The concept is nailed, unfortunately the gameplay isn't. There are much better games out there
Essentially you play as a bald, striking individual known only as 47, and it seems that you are some sort of clone…or something…The story presents itself through the eyes of a journalist looking for answers about 47. It dances around the interesting point of cloning, but never does anything with it. The cutscenes serving only as vague introductions to the meat of the game, the missions, were these not included I would not have felt any different, seeing as it's hard to care about any character. Even 47 himself just seems to be a total tool, and some not great voice acting doesn't do him any favors.
The game is categorized as a 3rd person shooter, but if you do the missions the way they are set out, it starts to creep into that random mushy genre more commonly described as 'action adventure.' You start off in each mission standing around, looking spectacularly out of place in your business suit, and then you have to kill targets slowly and methodically without being detected. Fine in theory.
Of course, this all falls apart when you begin to see the game for what it is. The main problem here is the ratings, you are awarded a rating based on how well you make the hit. Factors taken into account are methods of murder, civilian casualties, collateral damage and evidence. So while you CAN pop the guy in the head, the game would give you bonus brownie points for taking him out quietly. The thing is that in order to get the maximum 'silent assassin' rating, you often need to memorise a linear path through each level, which sucks all the fun out of playing the game, replacing it with what I like to call 'SUPER TEDIUM.'
So surely you'd have thought that you just take out person X in a more fun way? Well, you can, but the notoriety system is in place to stop you. Notoriety is a strange concept, you gain bits of it by being totally obvious that you're a hitman, but after each level you can wish it away by paying a small fee, which you can get from completing the mission anyway. In addition, if you murder everyone on the level, steal the video tapes, and stay alive, you get no notoriety. So the system contradicts itself to the point of making it redundant.
I also didn't see the point of money. Money can be used to buy a number of things, there are a couple of actually useful things, like lockpicks, but then there are a huge selection of guns, now I just mentioned the game doesn't like you being a sadistic murderer, yet by completing missions, you get to pack more heat, which you're not meant to use…? The game is just such a mystery to me. You could spend money on tips…LOL…the internet making these inherently useless.
So I've concluded Hitman was made by morons…a bit harsh, but hey, they're big boys, after all this is an 18! Unfortunately anyone above the age of 7 will see the glaring flaws in the level design, noticeably the AI, who are the most retarded bunch I have ever seen. To accommodate the game's linear nature, the AI have actions that they repeat often, now this makes sense in the case of patrols or rehearsals, but there was one level where a guy went to the toilet every 30 seconds…
What's even more weird is that in a game where you're supposed to be inconspicuous, you can just walk into the loo behind him and watch, only receiving an angry grunt. The game is far too scripted and this is its main hindrance, because it works really nicely in some places, but then when you let the AI do its own thing, it falls apart. Case in point, you can walk right pass guards, doing nothing, and for some reason, they decide you're a murderer, it's frustrating and irritating, and the icing on the cake is that they chase you, then just group together in a big bunch, stand still (some of the smarter ones may even CROUCH!) and shoot, to be made into cannon fodder for your pimped up arsenal you shouldn't have.
It sounds like I'm nitpicking but these things really do spoil the game, for a start it has really nice graphics, 47 looks pretty poor, as do many character models, but the environments look fantastic, they are detailed and articulate, with tons of activity buzzing around (the Mardi Gras scene comes to mind.) Water and blood effects look particularly good.
Sound wise, the game sounds alright (I don't know how they got the sound for a silenced shotgun…but hey) Nothing stood out, the voice acting ranges from above average to poor, the weapons sound nice, but lack a bit of oomph, granted though, you'll most likely stick silencers on everything.
Hitman: Blood money presents some interesting scenarios that look really intriguing on paper, but fall apart due to the poor AI, lack of attention to detail, and noticeable realism flaws. You could say that the scope of the game excuses this, but look at saints row (I don't want to say GTA 4 as that's a tad unfair) other games have done bigger and better, and IO needs to either fine tune the game more, or move on to something better than Kane & Lynch.
3.2