the same old game, just different levels,& the storyline from the previous game is not resolved at all, disapointing
Firstly the storyline is decent, quite original, but in saying that it is totally new. That is to say the very misty storyline from Hitman contracts is not resolved at all, and as a loyal fan, i am left extremely disappointed. Why did i even bother to play the last game? Now the new storyline isnt without its flaws, a few missions are just you killing people because of a "client" which is totally unrelated to the main plot, just to make the game seem longer.
Now the missions can only be completed in a very limited amount of ways. There is only one stealthy approach to most levels, very disappointing considering the last two games had 2-3 stealthy ways to complete a level for all levels. furthermore, many of the stealthy approaches were either impossibly hard to execute, or incredibly long, and so it was by far easier to just pull out the guns and shoot the way through the mission. which happened many times.
Adding onto this point is a very very bad set of features introduced into this new hitman game. you begin with only a few very basic weapons, a small machine gun, a larger machine gun, a sniper and the classic hitman ballers. but you also have money, which you can use to customise your guns. now while this may sound interesting, which it is if a gaming company can do it right, the feature in hitman is done very poorly. for example, by the end of the game the ballers, which are meant to be two pistols, are so customized that they are far stronger than any machine gun. They have silencers, super bullets which are more quiet and do more damage, elongated clips (which just looks stupid) and believe it or not lazer scopes!!! its ridiculous for a pistol to have lazer scopes, but you can do it. and so you have now turned a simple dual pistols into weapons of mass destruction. now with these super guns it is extremely easy to shoot down any person that stands in your way in any level.
another very poor idea was this notoriety concept. at the end of every mission you get a new notoriety rating depending on how well you completed the mission. but after each level you can just simply bribe the police chief, (which is about one fifth of the money you earn for completing the mission so it isnt that expensive) and bam, your notoriety rating goes down to zero.
i would also like to point out that you can finish every level using guns. The very last level has a crazy amount of security but still using guns is not that hard, especially when you have customized them so much. This ability to shoot your way through any part of the game leaves you feeling very unsatisfied as your not really a 'hitman' but more of a 'if i see your your dead'. this is all the more disappointing because in previous games you needed to use your fibre wire and drugs to complete missions as using guns was impossible.
There is also a little newspaper at the end of every level which explains how well you did. like it gives you stats "the hitman killed 23 people, 17 of which were guards. a civilian was also found in a garbage bin but it is unknown whether or not the murder is related". but after 3 or 4 levels the newspaper just repeats itself over and over. and the title is always the same "Joe Smo is killed. Police suspect blood money is involved" every time, no joke. well it is a joke by the end, you would think they could come up with a few more headlines.
a ray of sunshine is that there are some interesting levels. there is one in suburbia, not the usual casino/hotel type levels that you are used to and also one is in the whitehouse. but i must say security in the whitehouse is dangerously low.
so thats it. Quite a poor game for veterans of the hitman series. very easy to complete, and it doesnt take that long either. the customisation feature is poorly done and the stealthiness of the series is lacking. however there is a decent plot and some interesting levels but it doesnt do enough to compensate for the mistakes in the other areas of the game. And finally most people know that there are drugs which can make a person appear dead but when given an antidote they are back to normal and so the ending of the game was far to obvious and clearly sets up a sequel. however after this poor viewing i am seriously doubting whether or not it is at all worth purchasing