The best part of playing Hitman: Blood Money is that it makes me feel smart. Stealth assassination games are hardly in short supply these days, but none provide the same satisfaction as Blood Money. Getting in, eliminating your target, and getting out without drawing attention is never easy, and when you pull it off you feel like you’ve emptied a casino’s coffers with a pair of twos.
I miss this era of gaming, when jank felt fun, and we laughed at it instead of posting screeds on reddit about “dogwater AI”. One of my favorite moments from my recent playthrough featured me injecting lethal poison into my target while his guards stood idly just inches away. Their sight lines were perfectly blocked, allowing me to do the deed and saunter away scot-free. When I type it out like this it sounds silly, but when you’re in the moment, assuming the role of Agent 47, it’s absolutely exhilarating – and perhaps just a little hilarious too.
In any case, Blood Money is never boring. Looking back, there are so many memorable missions. Christmas party at Playboy mansion? Check. FBI witness protection scene in Suburbia, USA? Check. Redneck mobster wedding? Check. Hit in New Orleans during the middle of Mardi Gras? Check. Some missions are better than others, of course, but they’re all bangers.
As a newcomer to the series, the story didn’t make a whole lot of sense. It felt like a meandering thread that barely connected the wildly varying missions. If you told me IO Interactive designed the missions first and made a story connecting them later, I would not be the least bit surprised. It’s for the best, though: I’ll take strong, filler-free gameplay over boring story-focused missions any day. Oh, and shoutout to the ending, which features probably the most gratifying credits scene in the history of video games.
Hitman: Blood Money is a surprisingly deep game. Most levels allow for multiple ways of achieving victory, and I’m sure speedrunners have had years of fun seeing how fast they can get in and out while achieving a Silent Assassin rating. It’s a game full of secrets and subtle variations. Never has getting away with murder been this much fun.
I miss this era of gaming, when jank felt fun, and we laughed at it instead of posting screeds on reddit about “dogwater AI”. One of my favorite moments from my recent playthrough featured me injecting lethal poison into my target while his guards stood idly just inches away. Their sight lines were perfectly blocked, allowing me to do the deed and saunter away scot-free. When I type it out like this it sounds silly, but when you’re in the moment, assuming the role of Agent 47, it’s absolutely exhilarating – and perhaps just a little hilarious too.
In any case, Blood Money is never boring. Looking back, there are so many memorable missions. Christmas party at Playboy mansion? Check. FBI witness protection scene in Suburbia, USA? Check. Redneck mobster wedding? Check. Hit in New Orleans during the middle of Mardi Gras? Check. Some missions are better than others, of course, but they’re all bangers.
As a newcomer to the series, the story didn’t make a whole lot of sense. It felt like a meandering thread that barely connected the wildly varying missions. If you told me IO Interactive designed the missions first and made a story connecting them later, I would not be the least bit surprised. It’s for the best, though: I’ll take strong, filler-free gameplay over boring story-focused missions any day. Oh, and shoutout to the ending, which features probably the most gratifying credits scene in the history of video games.
Hitman: Blood Money is a surprisingly deep game. Most levels allow for multiple ways of achieving victory, and I’m sure speedrunners have had years of fun seeing how fast they can get in and out while achieving a Silent Assassin rating. It’s a game full of secrets and subtle variations. Never has getting away with murder been this much fun.