Hitman: Contracts is third installment in the Hitman series which takes you into the mind of a ruthlessly efficient contract killer, showing the action and the world through the eyes of Agent 47. Once again you assume the role of Agent 47, a skilled assassin who is rewarded for completing contract killings as cleanly as possible, without hurting innocent civilians or being caught. Personally, I'm glad that the original Hitman is back. I liked the original Hitman, despite its frustrating difficulty level and the lack of saves. Let's see what IO Interactive prepared for us.

In the original game (Hitman 1), 47 is sent on missions to kill a number of targets who were all partners in a cloning experiment of which 47 is the child. During the playing Hitman realizes that he is being manipulated and ends up killing his maker: Dr Ortmeyer. After Hitman 1 and therefore in Hitman 2, 47 retired to a monastery in Sicily where he befriended the local Padre, Father Vittorio. Father Vittorio was kidnapped by the local mafia boss and 47 went on a mission to rescue him. Sadly, Vittorio didn't make it and 47 is now alone again in the world with just his skills and his Silverballers for company. In Hitman: Contracts you take a look at 47's memories of past killings, in the way he remembers them. As you know 47 is genetically engineered and has trouble dealing with human feelings, but it seems that his human mind tried to convince him that what he does is wrong. 47 needs to find out how he wants to deal with this. The game begins in Paris as a wounded Agent 47 finds himself trapped in a dingy hotel room. Shot to the stomach and bleeding to death. It's not a good place to be - and it doesn't really get much better. As he lapses in and out of consciousness he experiences flashbacks from some of his most harrowing missions.

Hitman: Contracts features 12 levels set (of which 4 are complete new missions) in diverse locations where you must come face to face with some of the world's most dangerous criminals and high profile targets. There's some really disturbing action going on in a Rumanian slaughterhouse (creepily reflective pools of blood splatter soak the floor rock), then there's an English manor, complete with lake, garden, stables, tennis court, towers, cellars, library, kitchen, guests for a hunting party, guards, dogs and horses. Another mission will take you to Paris, Siberia and Hong Kong. There's also a level with strippers, and they do have some really good moves (cough). All the levels are stylistically dark, more so than in any previous Hitman game, with each level veiled in darkness and covered in rain.

Hitman Contracts mission list:
01: Asylum Aftermath *
02: Meat King's Party (Romania)
03: The Bjarkov-bomb (Siberia)
04: Beldingford Manor (England)
05: Rendevouz in Rotterdam (Rottterdam) *
06: Deadly Cargo (Rotterdam) *
07: Traditions of the Trade (Budapest) *
08: Slaying a dragon (Hongkong) *
09: The Wang Fou incident (Hongkong) *
10: The Seafood massacre (Hongkong) *
11: Lee Hong's End (Hongkong) *
12: Hunter And Hunted  (Paris)
* "re-visited" locations - which does not mean that they are completely identical to their "Hitman: Codename 47" counterparts.

There's a very similar line-up of weapons to those in the previous two games to complete your "tasks", with everyone's favourite silver .45 hardballers in here, of course, alongside sniper rifles, SMG's. They've also added the meat hooks because they aren't illegal to carry in a slaughterhouse. Also a cue stick is both deadly and perfectly PL to carry in a billiard saloon, and a pillow doesn't seem out of place when in a bedroom.

The gameplay is identical to that in the previous two games and, after receiving your objectives at the beginning of each level, it's pretty much up to you how to play the game - you have several different ways how to finish the mission. It's usually pretty dirty job, but who cares - the client hires you and you do the job :) After each mission you are graded on your performance, how many innocent people you kill, how many enemies you take out. If you never played Hitman or Splinter Cell, it's not like a normal shoot-em-ip where you run in a straight line firing randomly at anything you see - it's a stealth 3rd person where you have to calculate your every move and try your best to only kill your intented target without causing too much collateral damage on the way. So, if you want successfully finish the game you must meticulously plan out each mission before actually investigating the actual assassination. There're three difficulty levels: normal, expert and professional. The number of saves that are permitted vary by level, with normal providing the most at 7. Needless to say that patience is an absolute must for this game!

My only complaint is that this game is really extremely short - you can gun your way through all the levels in 10 hours or less. As great as the gameplay is you'll find yourself screaming "I want much much more!" at the end. Also, there's no multiplayer, so the gameplay is a bit limited. Fortunately, the missions in the game are constructed once again around multiple solutions to level objectives. This provides quite a bit of replay value as you'll want to play through the game several times to see how creative you can get in making the kill.

Overall, Hitman: Contracts is a worthy successor to the previous titles. It might not be worth buying at $50 bucks (very short gameplay time) but it's definitely a fun game to play. If you liked the first Hitman you will definitely enjoy this one as well.

Related links: demo (192MB), homepage

System Requirements
Minimum: Pentium III 800 or Athlon equivalent, 128MB RAM (256MB for Win2k/XP), DirectX 8-compatible 32MB 3D Card, DirectX 8-compatible sound card, CDROM 4x, 2GB free disk space

Recommended: Pentium 4 1.6GHz or Athlon equivalent, 256MB RAM, DirectX 8-compatible 64MB 3D Card, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, CDROM 8x, 2GB free disk space