The most polished Hitman game to date.
There is an overarching story to tie things together, but like Contracts it's not terribly important and really just serves to give reason to all of 47's past hits. It follows a reporter talking to the former director of the FBI, discussing 47. Like Contracts this results in various flashbacks where you act out various assassinations. In the End IO proves it can craft killer endings.
First to get things out of the way, the camera has been redesigned. Turning the mouse turns your camera rather than your character. Once you start moving the muse controls the game like normal shooter. This small change works wonders as it's much easier to spiral off shots in any direction, plus you can face away from your target to draw a weapon, hiding the movement from your enemy. If nothing else it also let's you check out 47 in whatever uniform he's wearing.
The mission design is as good as ever. These missions have as many ways to kill targets as before including poison, firearms, knifes (which can now be thrown, a satisfying feat of skill). In addition Blood Money adds "accidents". Falling down the stairs, gas stoves exploding, stage lights falling, these accidents occur in real life an you can incorporate them into your hits. One of my favorites is switching the fake ww2 pistol for a real one in Tosca's firing squad scene, probably one of the best kills in any Hitman game. Overall it's much more satisfying and all the missions have extremely high re-playability. Unlike before there is not even one set path to Silent Assassin; it can be obtained through a myriad of ways assuming you only kill your target, or any body else in an accident.
You now earn money for your hits which can be spent on a ton of upgrades for your base weapons, silverballers, mp5, m4, spas 12, and the W2000 sniper rifle. You also have other upgrades like Kevlar and painkillers. As you upgrade your weapons they become more effective and also more accurate. Of course you can reduce accuracy for a much better CQC weapon if that's what you prefer. Silencers can fit on all of them, and you can even pad your gun case so weapons can't be detected by sensors.
Besides your base weapons there are still tons of other weapons that you can find, and there are plenty of improvised ones. Nail Guns are my favorite being particularly devastating point blank, and rather painful looking. Another nasty improvised weapon is a hammer; you'll cringe every time you see it in action. You can now poison practically anything. Donuts, drinks, steaks. If you knocked someone out already, you could poison them and kill them.
There's a rather cool feature that doesn't quite meet it's potential; post mission newspapers. These newspapers will detail your hit down to bullet casings found on the scene, people killed, witnesses, etc. While at first it's entertaining, eventually inconsistencies start to show. Investigators always know exactly what weapon you used. Fired your highly customized silverballer with laser sight? The newspaper says that despite the fact that they would only know that a .45 round was used. Another inconsistency is even if you take out your target in an "accident" the news still knows that it's a assassination. Yes it was a murder! Proof? Uh...no we don't have any proof.
There's another new feature that isn't handled well and that's notoriety. Notoriety is basically infamy (that's what it means) that you gain if there were witnesses, or you got caught on camera. In between missions you can spend money bribing people to lower it. The problem is it's not drastic enough, and you'll only fill it up if you Rambo each mission. Bribes are also far too cheap. It costs 100,000 dollars to buy a new identity, but you make over 550,000 dollars a hit.
The AI is the best in the series, which isn't saying much. While they still move around, and scrutinize you if you get too close, they are still poor in most matters overall. In combat they run at you in a straight line, bunch up in doorways, and don't even use cover. If you wanted you could pack your Sniper rifle and eliminate all the security rather easily as they run towards you firing pistols. Other exploits include choking 20+ people as they use the elevator. They still can't draw logical conclusions and standing over a dead body of a target won't sound an alarm assuming your weapon is put away and you have the proper disguise. Still overall it's much better, and they aren't as omnipotent as they used to be.
The graphics are quite nice. The game uses the Unreal 2.5 engine and while it's not the greatest looking game, overall it's quite pleasing. Environments are grand, and some beautiful backdrops create a panoramic feel. Animation is also strong, and 47 looks a lot better no matter what he's doing. Weaknesses include some poor textures and repeat character models.
As expected Jesper Kyd and those Hungarians did a great job with the music. Kyd mixed acoustic orchestra with his more traditional electronic style and the results are impressive. You also have a deep, Latin choral which adds a Gothic flair to the tracks. The cues for all this music are much better as well and it kicks in at just the right moments to get your emotions flowing.
Blood Money is probably the best Hitman game, but Contracts is still my favorite. The "accidents", upgrades, and level design are fantastic. Some half baked features like the Notoriety system and the newspapers are disappointing, but by no means do they drag the game down. If your a fan of stealth or action then Blood Money is the best looking and most polished of the series.