The third installation in the Hitman series, Hitman: Contracts is one of the most difficult games to rate. On one hand, it plays exactly like a Hitman game, with all missions requiring you to kill someone, and perhaps retrieve stuff. On the other, it doesn’t seem to be better than the second Hitman nor as polished as Hitman: Blood Money.
Contracts takes on missions from the first Hitman, some favourites that include missions in Hong Kong and Bulgaria. And unlike the first Hitman, the game has been significantly smoothed out so you don’t get the terrible bugginess. There is also a some original content in the game, such as the missions in Rotterdam.
Introduced in the second Hitman, the scoring system keeps you coming back for the Silent Assassin rating.
With the release of the Blood Money, however, Contracts feels like it offers little to fans of the Hitman series.
I have followed the Hitman series all the way from the first game, and what I noticed is that every game did deliver something special. The first introduced a whole new concept of playing the role of a Hitman, trying to do everything as stealthily as possible. The second was more interesting because of how it was widely varied. The fourth introduced slicker graphics, more realism and a wider variety of ways to kill someone.
Showering: never forget to lock your bathroom!
Contracts seems to be a remix of the first two games, without putting a finish veneer on it. It is still quite a lot of fun, especially if you liked the levels that the first Hitman offered, but didn’t want the bugs.
But that’s pretty much its only strength when compared to the rest of the Hitman series. There isn’t too strong a storyline here. It’s all a series of flashbacks.
Great for spending some time on it, but if you had the choice, go try the rest of the Hitman games first.
The game runs well on a netbook at the lowest settings, although you’d have to be prepared to play it in a non-widescreen format as the game doesn’t support that natively. It does face some slowdowns at times when there are a lot of characters in the game.
Like
Same old Hitman gameplay
Some great missions from the first game now remixed and bug-free
Dislike
Brings nothing special to the table as compared to the other Hitmans
Dated graphics
Verdict
Try Blood Money. Then Silent Assassin. Then Codename 47 before trying Contracts.
Gameplay: Fun… I guess.
Graphics: Dated.
Work needed to get game to play: Minimal.
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can I play blood money and silent assassin on my hp mini 110?