Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
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| Hitman 2: Silent Assassin | |
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| Developer(s) | IO Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | Eidos Interactive |
| Engine | Glacier engine |
| Release date(s) | 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Stealth |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (17+) PEGI: 16+ |
| Platform(s) | Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube |
| Media | CD-ROM, DVD, Nintendo GameCube Game Disc |
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is the second game of the Hitman video game series. It was released in 2002 and was followed by Hitman: Contracts in 2004.
Contents |
[edit] Story
After learning about his dark past and unnatural conception at the end of Hitman: Codename 47, 47 seeks refuge in a monastery in Sicily. Attempting to put his murderous past behind him he begins a new life as a simple church gardener.
Unfortunately, 47 is brought out of his soul-searching retirement when his host and friend Father Vittorio is kidnapped by the Mafia. Desperate to find his friend, 47 contacts the agency which used to employ him, asking for assistance. They use spy satellites to track Vittorio to the fortified mansion of Don Giuseppe Giulliani. 47 infiltrates the mansion in an attempt to rescue Vittorio, killing Giulliani in the process. However, Agent 47 finds that Vittorio has been abducted, his only clue being that the kidnappers are "four bearded Russian looking types in uniform". The Agency now requests a job in return. 47 is once again performing hits for money, initially to finance the search for Father Vittorio, but eventually simply because he's fallen back into old habits. As in the previous game, the hits form an overall pattern, as a single influential client sends 47 across the world on the trail of components for a Nuclear Weapons System. The locations visited include Punjab, Japan, Nuristan, Petronas Towers, Sicily and St. Petersburg.
[edit] New features
Hitman 2 was a significant step forward in terms of the series' gameplay. Many of the criticisms of the original game were addressed in the sequel. The control scheme has been streamlined to be more along the lines of a standard FPS game. An optional first person perspective was added for those who want to play the game from the perspective. The stealth element was also improved with the addition of a "suspicion meter" which gave the player a visual indication of an enemy's suspicion level, based on 47's behavior (such as running indoors, wielding a weapon, or trying to sneak up behind their backs), causing them to attack him when the meter went high enough. The "suspicion meter" is much less forgiving in Silent Assassin than it is in later games in the series: guards become suspicious very quickly, and will often shoot you for relatively minor actions such as running indoors or standing too close to them.
The game also introduced the "Silent Assassin" ranking system, in which the player is given a different rank based on the manner in which the game is played. A highly aggressive, non-stealthy player who kills everyone at the location will be branded a "Mass Murderer", while a stealthy player who manages to complete a level without being noticed and only killing the intended target will be rewarded with the highest rank of "Silent Assassin" as well as a bonus weapon such as dual wielded silenced .45 pistols (do so again, and you receive a concealable sawn-off shotgun). Thus, the game rewards the player for critical thinking and problem solving, encouraging the player not to treat the game as a simple shooter.
[edit] Targets
Don Giuseppe Guilliani - AKA Don Anguillo Guilliani is the head of the Sicillian Mafia whose activities include extortion, prostitution, murder, kidnapping, racketeering, smuggling and illegal arms dealing. At the start of the game, the don and his brother kidnapps 47's mentor, Father Vittorio, from his Sicilian chapel. After penetrating his fortified manor, Agent 47 manages to slay the Don. However, Vittorio was taken away by who Diana identifies as "Russian Types" beforehand. 47 can also kill the Don's brother, son and lawyer if you choose to.
The Generals - In return for the information on Guilliani and Vittorio, 47 agrees to perform a standard assassination mission for the ICA. The Generals, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, had to comply with dirty dealings of the Russian underground to stay afloat. Now, they have connections in the government and even access to nuclear weaponry. A meeting has been arranged at the Pushkin Building, at the centre of Varosnij Square, St. Petersburg, solely for the purpose of taking out a specific ex-KGB officer. Unfortunately, this assassination sends waves of terror through the remaining Generals, who are launching investigations into who could have carried out the attack. The client stresses that none of them should be allowed to live. General Makorov, fearing he is next on the hitman's list, is buying protection from a local Russian Mafia boss, Igor Kubasko. They are planning to meet in Kirov Park, which is perfectly secluded and out in the open. The surrounding streets and The Church of The Saviour have been sanctioned off by Russian guards until the meeting is over. The method used to receive a Silent Assassin rank is to crawl into the sewers and navigate through them until you reach one of the limos. One of the drivers takes a break to urinate, a perfect opportunity to anesthetize him, steal his clothes, and plant a bomb on the limo. Placing a bomb on the other target's limo will secure you the Silent Assassin rank. 47 can also kill the two targets with one bullet from a sniper rifle so he can avoid killing police officers who guard the limo and two innocent limo drivers.
General Mikhail Bardachenko is 47's next target, another of the surviving generals from the first Saint Petersburg assassination. Sealing himself in a military base, 47 discovers him interrogating Agent Smith, a CIA agent he had met in the previous game. 47 takes out Baradachenko and helps Smith escape.
The final target, General Vladamir Zhupicov, has taken refuge in the German Embassy after defecting to the west. The Ambassador is hosting a party at the Embassy, complete with tuxes, champagne socialists and ultra-tight security, which Zhupicov will be attending. Zhupicov also has in his possession a briefcase containing a piece of guidance hardware which he is likely to sell to the highest bidder in the west. However, Spetznaz, enraged that an ex-KGB officer is defecting to a NATO-country, has dispatched one of its agents to the Embassy to kill the German Ambassador and recover the briefcase. 47 has to balance out killing the Spetnaz agent to prevent him from escaping with the case as well as asassinating his main target.
The Hayamoto Family - Masahiro Hayamoto is the head of a notorious Yakuza crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, who specialize in arms dealing and drugs, mainly amphetamines. However, his whereabouts are unknown even to the Agency. The only conceivable way to track Masahiro was to kill Hayamoto Jr. and track the father after the funeral. The son was holed up in his beautiful country estate in Japan. After killing Hayamoto Jr., 47 plants a tracking device on his body.
The body of his son leads the agency right to him and his place of hiding. His hideout turns out to be a beautiful and ancient castle located deep within the sacred mountain of Kirokiyama. It was originally built during the Edo period, for the purpose of housing the Shogun, the military commander of the Emperor's troops. With different wars to fight, the castle is surrounded by sniping ninjas. Hayamoto meanwhile awaits ignorantly in the top of the castle, where 47 slays him and can escape either through the way he came or in Hayamoto's helicopter along with Mei Ling who 47 had rescued in the first game.
The Sidjan Brothers - After his involvement with illicit drugs was discovered by the authorities, Charlie Sidjan fled to Kuala Lumpur where he established a computer technology-come-hacking corporation in the fabulous Petronas Towers business centre, where he now lives in ease. His passions are, as Diana describes them, "cheap women and expensive art". He spends many an evening naked, surrounded by hired women and jumping between his hot tub and his "love bed". Avoiding both patrolling security men and gun-wielding vixens, Agent 47 is advised to steal a few valuable items to make Charlie's assassination appear like a "robbery gone wrong". His nerdy brother, the master behind the hacking, resides in the basement and winds up one of the agency's targets by a case of mistaken identity.
Lieutenant Ahmed Zahir- A renegade army officer smuggling nuclear weapons along with his comrades Colonel Mohammed Amin and Liuetenant Yussef Hussein. 47 kills them and can possibly rescue an Arabic prisoner held in Yussef's military base in the process.
Abdul Bismillah Malik - A warlord and ruler of a secluded citadel, situated in Nuristan, alongside an intimidating array of fierce followers and tribe members. He is responsible for international terrorism, arms dealing and drug trafficking. The target is easily recognizable, due to his visage plastered over almost every wall in the citadel. Soon to be tried in front of the United Nations, he is being transported through the village by UN soldiers, riding in a limo protected heavily by the convoy. Agent 47 snipes Malik before he can reach the city, and flees via a hole in the town walls.
Zip Master - Zip is the self-professed leader of an obscure cult, whose members include violent thugs, trained killers and, oddly enough, trained computer technicians. Needless to say, Zip is extremely well protected. The cult has procured a nuclear warhead in Nuristan which was to be purchased by the client. Despite what his cult teaches, Zip Master has recently booked himself into the Swango Memorial Hospital in Punjab (India) for open-heart surgery. The hospital also doubles as a Gurdwara. He has an associate at another hospital by the name of Doctor Hannelore Von Kamprad, who enjoys exploiting her patients and manipulating her role as a professional consultant. Disguised as a patient, 47 meets her in her office and conceals her body from sight. However, his escape is slightly hindered when a mysterious assassin confronts him on the docks. It should be noted that Hannelore is the first female target 47 has ever killed in the series.
Sergei Zavrotko - The leader of the Russian mafia, Sergei is the last enemy in the game, and was your Agency client throughout the rest of the missions. Sergei can be seen in the meeting in the first Saint Petersburg meeting. Carefully he orchestrated the agency into using you to commit the asassination of everyone who knew about the missle system he wanted, except for 47. It takes two missions for 47 to finally track and kill Sergei. The first is a setup in St. Petersburg, where 47 finds his Agency package to contain only blank ammunition and is threatened by a hostile clone of 47 named "Agent 17". After killing the clone, 47 returns to Vittorio's church for a final showdown with Sergei himself. The protagonist kills all of Zavrotko's men and provokes Sergei into emerging from his hiding place, the confession booth. After Zavrotko falls, 47 saves Vitorrio, leaving his life of peace in the chapel for his true calling; the life of a hitman.
[edit] Controversy
The game caused controversy on its release due to a level featuring the killing of Sikhs within a depiction of their most holy site, the Harimandir Sahib. Eidos claimed that the "Sikhs" in the game weren't Sikh at all but simply guards, and the "temple" was a hospital. The game itself contradicts this however, when it refers to the site as a "Gurdwara" (Sikh temple). An altered version of Hitman 2 was eventually released on the GameCube and Windows platforms with the offending material removed from the game.
Agent 47 goes to a building described as a Hindu "Shiv" temple which contains an idol of the a different god, "Lord Ganesh". In the temple lord Ganesha's idol is decorated by earthen lamps however normally Hindu gods are decorated by metal lamps called "Diya (singular)" pronounced as Diaz in Cameron 'Diaz' the Hollywood actress.
There is a big mistake in the game when in the Indian level the Sikh guards say's to Hitman whenever they catch him "Kafir tu marega." (Kafir you will die), but kafir is a word used by Muslims to call non-muslims who don't believe in Allah.
A British advert for the game never made to television according to a Channel 4 television show, recording a host of controversial advertisements. The advert featured an elderly woman, who had presumable been mugged, looking at a line-up of suspects in a police station. When asked which man mugged her, she points to the offender. Unexpectedly, the policeman steps behind the glass, takes out his gun and fires a number of bullets into the young thug, who slumps to the floor dead. The policeman then turns back to the elderly woman, giving her the thumbs-up, and asking "okay?" this is then followed by the message "fuck talking". Other ads featured civilians being murdered for something as simple as bumping a queue.
[edit] Trivia
- When you are assigned to kill Charlie Sidjan the basement-floor is floating with empty pizza-boxes labelled "Pizza med ægte lort". This is danish and means "pizza with real shit on it".
[edit] External links
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| Codename 47 • 2: Silent Assassin • Contracts • Blood Money | ||||||
