PS2 Game Reviews

bellview--i love games

Home | Movie Reviews | Video Roundups | Essays | Game Reviews | Subscribe | Mailbag | About | Search

Hitman 2:  Silent Assassin

2004

On the advice of Ron "The Law" Webster, I went out and dropped $20 on a Greatest Hits copy of "Hitman 2: Silent Assassin", and I must say, this is a sweet, sweet game.  This is mostly due to the fact that the Hitman, your playable lead character, is a total badass, and sneaking around the various levels to try and earn the Silent Assassin rating is just phatty.

Hitman spends most of his time assassinating primary targets, but in the meantime, you have to get to each target by taking out guards and other nefarious types through any means necessary.  The less you kill, the better your overall rating.  You will also need to snatch some disguises every so often to get past security checkpoints, oftentimes without any weapons at all.

Each level affords you the chance to get the job done two or three different ways, which makes this is a fairly creative effort at times.  On a couple of the levels, it's possible to get your job done by only killing the main target, and those tend to be the most satisfying levels of all.  Weapon selection is excellent, but even I found that I would play through each level as a hitman really might before breaking out the heavy weapons on my second trip through a level.

And, those rag doll physics built into the engine mean that the sawed-off shotty is going to really look painful...

Rating:  Opening Weekend

 

Feedback?  Comments?  Hot doughnut tip?  justin@bellviewmovies.com

 

Bellview Rating System:

"Opening Weekend":  Buy this game right away, and don't ask me any questions as to why that's a good move.  A game experience that will almost guarantee repeated controller abuse, lots of ManScreaming and high resale value, you will assuredly play this bad boy for months on end. 

"$40":  Usually after games have been out for a while, they drop in price slightly, or can be bought for slightly cheaper in combination with other new games.  Usually, that's about $40.  You'll feel good getting the game for this price, since it isn't quite run-out-and-get-it-right-now good, but it has enough game in the box for a few weeks' worth of enjoyment.

"eBay":  This game is not too bad, but you'd be better off buying it used from either half.com or eBay.  You also might let a friend buy this game, let s/he beat it, and then try to buy it from them to make them feel better.  Yes, this does tend to feel like "Sloppy Seconds."

"Rental":  Like my cousin Ron, you should always rent games that you aren't sure about first, to make sure that your $50 is going towards something worthwhile.  For games in this category, this is the maximum amount of money ($5) and/or time (3-5 days) you'll need to either gain satisfaction from the game, or beat the game in its entirety.  Rental-rated games are also sometimes perfect for a weekend when you are going to be at home on your ass, with some time to kill.

"Dogshit":  Games like this should have never been released.  If you play this game for any reason, you will regret every second of the experience.  Further, if you can get this game for free, don't do it, because even for FREE, it will still be a negative experience for you!