Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

Being a huge fan of the original Hitman, I bought this right away. And unfortunately, in my opinion, this turned out to be a mistake as I consider it to be the weakest of all the Hitman games. While much have improved upon the first game, the game suffered by way too many "military levels". What I've always liked since the first Hitman is to walk around civilians in a public place and kill the target without anyone noticing. While the first game had some bad levels, I can't count how many times I've replayed The Lee Hong Assasination and Traditions of the Trade levels. They were simply just brilliant and I had never played anything like them before. Hitman 2 have more levels than any other game in the series, but very few with civilians in them. Instead you're forced to spend time in military complexes or fighting cyber ninjas in the winter landscape. Seriously, 47 should spend his time in resturants, hotels, casinos and so on. Another interesting this is that the two levels in the game that I like the most and do have a fair share of civilians in them (Anathema & Invitation to a Party), are the ones that got most attention in the previews and the ones which were released as demos. Bit misleading. All you need to get the near-full Hitman 2 experience is just to hunt down those two demos, and it won't cost you a dime. Another thing that I was a bit disappointed in when I played Hitman 2 was the story, which I blame all on the official website. The website had a fair chunk of information about the history of 47 about when he grew up and so on, and it raised my expectations on on the game story and that it would be expanded upon in the game, but it didn't happen. So all this Hitman 2 website information wasn't in Hitman 2 at all. That said, Hitman 2 still have the greatest soundtrack of all the games in the series, so at least that's something :-)

As someone who hasn't played many stealth games, I can safely say this is a pretty good choice for a newcomer to the genre. It's very well paced with absolutely fantastic level design, challenging but reasonable difficulty, and one that rewards outside-the-box thinking for problem solving. It's still not perfect though, and I do have some grips. I wish there were hand-to-hand combat options for dealing with guards that get close to you, without having to fire off guns and blow your cover. Also, I felt enemies that get knocked out should actually STAY knocked out. Using chloroform or a gun butt to the head just knocks them to the ground for a few seconds, but doesn't actually neutralize the threat. Enemies also spot you way too easily, even while in disguise, so sneaking past them can be very trial-and-error. For the most part these problems are pretty forgivable though, so I'd definitely say buy it.

There is no question that this is one of the best Hitman games of all times. The developers were able to improve all the bad stuff from Codename 47 (like the missing saving function or the bad controls) and added many new features. Most of the missions play very unique, there are only a few bad ones. The soundtrack is just phenomenal. Be careful: I wasn´t able to play the game in its current state from GOG. The videos didn´t play properly and the framerate was completely broken. So what you have to do before you play: Go to his website and download the widescreen patch: https://github.com/fkortsagin/Himan-2-Silent-Assassin-Resolution-and-Black-Screen-Fix-Windows-10 The other widescreen patches that I found on the internet didn´t work for me.

Great follow-up to the first hitman. While the first was extremely basic and functioned more like a glorified tech-demo at times, this seems to be more in line with what the hitman series eventually ended up evolving into. This game and the third game in the series are definitely the best ones amongst the older Hitman games, in my opinion. And if you want to play this on Win10 without any stutters or being forced to play in a crazy low resolution, then follow this guide. It will show you how to bump up the resolution to a more bearable level: https://steamcommunity.com/app/6850/discussions/0/1734342161868867679/

The game itself (mechanics and so) is a *really* fine upgrade of "codename 47" but it was not fun as that previous one because of the strange NPCs AI. Just an example: - «Guards are looking for a suspect Guard» in the meantime you changed 2 times disguise and out of nothing a bunch of guards enter the room you're in and shoot... Those kind of things sometimes make this game a bit frustrating, just that.