I'm a fan of the Hitman series. Not a massive fan - I still haven't gotten around to the latest trilogy yet - but a fan nonetheless. Thanks to the success of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin on the PlayStation 2, I was introduced to the series, but didn't venture out to play them all, with Hitman: Blood Money being one that I didn't bother playing.
A mate did. He said it was good. That's about all I know of the game, beyond the obvious 'murder people and get away with it' deal that Agent 47 has going on...
I imagine this to be a great improvement on the formula, perhaps easier to control for console players. Not as brutally strict with its enemy AI as previous instalments have felt. Eh, enough speculating, more discovering.
Frustrations
My first attempt at playing Blood Money was through emulation of the PS2 version. It runs, though it's a little slow, and the shadows are either fuzzy and black or, more likely, fuzzy and red. Sometimes, if the camera is angled right, they're fuzzy and bright green instead.
Needless to say, I can't play it like this. After a browse through the Steam library, I learn that after all that faffing around, I had the PC version, but there were some complaints from players that the controller support wasn't up to par, so I had a look through the Internet to find some solutions, downloaded some mods, tweaked some .ini files, and dove right in.
Wait, what? PlayStation 2 memory card? I am in Steam, right? This is a PC game, is it not? What's going on here?
Heading into the menus to have a look at the settings resulted in a crash, so I never found out. Note to self, don't tweak the menus. I'd like to see what graphics settings we can play around with, but that's just not happening, not to mention the more important list of controls. Oh well. Restart, and straight into a new game we go, hoping for the best.
After a short cutscene, I dared to see if there were any subtitle options in the pause menu, but this too resulted in crashing the game. It appears I cannot change, nor even look at anything on the menu that isn't "get back to the damn game already". Third time lucky?
At this stage of the tutorial mission - really early on, I'll have you know - you need to chuck a coin out of the window to distract the guards. I could only ever drop the coin to my feet, thus rendering my distraction utterly useless. I can't look in the menus for the controls, because that'll crash the game. I am, essentially, shit out of luck here.
To complete the misery, there isn't even a Quit Game option on the main menu, meaning I have to go into the settings and crash to get out here.
It's not looking too good for Blood Money, I must say. But I can't leave it like this. Let's strip back everything. Get rid of the controller support, don't worry about the configuration tweaks unless they're necessary, let's go into this game like the PC gamer we should be.
Fun Times
After actually being able to navigate the menus and, bizarrely, change the screen resolution in ways that the rest of the Internet said I'd need a custom patch for, Blood Money was playing fine. I'm not touching the controller, though. That's pushing my luck too far.
So what's the story? A cutscene of a big wheel exploding, killing 36 people at the fair, transitions into newspaper clippings and audio reports of the disaster and its aftermath. It goes on for a while. Too long, really. We get the point: fair not safe, fair owner probably a bit of a dick.
We're in the home of the parents of one of the victims, the father clearly still deeply affected by the tragedy. His wife reminding him that nothing will bring their son back is all he needs to make his decision. He's about to place an order for a hitman.
This tutorial mission is that very hit on the fairground owner and will take us through all the tricks that 47 has at his disposal. Now that I can actually see what's going on without bright green shadows, Blood Money appears to look pretty decent, bar the piss-yellow filter on top of everything.
The cutscenes could do with a little work, though. I suppose, in their defence, the developers weren't building this with an idiot in 2020 playing it at higher resolutions in mind. But what was with the whole PS2 memory card thing? Was that a side effect of the controller mod? I've no idea.
Finally able to aim and throw a coin, we can make some progress though Bloody Money. The controls are fairly typical for a third-person game, and the HUD lists the actions you can perform with a press of 'E', 'G' or the spacebar.
Is it a little weird that they bear no relation on-screen to where they're placed on the keyboard? That the spacebar action isn't listed at the bottom, the 'G' in the middle and the 'E' up top? Just me? I'll be looking at this HUD a lot. One button picks up objects, another drops them (I think), another uses them (is that right?), one is your interact button (I hope)... these, beyond your WASD, are important keys, is what I'm saying.
Also important are Shift and Control for sprint and sneak, respectively. They're not toggles, or maybe I was too scared to check in-game whether they were toggles or not, so my pinky finger got its workout for the first time in a while, as I snuck up on my first target, fibre wire in hand.
A press and hold of the left mouse button holds it taught, a timely release takes out your target.
Look at that: No witnesses. I'm good.
All the familiar Hitman stuff is in here, from blasting through rooms with a shotgun to hiding bodies in crates, and yourself in wardrobes, and, of course, donning a disguise to waltz around the map without fear.
I'm a little awkward and slow, my gameplay a little stop/start as I pause to look at the next objective, then to the HUD to see which button does the thing I need to do, then over to the object in question. It's a leisurely tutorial, though. I'm allowed to look a little wonky here.
While we sneak a handgun in a basket of, like, 3 bags of flour, a cutscene of our target starts to roll. He's on the phone, desperate for money and seemingly not having a good time of getting any. Does he live in this ruined fairground? Are we meant to sympathise with him?
Our mission is to make sure a photograph of one of the deceased is the last thing he sees, and 47 isn't the kind of man to care about what people are feeling at any point. I guess we'll just have to see where this mission takes us.
Further Frustrations
As the level went on, I was made more and more aware of how much I would need to get used to these controls if I were to succeed to any degree. Surely the AI wouldn't be this oblivious in later stages.
We're introduced to a sniper rifle in a suitcase and are tasked with dispatching three guards outside. I easily find two of them, and then find myself completely blind to the third and final guard. The map is incredibly helpful, in terms of updating locations in realtime, but it took me a while to notice that it has an indoor and outdoor map, with guards outside not shown on the indoor map, and visa-versa.
This is where the tutorial got very wonky. I was supposed to push this guard out of the window, sending him tumbling to the floor below. Instead, I bumbled into him, alerted him, had to kill him with a bullet to the head, and then I was a tad stuck.
The objectives wanted me to push him off. I could drag his body over to the window and throw him out, but that technically wasn't pushing him, so the objectives never progressed. I was doing the rest of the tutorial blind until something new triggered.
Luckily, behind door number two, was my target.
Don't worry, you weren't missing anything amazing. I just shot him in the head. As Hitman kills go, it was rubbish, but I did what I needed to do, or got the job done at the very least. If you were hoping for an environmental kill or an accident, sit tight, as the tutorial is eager to show you that that is, of course, possible too.
With a bomb and a winch, we can drop a lighting rig on top of some unaware targets.
Naturally, I miss one of them and have to gun him down on the stairs. But we're done. That's the tutorial. We can hit the exit and read about how well - or poorly - we did in the local newspapers tomorrow.
No, really. The number of bullets fired, bodies found, type of weapon I used, it's all here, detailing my exploits to anyone who wants to read them. Like this guy. Not sure who he is, though. I'm sure we'll find out why he's taken an interest in us soon enough.
A cutscene that definitely shows its age nowadays gives us a hint as to what Blood Money is all about. This mysterious man has information on a story that will rock your socks off. It's a story concerning cloned assassins responsible for a number of hits across the years, and around the world. Hits like the one that took place in Chile a while ago. Whatever could that mean?
Further Fun Times
It's us! Of course, it's us. Who else would it be? Here we are in Chile, with two targets to take care of. One of them is important, the other is so that it looks like a drug-related hit, rather than an assassination contract. I wouldn't have thought of that on my own, so it's a damn good job that Agent 47 has a handler like Diana on his side.
I do look a little out of place in this suit, though, so I should get moving and put all my skills to use. There are some areas of interest along the wall of this place, routes we can take to get inside.
Oops, these guys don't like me being here. I don't speak the local lingo, though, so I don't know how concerned with me they are. I better just walk out of here - it'd look incredibly weird if I vaulted back over the wall.
Yeah, no, I get it, I'm heading out of here. Don't worry. How about I go inside? Is that better?
No, that is very much not better. Not better at all.
Final Word
After all the fun I had trying to play Blood Money in the first place, and then the pace at which I fumbled through the tutorial, I know as much as I need to know about Blood Money with regards to me: It's a little more than I can muster right about now.
Hitman games are all about the puzzles, finding the many ways you can kill your target with minimal resistance - indeed, ideally no resistance. Blood Money allows you to tackle objectives however you please, including going in guns blazing, although it's probably better to come out guns blazing. Either way, it is now a viable tactic.
But to be successful at it, you need a handle on the controls. If you're tasked with quick reactions but you don't know the difference between the 'E' and 'G' keys in the heat of the moment, you're not going to have a good time, and that's me right now.
I've seen lots of Blood Money, somewhere, long ago, and wouldn't mind seeing more of it. Compared to Silent Assassin, it's almost a night and day difference. Blood Money looks to be an excellent game in the series, building smartly upon what came before it, fixing what needed to be fixed.
If and when I get competent at playing it, I'd like to say much more about it. The Hitman series has always been a funny one for controls - to me, at least - but the whole concept of the games appeal to me nonetheless. If I want to get the most out of a Hitman game, I've got to put the time in to get comfortable with those controls. Do I do that for an old game like Blood Money, or for the newer trilogy?
Blood Money is definitely worth a play for its improvements over Silent Assassin. I've forgotten all of the story, so however I get around to tackling it, it'll feel like new again. Such is the joy of taking fifteen years to get around to something again, I guess.
Fun Facts
The advertising campaign was more controversial than the game itself, though I can't see why - unless people thought they gave ideas to those looking for a way to kill someone?
Hitman: Blood Money, developed by IO Interactive, first released in 2006.
Version played: PlayStation 2, 2006, via emulation.
PC, 2006.