The Hitman series continues to show steady increase in quality

This was again a lot more enjoyable than the previous Hitman game before it. Upgrades all around once again. Seeing as it was an early XBox 360 game, it benefited from an engine and graphical upgrade. There was an actual tutorial level explaining to you many of the games mechanics to use in the coming levels. You can climb and jump over a lot of stuff expanding your movements. You can also now hide bodies in boxes and crates and such to make sure they are not found.

There are also a lot more more different ways to carry out the missions. Most of them have ways to set up the hits to seem like accidents which help keep the suspicion-ometer low. I also felt that there was a lot more variety in the missions this time round. Both in the settings and scenarios and locations. In the words of the excellent lads at Consolevania, the missions feel like "Mini-movies". There seemed to be a lot more leniency in the missions allowing for mistakes but still let you succeed. The equipment management changed again slightly. From the word go, you have the same set of pistols, smgs, sniper rifles, extra gear, etc. And you can incrementally upgrade these as the missions go on to have better add ons and such to make them better at their job. You also get gear that can be used to patch up your wounds and give you a second chance.

The different approaches seem easier to find this time around. More intuitive and much less obtuse. So if you are trying one approach and it doesn't seem to be working, you'll probably already have a potential backup plan or one will not be too hard to find.

Only downside was that this one felt quite short compared to the previous ones. It may have just been that more of the missions were possible to run and gun through and didn't need huge protracted plans laid out and perfectly executed. It was mentioned to me by a friend before I played this, and I do agree with him, that this game feels changed from the previous Hitman games in the way that Splinter Cell: Conviction changed from the previous Splinter Cell games before it: it is still possible to go full stealth if you want to like before. That has never changed and the challenge is still there if you want it. But it is also now possible to try stealth and still be able to shoot your way out if stealth fails and live and succeed at the mission. I much prefer this setup because I will always try to be stealthy at first. But more often than not, it will not work out and I like to be able to shoot my way out if things go wrong.

My favourite Hitman of the series so far by miles. I may even pick up Absolution at some point now...maybe....