While this game is better then Codename 47 it does still suffer from terrible controls. It does have a better story, animations and physics. Nothing groundbreaking but the improvements over 47 are good and take the series in a good direction.
TLDR: Guns go pew pew. Play the game.
TLDR: Guns go pew pew. Play the game.
Alright so first and most obvious things out of the ways, firstly, this game has some bugs and they can sometimes severely hurt the experience; secondly, this game is pretty hard even without the bugs, but in my personal opinion, once you learn how the game works, its a mostly enjoyable experience, although drastically different than what i'm used to with this franchise.
It added a rating system that the previous game lacked, and every future game used a variation of, you get a hideaway you return to after every major mission where any collected weapons appear (which even comes into play in the story, so collect all you can!) and we get the ability to knock out NPCs with an anesthetic, all making this play much more in line with the future games than what the first game did.
The biggest difference here though, is how the disguises work. simply wearing a disguise doesn't make you blend in with whatever you are disguised as, you need to act the part as well, and there are far, far more NPCs able to see through your disguises than what people are likely comfortable with. Take the first mission (second in the game but the first is a prologue), you need to kill some guy, take a key from his body, get in his basement, then escape. You have multiple ways of doing this, so naturally you would assume that wearing a bodyguard disguise would get you inside the building right? Well, yes, it would, but also the bodyguards and their bosses would recognize their own. You might be able to fool them from a distance, but if you get too close, if you run or if you do anything a bodyguard wouldn't normally be doing, it looks pretty suspicious and they might investigate, or worse, shoot on sight.
I feel like this does add some tedium to the missions, so i can understand why there are plenty of reviews and discussion about how you need a lot of patience with this game because simply running can get you shot to death, but to me, it simply added to the experience. Its not an easy game, but i don't think it was supposed to be. I think you were supposed to put yourself in 47's shoes and do what he would do in that instance. You can't see through walls, you don't have a minimap, you don't have regenerating health, you can't blend in somewhere you already stick out like a sore thumb (One of the missions even acknowledges this and states that the locals are jumpy at the sight of a foreigner holding a weapon due to events of the previous mission, so no disguise will help you hold a weapon in front of civilians in that stage!)
It's difficult, sometimes even stressful with how a bug can ruin a stage, but its very clear that this is a true stealth game through and through, and for anyone who's a fan of the other games and willing to put up with it, I highly recommend it.
It added a rating system that the previous game lacked, and every future game used a variation of, you get a hideaway you return to after every major mission where any collected weapons appear (which even comes into play in the story, so collect all you can!) and we get the ability to knock out NPCs with an anesthetic, all making this play much more in line with the future games than what the first game did.
The biggest difference here though, is how the disguises work. simply wearing a disguise doesn't make you blend in with whatever you are disguised as, you need to act the part as well, and there are far, far more NPCs able to see through your disguises than what people are likely comfortable with. Take the first mission (second in the game but the first is a prologue), you need to kill some guy, take a key from his body, get in his basement, then escape. You have multiple ways of doing this, so naturally you would assume that wearing a bodyguard disguise would get you inside the building right? Well, yes, it would, but also the bodyguards and their bosses would recognize their own. You might be able to fool them from a distance, but if you get too close, if you run or if you do anything a bodyguard wouldn't normally be doing, it looks pretty suspicious and they might investigate, or worse, shoot on sight.
I feel like this does add some tedium to the missions, so i can understand why there are plenty of reviews and discussion about how you need a lot of patience with this game because simply running can get you shot to death, but to me, it simply added to the experience. Its not an easy game, but i don't think it was supposed to be. I think you were supposed to put yourself in 47's shoes and do what he would do in that instance. You can't see through walls, you don't have a minimap, you don't have regenerating health, you can't blend in somewhere you already stick out like a sore thumb (One of the missions even acknowledges this and states that the locals are jumpy at the sight of a foreigner holding a weapon due to events of the previous mission, so no disguise will help you hold a weapon in front of civilians in that stage!)
It's difficult, sometimes even stressful with how a bug can ruin a stage, but its very clear that this is a true stealth game through and through, and for anyone who's a fan of the other games and willing to put up with it, I highly recommend it.
Decent Hitman but very rudimentary.
An incredible improvement over Codename 47. Levels are larger and you usually have more than one way to achieve your objective. 47 no longer has a health bar made of glass, and the ability to view a map of the levels with the real-time movements of NPCs made it much more convenient to plan your approach. The much-needed inclusion of saves is probably the biggest change from the first entry of this series.
Not taking Codename 47 into account, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is a solid game on its own, with a pretty good story, satsifying stealth gameplay and a beautiful soundtrack by Jesper Kyd. Although it takes some tinkering to get the game running and looking well, and even though detection by enemies is pretty dang wonky (which could be easily remedied by the sneak-sprint exploit), I had a ton of fun with this one.
Not taking Codename 47 into account, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is a solid game on its own, with a pretty good story, satsifying stealth gameplay and a beautiful soundtrack by Jesper Kyd. Although it takes some tinkering to get the game running and looking well, and even though detection by enemies is pretty dang wonky (which could be easily remedied by the sneak-sprint exploit), I had a ton of fun with this one.
Secuela solida pero hay misiones con diseño de nivel muy cuestionable que me sobran
Despite aging pretty rough and having some pretty questionable gameplay design decisions, H2 Silent Assassin is still a pretty sweet and short stealth game. Enjoyable most of the time when it sticks to the compact, multi-choice, multi-path sandboxes, and really frustrating when slogging through cover barren landmasses with enemies that sniff you out no matter the disguise (looking at you Japan and Afghanistan). You can really see this is where Io-I is starting to find their footing with where they want to take this franchise. Despite its faults, the best parts of this game are guaranteed to have you coming back to see every outcome.
i am not built for this type of game
breathe too much and suddenly the entire vicinity wants you dead.
you’d have to have the patience of a saint to enjoy this game
you’d have to have the patience of a saint to enjoy this game