Hitman: Codename 47

The game has its flaws. It can be frustrating (it WILL be frustrating OFTEN). I'd still recommend glimpsing at a walkthrough and pushing forward rather than rage-quitting. The game has a story, and it's a neat one. There are two endings, and even the bad one feels satisfactory somehow (or maybe it's only me liking the theme of contract killers in pop-culture 'n entertainment). Locations are fine, climate is there, some humoristic moments (Quotes from "Scarface" and "Passenger 57"), and for me it didn't put me off Hitman 2 SA (yeah, I'm struggling there, too, with a nicer graphics). Game-play can be a nightmare. Corpses can stuck in the door, and before you are able to drag them into the room, the guard will show up and ruin your fun. The AI often acts unreasonable, and you may feel lost. So if you decide life is too short, and there are so many other Hitman titles out there still to play, yet you want to start it properly, there's no shame in helping yourself with some tips from the net and complete the game. It's worth it, despite being more than mildly annoying at times.

Not gonna lie, I have played this at least twice a year since when this came out. Therefore, I can't give a review that has no old-time gamer's nostalgia touch, but I'll just explain why I still, after all this time, think this game is amazing. Back in the year 2000, ragdoll physics weren't too common. IO Interactive's Thomas Jakobsen created the physics engine for this game and, frankly, it's still pretty good today. Obviously, modern machines end up negatively affecting the experience when the physics are somewhat tied to the frame rate. Still, we can't really blame the game for it, because it had no such problem 20 years ago. If you run the game with a ~60 FPS cap, it has no problems. Talking about problems, the biggest negative that people mention is the brutal difficulty level. Yes, I agree on this. It is brutal—even on easy. The good thing is that finishing a mission is incredibly satisfying! Just know that it is quite a challenge. Getting your cover blown is only a survival problem since this game doesn't have the rating system that the newer games have. Having a rating system in a game that has somewhat silly A.I. and no sedatives or real ways to hide bodies would be horrific. Oddly enough, the lack of an in-detail rating system is a positive in this game. The only thing you really get is money, and the amount depends on whom you kill. Stay away from civilians and police officers! Since there are no sedatives, getting punished for killing enemy henchmen would not make sense. I guess an important question is whether or not there is a story. It is there, but you have to find it. Read the mission briefings and every letter you can (or rather might) find. You will find out what you need to know. Not that it matters much in the future games. If you have played the newer games in the series, go for this one as well. It is a great piece of history and an amazing game from a different era. Just remember not to look at the game from a modern gamer's perspective.

Hitman: Codename 47 utilised a stealth, murder and disguise combination that made the series an absolute hit. On one hand it can seem like each stage is a puzzle and figuring out who to kill, which costumes to use, where to hide bodies and how to sneak by the remaining guards to get a silent kill can be a fun challenge. On the other hand there's nothing to stop you from grabbing some pistols and blasting your way to your target. It should be pointed out that this game will challenge you. As you're meant to be a silent assassin being found out can lead to a very quick death. Each stage has a variety of fun moments, and even throws a few funny characters into the mix. It's only downfall in my opinion is the jungle stages where it can seem that there's no pattern at all to get through. The series becomes more refined and much darker in tone with every iteration and although the first game may seem frustrating to some, Hitman Codename 47 laid down the track work for a sadistic but very entertaining series. Play Codename 47 and bring on Silent Assassin!

So this is the first Hitman, and therefore the oldest and clunkiest. I think people are right to say this is the worst one out of the first 4 games, BUT it's still a 4 out of five stars for me and I really reckommend playing this sitle. There are some structural diffrences between this game and it's sequels, the biggest one for me is that this game doesn't have a fleshed out end of mission rating system. You just need to complete the missions, guns blazing or silently doesn't matter, the only penalties you get is for killing civilians. There is a suprising upside and a glaring downside to this design approach. The upside is that you won't be OCD'd into somekind of perfectionism you can sometimes have if the game has a rating system (restarting at any breakout of violence etc..). Just getting to the end of the level is your ony goal. Coming from the other Hitmans this might look like a negative, but it's suprisingly liberating and it's fun for atleast 1 hitman game to have this approach. I also reckommend playing this game on one of the hardest difficulties so that playing stealthily becomes more of a necessity then an optional playstyle. The negative is that this game's level design isn't as 'open' as the later titles are in the sense that there aren't a multitude of designed ways to complete your objectives/assassinate your targets. You are lucky if there is more than one. The designers clearly have much more of an intended 'path' for you to take and this is made worse by some heavily scripted things happening that force you to certain actions to tell a more 'cinematic' story. This gets in the way of player freedom and is forced. So that's a negative. The levels are pretty varied. There are few locales you go to broken up in different levels resulting in the final level where you assassinate the target you came for. The quality of the levels are a mixed bag, some good some less good, but if this game has one thing going for it it's the mood the soundtrack adds to the already atmospheric levels. This was, arguably, Jesper Kyd's first soundtrack for a somewhat bigger title and the soundtrack is superb. It adds a lot of class. All by all an interesting trip into the roots of Hitman. I reckommend it and even greatly reckommend it to Hitman fans.

I remember playing the game back in the day and it was AWESOME!!! Unfortunately, the gog version isn't as good for me. I'm trying to play this awesome game on my new system (athlon ii x4 635, ati radeon 6870, windows 7 ultimate) but the game has issues: the keys often get "stuck" or delayed a lot and sometimes my inputs just don't trigger. Please fix.