Hitman: Codename 47

The first Hitman is easily the closest to my heart even with all of the bugs and super reactive A.I. The ragdoll system employed here has never been replicated with the same success in my opinion. A shotgun to the head feels like a shotgun to the head. As for the difficulty level, it can prove testing at times, especially in the asylum level at the end but ultimately only motivates you to try every single path to the objective. The hotel mission still stands as one of my top ten game levels of all time.

Unlike the sequels which fall squarely into "stealth" puzzle/adventure territory, C47 is more of a third person shooter with quirks. The Rambo approach is very viable, more so as there is no rating system. Still, the garrote wire is there if you want to use it. Also, easily the most satisfying ending of any Hitman game.

I loved this game when it came out. Creative, difficult, and fun. I tried the sequels, but couldn't get in to them as deeply, because they were easier - first thing you tried worked, and even if you made a mistake you still won. Not so with this first one! Call it a very OCD FPS. My best memory is carrying my beloved sniper rifle through the jungle with great difficulty (when I wasn't supposed to!) to make it to the camp. It took me forever to figure out I was being identified because I had *the wrong gun* in my hands. The mission went much better when I ditched the rifle earlier and could walk undetected through camp.

If your looking at this on GOG you don't need me to tell you its a classic, you most likely already know what its about, or you wouldnt be on this page. If your like me you want to know how this plays now, NOT when it came out, but now. I had played this when it first came out, and played it again 2 weeks ago on my current system. I was very surprised at how relatively playable and fun it still is. With all the changed made to the series, the first one is still fun and I played to the end because of that. I was in shock how I had forgotten that they didn't hold your hand back in the day. There are often several stealth ways to complete missions, but they don't point them out. You have to figure them out on your own and I still remember to this day the ones I pulled off. I did find them more difficult now, as on my system the timing makes using piano wire impossible. But its easy enough to substitute & spam the knife instead. Speaking of which I'm sure GOG's version is better, but on the one I'm using I had to enable the console and bring down the timing to make it playable. This has an added bonus of allowing cheats, there are 3 pesky levels that you'll want them for once your done banging your head. I also had to fix some graphics issues by manually changing the graphics mode. This game is from the day when you had to manually pick OpenGL or Direct3D. It still looks surprisingly good for its age and the controls are quite good too. And I appreciate the short levels, origin story, and concise playtime. It wasn't the highest rated series ever, but it was fun, and despite its age it still is. The crazy ragdoll physics is still great! It seems to run with few problems, at least for me & my M11x.

You are an assassin. You are a bad person. You kill for a living. You are very good at it. Third person shooter, with a more action-adventure approach than pure shooter. Options to play the missions as you see fit, stealthy and undetected, or with a killing spree. The game is very hard, and you will die often. You will get upset and you will blame the game. Yet, even if you rage quit, you will come back, again and again. You can use camouflage, avoid enemies, not allow yourself to be detected, and perform the perfect kill without anyone but yourself and the victim ever know about your job till you are very far away in a safe place. That is very hard. You can try to go guns blazing, but you are not that hard to kill, you bleed just like everyone else. That is even harder. If you want a hard third person shooter/stealth game where your mind gets tested by an unforgiving good game, get it. Just don't come back whining it is "unfair", "too hard", or any other excuse. When you fail, it's your fault. Apart from the great difficulty, the mouse aiming gets a little time to get used to it (similar to Deus Ex) and the graphics and animation is not the best in the business. Nothing to stop you from enjoying this game though.