The most exciting, creative and lucrative job in the world, that's what our bald-headed 47 has. As a hired killer he travels all around the world to eliminate his targets. The first episode of the Hitman series was actually one of the most frustrating games I ever played, but this time IO Interactive wanted to come up with a game that wasn't just for hardcore players. A wise decision, but did they succeed by delivering Hitman 2: Silent Assassin ?

This time the story commences in a nice Italian church. Our genetically manipulated assassin (with codename 47) has gone underground and now works as a gardener. He wishes to forget his life of sin and enjoy a quiet and peaceful existence. Unfortunately this is blown away once his best friend, the priest, is kidnapped. And since priests are an oddity, 47 once again contacts The Agency (the company he used to work for) and asks their help. They agree, on the condition that our bold bald baboon (I love alliterations) accepts a couple of missions. It appears he has no choice ...

You start off with a short tutorial that teaches you all of the basics: running, sneaking, shooting, the whole nine yards. The entire game takes you towards different locations, including Sicily, Saint-Petersburg, Japan and India. The future crime scene is often very large, but doesn't feel empty at all. Beautiful structures and realistic weather effects make you feel like you're actually walking across these countries.
This XBOX version offers really detailed graphics. Although the models could have been less "sharp-edged", for a multiplatfrom game it's really well. It's also cool you can now switch between first and third person view, this makes the shooting way easier. Aiming with the control is really simple and is way more manageable than you would think at first.

Since you are a professional killer, you always carry along the right tools for the job. Next to your loyal piano wire (I love to strangle guards with this piece of hardware), you can also depend on various guns including machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, crossbows, even knifes and swords ! At first you'll be equiped with small arms, but as the game advances you'll get your hands on "the big stuff".

Before you accept a mission, you get a detailed briefing from Diana, your contact from The Agency. You can also peek at some photos or movies of your target, just so you wouldn't kill the wrong guy I guess. :) Afterwards you browse the available guns and choose carefully which you take along. Sometimes you also receive some special gadgets for a mission, like a car bomb.
And then you finally arrive at the party. You start off in a nice tuxedo, but since the game mainly focuses on stealth, you better knock out a guard and put on his clothes first. Since you don't want to look suspicious, you should also try to imitate the other guards. Don't walk around carrying a sword when everyone's armed with pistols, don't run like a madman, you get the picture. Cause once an enemy has discovered you're an intruder, you can't rely on stealth anymore. And this is one of the negative points in Hitman 2: most of the time, if you are caught in the beginning of the mission, all of the guards will be alerted and you'll have to shoot yourself a way through. Even when you, completely in diguise, cross a guard very close, he will recognise you. Completing a mission in silence takes a lot of time and patience, so more than 80% of my assignements turned into a bloodbath. Fortunately this isn't a problem in most mission, as long as you can live with the grade "psychopat".

So the A.I. is hard to avoid, good thing a mission can be completed in several ways. A very amusing one (also one of the few which I succeeded without too many kills) took place in Malaysia. My objective was to infiltrate a highly secured building and assassinate a hacker in the basement. First I went to pick up my hided stuff in the dressing rooms, strangled a guard, hid the body and took his clothes. Then I simply entered the laundry room and threw a smoke bomb through a shaft. The fire alert went on and in all the panic I sneaked to the fire department room. After I put on a firefighter's suit and took an axe, I was able to run past all of the guards downstairs. A few seconds later on the alarm halted, I slashed a lonely guard and once again changed clothes. Since I still couldn't get to the target, I took care of the last enemies with my silenced pistol and finally strangled that damn hacker.
Just to give you an example of IO Interactive's shrewdness, I could also complete the mission by simply disguising myself as a pizza delivery boy and waiting for an order from the hacker ...

A very frustrating factor of the original Hitman: Codename 47 was the fact that you couldn't save your game during a mission. Now you can, you get a few savepoints, dependent on the chosen difficulty. And believe me, a maximum of 7 savepoints is more than enough.

Another factor that contributes to Hitman 2's fun is the ambience. This is especially created by the tough image of our Hitman, but the music also causes miracles. The soundtrack is a performance of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Choir and sounds really awesome. Although I'm not really fond of classical music, I couldn't imagine a more suitable song. The sound effects during the missions are OK, but they simply don't really have any positive or negative sides.

In conclusion: Hitman 2 is a very decent game that's fun to play. The player can complete a mission the way he wants to, so there's one could easily replay the whole game. It's just a shame the AI is still a bit too severe, but now that you can save your ingame progress, the nightmare from the original Hitman is finally over !