| Hitman: Blood Money | 
 enlarge
| From: Eidos Interactive
Category: Video Games
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $9.85
You Save: $10.14 (51%)
New (18) Used (11) from $4.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 8664
Format: Cd-rom
Platform: Windows Xp
ESRB: Mature
Media: DVD-ROM
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.4 x 1.3
MPN: SHTBMPUSOO
Model: SSNOWPUS00
UPC: 788687100458
EAN: 8716051018100
ASIN: B0009V9OY8
Release Date: May 30, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new Item. CD, DVD, Book, VHS more than 400 000 titles to choose from. ALL days Low Price !
|
| Customer Reviews:
Regular Joe Review August 28, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have never played any of the other "Hitman" games, mainly because all I ever heard was that they were hard and clunky. I picked "Blood Money" up at risk and was very happy. First off, the graphics are top notch. Clean and smooth. The sound was awesome. You will notice that the music changes with gameplay, giving it an effect of panic at times. The soundtrack seperates this game from others. The storyline was told better than most movies. You will probably get frusterated because if you screw up even once during a mission, odds are your going to want to restart from the beginning. But there is nothing more satisfying than completing a hit undetected. Now I did beat the game fairly quickly. But out of all the games I own and have beaten, I find myself coming back to "Blood Money" the most. Replaying the missions, trying to find a better way to complete a job. Just waiting for "Hitman 5" because they did a great job with BM.
 Missing the necessary drivers August 21, 2006
1 out of 22 found this review helpful
How can I say if the game is any good or not? I can't play since the drivers to run directX 9.0c don't come with the CD and I'm not where I can download 'em. This stinks. I am a big Hitman fan, and this sort of cheesy runaround, expecially at a premium price, is way out of line.
47 at his best! August 4, 2006
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
I am a big fan of the Hitman games, with Hitman 2 being one of top-10 favorite games of all time. So when I claim that Blood Money is the best Hitman yet, that's a big statement for me. The developers have taken everything that was great in the previous games and made it better. The levels are bigger, the AI is (slightly) improved, replay value is greater, and the game looks beautiful. There is still room for improvement, but not much.
Gameplay: Like the previous 3 games, you are cast as an assassin working for an agency that provides contracts. This time, all of your missions (except 1) are set in America, where you'll have to get to the bottom of a plot to destroy the agency. Unlike the other games, you're paid for each hit, and you can use the money to upgrade weapons, buy other items (like bombs, protective vests, health boosts, etc.), and lower you notoriety level. The payment are very generous, and I ended up with $2.5 million at the end of the game, which seemed rather excessive. Also, there is really no need to spend money on upgrading most weapons, since an upgraded silverballer and a sniper rifle will do just fine for any mission. Regarding notoriety, this is a 0-100 meter that goes up if you are seen while doing a job. You can bribe witnesses to lower the rating. It's an interesting touch, especially since the notoriety rating affects how the newspaper will report your actions and appearance after each mission and how difficult the next mission will be.
This game is more about stealth than the previous ones, and it's a bit harder to earn the highest ratings. I played on expert difficulty (which I recommend for most people familiar with these kinds of games), and you can't just blast your way through most level (or you'll probably end up dead). Anyway, doing so would take a lot of the enjoyment out of the game. The game is at its best when tension sets in and you're wondering if your disguise is working, or whether anyone is going to find that dead body you hid, or whether you can make it to the exit without tipping off the guards. Thankfully, this game adds a lot of new gameplay elements to make things interesting. You can hide bodies in containers, hide in closets, climb and scale things, take hostages, push people off ledges, and more. And finally, Agent 47 has a melee attack which is pretty potent. Of course, all of the old moves are there, such as poisoning by syringe, strangulation by fiber wire, death by sniper rifle, etc. All of the levels are large, so you'll have to do some trial-and-error runs to get a sense of where things are as well as the possible angles that you can approach the target(s). And since there are usually a few to several different ways to kill targets, the game has some replay value.
Since I have a thing for blowing people up with remote-controlled C4, my best rating was "Professional." To get the highest rating (which I assume is "Silent Assassin"), expect to work on a mission for a 2-3 hours (at least on expert difficulty or higher). Altogether, there are 12 missions which will take 25-35 hours to complete, if you are playing them as intended (stealthy). Generally, the AI is convincing. However, as in the previous games, there will be a few occasions when guards seem to know things that they shouldn't, or seem to not notice things that they should.
Graphics: The visuals are great, especially the environments. Las Vegas looks phenomenal, as do the White House and suburbia levels. The game has a very refined, stylist quality about it. Character models are pretty good, but not vastly improved over the last two games and many are repeated. The game has many more animations, especially for Agent 47.
Sound: Everything works well in this department. Solid voice acting, nice ambiant sounds, and another solid soundtrack by Jesper Kyd. All of the weapons sound appropriate, but this is a game in which you want to be as quiet as possible!
Technical Issues/Stability: I played this game with the patch that came out right at the release date. I have had no problems: not a single crash, freeze, or hiccup. I was able to play smoothly at 1024x768 resolution with most settings on high (I have a P4 3.0ghz, 1 GB of RAM, Geforce 6600GT video card). The game is well polished. The manual is decent, and the first mission is a tutorial that will familiarize you with the gameplay.
Yes, this is indeed the best Hitman game yet (though Hitman 2 is still a sentimental favorite of mine). The game has a cliff-hanger ending, so I assume there will be a sequel. At least I hope so. If you like the Hitman games or stealth games in general, I highly recommend this one.
Overall Rating: 4.5 stars
 Right on the money! August 2, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have been an avid follower of the Hitman series since its original release, but never have I gotten into a game like Hitman: Blood Money. The head of The Franchise takes us back in time as he tells a young reporter the story of tracking down, and eventually killing Agent 47. He tells you this from the start. In between stories, we go back to certain dates in the recent past to play several missions. The missions are challenging but exciting, with numerous options for taking out your target. The artificial intelligent is exactly that - intelligent! New "hiding" options makes changing costumes much more easy, and upgrading weapons makes my favorite, the custom Silverballers, practically unstoppable.
Often times Hitmen of the past would slow down my computer, but this one barely affected it. And it still looked amazing!
Perfect July 17, 2006
Anybody that tells you they enjoyed Splinter Cell, but Hitman is linear has obviously never played either. Splinter Cell is the most linear boring video game ever created, however Hitman is perfect. Enjoy.
|
|
|
