Stealthy gameplay accomodating multiple styles

Hitman 2 let's you become a professional assassin, in multiple scenarios utilizing various methods to get the job done. It's a well done and fun game for those who enjoy stealthier action games that reward tactical on the spot planning and patience. Hitman 2 is a sequel to Hitman 1 and I feel a great improvement over its predecessor. I''ve already played this 3 times through because of it's replay value and fun.

Hitman 2 continues the story of the Hitman: Codename 47, a genetically engineered individual with an amazing proficiency for being a hitman. It starts up a year or so later, after "47" (the name given to the main character) has gone into retirement and sought to live a peaceful life in a remote country Catholic-looking Sanctuary in Italy. He is rudely forced back into his darker profession when events suddenly turn for the worse.

The game takes you through about 16 missions, each which can take up to 2 hours depending upon how stealthy or how violent you want to be. The game is essentially an FPS (first person shooter) although the camera is more of a third person as it hovers just above 47's head, and there is an option to switch back and forth between the 1st person and 3rd person views.

The game engine graphically is very pleasing with convincing weather effects, smooth skeletal animation, and great looking shadow and lighting effects. Sound effects are adequate. I was so impressed by the sound track music that I purchased the CD as well. The music is dynamic and responds to the action taking place in game, in response to your actions. It creates a cinematic experience that makes you feel like you're starring in a movie like The Professional or some other spy assassin thriller. The game runs smoothly at medium detail on my 500 MHz Athlon system, 196M RAM, GeForce2 Ti 64M graphics card.

The gameplay is full of variety necessitating the player to utilize things like: disguises, anesthetic to knock out victims without killing them, sniper rifles, silenced weapons, bombs, sneaking around. The missions themselves take place in a variety of places from snowy valleys in Japan, the twin towers in Malaysia's Kuala Lumper, streets of India, Siberia, and Italy. There are always multiple ways to accomplish your mission and different playing styles can be used. You can slip poison into a drink, lay in wait and garrotte the target, sneak in disguised as a limo driver to attach a car bomb, or snipe the targets from towers. After completing a mission, you are given a rating depending upon how you accomplished your mission. In the most difficult method, you can receive a "silent assassin" rating if you manage to fire no more than 1 bullet (for the target), get no alerts, and kill no one but the target; a task that can prove to be very challenging.

The game has a lot of replay because of the multiple solutions and styles. The first time I played it through, I only killed those "bad guys" which "got in the way" of icing my target. I took care never to harm innocents. The second time I played through, I went for the Silent Assassin rating, which turned out that you are rewarded with secret weapons for completing a certain number of missions with this rating. The third time, I made like John Woo's movie "the Killer" with guns blazing.

If you haven't deduced it by now, this game is extremely violent. It's not suitable for young children, and should be played with discretion.

For those familiar with Hitman 1, I feel it is a vast improvement. In Hitman 1, there were several aspects, from controls to gameplay that was just frustrating and felt incomplete. In hitman 2, this has all been revamped. The weapon selection is now accomplished by the defacto number keys as well as the mouse scroll wheel. An in game save feature has been added (limited number of saves, depending upon your difficulty level). The level design is very well done with emphasis on stealth. In fact, the one level I really liked in Hitman 1, the hotel level, is a good comparison to the basic polish and feel of Hitman 2 levels (albeit with much variety). They've made things like disguises more intuitive. No longer will non-caucasion people assume you are one of them, just because you are wearing one of their uniforms. Instead, you will raise suspicions if you get too close to a guard, or seem out of place. Although still frustrating at times, it works pretty well.

One more thing I'd like to mention is the "rag doll" physics. When a person is killed or knocked unconcious, you can drag the body to a location to try and prevent it from being discovered (which can causes unwanted alerts.) The physics treats the body like a rag doll and moves very realistically, allowing you to accomplish things like pulling a body over a man hole until the weight of the parts is enough to pull the whole body down. Sounds gruesome, and it is, but it's a great effect.

Overall, Hitman 2 is a winner in my book. If you enjoyed aspects of Hitman 1 but wished they would "fix" the broken parts, Hitman 2 is here.

UPDATE 11/21/2002

About the soundtrack music: I noticed that several reviewers did not like the music, while I loved it enough to purchase the CD soundtrack separately. Clearly it's a matter of taste. The music style is very epic background music, as opposed to hip soundtracks you might find played on the radio. The Japan tracks make you feel like you're in a Kurosawa film, while the main tracks make you feel like you're watching the original French version of The Professional. The soundtrack was composed by Jesper Kyd, and performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and the Hungarian Radio Choir; if that gives you an indication of the style of music.