Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

Hunting Season Begins…

NA release: 19th June 2003
EU release: 27th June 2003
JP release: N/A
Developer: IO Interactive
Publisher: Eidos
NGC Magazine Score: 91%
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

Considering I never watched 15+ films as a kid, it was surprising how much my parents didn’t really care when it came to video games. Hitman 2 was a game I had when I was younger, and I played it an immense amount. It was a game that let you kill your targets secretly, or just go all out and murder everyone, even the innocent staff.

The Hitman games present you with scenarios where you are given a specific target to kill and it’s up to you to take them out. You’re mostly free to do it how you see fit, with multiple ways to play stealthily if you choose to go that route, which you should absolutely do in this game, treating it as an all out shooter is just a way to let off steam if things go wrong before you try again.

For the ultimate best score, Silent Assassin, you need to finish a level without being spotted or alerting the guards, as well as only killing your targets. Luckily you can still knock out others in order to steal their clothing, which lets you walk into other sections. The guards are very strict still, stand near one too long or walk too fast and they’ll open fire. Sometimes this is quite ridiculous, such as one time where I was delivering a pizza, going across a public lobby of a skyscraper when I moved slightly too fast, causing multiple guards to shoot, some missing and killing random people behind me.

Learning what outfits will get you where is vital to being stealthy, and thankfully it generally makes a lot of sense. You can’t cheese it by disguising as the most important person, as everyone knows what they’re supposed to look like. The main assassination missions in this game are great.

But Hitman 2 was just where the series was just starting to figure out what it’s main focus was going to be, so there are some levels where you have an objective and no targets to kill. These levels aren’t as good, with two set in Japanese mountains being the worst, with the main objective to get to the end of the level, having to content with snipers that can see everything and guards that will ID you no matter what outfit you have.

Still, the main assassination missions are wonderful with lots of ways to experiment, Silent Assassin is a wonderfully designed game and the good levels will keep you coming back to try new things constantly.

Fave

Bizarrely, it’s like a combination of Metal Gear’s stealth, Super Mario 64’s friendliness to explorers, and GoldenEye’s satisfying mayhem.
Martin Kitts, NGC Magaizne #82

Remake or remaster?

A remastered re-release would be very welcome, or perhaps the best assassination missions form the earlier games made in the new engine, keeping the more compact level sizes.

Official Ways to get the game

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is available on Steam, GOG and in a bundle with hitman Contracts on the Xbox store.