Hitman HD Trilogy Review

Hitman Absoultion was the very first time I played a Hitman game and it amazed me. Amazed me so much that I bought the HD trilogy within minutes after finishing Hitman Absoultion because I wanted more Hitman and also a chance to play these games in HD. As I am writing this part of the review I am also looking at the case and can just see content dripping from it. It looks stacked with 3 full games (In HD!) at a very, very reasonable price. If you don't know already in this package you will be getting Hitman 2, Contracts and Blood Money. So lets see if it is worth buying the Hitman trilogy.

The major difference I saw in these games compared to Hitman Absolution is that the games are not supposed to be played like a 3rd person shooter. This isn't a knock at Hitman Absoltuion but in that game if you were caught and crowded by enemies you could get rid of them in a 3rd person style shootout. If you mess up in the trilogy games don't expect to shoot your way through everyone and that's it. Plan your attack before you start, look for different ways of possibly killing the target and finally take your time going through these levels. Use the trial and error technique to get through the level. So if one technique doesn't work and gets you killed find optional ways to eliminate your target because trust me there are going to be a whole lot of ways of killing your target.

These earlier Hitman games feel quite a bit more open and also feel like there is more freedom while Absolution didn't have as much freedom. Again not a knock at Absolution but just a slight comparison. While it's great that it's open there seems to be some problems with the older games that were polished in Absoultion like the disguise system. The disguise system is kind of similar to Absoltuion but if you have never played any Hitman games before here is a brief description of disguises. While roaming around each level in the games you will come across disguises that 47 can wear and also use to his advantage thus making his job just that little bit more easier but like I said before it comes with problems as disguises are pretty broken. For example you are in disguise and you can randomly start being shot without warning. I will give credit to Blood Money though as that system was much better and didn't get as much problems with the system. Problems like this make the games start to show their true age.

I enjoyed all three games but I was asked "What is your favourite of the 3?" and I thought Blood Money was the best of the 3. Blood Money for me had the best and more creative levels out of the 3 games. One of my favourite missions in Blood Money was called "A New Life" I really liked the whole suburb surroundings in this level it felt different to the normal surroundings we see in Hitman games. Another cool mission that takes place in Blood Money is called "You better watch out" which takes place at a party and also happens to contain one of the funniest kills in the Hitman series when you shoot the Jacuzzi floor (Which is located 70 feet above ground) making it crack/break which causes the target to fall 70 feet to his death. Trust me it is pretty funny. While these two stand out there are also plenty of other amazing levels that you are just going to have to play to find out how awesome they are.

At the start of the review I talked about the game dripping with content and this is no lie. This game is full of content. You get 3 full games which combined has a total of 75 hits and over 40 levels! This trilogy should keep you entertained for multiple hours just for the fact that there is so much to play (At a very reasonable price I might add) What will bring up the hours with these games is the different ways you can complete a level so say if you hated how a level went or you just wanted to kill a target a different way which happened to me quite a bit. Well then that is another reason to play the games even more. There are also new achievements/trophies for each game so if you bought these games in the past you will have a reason to re buy them for the HD visuals and also to get the achievements  to show if you can still be that same killer you once was a few years ago.

The new HD visuals which have been added to game does make the old levels and surroundings a little bit more sharper and better in terms of picture quality but you have to also remember that these games are ageing quite fast and like Hitman 2 for example has showed its age for the worst but again it's an old game and it's to be expected. It's still an improvement from the old quality so that's good.


The Final Verdict

Rewind to October 2012. I have no idea what Hitman was except maybe seeing the old games cover while buying games at best. Never played a single Hitman game and now here we are in January 2013 and I have now played nearly all the Hitman games and Hitman has become one of my top games to play. The fact that the HD trilogy (While it has aged a bit) can still hold up today is outstanding. Some of the levels in these games are not to be missed at all by new fans of Hitman so after reading this review you need to get the trilogy and start enjoying some classic Hitman. It must be said though to new players that the controls and gameplay will feel awkward at first but you will get used to it and should have a great time playing this. Old fans should get this to revisit the classic in HD visuals and see if they can still be that Hitman they once were. I said it a few times and I will say it again the price of this game can't be argued at to say how much you are getting in this package so buy now!

+Very open levels
+Blood Money itself deserves a +
+Some of Hitmans all time great levels are in this game

+/- While the visuals look better than the originals they still are not up to standard

-Controls can be awkward
-Disguises are broken at times

Overall Rating

8/10