Dom Robinson reviews

for Xbox

Distributed by
Eidos Interactive Limited

And now you get that chance. The first mission finds you sneaking round a mansion to bump off a mafia boss before going after someone else on the premises, whilst avoiding the numerous guards, or bumping them off one by one. As a clue to gaining entrance, I had to pretend to be a delivery man. A bodyguard took a good look at me suspiciously, then got even more so as I strafed round him endlessly so I could end up right behind him to slice his throat with my fibre wire. Nice! As I type I've got up to the end of the third mission, the second and third featuring a trip to St. Petersburg, a place I knew as Leningrad when I went on a school trip in 1986, but we didn't get chance to explore the sewers and take out high dignitaries whilst dodging bullets in the snow. They still had similarly shitty weather in the April of that year though.

For some info on the original Hitman game click here, but whilst that was enjoyable, this is a damn sight more so because of the ability to save wherever you like, albeit with a maximum of seven saves per level. The game is also a delight to look at, let alone play. The attention to detail is unsurpassable. In the church in the test level at the start, just try walking in and out of the confessional booth... just look at the curtains and the way they billow back and forth as you walk into them slowly... then at speed. Fantastic! Now go and look at the light coming in through stained glass windows, then spin round and see it glare about gloriously. Absolutely gorgeous!

Soundwise, this is also first-rate. Whether it's birds flapping, like a John Woo movie, people crying, or gunfire, it's all in superb DD5.1 sound. Bizarrely, on the St. Petersburg levels the sound of gunfire sometimes disappears and won't come back until you reload the game from scratch. The only niggle is the control system which takes some getting used to and you can still press the wrong button as you try to get to grips with it. On the plus side, as well as shooting the baddies, stealing their clothes, the game having quick loading times and the ability to interact with almost everything, such as killing the lights, what struck me most was that it's about time we had a game that makes you feel scared again, Thief II: The Metal Age. Yes, it creates that much tension, and I make no apologies for strong language when I say that this game is absolutely fucking excellent and if you only buy two games this Xmas, buy this as well as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City... I say, "if you only buy two" as you'll buy the other one anyway, such was the godsend that was Grand Theft Auto III.

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2002.