Oh, 47, how I've missed you.

One of my all-time favorite game characters is Agent 47. In the last generation of consoles, the Hitman games were some of my favorites. (The movie sucked. Mostly because it had almost nothing in common with the games other than a bald head and a red tied suit).

Sadly, 47 has been missing since the current generation of consoles came to power.

That all ends later this year. 47 is coming back in a big way. any other Hitman fans out there?

I'm a little worried about the future for Diana though. Surely 47 is trying to help her. Right? Right?? raying: (Although I do like that now that we actually see her, they made he look a little like Kate Beckinsale. That never hurts. )

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Looks like Diana is dead (and 47 killed her). They're making that part of the description for the plot of the game. No longer a spoiler.

But yeah, Thigpen, I loved those games and would play them over and over. I hope they keep it very flexible. sometimes I like to be as stealthy as possible and try to kill only the target (and make it look like an accident at that). Sometimes... I'm in a bad mood and everyone is dead meat.

I'll probably wait until Christmas to get it as the release date in November means I'll probably still be engrossed in AC3.

I do find their tagline amusing: "Be the original assassin."

 

I finally got around to playing this game.

And I'll be playing it for a long time just like its predecessors. HIGH replay value.

Some thoughts:

Overall, GREAT game! It's a shame it flew under the radar because it could easily be a contender for game of the year. Far more satisfying than AC3 (I love anything Assassin's Creed, but 3 was a bit of a letdown).

The story this time around is awesome. Story??? We actually HAVE a story!!!! Not little hints about something or other with random missions and no real cohesive plot. An actual, honest to goodness STORY! It's nothing to the level of, say, RDR or even most of the Assassin's Creeds. But it's a driving plot with a lot of over the top characters and events. It's a "popcorn movie" of a story. The voice acting is very good too, especially with the likes of Powers Boothe, Keith Carradine (fantastic here), Steven Bauer and some returning familiar voices. Very atmospheric and "film noir" with tiny slivers of movies like Kill Bill thrown in.

And it's HARD. Not impossible hard. But difficult enough. More so if you try for Silent Assassin. Many of the missions involve HUGE crowds (aka: lots of witnesses). The enemy AI is very sharp and even on normal, they're not clueless buffoons who only react to something after the fact. They have much better vision and perception. Sneaking around or past them isn't very easy.

Other than that? It's a Hitman game. On the easier settings, it may feel - at times - like they're hand holding you through a few things. But turn up the difficulty, and prepare to be thoroughly challenged.

My only nitpick? I wish the controls were a tad more intuitive and fluid. It's not necessarily clunky. But a tweak here and there of the control scheme would make it a lot smoother.

Here's hoping we don't have to wait another 5 years for the next game.