With some really interesting gameplay that continues to carry the Hitman traditions perfectly, NPCs that act in a surprisingly realistic manner (most of the time), and a very intuitive control scheme that perfectly suits the way the game plays, Hitman: Contracts looks set to be a solid title for fans who enjoy stealth as much as they enjoy action. I’d be wholeheartedly set to endorse it if it weren’t for the issues I outlined above. To be honest, I find the lack of tangible reward for sneaking through a mission to be annoying and takes away a huge amount of my drive to play properly, but at the same time, this game is effectively a sandbox for anyone who ever dreamed of planning the perfect assassination, and the little complaints I outlined won’t stop them from picking up Hitman: Contracts and enjoying it thoroughly. It’s completely up to the player what kind of approach he’ll take to doing a mission, and either one will ultimately be more satisfying based on who he is – I just wish that there was either a bigger penalty for the “guns blazing” method, or a bigger reward for getting that perfect “Silent Assassin” rating. Patting myself on the back for a job well done can only take me so far. Seriously, the original game handled things perfectly by giving the player some rather large financial concerns to worry about if he buggered up a mission and it turned into a massacre (players in the original Hitman had to use the cash they built up based on their performance to buy new equipment for a mission), so why not continue that sort of thing? Given the storyline in Contracts (based around flashbacks), I’m not too sure how well such a thing could have worked, but I’d have preferred it over the basic “you’re a winner” thing currently presented.

Ultimately, the decision to pick up Hitman: Contracts will be based on your enjoyment of the previous titles in the series. If you absolutely loved Hitman 2 and found yourself badly wanting more, pick this up immediately, or kick yourself for missing out on it. If you’re the kind of person that only moderately enjoyed Hitman 2, yet felt it had a number of gameplay problems that prevented you from thoroughly loving it, then you may want to steer clear of Contracts, as I would doubt any of your complaints have been addressed. More of the same? Absolutely, but whether this is a good or a bad thing depends on your enjoyment of the previous games in the series. Hitman has been a refreshing series so far and a great chance of pace for people tired of the conventional “run-n-gun” affair, but I really hope they try and expand on new ideas and concepts for their future games, rather than just continuing the same basic concepts. And please, give us some rewards for our hard work – a pat on the back really isn’t enough to strive for.