Hitman: Blood Money, first released in 2006 by Eidos, is considered by many to be the best Hitman game ever made. After the first few games played around with novel ideas and concepts to mixed success, Blood Money honed in on the formulae of specific, small and dense environments filled with ‘accidental’ scripted opportunities to murder your target. Gone are the long and slow walking through the linear levels of Silent Assassin. You no longer have the weird and confusing systems of Codename: 47, where you only sometimes had to think outside the box. What we get here is a more focused experience - 12 playgrounds puzzle murders.

But in focusing on these specifics, has Blood Money left behind something meaningful from the previous games? And while it built the groundwork for what the modern games would become, does it execute on it with the same finesse? Has Hitman: Blood Money truly stood the test of time, or does it just play like an awkward middle child?

On this episode, we discuss:

Story

• Hitman: Blood Money is ostensibly a more gritty game than the first two - but is this actually the case? Does the gameplay end up pushing the overall tone towards something less serious and slightly more goofy, or does the darker story portrayed in cutscenes keep it grounded?

Level Design

• How does the level design of Blood Money craft and guide the overall experience? How does it use visual direction to create a sense of place, and does it compare favourably to the levels earlier in the series?

Execution(s)

• How enjoyable is it to discover and execute the various scripted deaths on every level? Are these fun puzzles to figure out through trial and error, or does this lead to a sense of frustration as you wait around with no idea what to do?

We answer these questions and many more on the 118th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Hitman: Blood Money OST - Jesper Kyd

Is Hitman: Blood Money truly the best Hitman game? Just how good are the modern hitman games, should we play them? What’s your favourite level?

Come let us know what you think or recommend us a new game on our community discord server!

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