Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
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| Hitman 2: Silent Assassin | |
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| Developer(s) | IO Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | Eidos Interactive |
| Engine | Glacier engine |
| Version | 1.01 (November 1, 2002) |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube |
| Release date | NA October 1, 2002 UK October 4, 2002 JP June 11, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Stealth |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: M PEGI: 16+ OFLC: MA15+ |
| Media | CD-ROM, DVD, Nintendo GameCube Game Disc Steam |
| System requirements | Minimum:
Pentium III 450 MHz, 128 MB RAM, Windows 98/ME/XP, DirectX 8.1, 16 MB DirectX 8.1 compliant 3D accelerator, DirectX 8.1 compliant sound card, 800 MB hard-disk space and 16x CD-ROM drive. |
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is a stealth-based, first/third-person shooter, developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive. It was the second installment of the Hitman video game series, followed by Hitman: Contracts in 2004, and Hitman: Blood Money in 2006. The game was released first on October 1, 2002 in North America. It was released on PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox and the GameCube, the only Hitman installment in the series to be released on a Nintendo console so far.
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[edit] Gameplay
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This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (June 2008) |
Silent Assassin addressed many of the criticisms concerning the gameplay of the original game: The control scheme has been streamlined to better mirror that of a standard shooter: an optional first-person perspective was added, and a visual meter was added to give the player the ability to gauge enemies' suspicion level for stealth purposes. While the "suspicion meter" generally reacts appropriately (such as when the player enters a restricted area or draws a weapon in public), there were some sensitivity issues, possibly bug-related, which caused enemies to react adversely to the player for seemingly innocuous actions, such as close proximity. This feature was improved upon in the subsequent games of the series.
Also introduced in the game was the concept of a post-mission ranking system, in which the player is given a status based on how they completed the mission, rated along a stealthy-aggressive axis, between "Mass Murderer", a non-stealthy player who kills everyone, and "Silent Assassin", a stealthy player who manages to complete the level without being noticed and only killing the intended target(s). The game rewards the player for critical thinking and problem solving, encouraging the player not to treat the game as a simple shooter. Achieving Silent Assassin status on multiple missions rewards the player with bonus weapons.
Graphically, Silent Assassin can use either the Direct3D or OpenGL rendering engines.
[edit] Synopsis
This game continues after the incidents in the game Hitman: Codename 47, with the famed assassin, Agent 47, retreating to a church in Sicily to seek asylum and peace. During his time in the church, he works as a gardener for the kind and only priest, Father Vittorio. 47 views Father Vittorio as his best friend and mentor, attending regular confessions to admit his sins.
One day, after a confession, Father Vittorio is kidnapped and a ransom note is left for 47, demanding 500,000 dollars in two days. 47 decides to go back to his old job as an assassin to track down Father Vittorio. He contacts his agency, who thought he was dead and makes a deal with his handler, Diana, to carry out some contracts for them if they can use their advanced equipment to help him locate Father Vittorio.
Diana accepts the deal and lets 47 know that according to their information Father Vittorio was kidnapped by a ruthless Sicilian Mafia capo named Giuseppe Guilliano, who is holding the priest in a cell under his mansion, dubbed Villa Borghese. 47 sneaks into the mansion and kills Giuseppe Guilliano, but fails to find Father Vittorio. He is later told that a satellite image show Father Vittorio being taken away by 'four bearded Russian-looking types in uniform'.
The Agency held up their end of the agreement to find the location of Father Vittorio. 47 must hold up to his end and do some hits for the Agency. 47 fulfills his part of the deal and the Agency was pleased with working with 47 again. They offer him 3 times the going rate for a hit to continue working for the Agency. 47 accepts and travels to different countries, including Russia, Japan, Nuristan (Afghanistan), Malaysia and Punjab (India) to carry out his missions, assassinating the assigned targets along the way.
Agent 47 eventually learns that the entire thing had been a scam by a Russian named Sergei Zavorotko, an agency's client whom 47 had been working for all along. Sergei had hired 47 to kill all the people who knew anything relating to a major nuclear warhead he had purchased. Sergei was also the brother of Arkadij Jegorov who was one of 47's "five fathers".
Finally, 47 tracks Sergei back to the church in Sicily, where he holds a terrified Father Vittorio as hostage. 47 eventually kills Sergei, leaving Father Vittorio alive. Afterwards, Father Vittorio gives a silver cross to Agent 47, asking him to follow the right way and find peace in his life according to his inner soul. Agent 47 takes a final look at Father Vittorio and leaves the church, hanging the cross on the church's broken wooden door, realizing he would never find peace there and takes back to a life as a hitman.
[edit] Controversy
The game's release sparked controversy due to a level featuring the killing of Sikhs within a depiction of their most holy site, the Harimandir Sahib.[1] Eidos claimed that the enemies in the level were not Sikh, but simply guards, and that the "temple" was in fact a hospital.[citation needed] However, this is contradicted by a depiction in the game itself, which refers to the site as a gurdwara, or Sikh temple. An altered version of Silent Assassin was eventually released on the GameCube and Windows platforms with the offending material removed from the game.
[edit] Reception
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin received generally very favorable reviews. In Rotten Tomatoes the PC version received a rating of 90 % fresh, 8.8/10 with a highly recommended -tag, based on nineteen reviews.[2] In another meta-review site, Metacritic, the PC version scored 87/100 based on twenty reviews.[3] The reviews of the PC version of the game were the most favorable but the versions of other platforms, namely Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation 2, were practically rated as good as the PC version.
[edit] In-jokes
- In the game, newspapers typically have the words "FCK banker Brøndby" (meaning "FC Copenhagen beats Brøndby IF") written on them. This is a reference to the constant dispute between FCK fans and Brøndby fans.
- The pizza boxes in the game have the words "Ægte pizza med lort på" written on them. This can be translated into "Real pizza with turd on it"
- The signs containing arabic letters "انتخبوا الحاج محمد عبد المقصود خير من يمثلكم فى مجلس الشعب رمز الهلال رقم 1 خير من يمثلكم" mean, word-for-word, "elect the elder Mohammed Abd-AlMaqSud, the best to represent you in the peoples assembly under the sign of the crescent moon number 1 ". Diana said in one of 47's briefings that the man shown in the signs was one of 47's targets.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Young Sikhs force changes to Hitman 2", CBBC, 21 November 2002. Retrieved on 2008-01-28.
- ^ Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (PC). Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
- ^ Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (PC 2002) reviews. metacritic.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
[edit] External links
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