Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (PC, PS2, Gamecube & Xbox – 2002)

Hitman 2 is by definition a puzzler disguised as a stealth action game. Sounds odd but not when you think about it for a moment. Each mission is practically a brainteaser as to how you complete a mission without raising suspicion. It’s like a really brutal rubik’s cube puzzle. There’s normally three or four ways to compete the mission, the proper stealthy way by not being noticed by anyone (solving it by yourself) picking off the numerous guards that get in your way one by one without anyone noticing (solving just one side and neglecting the rest) or resorting to pure wanton violence (slamming the rubik’s cube to the ground and telling it to go to hell).

All good stealth games require planning of some sort. Before each mission, you’re briefed as to what you need to do, being supplied with the appropriate documents and images needed to carry out the kill as well as a satellite map to work out guard routines and civilian placements as most missions take place in public areas.

In theory you could just get a machine gun and wade in taking out all who oppose you yet chances are you’ll be overwhelmed by guards in a few seconds. You could get a sniper rifle, climb to the top of a really high building and pick off your target from afar. But chances are the building will be surrounded and swarming with guards (getting the picture yet?) within moments making escape almost impossible. In these instances, a different approach comes into play, mainly concealment and disguise.

Sneaking up behind someone with the fiber wire is one way of silencing guards or potential witnesses

People will be suspicious of the shady bald man in a black suit if they were standing 20 feet away from them but won’t if he’s dressed up in guards or civilian clothing. Therefore when killing or knocking out a guard or civilian, taking their clothes is sometimes the only way to get into areas you couldn’t access by yourself.

The first level is a perfect example of this: there’s a mansion that you need to enter to kill a mafia leader and free a hostage. The main gates are being patrolled by guards, the first side entrance has a guard normally coming through to ‘relieve’ himself every now and again, there’s a postman nearby having a cigarette and there’s a courier delivering food to the kitchen.  One of the possibilities is hiding your weapons in the food and stealing either the postman or courier’s uniform and walk straight into the premises after being searched, collecting your weapons in the kitchen and wrecking havoc from the inside. There are many others options and methods but it all depends on how you approach the situation and what happens when you do.

Common sense comes into play as well when you obtain these disguises, you can’t be close to certain personnel otherwise they’ll discover you and wearing guard uniform is a no no if your face is visible. If you’re out of place, they’ll suspect you but only if you stay within their field of range. Pressing forward normally allows you to bypass  this unless you go into an area that’s out of bounds in which case you’ll be greeted with machine gun fire.

Obtaining disguises are normally a good way of getting through security. Just be sure to actually hide the bodies.

Also guards don’t suffer from Solid Snake syndrome (everyone suffering from collective amnesia when you’re out of sight for ten seconds), when you’re spotted, you’ll need some powerful weapons and a good vantage point to get out alive. They won’t forget you or your disguise and will search every nook and cranny until they find you which normally leads to some of Hitman 2 most thrilling moments.

But the greatest thrill is simply going in unnoticed disguised or otherwise, getting past security, performing your kill and getting out unnoticed. Trying to achieve the perfect kill is a mixture of tension and exhilaration as you carefully make your way through each situation without blowing your cover.

But the real joy is approaching each mission the way you want to, the game doesn’t penalize you so long as you complete each task, directly or indirectly . To be honest, there’s something liberating about breaking the rules and massacring an entire army because you didn’t want to hide in the shadows for half an hour but that’s missing the point. For those who want to break away from the norm and the Metal Gear solid definition of stealth, they’ll find themselves playing a thoughtful and clever action puzzler.

Virtual Insanity!

Ghosts & Goblins was perhaps as unforgiving and cruel as games could get yet we kept playing them over and over again...

There’s something wrong when you’ve written up seven posts and this is the only one that wasn’t scrapped since it was the least frustrating to write. To anyone who checks this site for any other reason outside of typing “kelloggs” into an image search engine, you’ll have to wait a little longer for a proper blog update as I currently don’t have the will or mentality to write a competent piece. To cut a incredibly long story blissfully short, the week gone by has been one I’d like to forget as anything that could have gone wrong, went wrong.

My attempts to clear my mind and reorganize my thoughts has also been another source of frustration for me. Everything I’ve done for enjoyment has become laborious, so much so that even my beloved games aren’t having the impact they once had, enjoyable challenges instead becoming a catalyst for discovering how many swears I can fit into a five second gap between dying and restarting. The kind of frustration that actually makes you want to fling your controller into the wall because you feel it didn’t recognize that I wanted to move my character .01cm further to the right to avoid the enemy like I wanted him to. Instead, he was killed/captured/decapitated/beaten by the evil monster/zombie/dragon/shadow creature/gingerbread man who’s sole reason of existence is to stop me from completing the bloody game and heap further misery upon me.

...whereas on the other hand, games like Twilight Princess shouldn't be frustrating due to their forgiving game mechanics.

Under no circumstances should I find this in any way frustrating! I mean I’ve played games since the days of Rick Dangerous, Bionic Commando and Ghosts & Goblins on the Atari ST which were all massively unforgiving and punished you if you so much as thought about putting a foot wrong. This was also a time where saving games was a rarity and you had only three easily lost lives to complete the game which made it more a test of skill and patience rather than something fun. Yet I enjoyed those games no matter how frustrating it got so the fact that I’m getting so easily annoyed with something that only takes ten seconds to reload and reach the point I died bothers me greatly.

Clearly not an exciting image of Eon but it's a game definitely worth spending your time playing just for its mellow tone.

At the moment, the only game that I’m able to play and not completely burst a vein is the flash game, Eon, with its pixelated graphics and easygoing style and tone, it’s a puzzler that has the unique combination of being both challenging and relaxing. However, I’m still finding myself getting frustrated when I can’t complete any of the puzzles, a feat I once thought impossible when I played it two weeks ago but perhaps there’s some things that require more than just simple escapism to solve or forget about.

Flash before your eyes

Tetris D - one of the many creative and original examples of Flash Games

Procrastination is a tough job! With the impending doom that is looming assignments,l I find myself looking for new ways to delay the inevitable. Thankfully, there’s a realm of flash games that are just begging for you to dedicate your (supposedly) free time. While these games tend to be free, the production values, dedication and love that goes into each of them takes them far beyond the abundance of identikit games that are produced to make a quick profit. The kind of games that pollute a specific genre, early 90s it was platformers, early 2000s it was kart racers before morphing into party games and now games with novelty values (Nintendo Wii I’m looking directly at you although that doesn’t excuse the Playstation 3’s sixaxis or Mircosoft’s Project Natal).

But rambling aside, there are some truly magnificent and fun games to play and they’re free too. Here’s a couple of examples that spring to mind:

Achievement unlocked: Try to discover 100 different achievements which range from changing the color of your elephant, moving, pausing the game, killing yourself and, you know, actually playing the game. Also worth a mention is it’s sequel, This is the only level. Both are incredibly fun and silly in their own right.

Portal: the Flash Version: Based on Valve’s classic game, it incorporates the game’s mechanics perfectly and shows it could easily work on a handheld if Valve ever get round to the bloody idea!

Demolition City 2: Because everyone enjoys destroying buildings! Try to demolish buildings below a certain height by placing charges, simple as…or is it?

Toss the Turtle: Try firing your turtle as far as possible by cannon, jet pack, guns as well as avoiding the many obstacles that litter your path. Seeing your turtle become bloodied and beaten is fun in a masochistic kind of way! Also the turtle does remind me of squirtle from the Pokemon series (if you hate them, it’s perhaps an added bonus you can brutally maim him by landing him in spikes)

Time Fcuk: Clever puzzle game where you manipulate time and your environment to progress through each level. Becomes tricky very quickly and will require a lot of thought to make it through the final stages.

Canabalt: Possibly inspired by freerunning and quite retro in its appearance, run along the roofs of buildings and try to cover as far a distance as you can by avoiding as many obstacles as you can. Randomly generated levels mean you never play the same game twice.

Miami Shark: With the viciousness of Jaws and the gracefulness of Flipper, eat and destroy everything in the water by gulping swimmers, destroying yachts and banana boats and dragging down jumbo jets.

Tetris 4’D: One can only imagine the kind of nightmares Alexey Pajitnov must have had for the past 25 years. Avoid being crushed by the falling tetris blocks by your dexterous stick man character and try and survive for as long as you can.

Forever Samurai: Seems like yet another action platformer but its use of the mouse to attack by tapping the button or drawing lines gives the game one of the most fluid attack systems for any games and makes a somewhat cliched game feels completely fresh and original. Frame rate can become jittery at times but the game itself more than makes up for it.

———Update: 29th December———-

There were a couple of games that I forgot when compiling this list so why not  just throw them into this list and hope for the best, eh?

Rick Dangerous: Flash version of the classic Amiga and Atari ST game where you play an Indiana Jones style character. This is a completely old school game meaning you will die three screens into the game. One for either the nostalgic, truly patient or masochistic gamers.

You Have To Burn The Rope: The postmodernist game. To talk about it would spoil the genius of this game but all I’d recommend is that you play through the entire game with sound on. You’ll either get it or you won’t, it’s that simple.

Perfect Balance 2: Physics based puzzler where you balance shapes on tiny platforms without letting them fall. Sounds simple but can get quite tricky in later levels.

Blosics: Simple! Knock blocks off platforms! Short and sweet! Doesn’t really need a greater description then those three lines (or any more exclamation marks!).

Little Wheels: Beautiful point and click adventure game following a robot’s quest to turn on his city’s generator. Not very challenging but a game that’s more about the journey and experience rather than testing oneself.

Obey! The game: Spiritual sequel of ‘Achievements Unlocked’ and ‘This is the only level’ (both links are at the top of this post) where you play the oddest game of Simon Says…with techno music. Just as silly and as fun as it’s predecessors.