The first one (PC Release only) had no in mission save at’ll.
Yes, and I remember the Jungle levels. The pain…
Now now. Language.
You had to know going into the game that it wasn’t going to be suited to your unfortunate gaming situation, especially if you’ve played any other games in the same series, many if not all of which had precisely the same save system… and as was just pointed out, this dates back to the original game, which didn’t make it to consoles.
The pain of having no ability to save while lugging a dead pig through an enemy-infested jungle? Or the pain of having to listen to lines like, “White man, you must save my brother from the evil drug lord!”
The Hungarian Thermal Bath level more than makes up for the dreary jungle adventure, though. It’s too bad Hitman 2 made a habit out of a saggy mid-game by throwing in those Japanese fortress levels.
The “Cunts” comment wasn’t aimed at anyone on QT3. It was just an all encompassing phrase born out of frustration.
The problem is that I’ve never played a Hitman title before.(And I do recall asking about the save system to try to avoid this very situation.) I generally avoid FPS’s and I don’t think I’ve ever played any single third person shooter for more than five minutes.
I’m trying to expand my horizons a little bit here. I understand I’m a stubborn relic of the past but I’m trying here.
I wasn’t aware that the Hitman series has had rubbish saves since the beginning but I don’t think that anyone here can deny that PC game save systems have suffered since console/PC ports became the norm.
Believe me, I feel your pain, but for what it’s worth I don’t think there’s a single mission in Blood Money you can’t do in under thirty minutes even if you’re aiming for silent assassin rank. Granted, there will be a lot of false starts as you puzzle out what you can and cannot do on a level without getting shot.
I agree with you in principle. I think maybe there should be two save systems and you pick one. But it’s a design decision on their part in order to give the game replayability and tension.
Arise!
Heh, after playing the new Hitman, and talking with a friend of the ol’ good times of Blood Money, I reinstalled it the game, with the intention of playing it again. I remember loving it, so playing for a second time seems a good idea.
-Graphics as one would expect aren’t as good as I remembered. It was released 10 years ago… nostalgia made me remember a rosier version than reality. Of course it isn’t a problem.
-The funny thing was me trying to search for the “knock out” button or action to put a npc to sleep. Finally I remembered… there isn’t any. It was a “modern” concession to Hitman Absolution. At first it’s weird to play a master assassin and not have a stealthy way to knock out someone. But of course you can use the piano wire with everyone, it’s only a problem trying to get the SA rating, and not having extra killing, so imo it’s fair. You only get one “free” non-kill: the syringe with the sedative which you get for free. It was remembering the syringe what it made me remember it: you had to choose very carefully in which npc you were going to use it. In fact I appreciate the extra difficulty this brings, having free and reliable way to knock out everyone can make trivial lots of missions, unless you give yourself a house rule of not abusing of it, which is a crutch.
-Speaking of difficulty, the npcs usually makes a behaviour that makes the game harder, they usually stop walking and turn around when you start walking behind them or stay behind them. Which is kind of realistic, and it’s good for a bit of difficulty as I say, you can’t just play the game on autopilot going directly to their backs and press a button to kill them.
-Also the police/guards discover you instantly, unlike the seconds of “grace period” that gives you the new game. I’m a bit torn about this, I think in the old game it’s bullshit, it’s literally instant and even when they are 25 meters away, but I think the grace period could be a bit shorter to make the game more engaging. Lots of times you just the see the stealth indicator growing on screen, you turn around in the opposite direction, and you are in the clear. Too easy.
-In the other hand, after playing the new Hitman, some of the missions are so small, and even smaller because perhaps there some rooms with no objects or npcs or suppose another way to advance, hey are “filler”. And it isn’t only the size of the scenario, things like dropping a chandelier or putting venom on a drink exist but it’s used more sparsely, while in the new game is more “systemic” and freeform, and the special stuff which is unique to each scenario (like putting a real pistol instead of the fake one in the Opera) is much less numerous in BM. It pioneered the system, but of course it was a first version.
-Another thing that I had forgotten: almost no one talks in the game. There is no dialogue between npcs, no clues or context or backstory. I knew that Aboslution was the game that put much more dialog in comparison with the previous games, but I didn’t remember the older was had basically 0 dialogue.
Yes there is. You sneak up to npc, grab to use as human shield, then right click or use (can’t remembwr which) to knock out but not kill.
Not one smooth motion like in Thief but this is a new feature introduced in Blood Money.
You are totally right! I forgot about it, because I associated taking hostage with breaking stealth, which I try to avoid.
But, I wonder if my rose tinted memories of Blood Money were that, too rose tinted. I’m playing the famous Opera mission right now, I replace the prop gun for the real gun, and even if no one saw me do the switch and I didn’t alert anyone in all the mission and I’m with a different disguise, when the first target dies with the “accident” with the gun, the cops magically discover I’m to blame and start firing at me. It almost seem a bug (or I want to believe a bug and not some horrible cheating AI).
edit: it worked after a few more retries…
And I finished my replay.
I think the biggest virtue of the game is the big variety of concepts for each mission. From an assassination in the Opera, to a nice private neighborhood, to streets full of people in the middle of carnival where you have to stop other assassins, to exotic thematic vip parties (hell & heaven!), to a casino hotel where you have mess up a shady deal, to a rehab clinic you can infiltrate as a patient, to a wedding or a big steam boat in the Mississippi.
Yes, each mission is a unique minisandbox with distinctive atmosphere. And Heaven and Hell mission is just so fucking great a concept and well executed.
God, man, after all these years, the Tosca mission is still the coolest assassination in any video game.
So it’s a game where you switch a fake gun for a real gun to kill an actor in an opera about a fake execution that is actually a real execution. Ecco un artista!
Mind blown.
That one remains my textbook example of what a Hitman mission should be.
I remember also liking it a lot when I first played the game, it really nailed the novelty that BM had of setting up involved accidents like replacing the wwi weapon, but now after all these years I think it could have improved a fair bit:
-The level is a bit small, like, the Opera scenario itself with balconies isn’t physically very big, it doesn’t have a big capacity. It only has a small lobby and stairs to change floors. The maintenance tunnels are there, but are barely used in the real meat of the gameplay. I mean, I think real operas buildings are bigger and more complex than this level.
-A big part of that feeling of small scope is the targets are almost static, they don’t have a complex behavior routine that gives you different opportunities, one uses a very simple loop routine of two steps, and the other is static in the balcony.
-And somehow instead of being full of people watching the Opera, is almost empty. They had the technology for big crowds (the carnival level…) so it’s a bit weird decision to make the mission on rehearsals instead of the proper play with a full crowd. More thrilling that way.
-There are weird omissions like going above the stage, and seeing the typical weights (bags of sand) and ropes, and not being able of interacting with it to drop them above someone.
Still it’s a fine level, but I have now a different opinion of it.
Apart of the too linear tutorial and the first level in Colombia about the drug lord (too bland and simple), I think the worst level is the wedding. Why? Because it’s pretty big with a guest entrance area, the dance area, the back yard, the glasshouse, a big three story house full of rooms, a small pier building, a warehouse and graveyard… and most of it is wasted because both targets walk through areas in the middle of the map that are basically empty, where you can kill them with venom/piano wire. It gives me the idea that level was very beta tested.
But you can place a mine above stage to bomb the bag of sand so it falls down on the target, slapstick style. Or is that not what you mean?
You can put the bomb above stage to drop the chandelier. I didn’t try to put ir in other areas. They weren’t interactable when I was close to it (no action appeared), i also tried to shoot the bags and the ropes with my pistol and nothing happened.
Hmmm… not the chandelier. It’s a specific spot on the black scaffolding where you get the prompt “place RU bomb”, I think it’s on a winch maybe? It’s just above the stage and there’s an electrician that walks around the area that can spot you putting the bomb.
Whatever goodwill Blood Money earned during the game disappeared on the final level, where you have to shoot 10+ bodyguards in the face, with a pair of ammo chewing silverballers. 47 is a hitman ffs, not a rah-rah CoD soldier.
Remaster of Blood Money and Absolution incoming, release next week!