Hitman: Contracts

A white room …

A man lays in the middle of the floor …

Standing over him is a man in a dark suit …

The man on the floor, obviously in pain, forcing the words out, says, “son, you are breaking my heart.”

The man in the black suit leans over, his hands reach out. There is a sudden snap, the neck is broken and the man on the floor lays still.

The heart was not the only thing broken.

Yes, boys and girls, your favorite cold-blooded killer, Agent 47, is back and this time the setting is a little on the macabre side, well, at least initially. Imagine an asylum in Romania where all the inmates bear a striking resemblance to you. What’s worse is that they have apparently taken over and there are bodies strewn throughout the halls, blood smearing the walls, rooms in which inmates are hacking bodies up with axes, and the Romanian SWAT team pounding at the door.

That is just the beginning of a wild ride in the Eidos Interactive and Io Interactive PlayStation2 title, Hitman: Contracts. Hitman: Contracts marks the beginning escapades of the man in black mortician’s suit. While we are talking about a deadly killer, sometimes the odds are just too much and you will have to rely on stealth.

The game begins in Romania, in the year 2000, in an asylum. The SWAT team is moving in, surrounding the asylum. Their command is direct and simple, surrender peacefully or you will die. Well, Agent 47 does not give himself up (and the game won’t let you for that matter).

Your choices are equally as simple, you can’t outgun the entire Romanian SWAT team, so you will have to rely on stealth, and letting the guards slip past in order to get through. Using disguises works only marginally. Perhaps it has to do with a SWAT officer running about with twin chrome .45s that give you away. But this is just the beginning of a game that is highly intriguing, fast-paced, action-filled and a whole lot of fun.

The game uses a new graphics engine, which really does a superlative job of rendering the brutal nature of Agent 47’s work. The rag-doll effect is well realized, and is really highlighted when Agent 47 drags a lifeless body across the floor, banging it into walls. Other animation gives this title a wonderful edge. You move through a scenario, picking up weapons. One of them is a shotgun. Suddenly you are besieged by enemies, and you have no real choice but to open fire. An enemy comes at you from behind; you pivot and fire, and are rewarded with the force of the shot’s impact driving the body away from you.

The game’s controls are much more responsive than on the Xbox version. Whether sneaking, changing clothes with fallen foes, or switching out weapon loads, this game responds instantly to commands. The game has three settings – normal, expert and professional. You will have to be very, very good to survive at the professional level in Hitman: Contracts.

Hitman: Contracts is intense, though well paced and has the ambient sounds in place to heighten the mood. This looks like it will be a first-rate shooter title.