Retro Review - Hitman 2: Silent Assassin [2002]

I intended coming back to the Hitman franchise earlier in the year after my awful time with Hitman: Codename 47 in early 2023 but it's only now that I've completed the sequel Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. And yes, I did say completed as this game was a vast improvement of the broken mess Codename 47 is now.

You once again take up the mantle of the genetically enhanced clone 47 and proceed to snipe, strangle, poison or just shoot your way to your target and eliminate them. This time while the emphasis remains on patience and stealth, the pressure of remaining silent is eliminated and it's usually also possible to shoot everyone and generally make noise without blowing the mission; the odds of your own survival if you do this are significantly reduced. 

I had to use online resources to determine the rest of 'the story so far' but suffice to say in Codename 47 our protagonist discovered he was a genetic clone of several assassins and while successful - as evident by his performance in the real world - his creator nonetheless created an upgrade for the mass market that would be more 'controllable' and sent them to kill 47. Needless to say, they didn't survive, nor did the geneticist. In this sequel, 47 now lives in retirement as a church groundskeeper leaving the life of assassination behind him until circumstances thrust him into the thick of it once again.

Gameplay wise, Silent Assassin is significantly superior to the original. Perspective is still predominantly third person and the game is designed around it but you now can if you so choose, switch to a first-person view at your leisure for precision shooting or other actions. Your range of weapons is significantly expanded to include all manner of blades, shotguns, rifles and machine guns that 47 will collect during the course of his travels. These collections are permanent if you finish the level with them which is better than the original game's mechanic of needing to purchasing weapons with money (that you might not get if your score wasn't good enough). One thing I felt they did better in the original game was you could hold a dismantled sniper rifle in a suitcase and thus not draw attention. Here you need to carry large weapons assembled and unconcealed which causes alerts from everyone unless you have a both a disguise and location that matches your weapon.

Much as the original, your purpose is to assassinate someone, and someone who probably deserves it not that you should be brining a moral compass to these games anyway but I think your rating is better if you don't kill innocent bystanders. You are even given chloroform as a non-lethal takedown should you wish to do so. Your main target can always be directly shot or stabbed but it's often easier, and more satisfying if you can find a more 'artful' solution. In one level I crept into a Japanese villa where I observed a geisha serving sushi to the room where my mark was. I placed a poison fish on the serving plate and crept back out where I got notifications that my target was dead after I had let the area.

The original game's checkpointing system is thankfully replaced with a manual save. You are permitted only a few saves but I always had enough and you get more as the game goes on. One aspect they are a necessity for is the eventual trail-and-error gameplay loop. While certainly superior the original, the AI here can be a bit flaky. When properly disguised some enemies properly ignore you while civilians in the same area panic for no reason and therefore alert the soldiers to you. There's a lot of reloading required to do a trial and error to see what disguises can be used where and how long an enemy may take to notice you. Bizarrely if someone sees you running regardless of disguise they open fire rather than just think you're late for dinner, but it can happen when standing still too. The AI isn't bugged, it's just weird.

Final Verdict: This is not a perfect game but it is a classic case of a sequel building on the original in every way and making it better by fixing all the problematic issues that people had with the original, thus making it far more accessible. Playing today the AI isn't too forgiving making much of the game too difficult to achieve a good stealth rating the first time. Thankfully if it gets too frustrating then you can "go loud" and see if that works for you but if you still play carefully rather than treating it like a standard FPS.

Technicals: Played for 20.7 hours on Win 11 @ 1600x1200/60FPS. Graphics options are minimal.

Bugs: No technical system bugs.

Purchase Options: Available on Steam or GOG for €8.99. Review copy purchased from Steam €2.69 in January 2022.

Franchise [PC only]

• Hitman: Codename 47 [2000]
• Hitman 2: Silent Assassin [2002]
• Hitman: Contracts [2004]
• Hitman: Blood Money [2006]
• Hitman: Absolution [2012]
• Hitman [2016]
• Hitman 2 [2018]
• Hitman 3 [2021]
• Hitman: World of Assassination [2023]