It's small things, but just in general look-and-feel. Like, instead of being able to climb up whereever, you can only climb up on certain ledges and windows. The game has such an "open world" look and attitude, it becomes jarring when there's something I simply can't do.

Combat's a little awkward, and the death animation has this annoying habit of not letting me open the menu to reload until I've slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwly collapsed on the floor.

Also, I can't tell if it was because of a glitch, or just my difficult level (Pro, one step down from the hardest), but I couldn't upgrade any weapons beyond the first level. Wasn't a big deal, as I rarely brought anything beyond my custom Silverballer pistol (and in later levels, not even that), but I still found it odd.



......I've noticed that I tend to nitpick games I like a lot more than games I loathe.


Blood Money is excellent. I'd never played a Hitman game before- all I knew was that it was about a barcoded assassin. That was fine. There were only one or two moments that I felt I may have been better served by knowing some background (if I understood the nature of the Agency and the Franchise a bit better, the relationship between 47 and his handler, and whoever the hell the dweeb that contacts you before the last level is).

Honestly though, it wasn't a big deal. The admittedly meager plot served as a backdrop to some very cool setpiece levels. Working your way in, trying to figure out how to isolate someone and get their disguise, so you can work your way farther in and get ANOTHER disguise, was great.

I wish there were more ways to be "cool." There were some VERY neat ways to kill people, and make it look like an accident. Replace a blank gun with a real gun. Poison a cake that the groom keeps sneaking a taste of. Drug someone's drink by dressing as their waiter. Poison a different cake that you think is being brought to your target, only to discover (oops) that it turns out EVERYONE in this level eats some cake.

The annoying thing is, is that sometimes it's just too much of a hassle. You start every level with one small remote mine, and it's very easy to use it to kill a target that's proving too troublesome to be clever with. Everyone has a set path, and your map operates on a strange real-time radar principle, so it's pretty easy to remotely explode someone and calmly walk away.



Overall, Hitman: Blood Money was extremely fun. The missions are all pretty intricate, and vastly vary in location (redneck wedding, Mardi Gras, Vegas hotel, rehab clinic, a cool apartment building with basement and rooftop parties with their own mandatory costumes, etc). I'm excited to see how the recently announced sequel pans out. If they add a little more polish, it could easily be one of the greatest titles of the year's games.