Review: Hitman HD Trilogy (PS3 and Xbox 360)

The HD trilogy allows you to relive Agent 47’s glory days and they look better than you remember.

Having played Absolution, which took several step forwards and backwards at the same time, it is great to have an opportunity to replay the original games in HD.

The Hitman HD Trilogy consists of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman Contracts and Hitman Blood Money. People might be glad to hear that these games are not PS2 ports but actually the PC versions of the game and look great considering their age.

For people unfamiliar with Hitman or who have only played Hitman Absolution, here is a quick rundown of what made the Hitman series so innovative compared to other stealth games.

Agent 47 has the ability to take on the disguise of anybody he can pacify, and this opens up a world of options in the ways to tackle a mission. For instance, if you were to knock out a chef you would be able to walk around the kitchen knife in hand, and add something special during food preparation, to give your target a nasty surprise.

Another way of handling a mission is to take a guard’s uniform and walk around the patrol path until you cross paths with the target. It’s possible to infiltrate buildings and walk right up to your target hiding in plain sight.

A true silent assassin is able to infiltrate an area without anyone becoming suspicious, no shots being fired and the target being eliminated with nobody none the wiser.

The game really leaves everything up to the player’s imagination. It is sensible to pay attention to your surroundings and look for openings you may not have even considered. Every single action performed by the guards and victims is for a specific reason, giving opportunities for sniping, sneaking, or taking a disguise.

First up in the trilogy is Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, which looks surprisingly good for a game more than 10 years old.

The controls are not perfect, and anything faster than walking is considered suspicious in this game unfortunately, which means you will have to be patient and walk around areas. The game uses a suspicion meter for you to establish how shifty you are. The system works well enough and it is possible to sneak past people as long as you don’t get too close and they can’t see your face and you’re not doing anything odd.

You’re able to move bodies around so you can hide them out of sight, the game rates you on your ability to leave no indications that you were ever there.

Weapons can be visible if you are wearing the correct uniform and carrying the correct gun.

Having been experienced with Hitman previously, I tried to tackle professional difficulty and it certainly is possible to get through all missions without being seen, but these games are made to be replayed and to get the most enjoyment out of the game it is best to play through on normal before you try to tackle professional, which I did with the rest of the games.

If a body is discovered the enemies will change their behaviour and move to high alert. Worse still, if they discover you have stolen a disguise it will become completely useless for the rest of the level.

Hitman 2 has some simply amazing missions - the only low points are the snow levels where, despite wearing a mask when in disguise, somehow snipers can identify Agent 47 and snipe him from halfway across the map.

This would be manageable on lower difficulties, but on professional this can be a one-shot kill.

There certainly is a lot of replay value going back to missions and equipping weapons you have collected throughout the game can be very entertaining, as can just trying to see if there are methods to make your hit even more efficient.

Hitman Contracts is a prequel and sequel to Hitman 2. Showing events from the original Hitman game and some events taking place after Hitman 2. Contracts is probably the easiest game in the collection, which increases the level of fun a lot as it certainly is possible to shoot your way through a mission when things go horribly wrong.

The ways to complete missions seem to be more diverse, with several missions requiring you to take out multiple targets in plain sight of each other.

Attaining the Silent Assassin rank in a mission unlocks weapons in this game and will make you replay levels a lot just to try these new guns out.

Agent 47 is able to run around without raising suspicion in this game which increases the pace of the game significantly. It is possible to tamper with objects to distract guards from their normal routes, opening up even more ways to tackle situations.

Controls are much smoother and graphically the game is a huge improvement on Hitman 2.

Hitman Blood Money is considered the highpoint of the series. The visuals of this game are up to current-generation standards and the level of interactivity is much higher than previous entries.

The additions include the option of making kills appear to be accidents, the ability to throw any object to use as a distraction or weapon and the newspaper reports on your actions.

There are many ways to tackle missions and even more so than the previous game you’ll find that people will often have completely different tactics when taking on the same problem.

This game allows bodies to be hidden away in dumpsters or for Agent 47 to hide.

Newspapers will reflect your ranking and your ability to hide.

Any traces of 47 left behind in a mission will increase his notoriety, which will make sneaking past people in later missions even harder, as eventually people will know exactly what he looks like.

In professional mode you are actually deducted points for not leaving the scene with your original equipment or clothes.

The sound effects and music are used well throughout the trilogy and aside from occasionally terrible foreign accents the game has voice acting up to a decent standard.

There are always more ways to complete Hitman which leaves a whole level of replay value, which seems to be absent in most modern games.

Considering the trilogy came out at a budget price, it’s a bargain that’s hard to resist. It is also debatably the best looking HD trilogy to date.

Agent 47 returns to his roots and shows exactly why he earned the title of Silent Assassin.

Verdict: 9 out of 10

Out now for PS3 and Xbox 360