Hitman: Contracts Review

This also ties in with the AI, which is not bad and far from oblivious, but it really doesn't have an opportunity to shine either as the bad guys won't live long enough to show you what they can do. Half-way through the game I gave the old piano wire a rest and simply stuck to blasting away everything in my sight. I finished every mission with maximum aggression score and I was called a mass murderer each time. Great going, 2Lions! The potential for clever assassinations was always there (and it was actually useful in some missions), but I just didn't feel like using it too often. The other, balls-to-the-wall approach was much faster and much more efficient.

So does this mean you should pass up on the opportunity to play Hitman: Contracts? I would recommend against it. A lot of what was good about the Hitman games still plays a major role in "Contracts". Your decision should also be based on how fond you are of the series and whether or not you're prepared to bump up the difficulty level to Expert. The new Hitman game does bring a lot of moodiness and great cinematic value, in addition to some of that customary gameplay that drew me to the franchise in the first place. Ultimately, however, because of some rather silly design mistakes, it fails to deliver the kind of experience I was hoping for.