 It’s
been a long day. You spent all morning
readying your supplies, hitting the black market for some new imported firepower, closing
out 3 contracts, and making a tidy profit for your trouble.
It’s certainly an abnormal existence, but it does pay the bills. What could this game be? Well, it’s Hitman of course! This upcoming 3rd person shooter--set
for a late fall release--puts you in the shoes of a “hired gun” who must
navigate unfriendly streets to get the hits you're paid for. Using state of the art weapons, it’s just you
and them. And someone is not going to make it
home for dinner/
It’s hard to say how Hitman will be received by the gaming public. Some may think the premise is VERY cool,
though others will call it a sick fantasy. But I'd wager that many action movie fans
have fantasized at some point about what it would be like to be a hitman. The final release has a lot of potential, but
after spending quite a bit of time with the demo that’s available, I have to say that
the developer, IO Interactive, still has a long way to go before it gets there.
 Hitman is a visually stunning game. The cityscape and character models are very
detailed. Many small touches have been
included to keep the realism as high as possible.
For instance, you have the ability to strip bodies of their weapons and
clothes, and no, they're not naked (but they are in their underwear). After you don their
clothes you can mingle with the enemy without drawing unwanted attention to yourself. As in Deus Ex, you can also drag dead bodies out
of sight so you won’t alarm the remaining bad guys with a pile of their comrades at
their door. Remember, an unsuspecting
target is much easier to hit then one that knows you're out there.
The AI is adequate, but still weak in
a few areas and could stand to be tweaked a bit. As
in the 1.03 version of Soldier of Fortune, if you lean around corners and take someone
out, the other enemies will go to their fallen comrade, and not look for you. This makes them incredibly easy targets, as you
remain hidden around the corner, blasting them at your leisure.
 The weakest area of the game has to be the
off-the-wall control settings. Not that they
are completely beyond hope, but they are quite a leap from what shooter fans are used to. The biggest difference is that you can’t
mouse-look in game. You do use the mouse to
look around, but only in your field of vision. You
can’t use the mouse to actually turn your character around. So you have to use forward, backward, strafe left,
strafe right, AND turn left, turn right keys set up.
Once you get used to the controls, they are workable. But being able to use the mouse to look and turn
would make the game much more comfortable to play.
 The realism in the game is quite impressive. If a weapon is too big to fit in your pocket then
you will have to lug it around out in the open, which isn’t the best way to sneak
around town. For instance, if you are walking
down the street with a shotgun people will definitely notice. While this can be frustrating, it does get you thinking
more about your mission prep and also encourages you to be creative.
Because the Hitman demo is quite short it does leave a
lot up in the air about the game. The
storyline remains a mystery in many respects, but the demo does provide an exciting peek
at a game that could be a huge success.
--Ben Moore |
