Originally published November, 2016

Welcome back to my series of mini-reviews on the various Hitman games of previous generations. Previously, I discussed the humble beginnings of the franchise, Hitman: Codename 47. Then, I moved on to its direct, or maybe not so direct sequel, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. I then moved on to the disappointingly confusing Hitman: Contracts and grumbled about how the games still seemed unable to live up to their potential. Today, I think I've finally reached that potential, with a heavy cost.

Disclaimer: Rather than playing through to completion (because I just can't do it), I've played a few missions in each of these games to give myself enough of an overall impression. If the games suddenly get better at the end, I don't know. What I do know is how long I was willing to tolerate the archaic game design before giving up.

Hitman: Blood Money

This is the first Hitman game that I really started to enjoy. It's a shame that it's so glitchy that it has the tendency to crash at the most inopportune times, like right after I got a Silent Assassin assessment for a successful mission, but right before it saved my progress to acknowledge that I had completed the level. I would be more inclined to finish Blood Money if I could keep the game from forcing me to replay levels over and over again.

Blood Money is the first game of the series where the maps felt designed around giving the player choice and various opportunities to complete the mission. There are still set paths to the targets that require a few failure runs to get the lay of the land, as well as an understanding of which disguises are necessary in which locations. However, it takes far less time to figure all this out in comparison to Hitman: Contracts. This is due, in part, to the structure of the map and to the fact that the guards aren't so quick to consider you a threat. Once all the strategies become clear, it's all about executing them.

To give an example, the first couple of levels after completing the tutorial level—which is much more in-depth than ever before—are much more transparent about how you can approach the situation. The first real level requires you to kill a drug lord and his murderous son during a big public gathering where a bunch of rich people are allowed to view their wine-making front, while cocaine is processed in the back. You can kill a few guards to get their disguises and sneak your way into the drug lord's bedroom to push him off his balcony. You can then set off a bomb to drop a few cases of wine on top of the son. In the commotion, you can then sneak through the back of their facility and escape on a plane.

You can also just stay in your hitman suit, bring a sniper rifle, take them both out from the rooftops, and climb your way down the cliff-side to the plane. The latter option will likely take less time but earn more notoriety. Also, the fact that the deaths won't look like accidents means you won't get a perfect score, but the penalties are far less painful than it was before. It feels like Hitman is finally letting you play the game how you want.

The missions that followed felt just as open and satisfying to complete. The opera house mission clearly had multiple methods of eliminating your targets in a subtle and dramatic fashion. One target was rehearsing on stage as a military general who was being shot as a public execution. The mission gives you enough information that you know there's a way to replace the gun replica with a real one that will kill him when fired. The second target is the best friend watching from a balcony. He's heavily guarded, but you could sneak up on him in disguise so long as you had an item you could hide a weapon in. However, after playing it the first time, I realized that when the first target died on stage, the second ran up to the stage to see him. Coincidentally, there's a chandelier hanging above that can be knocked loose with a small explosion. If you time it right, target #2 will be crushed underneath it. If not, he'll make it to the stage. However, there are also lighting effects above the stage that can fall just like the chandelier. You can use these light fixtures to kill either of the targets, depending on who is on stage. That is what I mean by giving you options. There's not just one "right" way to do it like in Hitman: Contracts, there's multiple.

It's such a shame that the game is so damn buggy. It crashed on me at least 10 times and always at the most inopportune moments. Since Blood Money works on the system of saving at the end of each mission and only making temporary saves mid-mission, if it crashes before it can hard-save your progress, that progress is lost entirely. I did 3 separate missions over because this kept happening. This should tell you 2 things: how much of a pain in the ass this is; how much fun I was having that I'd still be willing to play it after it happened so many times. I tried troubleshooting, but it's hard to do when the game keeps crashing at the END of missions, meaning that every bit of QA took a long time to do. At some point, I just tried to play it with the possibility of it screwing me over. Unfortunately, I got to a mission that was guaranteed 10+ minutes to complete each time I went for the Silent Assassin rank. I got it, twice, because the game kept crashing. After it crashed again, I gave up.

If you can get Hitman: Blood Money to consistently work and remain stable, it's a good time. It's the first of the Hitman franchise that I think holds up well to scrutiny. The other games that came before it are very tied to their old mechanics and limitations in some rough ways that prevent them from being very enjoyable to anyone who didn't play them when they first came out. Blood Money, however, is the start of the modern era for the Hitman games in all the right ways. I had a lot of fun with what I was able to play. It's just a shame it wasn't more stable.

Do you agree or disagree? Is the Hitman series a special favorite for you? Tell me what you think in the comments here or on Facebook.

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