Hitman living up to it's potential

I played the original Hitman and you could see it had potential that was squandered, mostly because it wasn't really done when it was released. It had the levels and all, but things just didn't work so well in practice. I ended up using the cheat codes for half the game cause I just didn't have the patience or skill. Hitman 2 has for the most part corrected this situation. Hitman, Codename 47 is sort of a prerequisite course for Hitman 2. Usually the prerequisites are easier, but in this case they got it backwards.

The first thing I notice in a game is graphics. Hitman 2's graphics are pretty sweet, but I think Mafia has better textures, character modeling and it also did a heck of a job on it's period settings. Hitman 2 looks great, but as far as I'm concerned, it's not number one.

Gameplay is where H2 is unique. It's still the only game I know of that has a garrot. Using it is kind of chilling, mostly because of the drawn out strangling scene. I'm not sure what you call those, but you sort of pull back and up on your victim's neck with the wire and he gags and his knees give out and you just follow him to the ground and then you might strip his clothes off and then drag him to dump spot. This predatory, serial killer kind of action might be too much for some people, but I think it's one of the best moves in the game because it takes considerable skill to sneak up to someone, kill them and drag them away without getting caught and then you can walk over to your victims comrades wearing the stolen clothes as though you were just one of the boys. You'll get a real sick rush of pride in pulling these off successfully. You'll feel like I imagine a spider or jaguar feels dragging your kill up into the trees.

One thing that annoyed me in Hitman One was that he'd twist to the side as he strangled someone and he also had trouble dragging someone and looking at where he was going. I was always looking to the side as I dragged and it got me into a lot of trouble. This problem is fixed in Hitman 2. He doesn't twist anymore and he has a much better field of view in just about anything he does in the game thanks to the way they've set things up as well as the optional first or third person views. Well done.

The controls are a little awkward for me. They don't work like most PC games. This is one of those games where you activate things by taking your finger off the mouse button and that's always a little weird for me. For instance with the garrote, when you have it in your hand, you click the right mouse button and he sort of stretches the wire. When you let go of the mouse button, he throws the wire over the victim's neck and starts strangling.

Other strange controls include the method of picking out items and actions. Let's say you're near a door and a body. You'll see some actions offered, so you hold down your "E" key and then you can roll to the action you're interested in with your mouse wheel. When you let go, he'll do whatever you selected, but like I said, for me this is a little hard to get used to and I think you'll do the wrong thing by mistake quite a few times before you get used to this, sometimes with dire results for agent 47. Once you get used to it, it's pretty brilliant though.

The maps are improved. Much quicker to move the map around and you have a zoom. One annoying thing - everytime you go to the objectives, the briefing lady starts talking and she drives me nuts. I just wish she'd shut up and let me read or listen to the music. So far, I haven't seen a way to shut her up. She's pretty good as the briefing lady, but that's annoying.

One thing I enjoyed in the original, but seems to be missing now is the humorous cutscenes. The original Hitman had a very funny shiver that he gave when he got kissed by a working girl. I haven't finished the game, but the game seems to take itself very seriously this time. I thought the opening level with agent 47 working as a gardener was a bit unbelievable and out of character. That's not how I imagined him acting at all even with the ending of the first game and then he just gets back into his dirty business without giving it a thought. I just didn't think this was written too well. This could be said for much of the story in Hitman 2. Things aren't quite believable. I don't see why the priest is liking this guy and telling him he's a good person. Another odd thing is the briefing lady's obvious affection for agent 47. First off, she sounds like an ordinary, little bit too nice secretary. What is she doing giving out assignments to killers? It doesn't make any sense. Seems like she could be tougher and sexier in her line of work. I could see her liking him for being a manly, efficient killer, but not because she just liked him as a person. That's just sick. Same with the priest. I find this more disturbing than the violence.