Comments on: Retro: Hitman Blood Money

By: Carra

Carra — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:00:17 +0000

I finished the game for the second time a week ago. The first time around I finished some missions by just shooting everyone with my double pistols. Now, I used a bit more finesse.

One of the most fun things I did was to just dress as the actor in the opera. Waited a bit on stage with my gun out and shot him when the music was right. I could just walk away after that, fun!

By: TeeJay

TeeJay — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:32:26 +0000

I’ve just finished my first play-through of Blood Money – really worthwhile! I forgot that you could grab people and walk them around so did the whole game without doing so. I typically reloaded when my cover got blown rather than start shooting which meant trying lots of different paths and ideas before gradually refining them to the point of being able to get in and out with minimal violence and maximum stealth. The only time it ended in a bloobath was on the Mississippi steam-boat.

This game has some funny/cool dance animations: the bellydancer at the Las Vegas hotel, the square dancing at the wedding, the lap-dancing at the mountain retreat and the disco at the heaven/hell party.

I wish more fps/shooters used more of this kind of ‘puzzle logic’, disguises and stealth in their levels so that your brain got as much of a work out as your reflexs – Blood Money is such a contrast to the all-to-obvious ‘you’ve got to burn the rope’ type levers that pass for ‘puzzles’ in many games.

By: remaguire

remaguire — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:29:38 +0000

For me, the moment I fell in love with Blood Money was when I realized exactly how much detail the design team had lavished it with. Not just the targets and guards have personalities and routines defined, and it makes for an incredibly immersive experience. The drunken Santa, the guest in Heaven and Hell who gets sick (allowing you to get an easy costume), the actor that Jonathan (above) mentioned, a pedophile Federal Marshal (and realizing the way the game intended you to deal with him was priceless)… I could add dozens of examples of B- and C- level characters with more depth than some A- levels in other games, but you get the point. People talk about Deus Ex as if it’s some sort of digital crack, but – and here I risk branding myself a heretic – I enjoyed Hitman far more.

By: PROMISEEKEH

PROMISEEKEH — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:29:42 +0000

PLS

By: Psychopomp

Psychopomp — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 10:58:50 +0000

Well, I *had* a large wall of text consisting of ramblings about how amazing Hitman, namely Blood Money, is.

BUT, AS USUAL, you all beat me to everything I had to say.
>:P

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:02:20 +0000

I think this is probably the finest cinematic game I’ve ever played. One moment in particular always stands out and it’s in the famous Opera level. It’s when you realize how you can switch the guns. You wait for both the star and guard to leave and go into the dressing room. You do so only to find there’s no gun. But there are footsteps which stop. The guard with the weak bladder has taken his place again trapping you as surely as if he’d cuffed you. Then a new set of footsteps start and you realise you really are screwed. Good job he has a big old wardrobe to hide in isn’t it? Heart pounding you watch in amazement through the tiny crack in the wardrobe as the star points a gun at you. The hand recoils with an exaggerated gun shot and he turns and does it in the mirror and again to the other side. The whole sequence is so voyeuristic and so damn funny it has stuck with me for years.

My other memory is the colour pallet, beautiful but eerie, realistic but completely fantastic.

Sod Metal Gear Solid. Hitman is what movie obsessed game designers should aspire for. Movies you write by playing.

By: BKG

BKG — Sat, 17 May 2008 14:42:31 +0000

I can’t believe I missed this article a few weeks back, I’ve been on a Hitman stint myself after largely dismissing the series and stumbling into a cheap copy of Blood Money after someone over at Eurogamer was talking about it.

I really enjoyed Blood Money for the exact reason you mention – every level was like a self contained puzzle that would allow you to just wade around being unsubtle and violent but at the same time teased you with visions of doing things The Right Way enough to come back time and time again.

Some levels were damp squibs, the Murder on the Mississippi I found a bit laborious, but little details I missed a few times, mostly from never reading manuals, like being able to chuck briefcases over fences to plant weapons for yourself or lobbing a meat cleaver at a fleeing porter before he can raise the alarm – great improvisational gaming, and the snap decision making it encouraged often startled my girlfriend if she was watching me play; I’d just suddenly draw the pistol and murder someone in a moment of inspiration.

When it was done I went over my favourite levels and eventually the whole thing, never quite ready to let it just pass unto the DVD shelf – it’s a series that I’d love to see taken into the realms of episodic gaming, with a few murders released on a regular basis to puzzle your way through.

Fantastic game, good article and huzzah for the Revist An Old Story panel – I’m off to play it now :)

By: Sapper Gopher

Sapper Gopher — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:16:54 +0000

Another great artificial challenge with the second and third games is to collect all the firearms in one play through. This means you have to get silent assassin every time and carry non-concealable rifles out of certain levels. You have to do some tricky stuff to pull this off. For example, in the embassy level in Hitman 2, you have to take a rifle to a second floor balcony, drop it just right so it falls into the snow below, then pick it up on your way out after you’ve passed the guards. I should write an FAQ detailing what to do in each level.

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:59:03 +0000

For the record, Gametap has all of the Hitman games, including Blood Money, and Steam has all of them except (I have no idea why) Contracts.

By: Cruz

Cruz — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:59:07 +0000

This article has prompted to put my copy of the Hitman Trilogy on hold on Goozex. I stopped playing it because I lacked the brains to beat the 2nd level in Blood Money. I’ll give it another shot so I can be cool like the rest of yeh.

By: Pirate0r

Pirate0r — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:27:58 +0000

What i loved about blood money the most was the introduction of “accidents” and the ability to push people.
Incapacitating your target (or just pointing a gun at their head) finding the nearest ledge and throwing them over the side. Best part was that the AI just assumed that the person had lost their will to live, then proceeded to bag and tag them.

By: UncleLou

UncleLou — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:58:04 +0000

I had a love and hate relationship with Hitman till Blood Money – half of the levels of the older games just didn’t work properly, and relied too much on an obscure solution, or had too generic “military” levels. Blood Money, however, was almost perfect.

It probably has the most brilliant level/puzzle design of any game ever. The Opera level alone and it’s at least half a dozen clever and different ways to solve it was worth the price of the game.