I feel like a bit of a broken record talking about Hitman: Blood Money, because what I have to say about it is very similar to what I had to say about every previous entry in this series, save for Codename 47. It is a direct improvement over its predecessor, expanding on ideas introduced in the previous entry, and bringing new innovations to the table that make the experience even better than before. Again, broken record, I feel like I’ve said this about each game since Silent Assassin. But, it is true. In fact, I would go as far as to say this is the best game in the series so far, maybe period. I am aware that the World of Assassination trilogy greatly shifts the focus of the series, and so I would argue that Blood Money is the finale and peak of the classic Hitman formula, giving the player the tools to create their own path.
The big step that each game in this series has taken is the expansion of depth, and Blood Money dives even further into this by giving the player near total freedom on how to approach missions. I know I have said this with every game in this series, but it rings most true here. In the previous games, the player could be considered an invasive species; each level functions as its own little ecosystem that the player picks apart piece by piece, exploiting its natural systems and patterns. Blood Money’s approach to this is similar, but different in the fact the player is more of a terraformer, sculpting and curating each mission rather than dismantling it. The opening mission serves as a very direct, but efficient tutorial, introducing the player to a sample of the greater scope the game has, and sowing the seeds of creativity for the more complex missions. It takes time to demonstrate that player is in much more control than they were before; items like the coin show that reliance on AI pathfinding and preset routes isn't the only way to get the jump on enemies, and the use of more unique kill methods like from above strangulation and using a chandelier to kill a target make it clear to the player that there are now better, more interesting ways to take out hits than just using a bullet or sneaking up behind them. I particularly loved the remote bomb and used it quite frequently; dropping it in a place I new a target would be stopping at, going and completing an entirely different objective, and then detonating the bomb from halfway across the map, and subsequently making the death look like an accident, just never got old no matter how many times I did it. Additionally, the before mission loadout selection is a great feature, letting the player bring weapons into the mission that better suit their desired play style; I personally am a big sniper guy, so I would bring a rifle into almost every single mission and try to use it, creating so really funny and creative kills in the process. As well, I think the level design plays a big factor in facilitating this level of player freedom and control.
Blood Money’s set of levels are wholly unique unto themselves, and are not only some of the best in the series, but I think some of my favorites in gaming period. On a purely aesthetic perspective, each of the game's twelve-ish missions are fantastic. The game will have 47 traveling across the good old US of A, going from the grimy docks of Baltimore, to the hedonistic casinos of Las Vegas, and everywhere in between, except Texas sadly. This means that the player gets a good look at all the different environments and landscapes that the US has to offer, and serves as a nice breath of fresh air from the usual rainy streets of Hong Kong or snowy government buildings of Russia. From a mechanical perspective, this game's set of levels blow everything else this series has done out of the water. Blood Money adds a new feature that lets 47 volts over small ledges and climb up certain walls, this creates a level of verticality that the previous games just did not have, and lets the player get really creative with mapping out different routes. Sure, missions like “Traditions of the Trade” and “Basement Killing” took place in big, multilevel buildings, but that is not comparable to figuring out that you can bypass a security checkpoint in “Death of the Mississippi” by climbing up one of the support banisters, or doing a similar thing in “A Vintage Year” by shimmying up a drainage pipe to get the drop on the target without having to take out one of the guards. Elevators too have been recontextualized because of this. Every elevator now has a hatch that 47 can climb through, meaning that if the player studies a target's routes well enough, or lures them into an elevator, the player can execute the aforementioned above ground strangulation that not only kills the target, but also hides the body in the process. No spoilers, but I made a great use of this in the penultimate mission. This level of verticality and level complexity opens the door for some of the most absurd and fun ways to complete missions that I have ever seen. But, of course, the game is not without its faults, even if they are few and far between.
I really don’t think any of Blood Money’s missteps are detrimental to the overall experience, if anything they are just ideas that weren’t fully fleshed out. The new notoriety meter is interesting on paper; if the player is too reckless in a mission and is spotted doing suspicious things by NPCs or security cameras, then guards are more likely to take notice of and be more suspicious of the player in the following missions. In theory, this would make the player want to be more cautious with their playstyle, but the game has an option to just pay off witnesses with bribes at the end of each mission, effectively negating any meaning the notoriety meter had. Mind you, though, unless the player decides to go totally postal in a level, they will only gather a small amount of notoriety, even if they are a little bit reckless; I think I only gained a total of thirty points on the meter during my playtime, and that was easily paid off with what was practically pocket change in comparison to what the game gives you for completing a hit. It is neat that it's there, and it definitely had a small amount of influence on how I played, but overall it could be missing from the game and nothing would be lost. Similarly, the story is a feature that has very little presence. I will say that Blood Money is the most ambitious entry when it comes to its story. The premise of 47 being hunted down by a rival agency, and that same agency trying to bring down the ICA from the inside is really intriguing, and the moral commentary of the nature and regulation of cloning rings a bit close to home with the current political climate. But it runs into the same problem that the other games had where the missions and overarching plot don’t feel connected, it feels like a series of unrelated missions that are intersected by a vaguely intriguing story. There are subtle foreshadowing moments that I really appreciate from diegetic NPC dialogue and columns in the end of mission newspaper, but those are only minor things, the overall series of events just feels disjointed. Even the prequel mission to Contracts feels shoehorned in, with it randomly being the third mission, and its fallout only being vaguely mentioned. The story is somewhat interesting at best, and completely missable at worst.
I think I mentioned in my Contracts review that the Hitman formula finally clicked with me, that I was finally beginning to understand the inner workings of this series. If that is the case, then Blood Money is the game that has made me fall in love with it. By simply giving the tools to the player, the developers at Io Interactive created an experience that encourages creativity, and really asks the player to think outside of the box. The linear nature of Codename 47 has been completely shed, and from its cocoon comes some of the best sandbox design ever seen. Not only do I think this is my favorite Hitman game, I think this might be one of my new favorite games of all time.
The big step that each game in this series has taken is the expansion of depth, and Blood Money dives even further into this by giving the player near total freedom on how to approach missions. I know I have said this with every game in this series, but it rings most true here. In the previous games, the player could be considered an invasive species; each level functions as its own little ecosystem that the player picks apart piece by piece, exploiting its natural systems and patterns. Blood Money’s approach to this is similar, but different in the fact the player is more of a terraformer, sculpting and curating each mission rather than dismantling it. The opening mission serves as a very direct, but efficient tutorial, introducing the player to a sample of the greater scope the game has, and sowing the seeds of creativity for the more complex missions. It takes time to demonstrate that player is in much more control than they were before; items like the coin show that reliance on AI pathfinding and preset routes isn't the only way to get the jump on enemies, and the use of more unique kill methods like from above strangulation and using a chandelier to kill a target make it clear to the player that there are now better, more interesting ways to take out hits than just using a bullet or sneaking up behind them. I particularly loved the remote bomb and used it quite frequently; dropping it in a place I new a target would be stopping at, going and completing an entirely different objective, and then detonating the bomb from halfway across the map, and subsequently making the death look like an accident, just never got old no matter how many times I did it. Additionally, the before mission loadout selection is a great feature, letting the player bring weapons into the mission that better suit their desired play style; I personally am a big sniper guy, so I would bring a rifle into almost every single mission and try to use it, creating so really funny and creative kills in the process. As well, I think the level design plays a big factor in facilitating this level of player freedom and control.
Blood Money’s set of levels are wholly unique unto themselves, and are not only some of the best in the series, but I think some of my favorites in gaming period. On a purely aesthetic perspective, each of the game's twelve-ish missions are fantastic. The game will have 47 traveling across the good old US of A, going from the grimy docks of Baltimore, to the hedonistic casinos of Las Vegas, and everywhere in between, except Texas sadly. This means that the player gets a good look at all the different environments and landscapes that the US has to offer, and serves as a nice breath of fresh air from the usual rainy streets of Hong Kong or snowy government buildings of Russia. From a mechanical perspective, this game's set of levels blow everything else this series has done out of the water. Blood Money adds a new feature that lets 47 volts over small ledges and climb up certain walls, this creates a level of verticality that the previous games just did not have, and lets the player get really creative with mapping out different routes. Sure, missions like “Traditions of the Trade” and “Basement Killing” took place in big, multilevel buildings, but that is not comparable to figuring out that you can bypass a security checkpoint in “Death of the Mississippi” by climbing up one of the support banisters, or doing a similar thing in “A Vintage Year” by shimmying up a drainage pipe to get the drop on the target without having to take out one of the guards. Elevators too have been recontextualized because of this. Every elevator now has a hatch that 47 can climb through, meaning that if the player studies a target's routes well enough, or lures them into an elevator, the player can execute the aforementioned above ground strangulation that not only kills the target, but also hides the body in the process. No spoilers, but I made a great use of this in the penultimate mission. This level of verticality and level complexity opens the door for some of the most absurd and fun ways to complete missions that I have ever seen. But, of course, the game is not without its faults, even if they are few and far between.
I really don’t think any of Blood Money’s missteps are detrimental to the overall experience, if anything they are just ideas that weren’t fully fleshed out. The new notoriety meter is interesting on paper; if the player is too reckless in a mission and is spotted doing suspicious things by NPCs or security cameras, then guards are more likely to take notice of and be more suspicious of the player in the following missions. In theory, this would make the player want to be more cautious with their playstyle, but the game has an option to just pay off witnesses with bribes at the end of each mission, effectively negating any meaning the notoriety meter had. Mind you, though, unless the player decides to go totally postal in a level, they will only gather a small amount of notoriety, even if they are a little bit reckless; I think I only gained a total of thirty points on the meter during my playtime, and that was easily paid off with what was practically pocket change in comparison to what the game gives you for completing a hit. It is neat that it's there, and it definitely had a small amount of influence on how I played, but overall it could be missing from the game and nothing would be lost. Similarly, the story is a feature that has very little presence. I will say that Blood Money is the most ambitious entry when it comes to its story. The premise of 47 being hunted down by a rival agency, and that same agency trying to bring down the ICA from the inside is really intriguing, and the moral commentary of the nature and regulation of cloning rings a bit close to home with the current political climate. But it runs into the same problem that the other games had where the missions and overarching plot don’t feel connected, it feels like a series of unrelated missions that are intersected by a vaguely intriguing story. There are subtle foreshadowing moments that I really appreciate from diegetic NPC dialogue and columns in the end of mission newspaper, but those are only minor things, the overall series of events just feels disjointed. Even the prequel mission to Contracts feels shoehorned in, with it randomly being the third mission, and its fallout only being vaguely mentioned. The story is somewhat interesting at best, and completely missable at worst.
I think I mentioned in my Contracts review that the Hitman formula finally clicked with me, that I was finally beginning to understand the inner workings of this series. If that is the case, then Blood Money is the game that has made me fall in love with it. By simply giving the tools to the player, the developers at Io Interactive created an experience that encourages creativity, and really asks the player to think outside of the box. The linear nature of Codename 47 has been completely shed, and from its cocoon comes some of the best sandbox design ever seen. Not only do I think this is my favorite Hitman game, I think this might be one of my new favorite games of all time.