Hitman: Blood Money

Hitman: Blood Money (2006), available on GOG, is a stealth classic known for its creative freedom and brilliant level design. Key features include: Weapon customization, allowing upgrades to suit different playstyles. Notoriety system, increasing challenges in future missions. Creative accidental kills and strategic gadgets. Disguises for smart infiltration and exploration. Money management for upgrades and bribes. The GOG version enhances compatibility with modern systems while preserving the original charm. Though the graphics and AI show their age, the mission design and iconic soundtrack ensure a rich experience. Rating: 9/10 – A timeless classic that still defines the stealth genre.

For reference, i've played this game for about 30 hours on Steam and purchased it again here. It's a great game that fills a very specific niche of Stealth no other franchise I know of attempts, its essentially an assassination sandbox. You're given a large level and you have the open ended task of killing your target, which can be done in dozens of different ways, gaining money you can use to buy weapons and other items to assist in your contracts, as well as having a notoriety system in case you leave evidence and witnesses. In some ways it even still surpasses the modern Hitman trilogy (Hitman 2016 and its sequels) as it relies a lot less in context sensitive actions, allowing for a much more free form gameplay (for example, while in the modern titles you have poison vials and poison syringes, with the former being usable only in food/drink items and the latter only directly in NPCs, both being just a prompt to press a button when close to the object, in Blood Money you just have poison syringes, that you use by aiming them organically like you do with any weapon, and are therefore usable on *both* NPCs and on food/drink items), giving you more flexibility and less problems with context sensitive actions being misinterpreted by the game

I'm not a huge hitman guy to be fair, I tried some of the originals when I was younger and bounced off of them. I've also tried the new ones and while I think they're great, they've never really grabbed me. Blood Money is the only game of the series that I played as a kid, and now an adult, and absolutely loved. The levels are all memorable and perfectly laid out with just enough options to not feel overwhelming, while leaving enough room for you to experiment and improvise in ways that make you feel like you've just pulled off the perfect hit. The story as well, while a bit cliche', culminates in an extremely satisfying finale that I still remember all these years later. On the technical side, wheter it's GOG or IO I'm not sure, this game still runs like a dream on modern hardware. I've not experienced any issues at all and although the highest 16:9 resolution I can select is 1080p, the game still looks great despite being almost 20 years old. An absolute no brainer if youre a fan of the series. especially if it's going for cheap.

Alongside with Hitman 2: Silent Assassin this is by far the best entry in the series.

Back in 2007 I bought the hitman trilogy on PS2 and played them to death, I love the open ended nature of the levels in all 3 games, taking different approaching to killing your targets, something which is lacking in the newer titles. That being said I was very pleased to see this classic on the GOG store, Instant buy from me!