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.

SEGAAAAAA!!!!

So SEGA have recently announced that a new Sonic game is currently in development and is due for release during the summer. Nothing new there as Sonic has been hoarded out to all kinds of tat over the last number of years and seems to mess up any triumphant return with badly created games and poorly thought gimmicks (featuring in racing games was the oddest choice since why would Sonic need either a go-kart, hoverboard or any other kind of transport when he can easily run faster then any of them is beyond me!)

But anyway, what makes this announcement unique is that the game in development is a direct sequel to the Mega Drive/Genesis games Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. The development team promise to bring the series back to its roots by making it a 2D game and featuring the blue hedgehog and ONLY the blue hedgehog that will both please and delight fans.

This announcement is mostly a good thing, Sonic hasn’t been in a good game in years and is really a 2D character desperately trying to keep up with those who successfully adapted to 3D. Running around freely in a 2D plain is his natural habitat and the games are at their best when there’s a perfect fusion of speed and control as well as good level design, which has been sadly missed by his more recent games which tend jacked up the speed through springs and accelerators which meant you spend the rest of the level holding down the right D-pad and feeling like you were just playing a slightly interactive cut scene. Also, by making the game about Sonic and him alone means that the quality has no reason to become diluted thanks to his woodland chums who really do nothing but add pointless gimmick after pointless gimmick (although I’ll make an exception for Tails and if I’m in a good mood, Knuckles since they were around while the series was, ya know, good).

With that said, there are parts that strike me as odd. Firstly considering that it’s a 2D game, where exactly is the need for a homing attack. It made sense to put them into the 3D games as it’s harder to successfully jump on top of something when it can move in more directions than forward or back. New players will probably Secondly, the game aims to bring back the Mega Drive/Genesis era with levels inspired by those games which sounds more like they’re just going to rerelease Sonic 1 again but this time with updated graphics, especially since they’re reintroducing the exact same robots found in Sonic 1. Speaking of graphics, this is a petty gripe but looking at the second of gameplay footage, sonic runs and looks odd, like he’s a claymation doll in an episode of Robot Chicken. They could have easily made the game with the same graphics as Sonic 3 and gave the game a more retro feel like what Mega Man 9 has done

However, the parts that worries me the most is what’s underneath the Sonic 4 logo if you go to the website, the part that says Episode I. To be honest I’m not really sure what the game can gain by breaking it up into smaller segments but I’m hoping that they’ll not just an attempt to boost profits and that they’re priced reasonably so that you can actually afford the cost of completing the game. My other major concern is that the game is being created for the fans which has very rarely been a good idea. Hankering back to a nostalgic era is all well and good but if you just throw in features and qualities solely to appease some people on a internet forum, you’ll only appeal to those people and even then they’ll probably complain that the game isn’t different enough and doesn’t do anything to update the series.

Since the game is still in development, it’s too early to make any major assumptions about its quality but apparently Dimps and not Sonic Team are developing the game. Dimps created Sonic Rush on the DS which was actually good and looking at Sonic Team’s recent track record suggests that this could be a good so the game could be a return to form but we’ll only know for certain when summer arrives.

And as an award for reading through this post and actually getting to the end, a video of an incredibly laid back Sonic 1 playthrough. Enjoy!

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 is expected to be released for Summer 2010 and will be available for Playstation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and WiiWare.