While providing a new experience for console gamers, the PC version is a repeat of the first game for the most part.
At the start of Hitman Contracts, you have stumbled into a hideout, injured and dying. As you try to fix yourself up, you start to have flashbacks to missions that you have performed in the past. Most of these missions have come from the first game although some original missions and a couple have come from Hitman 2 Silent Assassin. These missions require you to assassinate someone and escape. You are given a lot of leeway in how you perform the missions. Do you storm the gates, guns blazing, or slip in the back door and drop some poison in a glass. Stealth is best, but you are never forced to play the game a certain way. This has been true of all of the Hitman games.
The Hitman series has always been a hit or miss item when it comes to graphics. Either you like the graphics or you hated them. There never seemed to be much of a middle ground. This release takes the first game’s missions and breathes new life into it. The levels have added new levels of detail due to the new engine. Walking around the city to assassinate the leader of the Red Dragon Clan seems more alive with more guards and people taking an interest in you and your business. A reduction of clipping issues has also made the graphics seem a little more real, since you no longer have whole limbs shooting through walls or doors.
Sound is a key factor in games like this. Stepping up behind a victim is going to get you in a shoot out unless you are sneaking up on them. You have to be mindful of the environment. Sneaking up on a victim while avoiding things that might cause you to be detected like stepping on gravel or rocks. It is very immersive as the audio cues can send a mission completely into the tank if you are not careful. Jesper Kyd has hit another one out of the park and is making waves in the game music business. His work is as solid on this game as it was with Hitman 2 and Freedom Fighters. Ambient noise was good, but never really stood out except when it came to environmental noises as mentioned before. Weapon discharges were solid, but since the knife or silenced pistol was your weapon of choice, there were no real loud weapon blasts that you will hear.
So far the game sounds like a winner, but the fatal flaw is the fact that the PC player is paying for a game they have already played, as most of the missions in this game come from the first game. I knew this going into the game and had no problem with it just because I wanted another Hitman experience while waiting for the release of Hitman: Blood Money. But I got the game at a budget price while most ended up paying full price of $40 or $50 for a re-hashed game. Some may rejoice the fact that this version of the game has save points and will allow more to finish the game that did not the first time around. But if you are going to release a game that is primarily a flashback game, full price is not the way to go about keeping your fan base. If this was a completely new game, it would have scored a lot higher, but the repetitive nature of the game takes it down a notch and hurts the final rating.
Hitman Contracts will provide the player with a fun experience if they missed the first game or need a fix while waiting for the next installment of Hitman. If you played and finished the first game, I would hold onto your money until the next Hitman comes out.