Review: Hitman Blood Money 3D action game

The Hollywood hitman is a funny sort of chap. From Edward Fox in The Day of the Jackal to Pierce Brosnan in last year's The Matador, hitmen are usually portrayed as romantic, yet strangely tragic figures.

On the big screen, the assassin is almost always single-minded, cold-hearted and ultimately out of step with the world around him. Rarely, however, is he bald as a coot.

In fact, few heroes - either in movies or video games - are quite as bald as Codename 47, the tonsorially-challenged hired killer from the Hitman games.

Supposedly genetically engineered especially for the job, you might have thought that having an entirely hair-free head and a big barcode tattooed on your neck might make you somewhat conspicuous when it comes to sneaking past guards or disguising oneself in order to gain access to well-protected targets.

Blood Money is, however, the fourth game in the series, so Codename 47's career must be going fairly well despite these obvious handicaps.

Previous Hitman outings have been a mixture of stealth game and shoot-em-up and Blood Money is no exception. As before, you play Codename 47 in a series of missions, each involving the infiltration of some location or another and the assassination of one or more victims in exchange for cold, hard cash.

This time around, the developers have framed the gameplay slightly differently with an intriguing backstory that involves 47 and the shady agency that hires him under threat from a rival shady agency. Some of the story is told in flashback, which adds to the cinematic flavour.

Each mission follows a fairly similar pattern. Whether set in a disused amusement park, a Chilean drug baronís compound or a busy Las Vegas casino, the story is pretty much the same; get from point A to point B attracting as little attention as possible.

At which point you must dispatch your designated target(s) and escape in order to complete your assignment.

It sounds a bit of a one-trick pony, but environments are so varied and m issions can be accomplished in so many different ways, that you never feel like the formula's wearing thin.

By and large, the game rewards patient players who favour a more stealthy approach. It's possible to hide weaponry, conceal your identity, creep up on people for a silent kill and occasionally even use environments against your enemies rather than making your presence known.

Unlike some stealth games, however, Hitman at least gives you the option of unleashing some of the serious hardware at your disposal on the various hoods and cronies in your path rather than sticking to the shadows.

It's unlikely you'll get too far like this, however, since the sheer weight of numbers against you makes it pretty difficult to survive in a full-on fire fight. Coming out guns blazing does, however, make for a good plan B, should your cover get blown half-way through a mission.

The game is pretty tough, even at the lowest difficulty level. The Novice setting only takes the edge off slightly by dint of the fact that you can save at will rather than having to start the mission again if you come a cropper.

Those unused to this series may be put off by the stiff challenge and open-ended mission structure.

Stick with it and you'll almost certainly find the latest Hitman game an engaging blend of tense strategy and all-out action.

Existing fans of the bald, barcoded badass, meanwhile, will be pleased to hear that this Blood Money is basically just more of the same.

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