The best in series? quite possibly. The most brutal? definately...

User Rating: 8.9 | Hitman: Blood Money PS2
Not many games have made me cringe with desgust, but even fewer have made me ENJOY what i am cringing about.
The amazing attention to every single detail in the game, pedestrians react realistically if you suddenly pull a gun and blast away, gaurds rush to your position, alarms ring and you're basically dead within the minute. The A.I in hitman has to be one of its best attributes, you could almost feel sorry as you snap the persons neck, and look down at his broken corpse almost as if you are thinking, "i'm sorry but you were in my way, try to understand.." then a few seconds later, you're doing it again...and again, AND AGAIN until the game is nothing more than a mass murder sim. Which is not really such a bad thing since the rag-doll physics, realistic blood splatter, brutal stealth kills and the genious "accident" kills i,n which you walk away scott-free, are all implemented brilliantly.
One of the games more disappointing points is that sometimes the A.I can be too unforgiving...which almost definately results in people dying, usually you. For example: when you walk into a gaurded area wearing the wrong uniform, you expect the gaurd to come over warn you about your attire and make you leave...NOT blast away at you with a shot-gun and call all his friends who subsequently follow his actions. Aggrivating, but that just makes killing them that much more interesting.
there are a few bad things about hitman, and when yone of the games main selling points is it's sickening attention to realistically murdering people...you KNOW its a good game.