At a glance...

Reviewer	Platform	Publisher	Developer	Players	Screenshots
Matt Bailey	PlayStation 2	Eidos Interactive	IO Interactive	1	Here
Requirements				Also on...	Buy from Amazon.co.uk
Memory Card: 499Kb				Xbox, PC	Click here to buy Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin review

Agent 47 makes his return in this follow up to the PC original. The bald assassin has landed on the PS2, and this version seems to be gorier than ever. The game has a distinctly adult feel - brutality, blood, weaponry, close range killing and seeing your victim's faces. It doesn't glorify killing, but you certainly have to be able to cope with the themes involved, although it oddly only has an ELSPA 15+ rating.

Hitman 2 plays largely on stealth. After all, this isn't a guns blazing shooter, and no assassin would be successful if his target knew they were likely to be attacked. So your brain needs to once again click into Metal Gear Solid mode, and be ready to offer solutions on situations, and be ready to react to quickly get you out of trouble. However, you don't have to keep in the shadows on the time. The game offers many ways to complete your task (although the outcome if successful is always the same), and one of these usually involves changing your costume. By sneaking up behind your enemy, pressing and holding X to select your fibre wire, and then tapping R1 as your right behind them, allows you to choke them to death, leaving them on the floor unable to call for back-up, and attracting no attention if no one sees their body. Of course, hiding their body is essential, but the game also allows you to search their body (allowing you to obtain a key to an important door, or maybe just an SPAS-12 shotgun) and change in their clothes. The latter is essential to your stealth, and as long as you don't act suspicious (like shooting guards in font of others), you can use it to get into highly guarded places without too much problems. Of course, not everyone believes who you say you are.

Interestingly, the game doesn't restrict you to the default third-person perspective; with a click of R3 you can switch to first-person and play the game more like a shooter (although you still need to be stealthy!). The controls are simple enough to use; the game has a context-driven menu system that allows you choose available actions, such as search body, peer through keyhole and drop weapon, simply by pressing and holding X and using up and down to change your selection, letting go of X when you've made your choice. It's a rather simple system, and easy to use, except when you're in a rush and need to switch weapons. This is where you can run into trouble in controls, but then Hitman 2 is a long-range and stealthy shooting game, and not designed for quick-action.

As mentioned before, Hitman 2 is high on blood and gore, but graphically Hitman 2 shines for its environments. Each level's unique style, due to the individual locations they are located in, is presented in beautiful style; the large levels, both open and close-plan, offer high texture detail and easily identifiable objects. The models of the characters are also impressively rounded; the game's general edge is smoothed, so there's no 'jaggies' here.

As mentioned before, there are multiple routes in game, and these help to extend the longevity of the game, and also offer interest upon repeat of levels. However, the difficulty curve is all over the place; some of the earlier missions are harder than the later missions, but thankfully the Normal difficulty level offers seven saves per mission so the frustration is slightly eased (a lesson learned by IO from the PC original). Unfortunately, the game is slightly hampered by some occasionally unfair AI, leaving you bemused as you try and not set off the alarm.

Finishing up on a nicer note than the content of the game, Hitman 2 is also well accompanied by an appropriate symphony as the next victim meets your sniper rifle, and the voice acting is also of high quality.

Ratings

Graphics	Beautiful locations and well modelled characters	9/10
Gameplay	Stealth or shoot, first or third person, this way or that; the game offers a lot of freedom, in the confines of a linear plot	9/10
Value	At the time of writing, we did not have a value for money ranking.	0/10
Lifespan	Multiple routes and an enjoyable game to play keep you going, but there's no multiplayer	8/10
Audio	Very good voice acting and music	9/10
Overall	Agent 47 has managed to stealthily infiltrate the PS2, giving us another high quality title	9/10

Click here to buy Hitman 2: Silent Assassin from Amazon.co.uk.

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