Purchase a sniper rifle if you fancy some remote assassination, or pick a piano wire garrote if you plan to deal silent death on your unsuspecting targets. This limits your choice, and equipment must be carefully picked as your selection will strongly influence how you complete your task. You are given a shopping list of starting equipment, with the costs deducted from your account and cutting into your profit for the mission. You can wander around and take in the setting at your own pace, but events happen in real time, so your actions often need to be carefully considered and planned to successfully complete the mission.
The missions themselves are cunningly structured, with the tasks you are set mostly concluding with you taking out some big boss type character. This extra information is well worth your time, as often there are useful pointers on finding the best way to complete the mission at hand. As well as the objective itself, additional information can be squeezed out of the briefing, often including a neat little game-rendered video of the target under surveillance going about their sinister business. Missions are offered in sequence using the Hitman's grim looking laptop computer.
Once free of the hospital starting location you begin your work as a full time Hitman for a mysterious organization known only as 'The Agency'. This enforced tutorial isn't a waste of time, it effectively introduces you to concepts that are essential for progress through the game.
You grab your clothes, a swish black suit, and are forced though a quick series of training rooms, teaching you essentials such as effective garroting techniques and a stack of firearms target practice. The door is unlocked and your shackles are open it's definitely time to get moving. Oddly your new career doesn't begin at the Léon school of covert assassinations instead you awaken to a rather camp voice in your head, in a small cell wearing a surgical gown.
So here comes the Eidos solution for the average Joe "Hitman : Codename 47", a virtual hitman simulator that allows the rest of us to play out the role of a hired killer without the unfortunate legal and social side effects. The hours are bad, the equipment is expensive, and the blood is a right pain to wash out of your whites.
The role of a professional hired killer isn't a career option open to most of us.
Luckily, Hitman features comprehensive training sessions to help prepare the character for his gruesome missions. This advanced equipment must be used thoughtfully as well, however, if it is going to be worth the time and expense. As missions are accomplished successfully, a larger arsenal of black-market weapons and equipment becomes available to the player. The enhanced AI demonstrated by intended victims and other non-player characters is meant to keep the Hitman on his toes and always thinking a few steps ahead. In a story intended for mature audiences, the protagonist considers the dilemmas inherent to his profession as he makes his way through the dark story and comes to understand more about himself.Īlthough there is a time and a place to fire the shot and take out the target, much of the gameplay is devoted to surveillance, problem solving, and careful planning for multiple contingencies. Players take the role of an expert assassin who carries the burden of a complicated and disturbing past. The game features custom first and third-person views on the action, making it easier for the player to see and account for everything in the character's way as he attempts to complete his mission.
In the tradition of stealth- and strategy-dependant first-person shooters like the Thief games and Deus Ex comes Hitman: Codename 47.