The driver glances in your direction, and then turns his
back. You hear the sound of his trousers’ fly unzipping, followed by the
distinctive noise of this man relieving himself into the grate in the alley.
Nonplussed you creep up behind him, and with all the courteousness of a
Venus Fly Trap with a bug on its’ tendrils, you wrap a garrote around his
neck and relieve him of his life.
Ok, so now you’ve strangled a man who was going to the
bathroom in an alley. What do you do for an encore? Drag him down into
the sewer grate and remove his clothing. You’ll need it for your disguise
to get close enough to the target to plant a bomb on his car.
Hitman Codename 47 is about death. Io-Interactive and
Eidos Interactive have released a program that, while full of flaws and
in need of patches, combines planning, action and a lot of blood into a
world of intrigue and certain death.
The hit man, who is the central character in this role-playing shooter
program, works for a shady agency. The targets are bad people, so there
isn’t any compunction about sending them off to judgment. There are a total
of four scenarios, each loaded with missions that will help you achieve
your final scenario objective.
For example, in the first scenario, you are sent to Hong
Kong to dispatch the leader of the Red Dragon Triad, Lee Hong. Because
he is so well protected, you have to find a way to remove his bodyguards.
How? Simple, you instigate a war between the two largest triads and then
take out Hong when the war is raging. There are 12 missions inside that
first scenario. From Hong Kong you will travel to Columbia, then to Budapest
and The Netherlands.
Give Io-Interactive a lot of credit for the size of each
scenario’s game board. This program falls right in line with other city-dwelling
Eidos games, such as Omikron, Urban Chaos and Deus Ex. There are a lot
of streets, buildings, pedestrians, police officers and bad guys. Graphically
Hitman may not be as crisp as those other games; the polygonal figures
have hard lines and lack a three-dimensional feel. There are some nice
graphical effects. The hit man prefers a black suit and a red tie – the
latter flaps around nicely when he makes abrupt turns. There are a few
problems with the clipping of the characters. At times they lean over and
disappear into solid walls.
You begin the game by working your way through the tutorial.
This will familiarize you with the movement keys – more about the controls
in a moment – and some of the weapons you will be using. After firing various
weapons, you are faced with your first challenge – escaping from the underground
training facility. One of your last stops was a rifle range. Hmmm, forgot
to put back that sniper rifle and scope. A short ride on an elevator later
and you are close to freedom. Around the corner is a blue-uniformed guard,
or orderly, with a Taser. You have to take him out. Might as well try out
that sniper rifle.
The nice thing about the sniper rifle is that when engaged,
you can’t move, but the movement keys allow you to zoom in closer with
the telescoping site. The orderly appears for a fraction of a second, you
squeeze the trigger, blood spurts from the hole in the back of his skull
and he plunges forward to lie in an expanding pool of blood. Here’s where
you first learn that clothes make the man, or at least aid in the cause.
You strip him of his uniform and use that as a passport to the next locked
gate. Amazingly, even though that departed orderly was laying in a massive
and expanding pool of blood, his uniform is spotless. Might as well garrote
the guard at the next gate, just for practice. And then, as you escape,
the voice that has been guiding you, chuckles in what could only be described
as evilly.
Now to the controls … Hitman Codename 47 features a combination
of mouse and keyboard controls. The number pad on your keyboard, and the
page up and page down controls work well with the mouse, but do take some
getting used to. There were several instances during game play when selecting
the right weapon didn’t happen very quickly. It was a matter of right click
to get the weapons store up, page up or page down to get to the weapon,
then left click to implement it. It may sound easy, but when you are trying
to strangle a man urinating in an alley, and who will turn around and start
shooting at you with a gun the minute you arm yourself, it can cause some
confusion.
The options package for this program is simple, but complete.
You can play in 16- or 32-bit resolution, and can adjust the usual assortment
of graphic and audio elements. There are also three difficulty settings
to challenge players of different skill levels. The sound is solid and
supports the tone of the game well.
Hitman Codename 47 (the code name has something to do
with the bar code tattoo on the back of his shaven head) does not spare
the blood. There are situations in this game that are not appropriate for
younger children – (hence the Mature rating for animated violence, animated
blood and strong sexual content. But the game does have elements which
solid programs need – it provides plenty of action and wraps the violence
around planning and cerebral exercises. Each mission is on a timer, and
you will in all likelihood have several goes at a mission before you figure
out how to accomplish the task at hand.
This program does not support multiplayer games.
Install: Easy. This program only eliminates 400
megs of hard drive space. It does go on quickly, but save some room for
patches.
Gameplay: 7. Once you are in a mission, it moves
seamlessly in real-time through the course of events. However, there is
no in-mission save option. The game board is reminiscent of Urban Chaos
or Deus Ex – a big sprawling city consumed with streets and buildings.
Graphics: 7.5. There are some clipping problems
with the game, but for the most part, the graphical quality is pretty good.
It can’t stand up to Deus Ex, but it is solid enough to give you a good
sense of the game.
Sound: 7.5. The vocal characterizations are a little
too stereotypical of covert undercover operations. The civilians, and goons
all sound like they stepped from a ‘B’ movie. That aside, the ambient noise,
the music and gunfire work quite well.
Difficulty: 8. The keyboard interface presents
the initial challenge in this game. And there are three difficulty levels
to challenge just about any player. Even at the easy level, this game will
work your brain and reflexive abilities as you try to plan on the mission
based on the equipment you are carrying.
Concept: 8. This product goes right for the jugular
with graphic violence and missions that are definitely challenging.
Overall: 7. The violence is a little excessive.
The mouse-keyboard controls are convoluted and will have you, initially,
stabbing at the escape key to pause the program while you figure out what
keys you need to be hitting. And there are flaws which have resulted in
a patch being delivered less than 10 days after the product was released.
All that aside, this game still has some firepower. It is a nice blend
of first-person shooter action with brain teasers. While the missions are
more or less laid out for you, there is still a lot that you have to figure
out in order to succeed. In this program it comes down to one of two things
– kill or be killed. If that scenario appeals to you, and you are not deterred
by graphic violence, this may be the type of game you are looking for.
