Others say...

"A good idea gone bad."
Playing this game was NOT a good experience. The people who designed it don't seem to have had a very good grasp of the concept that "slow and frustrating" does not equal "fun". I don't know how this less-than-impressive game was able to generate so many sequels, but I'm glad that it did, becuase the sequels are great! Even if it isn't designed very well, it does have a lot of originality, and I suppose that is what made it successful. Still, no matter how good the idea of the game is, it just isn't very much fun.

One of my biggest gripes is that you are not allowed to save your game in the middle of a level. If you die, you have to start all over. I really don't understand why they decided not to include a save feature. Being able to save doesn't necessarily make a game easier or less challenging, it just ensures that you don't have to do the same boring crap over and over again every time you screw up. And it is sooo easy to screw up in this game. It's a good thing they wised up and included a save feature in Hitman II.

Another gripe: the controls! They suck, big time! There is always this one magic spot you have to stand in to perform actions like opening doors and picking up items. To go through doors, you have to left click, then right click them. If you aren't standing in the exact right spot, this will make your gun will go off instead, sending every baddie in the area after you. And good luck ACTUALLY HITTING ANYTHING when you shoot. I can stand right in front of an enemy, point the crosshairs directly at the center of his head, fire, and the bullet will still hit the wall next to him. Of course, this makes him freak out and start shooting me (funny how the bad guys never have a problem hitting THEIR targets). Long range combat is virtually impossible, by the way.

This brings me to the most annoying thing of all, which are the enemies. The A.I. is terrible. They will just stand there as you walk right up to them and knife them. On the other hand, they will also freak out and start shooting at you for no apparent reason, even if you are wearing a disguise. When they are freakig out, they say the same things over and over and over again: "Hey, you!" "He's packing!" or "Alarm, alarm!" At least, that's what they say on the Hong Kong levels. In Colombia, they all say "You gonna die sucka!" over and over, while in the Budapest level they repeatedly shout "gun, gun!" only with Inspector Clouseau accents, so it sounds like "goon, goon!" Yes, the bad guys get REALLY irritating. You just want to kill them all ... but wait! You can't! If you don't get a head shot right away, you will have to pump a ridiculous amount of lead into the enemy in order to kill him. I've emptied entire clips into a single bad guy without killing him. I always assumed that 47 could take a lot of bullets because he was geneticly engeneered to have super strength. Were all these bad guys produced in the same laboratory that 47 was?

One more thing: am I the only one who is sick of doors that close by themselves in video games? How many times, in real life, have you seen a regular wooden door suddenly slam shut all by itself after it has been open for a certain amount of time? It's unrealistic, not to mention annoying. It's especiually annoying in Hitman, when doors have a habit of slamming in your face right when you about to walk or shoot through them. If I want a door to be closed, I'll close it myself, okay?

"For Masochists Only"
OK, I give up. I consider myself an experienced gamer. I've played Deus Ex, all three Thief games, and just finished Max Payne which was insanely fun and exciting. I own at least 25 adventure and FPS games. What a disappointment Hit Man is. I struggled my way to the 4th mission, and after two whole days of repeating the same thing over and over again, I quit. How could Eidos make a game like this with no save game function??? How many times do they expect people to repeat an entire (difficult) level from the beginning?? On mission 4, I finally made it all the way to completing all 4 tasks, and then when I could not make it to the escape boat, I was booted all the way back to start again for the umpteenth time. In addition, handling weapons takes so many mouse clicks that you are shot dead before you can even get armed. Graphics and sound are OK but not good enough to compensate for all the short falls. I am all for a challange, but when it stops being any fun at all, I feel ripped off. Buy this game if you want to feel the same way. It is nothing but an excercise in frustration. I gave it 2 stars for "fun" because if only Eidos had used their brains and allowed for saves, this could have been a great FPS game on a par with the ones I mentioned. As is, it sucks. Gamers, be warned!

"Horrible beginning to a great series"
Especially if you have already played Hitman 2, or Hitman: Contracts, do not buy this game. Perhaps it would have been fun, or less frustrating, had I -not- played the other two awesome games. This game is riddled with bugs, flaws, and just stupid design decisions.

The first is that it does not work on a great many newer computers. Fortunately, it works on mine, but I have tried lending it to two different people. Neither one could use it, and the Eidos Support page is very helpful, essentially saying it's Microsoft's fault, and they have no intentions of releasing a fix to make Hitman more compatible with newer systems.

The map is useless, showing only you and your exit point. It is even more frustrating than that, but there aren't enough words to describe everything, so I'll move on.

You cannot save; you must complete the entire mission before it will autosave for you.

You cannot check during the game to see if objectives have been completed; if you're unsure, for example, if you've properly hidden a body, or placed something at the scene of the crime, or maybe if you went on a rampage and aren't sure if you hit your target or not, you need to go all the way back to your Exit point to see if the objectives are marked as complete or not.

Many of the buttons and commands require you to be in a very specific location to access them. You can be looking directly at a button, moving the cursor around in front of it, but it may be that you need to be standing a few feet away, facing in the opposite direction to use it. Time-wasting trial and error is wonderful, especially when you can't save the game.

Finally, the AI is just great. I loved pulling a silenced gun a ways behind a civilian, sending him immediately running, as he obviously heard me pulling the gun from my coat. The old man then soaked three shots to the body. So these civilians are psychic -and- sporting body armor!

In conclusion, Hitman 2 was amazing fun. I opted for the Silent Assassin style myself. Hitman: Contracts was not as good as Hitman 2, but still great. The original, Hitman: Codename 47 shows me that the design team was lazy, the support team ineffective, and the game ended up being more frustration than it's worth to play. Buy one of the other games, and play it twice. Skip this one.

""Move without a sound and kill without emotion.""
For years, gamers have been crying out for a game which forces you to think rather than shoot first. Hitman has attempted to answer the prayer. You play as 47, a Hitman who has no-idea who he is. Your job is simple, kill the target(s) and get out with little fuss.

Simple?

Well no it isn't, because you never know what to expect. Your job takes you to distant places like the Rotterdam, Japan and Romania. Plus you have to make sure there are no witnesses to the crime. Then you have to get out and OH MY!

This game has many a path through it. Sure you can simply shoot anything that moves, but where's the fun in that? The idea of the game is to use stealth. To help you, you can change your clothes and blend in with the crowd, just make sure you hide the body afterwards because if a guard finds it, then your in trouble!

If you start acting suspicously, I.E if you steal a key in the view of someone, then the guards will be notified ad they will hunt for you. I could go on forever, but I think I'll move on now...

You have many a weapon at your disposal, such as rifles, SMG's and a laughably lethal Minigun which can tear through the
target(s)like scissors to paper!

The graphic detail is quite graphic. If you shoot someone, then a red bullethole appears on them and they start to bleed. Same for slash marks etc.

But there are some truly dissapointing bits as well.
The A.I isn't good. And you can run in most places where there are plenty of armed guards. And sometimes the difficulty is off the roof. That and the fact that there is no mid-save option means you get really fustrated if you mess up in the final stretch and have to restart the whole thing.

This is a decent game but it lets itself down with silly little mistakes which can ruin the gameplay in places. But that doesn't stop it getting a decent score...

GOOD BITS
It's different
Lots of options
Detailed gore
Hard, very hard

BAD BITS
Hard, very hard
Stupid A.I

The verdict: 4 out of 5
ALTERNITIVE'S: If you like this sort of thing, then get Thief Gold for the PC.
Happy hunting

"Reviewed by a Playstation Fanatic"
The Hitman (code name 47) was cloned by a scientist for the purpose of assassinating worldwide terrorists, gunrunners, and drug lords. Mr. 47 works under cover of a mysterious agency that assigns him on missions around the world to takeout the most wanted criminals, and is rewarded with large sums of money per hit that can exceed thirty thousand dollars. But this is no takeoff of any James Bond movie. 47 is much too inhuman to thrill-ride all the ladies, and was designed to feel no emotion, or desire in an underground laboratory.

Now some details on game play itself. Expenses at times are taken out of your income if you accidentally-or purposely-kill unnecessary targets such as police officers or civilians that often stand in your way (can't buy all the best guns if you blow all your money on just killing people, which includes sniper rifles, and an assortment of automatics, some of which come with silencer attachments to further improve your performance as a professional killer). The game encourages you to find alternate ways that are not always so obvious to make your hit. Encouraging stealth and perfection. Hence, the game's primary challenge. Besides, if you just open fire on anything that moves in this game (like what we see with too many other games) you'll maybe live 10 or 15 seconds after the first shot. Stealth is the key. Every mission can be beaten without you ever getting shot, or spotted (I know people don't believe that, but believe it or not I can make those Columbian levels look as easy as the very first mission). Ways to avoid detection include hiding the bodies of the people you kill, dressing as the enemy (gangs and terrorist groups alike often have certain dress-code and you can take the clothes of any person you kill in this game) poisoning, waiting for certain patrolmen guarding your main target to separate and taking them out one by one with a silenced pistol. And many other ways, depending on the situation.

The AI of all moving people in this game is superb. You can literally hide behind any given object (dresser, tree, bookshelf) after you have been discovered, and the enemies won't know where you are until they see you, even when they are in the same room. In most games they just come right to you. If their backs are turned you can sneak up on them to either slit their throat or strangulate them, which I've seen in a few other games, but not to this astounding degree. If you sniper someone from afar, people will gather around the body (which could be helpful if the congregated group of people are all people you prefer dead). Your un-silenced weapons will be heard if fired and frighten civilians or alert the enemy. People turn their heads to look at you if you walk by. If one yelps too loud in the instant it takes you to pull out your gun and shoot him, others will come. The thing is, they REACT! They are not just mindless, close-knitted colored pixels on the screen. They react to sound, to your presence, and to the things you do. In fact, the AI is too good. There have been incidents where I was following someone too close and the draw of my weapon was actually HEARD, causing the person I pursued to turn around, to see the gun in my hand, and to draw a weapon of his own in the second it took me to shoot him smack-dead in the face.

Close one. Amazing how many miles per hour your heart can accelerate in a matter of seconds...

This game can be sick, challenging, exciting, and most of all, engrossing. You can just kiss all the hours of a whole weekend away playing this beautiful game. The only drawback is that there is no in-game save. It saves automatically after you complete each mission. Hitman 2 is just as good, if not better (some of the quirks in the AI in Hitman 1 was corrected in Hitman 2, the graphics are ten times better and there is in-game save in Silent Assassin). Hitman 3 is out this Spring. Don't neglect this series. Buy it now. Hitman 1 is available for PC only. I would have never played it if it were not for playing Hitman 2 on playstation, the best game console ever.