Hitman: Contracts

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Hitman: Contracts
Developer(s) IO Interactive
Publisher(s) Eidos Interactive
Engine Glacier engine
Release date(s) April 20, 2004
Genre(s) Stealth, TPS/FPS
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: Mature (17+) (Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs)
Platform(s) Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox
Media CD-ROM (2), DVD (1)
System requirements PC: Pentium III 800 or Athlon equivalent, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB Video Memory, 2.0 GB hard drive space

Hitman: Contracts is the third game of the Hitman video game series, released April 20, 2004. It is a direct prequel to Hitman: Blood Money.

Contents

[edit] Theme

Hitman: Contracts centers on a series of flashbacks Agent 47 experiences as a result of both his injuries and drugs he administers to counteract them. As he takes shelter in a hotel room, he slips in and out of consciousness, experiencing memories of previous contracts he has been hired for. Each mission is segued to be an action taken by 47 in his room, or by some element of his surroundings. For example, removing a painkiller needle from his thigh induces a flashback that opens with him removing a syringe from a man's neck.

[edit] Features

The suspicion meter has been improved and is less sensitive and unpredictable when compared to that of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. Enemies will generally not recognize 47 while in disguise unless an obvious action is taken, such as standing directly in front of them for an extended period of time or wielding a firearm (unless it is not considered suspicious in the current circumstances - for example, holding a shotgun while on the hunting lodge grounds). Enemies are also less likely to open fire for minor actions such as running indoors. The graphics underwent major upgrades as well, with the addition of reflective surfaces and new shading techniques that contribute to the dark nature of the story. Most levels also contain strong sexual themes.

[edit] Tone

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The tone of Contracts is significantly darker than that of the previous games.
Enlarge
The tone of Contracts is significantly darker than that of the previous games.

Several levels include disturbing imagery beyond what has been seen in the series' previous entries. The best example would be the second level called "The Meat King's Party", an S&M party taking place in a slaughterhouse. One scene in particular features the mutilated corpse of a teenage girl hanging upside down from a ceiling, wrapped in plastic, her bloody severed arm on the floor beneath her for you to collect; behind her, the girl's obsessed kidnapper has created a shrine to her, centered around a large photo of the girl, on which he has written the word "BITCH" in her blood. A record player nearby plays Paul Anka's Put Your Head on My Shoulder, while the girl's killer, an obese, semi-nude man in a bloody apron, cackles in what sounds like a clip from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. This same level features disturbing depiction of strong perverse and morbid sexual behaviors between people wearing leather masks and bondage outfits, and mating next to gory animal corpses and carcasses.

In another level, Traditions of the Trade, the player can stumble across a cordoned off police crime scene. Upon entering the wing of the hotel the lighting and shading changes from the warm brown and red tones of the rest of the building to a dark blue-gray scheme. Windows are opened, thin white curtains blowing in the wind as rain enters. Entering the crime scene, players can find the body of a recently murdered man on the floor, the room covered with blood. The adjoining bathroom is drenched in blood as well, the bathtub full of blood and, possibly, body parts. It is possible to see the ghost of the murdered man by looking into any of the mirrors in the wing. The ghost can also be followed into a room farther down the hallway that is occupied by an emotionally disturbed security guard, implying the guard's guilt.

All this adult material makes Contracts the darkest and most violent Hitman to date. Although, this nightmarish style of the flashbacks in the game are considered to depict 47s actual feeling of the world around him. This gives the player more understanding of who he is in a more spiritual way. The fact that the psychopathic behavior of his targets is so clearly put into play, shows how 47 in some light sees each of his enemies indifferently, and where as the villains of the game are portrayed in a darker light, the hitman himself appears as a kind of hero. Without this aspect, the series without a doubt might make the player less and less sympathetic with 47, therein causing a decline in specific fan base. "Contracts" becomes more of an overview or a guide in this way than anything else. Although it might begin as very confusing for a player new to the series, after having completed the game it will allow for the player to enter the series at any point and understand exactly what is going on.

[edit] Missions

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
  • Training Ground (Training level)
Agent 47 is taught the basic skills of the game. Also grants the player free access to test any weapons they have unlocked, either on stationary targets or humans. Displays all the firearms the player has collected so far, with silhouettes of the ones that have not been collected.
  • Asylum Aftermath (The Sanitarium)
Picking up where Codename 47 ended, Agent 47 must escape the asylum in which he was created before Romanian SWAT raid the facility (in reality, Romania has no SWAT team. They have a "Special Forces" group that replaces this, but, in game, they are considered SWAT, nonetheless).
  • The Meat King's Party (Romanian slaughterhouse)
Agent 47 is hired to kill a butcher known as the "Meat King" by the father of a girl kidnapped by him. Found innocent on a technicality, 47 must retrieve the girl and kill the King and his corrupt lawyer. It is presumed that this happened before the mission The Setup in Codename 47, as 47 retired directly after the end of that game.
Agent 47 must assassinate a Russian arms dealer and his military contact, and plant explosives on a dry docked nuclear submarine before escaping. It cannot be said at what chronological point in the course of the four games this mission occurs.
  • Beldingford Manor (English manor house)
Agent 47 is hired to rescue a man held captive on the grounds of Beldingford Manor, as well as kill Lord Beldingford and his son Alistair. They like to kidnap young athletic types and hunt them for sport. It cannot be said at what chronological point in the course of the four games this mission occurs.
  • Rendezvous In Rotterdam (Biker club in Rotterdam)
A photographer has incriminating photos that a client wants destroyed. 47 must infiltrate a Rotterdam biker club, kill its leader, retrieve the photos, and kill a captured undercover investigator. This happens directly before Deadly Cargo/Plutonium Runs Loose (the Codename 47 counterpart).
Agent 47 must defuse a bomb and assassinate the arms dealer Arkadij Jegorov while a full-scale SWAT raid is carried out on the docks.
  • Traditions of the Trade (Budapest Thermal Bath Hotel, a.k.a. Hotel Galar)
Two arms dealers are staying in the Thermal Bath Hotel, along with a chemical bomb they intend to detonate during a UF peace conference. 47 must assassinate both targets and retrieve the bomb. This happens prior to Rendezvous In Rotterdam.
In order to incite a gang war, 47 must assassinate a representative during negotiations between two rival factions whilst leaving the other representative alive so that the surviving negotiator takes the blame for the death of the murdered negotiator, the first step in setting a gang war in action. These four missions are the very first missions in Codename 47.
47 must assassinate eight members of the Blue Lotus gang and the Blue Lotus representative on the grounds of the Red Dragon gang in order for the Red Dragon clan to take the blame of the murder.
Continuing to set in motion a gang war that will completely restructure the Hong Kong crime world, 47 must eliminate the representative of the Red Dragon gang and then dress up in his clothes and assassinate The Blue Lotus representative and the local Chief of Police.
47's final act in setting the war in motion, he must assassinate crime lord Lee Hong and steal a figurine that is a symbolic representation of power amongst the factions.
  • Hunter and Hunted (Paris)
The police have closed in on 47, trapping him inside his hotel room. With no clear escape, 47 must make his final stand or die trying. This level takes place directly after Curtains Down in the sequel game Blood Money.
Spoilers end here.

[edit] Weapons

Pistols
SMGs
Rifles
Shotguns
Sniper Rifles
Heavy Weaponry
Miscellaneous

A further 12 bonus weapons can be collected by achieving the Silent Assassin rating in each mission.

[edit] Plot

The hunter has become the hunted, as 47 is seriously wounded by one of his own targets, who seems to have been expecting him. Bleeding to death and taking refuge in a hotel room somewhere in Paris, France, 47 drifts in and out of consciousness as an army of heavily armed French SWAT units converge around the hotel. The newest game Hitman: Blood Money, has a level (Curtains Down) in which 47 is hired to kill an actor and U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican at the Opera house in Paris. At the end of the level a French policeman on the other side of the street notices him getting away from the crime scene and cocks his gun. It is also noteworth that the gun he cocks appears to be a M1911, the pistol used by members of the Franchise, the main antagonists in the sequel. This could possilbly allude to the fact that the Chief of Police could be involved with the Franchise, for there is no other plausible explanation (at this time) that could explain how he knew who 47 was. The scene ends here but it's possible to conclude that 47 gets badly wounded afterwards since in the next mission (Flatline) Diana Burnwood says she's glad that 47 has recovered from his wounds and is back working for the Agency. It is between these two of Blood Money's missions that Contracts takes place. Eidos had planned that Blood Money and Contracts' storylines would converge this way. A mission in one game is the backstory for another.

It should be noted, however, that Contracts and Blood Money arguably contradict each other at points. The ending of Contracts shows that Diana is aware that the Agency is being targeted and she knows who is coming after them. It's implied that 47 will be going after their attackers immediately. However in Blood Money, 47 isn't informed that he's being hunted until near the end of the game. Besides this arguable continuity error, the briefing for "Curtain's Down", is different that the briefing 47 got in Contracts, in the appearances of the two targets from "Curtain's Down" and one of their names. Also the Inspector 47 must kill in Contracts isn't even mentioned in "Curtain's Down". However, it could be argued that 47 was intended to kill the inspector after the events of "Curtain's Down", as the Inspector did not attend the opera house.

Hitman: Contracts' story centers on 47's flashbacks to earlier assignments. Many of the game's missions are re-imaginings of previous ones in the series. Almost all of the major missions from Hitman: Codename 47 have been re-made and included in Contracts; the exceptions being the Colombia levels, which were scheduled to be included but were dropped, and the final two levels (the first level of Contracts begins with the conclusion of the first game and the escape from the asylum in Romania where 47 was created). The locations visited include Budapest, Hong Kong, Paris, Romania, Rotterdam, Siberia and the United Kingdom.

The game is darker than the previous two entries, literally and figuratively. Literally speaking, all levels either take place at dusk, nighttime, or during inclement weather such as a blinding snow storm. No level features sunshine, or any real hinting of clear skies. The game's interiors are either poorly lit, take place in near blackness, or feature eerie, almost supernatural lighting ranging from green-hued fluorescent bulbs to candles. As is the case with the overlapping of Hitman: Blood Money, there are also some contradictions between the recollected missions and their counterparts in Hitman: Codename 47; for example, in the two incarnations of the mission "Traditions Of The Trade", the first demonstrated Hitman checking into the Hotel Galar under the alias Tobias Rieper, which was used multiple times during the game; in the latter, he anaesthetized a representative of one of the countries attending the UF (really UN since the UF does not exist in real life. It was probably reverted to avoid trademark issues.) peace conference being held at the hotel, and checked in under his name, Mr. Metzger. Also in the first mission, the bodies of 18 clones can be seen littered all over the asylum even though 47 only killed 10 clones in the first game. Though this is true, this could merely be how 47 reimagines it in the flashbacks he has, so the developers may not have been attempting to be true to the game canon.

Jesper Kyd's musical composition also reflects this change of tone. Silent Assassin had an orchestral and epic score which created a grandiose atmosphere, but the score of Contracts reflects the game's twisted and sinister mood through dark electronica tracks that could fit in a horror movie. Many fans consider Contracts' music the best of the series. The main difference between the two games is that "Silent Assassin" had a theme of international conspiracy; "Contracts" is better characterized as a psychological thriller.

[edit] Targets

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
  • The Meat King's Party
"Meat King" Campbell Sturrock
Lawyer Andrei Puscus
  • The Bjarkhov Bomb
Fabian Fuchs
Commander Bjarkhov
  • Beldingford Manor
Lord Winston Beldingford
Alistair Beldingford
  • Rendezvous in Rotterdam
Rutgert Van Leuven
Klaas Teller
  • Traditions of the Trade
Franz Fuchs
Fritz Fuchs
  • Lee Hong Assassination
Lee Hong
Zun (optional)
  • Hunter and Hunted
Inspector Albert Fournier
Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

  • Jesper Kyd composed Contract's soundtrack, continuing his work with the franchise.
  • The face and voice used for Agent 47 is that of David Bateson.
  • In the mission Traditions of the Trade 47 uses a SPAS-12 shotgun hidden in a box of roses, a reference to the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day , or arguably the Godfather.
  • Freedom Fighters (video game), another game developed by IO Interactive, features a poster of Agent 47 hugging Mei Ling in an advertisement for a movie called Hong Kong Love Story, and also contains several images of Agent 47 advertising men's clothing.
  • The final mission could be a tribute to Luc Besson movie Léon when he battles his way from numerous heavily armed SWAT forces in a rundown apartment.
  • In the final mission, several French stereotypes line the streets, cordoned off by police. One of these is a mime artist. This character's marker on the map is always shown as living even if he's shot to the point where he seems dead.

[edit] Reviews

[edit] External links


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Hitman video games
Codename 47 • 2: Silent Assassin • Contracts • Blood Money
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