As I've already stated this is my first Hitman game so i can't say whether or not the series has vastly improved but what i can say is this is the first time a 4th edition to a series of a game has made me want to go back and play the other 3 games that were made before this one. Reasons are simple- the fact that I have a choice in being a silent hitman or a lunatic hitman. The guns in the game are something else that is a pro. You can upgrade every single one of them thanks to that hard earned blood money and I'm not talking about little upgrades. Choices in ammo are a huge thing to me. I have the option of going with a silent bullet that causes less recoil or going with a louder bullet that's recoil is heavier but gives me the addition of going through walls. Now theres something in the thought of that, that just makes the lunatic madman part of my mind cry with glee. But the options don't stop there. You can even choose to change the butt of your guns to give them more precision or upgrade your health via pain pills. This is something a lot of games have started to do is give you as a gamer more options and choices to make.

So why am i falling in love with Blood Money's choices so easily? No reason other than the amount of difference it makes in the overall gameplay your choices in upgrades cause. Then you have the difficulties settings of which you will want to be very cautious in which one you choose. To test the jump in difficulty i started on Normal instead of the ass Pansy rookie which will let you get away with anything just about. Normal only allows you seven saves and the AI is fully functional, but if you got the balls or think your good enough try it on professional which allows no saves and has an AI that will kill you instantly for one minor mistake. Huge leap in the difficulty of the game which is not a bad thing in the least as it makes your style of play change. For example in Normal I can make my Notoriety level hit madman and still survive, but in Professional you need to be a silent assassin which gives you something to work towards if your not easily frustrated by having to redo missions or are completely anal about wanting to finish a game on the hardest difficulty setting.

While Blood Money's choices and gameplay are the good things, there are the bad things. For one this is a game on the 360 which is supposed to be the Next Gen gaming console. So can someone please explain to me why in the hell the graphics look like nothing more than an Xbox game that had a fresh coat of gloss added to it for HD? I mean c'mon Io Interactive give me some more bloody details and make the difference in what console you play the game on matter. If you don't want to do it in gameplay or story wise then at least do it in graphic content. If i wanted to play an Xbox game on my 360 id buy an Xbox game which is cheaper. I don't want to spend $10 more on a game that is exactly the same on the 360 as it is on the Xbox and PS2 minus the PS2's weaker graphics. Then you have other issues in the game which are the trial and error method of figuring out the quietest way to get through the mission. Why, if i do it silently, must it take me 5-15 minutes longer than if i just said ok theres my target I'm going to go do my job? The cut scenes of seeing what your target is doing are small subtle hints at how you can do it stealthy but the ever so long wait of having to get it in perfect timing is a little bit over done. I don't mind having to wait to for the pieces to align to do something quietly but i don't want to be stuck in position staring at my screen for 4 minutes on my 6th try of going through a mission watching the same scene i watched the last 5 times waiting for the timing to be just right as i have some opera music playing. No offense Io, but Opera music is not for me and you forcing me to sit through it that many times all because i didn't detonate at the EXACT second is a little frustrating to the point of a headache. Another thing that this game lacks in my honest opinion is a good musical score. Now I know I can listen to whatever music i want to as i play through the 360 but for single player campaigns i think the actual music score should set a tone. Halo and Halo 2 on the Xbox would be good examples of this. Those musical scores were nicely composed and added to the game, where as Hitman's musical score effects the game like the coaster of an album i mentioned earlier effected hip hop. I'm sorry Io but stealing the Splinter Cell stealthy musical scores doesn't work in a game that allows you to go crazy like a maniac. Continued on page 3 »