July 2013, afternoon. My mind rotates around the suburban level. I’ve been planning out different roads and pathways, organizing guard movements in my mind. I know that the clown goes to drink in his car, just out of sight from the FBI guards. What I don’t know, because I’ve been playing with the sound almost entirely off, is that the target’s wife will follow the clown costume to a secluded area, giving me time to steal her necklace, the level’s secondary objective. Not fully
understanding that the target’s son’s birthday party is scheduled for later in the day, I wonder where the birthday party is hidden on the map. The world seems small, contained, but also vast in potential.
I finish up a series of summer activities Mom assigned for my brother and I. Little lesson books to ensure we’re keeping up with our studies. When I return to the basement, my mom is holding up the case for the HD collection of Hitman.
“What’s this?”
I came up with a lot of explanations for how a gun game could be in the house. I try to explain that its not really a gun game, its more about puzzles, and I’ve never even touched the gun. She just points to the cover, with 47’s two giant silverballers hovering beneath the title HITMAN.
Its hard not to feel some sort of vindication returning to this game. First person shooting has never been my forte. I will confess that in the exciting finale of the game, I relied upon godmode to try and survive against the onslaught of enemies. But luckily, as I pathetically defended as a young teen, the game’s central focus means guns are never a requirement. All the various puzzles and widespread maps provide an incredible freedom of direction for players. All the complex AI and how they work with each other is the game’s primary thrill. Watch it all collapse into a spectacle that you won’t soon forget. Combined with some of the most brilliant level design of video games, from suburban levels to Mardi Gras parties to Louisiana weddings, the game’s stylistic charm sucks you in so deeply into a delightful exploratory world.
The polish exposes some broader Hitman issues. Hitman is a video game ass video game: story shouldn’t really be its focus. The characters aren’t exactly expected to be complex. That’s fine, great even. But for its simplified story to work, its got a lot of stereotypes to fall back on. The Louisana Southerners is one thing. The Not Great depictions of race, carried over from previous games, is pretty rough.
Ol’ 47’s kind of a dick too. While 2 and Contracts touched on 47’s gentler side, Blood Money leans into 47 as kind of a thug. That’s a fine characterization to make, I don’t mind 47’s only interest being cash. But he’s a professional. He’s not going to kill random civilians unless they saw something they shouldn’t. Killing a mailman for shock value or calling Diana a bitch sort of flies in the face of who 47 is to me.
These moments are easy to brush aside when the game overwhelmingly kicks ass. The Opera, the Suburb, the Clubs, the Wedding… each level is so deliciously iconic and layered in so many fascinating ways. Contracts may remain my favorite for Vibes, but Blood Money is unmistakably their 00s magnum opus.
understanding that the target’s son’s birthday party is scheduled for later in the day, I wonder where the birthday party is hidden on the map. The world seems small, contained, but also vast in potential.
I finish up a series of summer activities Mom assigned for my brother and I. Little lesson books to ensure we’re keeping up with our studies. When I return to the basement, my mom is holding up the case for the HD collection of Hitman.
“What’s this?”
I came up with a lot of explanations for how a gun game could be in the house. I try to explain that its not really a gun game, its more about puzzles, and I’ve never even touched the gun. She just points to the cover, with 47’s two giant silverballers hovering beneath the title HITMAN.
Its hard not to feel some sort of vindication returning to this game. First person shooting has never been my forte. I will confess that in the exciting finale of the game, I relied upon godmode to try and survive against the onslaught of enemies. But luckily, as I pathetically defended as a young teen, the game’s central focus means guns are never a requirement. All the various puzzles and widespread maps provide an incredible freedom of direction for players. All the complex AI and how they work with each other is the game’s primary thrill. Watch it all collapse into a spectacle that you won’t soon forget. Combined with some of the most brilliant level design of video games, from suburban levels to Mardi Gras parties to Louisiana weddings, the game’s stylistic charm sucks you in so deeply into a delightful exploratory world.
The polish exposes some broader Hitman issues. Hitman is a video game ass video game: story shouldn’t really be its focus. The characters aren’t exactly expected to be complex. That’s fine, great even. But for its simplified story to work, its got a lot of stereotypes to fall back on. The Louisana Southerners is one thing. The Not Great depictions of race, carried over from previous games, is pretty rough.
Ol’ 47’s kind of a dick too. While 2 and Contracts touched on 47’s gentler side, Blood Money leans into 47 as kind of a thug. That’s a fine characterization to make, I don’t mind 47’s only interest being cash. But he’s a professional. He’s not going to kill random civilians unless they saw something they shouldn’t. Killing a mailman for shock value or calling Diana a bitch sort of flies in the face of who 47 is to me.
These moments are easy to brush aside when the game overwhelmingly kicks ass. The Opera, the Suburb, the Clubs, the Wedding… each level is so deliciously iconic and layered in so many fascinating ways. Contracts may remain my favorite for Vibes, but Blood Money is unmistakably their 00s magnum opus.