Hitman 2: Silent Assasin (GameCube) Preview

It has been quite awhile since Codename 47 has freed himself from his dirty, bloodstained life and has taken up living a peaceful life residing in a church in Italy. Trying his hardest to suppress the past, he is taken in by Father Vittorio, who lets the Hitman stay in a shed beside the church. Eventually, as the days pass on, 47 has difficulty forgetting his past, and wants to have a confession with Father Vittorio.

But as bad timing would have it, a car drives up to the church, and as Father Vittorio sees to the commotion, he is promptly and forcibly kidnapped, with nothing being left behind but a ransom note. Our friend, the Hitman, stumbles upon the note, and reads of Vittorio's kidnapping. At this point, 47 finds himself having no choice but to resort back to his old ways and methods of yesteryear, once again donning his slick black suit and red tie. Contacting the Agency, Codename 47 prepares himself to embark upon the dark world of death again, seeking out the whereabouts of his mentor Vittorio whilst accepting missions from his Agency contacts. A good game needs to have a good story, and this game plays on emotions, involves kidnapping and killing all rolled up into one big strategy game, where you always have to be one step ahead of your enemies if you want to stay alive.

The Hitman is a trained killer, and can use pretty much any weapon. You can gather a massive collection of weapons to aid him on his missions, which are far too many to list! He can use Dual Silverballers, Deagles, Submachine guns, AK-47s, Sniper Rifles, a Crossbow, and many more handguns than you can handle. Also, some of the smaller weapons also include knives, axes, and 47's standard sneak weapon, the fiberwire, which he can use to strangle unsuspecting people when unarmed. If he keeps a new weapon at the end of a level, he gets to permanently keep that weapon in his tool shed. This game's subtitle is called Silent Assassin for a reason, of course. Most of the levels that the missions take place on contain a massive amount of heavily armed guards, so going toe-to-toe with them isn't such a great idea most of time unless you're really good at taking headshots at them, or extremely lucky. So instead of close encounters, you can sneak around and don a dead guard's disguise and weapon. But if you do that, you have to take precaution and hide the body. Because if you don't and leave it out in the open, other guards are bound to find it and get suspicious in no time, looking for you.

To get a better ranking which is based on your stealth and aggression with the enemy, instead of killing, you can instead pacify them by using anaesthetic bottles to knock them out. But they won't be knocked out very long, so if you're going to complete an objective, you'll have to do it quick. In some missions, the Agency supplies 47 with weapons and items vital to his objectives. For example, there is a level where you must eliminate two generals in a park meeting. You can choose to shoot them from a specified location with your sniper rifle, but you'll notice that there is also an optional, if not easier way to perform the hit. There are literally hundreds of different ways to complete each level. It's best to just keep your wits about you, and conserve that precious ammo.

The graphics in Hitman 2 are pretty sharp and solid. The environments that Mr. Killer travels to are pretty natural and nicely detailed according to their locations, such as Japan where you're placed into the mountains during a heavy snowstorm while sneaking into a hidden tunnel that leads to a massive stronghold castle. Another mission places you in an multiplex building where you're ordered to perform a hit on a hacker in the basement that deals in illegal software. There's another mission where you sneak your way into a party being held, and the people are all dressed formerly and walk around and converse with each other almost realistically. You could be running through a corridor, bullets zipping past your ears, and the game will always run smoothly.