King's Party and surprisingly Deadly Cargo (who would've thought) being obvious standouts with its atmosphere, tension and abundancy of methods in which you can beat these levels. Definitely more consistent, too, with each level requiring you to get a kill rather than having filler levels that demand you to simply get to the end of a level, thus removing potential deadweight that would've dragged the game down like Hidden Valley did in its predecessor.

My main issue with the game, however, comes in its pacing. The locations for 2/3rds of the game are varied enough, from a military base to a slaughterhouse to a grand hotel... and then you get 4 missions in Hong Kong. Back to back. This, alongside the main plot indicating that 47 is gradually returning to his senses, absolutely crushes the steady, tense pace of the overall experience that had been gradually built up from the opening cutscene. This is also worsened by the fact that there is no in-reality transitions between these Hong Kong levels to break them apart somehow, making these otherwise great levels a chore to beat.

But for what it is, Hitman 2.5 does its job and is IMO better than Silent Assassin.

I think this series was off to a reaaaaaally rough start, and Contracts is about where I'd say they finally got the concept down well enough. There's certainly still a lot of jank that holds back a lot of ideas but it's a relatively easy to run through game.

The only level in Contracts that I reaaaally don't like is honestly the very last level, which to avoid spoilers I won't be getting into. But it took me a lot of tries to finally get down.

Out of the series so far, Contracts feels the most fun to strategize with. Honestly can't wait to replay Blood Money now.

Almost forgot to bring up that Contracts has one of the best soundtracks I've heard in any game for a while. Jesper Kyd is among my favorite composers (alongside Eric Brosius and Akira Yamaoka) and this game solidified that opinion for me. The soundtrack backs this chilling and twisted, dirty and cold atmosphere the game overall has. It adds this weird layer of surrealism to the tone that is seen throughout the game through to the end.

this game is a step backwards for the series. cards on the table, i knew that this game was almost certainly not going to compare to silent assassin, and i tried to adjust my expectations knowing that. for me, SA was a meteoric high and i wasn't going to fool myself into thinking lightning would strike twice. still though, i was expecting this to at least be good. yet, this game really doesn't feel like a progression from SA. it feels like a regression that amplifies the preexisting problems that SA already had while also creating new ones. i feel there's a nonzero chance i'm being overly harsh on this game because of the high standards SA set for me, but that doesn't diminish my lack of enjoyment when it's all said and done.

it feels weird writing this and thinking "the aesthetics of this game should be addressed by the second paragraph", but there's an undeniable appeal the series has in presentation. hell, there's a reason some people still praise the 2015 hitman E3 trailer to this day despite it having exactly 0% gameplay. hitman is more than a sum of its parts type of game; it's not just about killing your targets and trying to avoid detection, but also doing it with flair. style isn't a gameplay mechanic or measured stat in the game, but it's a significant part of the experience. it's a shame then that so much of the dominant strategy of this game is just waiting for cycles. SA had moments where you had to wait for certain cycles to pass (i.e. that afghanistan bazaar level where you had to wait for colonel amin and he takes his sweet ass time), but most of the time you always had something you could be doing to advance your goal or you were waiting to activate a trap on your target. in contracts, i regularly had to wait on cycles to do silent assassin runs, and it takes me out of the experience and immersion knowing i'm just waiting on an AI routine most of the time. i know this point makes me sound like an impatient asshole, but it really does weigh on the experience when out of 12 levels, there's only 3 that i can recall doing silent assassin where waiting for at least 20 seconds did not occur.

with regards to narrative aesthetics, the game's a miss for me. due to the framing device of "47 is on the verge of death and reliving his previous jobs in a dying dream sort of way", almost every level is dark, moody, and smothered in rain. i've seen the arguments that this fits 47's cloudy and hazy mental state, and sure, i get it, i just also feel as though we lose a lot of diversity and identity when they're all made in a relatively uniform aesthetic. this game also feels like a growing pain with regards to level design because there's a much greater emphasis on complex interiors, but a lot of these maps have either entirely wasted effort (did you know there's a police station in deadly cargo? or that you could poison tea in the slaying of a dragon?) or have a lot of wasted space (beldingford manor, rondevouz in rotterdam). i hate to say "make the levels smaller", but there's genuinely not a lot going on in a lot of these levels that justifies the scale of them. they feel big and aimless in a bad way rather than a "there's so many infiltration methods" way. and, sure, it's cute how they brought back the four triad missions from codename 47, but the first three are all small levels that exist only for build and are largely unnecessary. 47 is reminiscing, we can just skip to the lee hong assassination that he otherwise had to prep for and no one would mind.

compare that to SA, where you have a variety of environments and interiors to explore. you could go from the italian countryside to a classy and crowded dinner party to an ancient and largely vertical castle in japan to a subterranean bunker in india. contracts has some variety, yes, but considering we spend a third of the game in one location, it sticks out in a much worse way to me. i don't need hitman games to be globetrotting gallivanting, and i'd largely be fine if there was an entire game that just focused on one homogeneous group of targets (i.e the russian mafia, american politicians, upcoming witnesses to a trial, etc.). this game just lacks coherent theming that ties it all together for me and makes it more than its individual pieces, and that's probably the worst single flaw about the game. it feels like it has lost the style and panache i so greatly loved in SA.

i do have my fair share of gameplay nitpicks, and it was very tempting to air them all out for all to see in this review. i will name a few to make my point: guard AI is somehow worse in this game because where SA's was draconian, it was consistent, meanwhile contracts' is completely erratic and inconsistent to a fault; why do people take showers that last eternity in this game without any other routine for the AI to engage in; the inventory has a huge bug where sometimes 47 will grab the wrong item and this happens with a consistency of 5%; doors will open both inwards and outwards even if they are listed as opening only one way on the map; hunter and hunted requiring you to memorize and perfect the first 10 seconds of it is a gigantic pain in the ass and makes it my least favorite mission by far; etc. etc. still, these aren't the silver bullet for this game to me. i ultimately got less joy out of this game because it was doing less to engage with me and puzzle-solving the levels for silent assassin felt far less interesting and rewarding to me.

i don't have a neat way to tie this all up. this game felt exceptionally short to me despite being roughly 10 hours of gameplay for me. this game ends with a cliffhanger of "oh no we found out who the REAL bad guy is and you're gonna have to go after him next time 47!!!", so ending the entire reminiscence narrative with basically no plot resolution makes this game feel disposable. i haven't played the rest of the series, but i predict this game will end up in one of two fates. either i will replay this game in the future and find it to be a grower that had positives i neglected to appreciate, or i'll find myself doubling down on this opinion and end up dubbing this one of the least essential hitman experiences second only to codename 47 itself. that latter one feels much less likely, but the fact that it's still a possibility saddens me.