Hitman 2: Silent Assassin : Web Wombat: Games

Usually, it is just a tagline added on to the box, in order to heighten the marketing potential of yet another mediocre game that finds itself unable to sell any amount of copies based on the merit of it's gameplay.

In very rare cases, this usually indisputable rule is ignored. One such case is Deus Ex, which, even today, still provides a benchmark for gameplay.

Now we have a second rule-breaker: Hitman 2. In most games that revolve around objective-based action, there is only one way of achieving said objective.

Oh sure, you can shoot people in a different order, but you still only have one way of the completing the mission. Hitman had the same attitude, but allowed you "some" freedom of choice in your approach to completing the objective.

I say "some", because this amounted to nothing, for the simple reason that the levels were scripted, so that if you didn't adhere to what was considered the optimum path, then the mission either became fiendishly difficult, or just plain impossible to win, which pretty much defeated the whole idea.

To counter this, Hitman featured a cracking storyline, (at the time) great graphics, and an amazing physics engine, but more on that particular later.

The storyline of Hitman 1 was explained in my preview earlier this year, but for those of you who missed it :

Hitman puts you in the stylish yet practical leather shoes of 47, a contract killer ready to baldly go where no genetically-altered-and-perfected-assassin has gone before.

So, what's the verdict on my special neck massages?

His weapons (apart from a full arsenal ranging from his customised Hardballers to the SPAS-12 automatic shotgun) are stealth, impersonation and a gleaming dome.

Created in a lab by the Mad Yet Brilliant Scientist© and trained by said Mad Yet Brilliant Scientist©, you "escape" and begin work for a shadowy organization known only as "The Agency".

The Agency supplies assassins to clients in dire need of the kind of expertise that only a contract killer can supply.

Needless to say, you impress a lot of people and quickly rise in prestige, carrying out more intricate assassinations and getting juicier paychecks.

However, there is something bigger going on beneath the surface, as with all good thriller plots. This fact does not escape your attention and, after various escapades, you head back to where it all began, a mental hospital in Romania that is actually a cover for the white-haired-boffin's R & D.

You head to the basement, only to discover that you were not as unique as you thought. The number "47" is your model number.

46 other hitmen were born, and then there was you: The new and improved Hitman. And, as you destroy the lab and holding your dead creator in your arms, the credits roll.

Fast forward to the present. You have given up the contract killing trade, and have relocated to a secluded church on the island of Sicily.

There, you tend to the garden and maintenance of the church, and work for Father Vittorio, the priest.

All is well, until the local Mafioso nab the preacher and leave a note for you, telling you to leave $500,000 for the Mafia, or the priest dies.

Oh. Seems as though I have the wrong room...

Knowing that you cannot pay that much, you decide to dig up the past.

In the shed that doubles as your home, you take the Hardballers that were your only friends in the world of lies, deceit and treachery that you called home for so long and the immaculately tailored suit that was your only calling card.

Once doing so, you reach out to the only ones who can help: The Agency.

As dramatic as all this sounds, it happens exactly like that. The cut scenes are all rendered in crisp detail and you feel like you're watching a John Woo classic, with wide panning camera angles and a music score written by Jesper Kyd and performed by the Bulgarian Orchestra.

The voiceovers, especially in the cases of Father Vittorio, 47, and Agent Smith, are perfect - with the actors speaking in their native tongues and their characters coming through perfectly.

Diana and Smith make return appearances from the previous game, along with the last of the 48 series Hitmen.

The interface has been changed somewhat since the last game. Notable differences include:

1. That you keep weapons from previous missions. This works because 47 now has a nice little shed that doubles as his weapons storage facility. By scavenging weapons from dead bodies and enemy facilities, you increase the range of your collection, and it makes you quite proud to see your beautiful Barrett .50 cal anti-vehicular sniper rifle up on the wall, besides the long-range huntsman's crossbow and M60 light machinegun.

2. First person mode. Yes, that's right, Quakers. You can now look through 47's eyes and make cannon fodder out of the legions of ninjas, soldiers, and others that get between you and your quest for revenge.

3. No more money. In the original, you could only supply yourself with what you could afford and, usually, you couldn't get to play with the really spiffy toys until the last few missions of the game. Since your services are in such high demand, funding is no problem. To sum up how wealthy you really are, I shall quote from the game:

There's a number of sniper rifles on offer in Hitman 2

47: "What is the current Agency rate for a hit?"
Diana: "The current going rate is…let me see…US$100,000."
47: "Good. You just triple that, and deposit it in my usual overseas account. In gold."
Diana: "A…I…That's… quite a lot of money, 47!"

As you can see, 47 is anything but poor.

Hitman 2, as I said in my opening, has managed to become what its predecessor could not: Freeform.

You can certainly try to be the stealthy, unseen angel of death, dealing with foes swiftly and delicately, leaving confusion and fear in your wake.

But if that fails, you are better off to screw safety and subtlety and let loose with a Desert Eagle in one hand and a .357 in the other.

For instance, take the Malaysian contract: You are sent in to eliminate local genius hacker and criminal Charlie Sidjan, who has stolen some rather tasty files from a client, who needs them back pronto.

The whole point of this mission is not to cause too much attention, since Sidjan resides in the basement of a very large public complex overflowing with Malaysian police.

Now, I tried to be nice and knocked out a guard with a golf club while he was on his way to the lavatory, before dragging him to a nearby stall and taking his clothes.

Just as things were looking up… I got caught going through the metal detector. This caused the other guards to notice my overly white complexion and lack of hair. Suffice to say, it wasn't pretty.

The second time round, I didn't even bother with stealth and opened fire on everybody. Civilian and policeman alike spattered the floor and walls as I ripped apart the lobby with my dual .45s.

47: "It's time for a corporate down-sizing..."

The game judges you on who you kill, how you killed them and where, as well as how many times you were noticed and various other criteria. After pondering the above massacre, is it any wonder that my overall rating was that of "Mass Murderer"?

Speaking of death and destruction, I'd better explain how Hitman works during all the mayhem:

In most games, when you shoot an enemy, the game executes a wounded animation and when said enemy dies, one of several death animations is shown.

This saves on CPU time, since all it has to do is run the animation, but consumes RAM, since the game loads all the animations in between levels.

Real-time physics work in the opposite manner, with the CPU and graphics card taking the load of calculating the math.

The process of implementing high-end physics is long, complex and ultra-difficult; many games don't bother with it. Hitman 1 went against the trend and used a process called Inverse Kinematics, along with a highly advanced skeletal structure, which IK requires in order for it to be used to even a third of its potential.

An example: You fire at a bodyguard, IK calculates the atomic weight of the model, and calculates the velocity and angle of the bullet then takes the figures and makes the bodyguard respond accordingly.

That is, he is thrown backwards, the bones moving according to the impact, the severity depending on where the shot was fired from and by what. Nowadays, this kind of system is known as "ragdolling".

And it should have been a very good system, but it had one fault: The physics were out of this world. The general code wasn't implemented properly, and as such, the corpses tended to jump around like a severely retarded Clark Kent on kryptonite.

47: "Nobody has eaten my pizza... And survived."

While making for very scary screenshots (have you ever seen someone hang by his groin from a chandelier?), this tended to diminish the realism factor somewhat.

After all, what is worse than eliminating your target with a perfectly executed (pun intended) .45 round to the head, only to have the corpse rebound off the nearest wall and smack you one, taking you over the side of the penthouse apartment balcony and forcing upon you a fatal overdose of sidewalk?

Not much methinks...

In the time since Hitman 1, animation technology had come a long way, and now there are people who actually know how IK animation is supposed to work, and the bone structure of the characters had been improved dramatically as a result.

The bodies in Silent Assassin react very realistically to damage, sagging to their knees before slumping backwards or sliding slowly down stairs, head banging on every step.

And, boy, is it pretty! Environmental bump-mapping, insanely high poly models, lens flare, visual filters and dynamic light sourcing are only parts of the graphical trickery that Silent Assassin pulls off in the background.

The graphics do a wonderful job of immersing you in the world of contract killing, and the levels reflect this. From the snowy landscape of mountainous Japan, to the parched deserts of Afghanistan, to the soaked populace of St Petersburg - all of these look just brill and are laid out well, to boot. Yay! No more dead-ends.

In the end, there are a multitude of reasons to buy Silent Assassin, like a cracking plot that is as good, if not better, than the original, great voice acting, freeform gaming, beautiful locales and an arsenal that leaves Soldier of Fortune for dead -- the PC.CD also comes with some truly kick-arse wallpaper.

In short: Hitman 2 rocks hard.

Game: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
System: PC, PS2, Xbox
Players: 1
Online: No
Developer: Io Interactive
Distributor: Infogrames

Rating: 90%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

Hitman 2 is on the shelves now.

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