Hitman (franchise)

Hitman is a video game franchise available on most modern formats. It revolves around a man known as Agent 47 (usually simply referred to as 47), an assassin for hire, whose skills place him in high demand for jobs. The games contain a considerable amount of violence and are rated Mature (17+) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

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Hitman promotional art

The games were developed by Danish developer IO Interactive, now a division of Eidos Interactive. Four games have been released in the series: Hitman: Codename 47 (2000), Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002), Hitman: Contracts (2004), and Hitman: Blood Money, (2006). A film, starring Vin Diesel as the lead character, is set to release in 2007. See Hitman (2007 film) for more details.

The games have been noted for their impressive musical scores by Jesper Kyd.

Basic gameplay

47 disguised as a Russian soldier in the "Tubeway Torpedo" mission of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.

All games of the Hitman series present players with choices in carrying out the game's missions. Players can perform precise assassinations or be incredibly brutal in their own approach to achieving mission goals; however, the game rewards the more subtle approach by giving special weapon rewards when players achieve the Silent Assassin rank (usually achievable by eliminating only the mission's target, and without raising the alarm doing so).

The gameplay revolves heavily around disguises, which the player uses to fool enemies and gain access to restricted areas. The focus of the Hitman series is not hiding in the shadows from the enemy, but rather blending in amongst them (although sneaking behind guards and avoiding patrols becomes more prevalent in the gameplay of later games).

The player's character, Agent 47, is not particularly maneuverable; he cannot jump at all, let alone scale walls or mantle up ledges (there are a couple of pre-scripted places where he can jump from one balcony to another, but these are rare); however more maneuverability is available in the latest game in the series, Hitman: Blood Money. This generally limits the player to a single plane of movement, although he is often presented the opportunity to move to higher or lower areas through the use of ladders, stairs, elevators, or hills.

A major feature in the game is the "alert" meter, detailing how much attention the player is receiving from the public or guards and is dependent on many things. For example, walking around in a guard's uniform with the correct corresponding gun won't gather much notice, whereas running around in a waiter's uniform in a restricted area while carrying a giant rifle instead of an appetizer tray will generally result in a massive firefight.

In terms of action, the Hitman series runs a middle ground between shooters and stealth games. Unlike most stealth game protagonists, 47 can survive considerable damage before dying. Combined with the game's impressive arsenal, this allows for some high-action firefights. At the same time, players were originally unable to heal 47's health in the middle of a level, which tends to encourage the player to avoid as much damage as possible. This is especially important in later levels, where enemies begin carrying high-powered weapons such as shotguns or sniper rifles that can kill 47 in one or two hits. Hitman: Blood Money was the first game in the series to allow players to purchase health-boosting items such as adrenaline and painkillers.

Many levels in the Hitman games can be completed without firing a single shot; this style of gameplay became more prevalent in Blood Money, where the focus was to make 47's hits look like accidents.

The game makes it clear that you can make a bloodbath or be a "silent assassin", although it encourages you to be the latter. Don't think you'll be as agile or as sneaky as some secret stealth agent, since your goal is to execute kills while being a professional killer, not a super hero or ninja.

Games

The Hitman series currently includes:

Title	Year	Released for
Hitman: Codename 47	2000	PC
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin	2002	PC, PS2, Xbox, GameCube
Hitman: Contracts	2004	PC, PS2, Xbox
Hitman: Blood Money	2006	PC, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360

International Contract Agency (ICA)

Template:Spoiler The pivotal agency that employs Diana and 47. The ICA supplies the services of expert freelance assassins to all kinds of people including some very high profile and powerful clients. Little else is actually known about it, although Agent Smith has ties to the CIA and he works for them.

The agency logo has a piramid with the following phrase: "MERCES LETIFER". The translation of these latin words is higly inaccurate but it is possible to conclude that "Merces" means some kind of transaction, trade or wage and "Letifer" means lethal. Others say the whole phrase means "Death is out Business" as it apparently was the seal of a group of assassins who worked for the Roman Emperors.

Major or re-occurring characters

47: A genetically engineered assassin created from the recombinant DNA of five of the world's most dangerous criminal masterminds. His name comes from the last two digits of a bar code on the back of his head – 640509-040147. He is a tall, blue-eyed, bald, no-nonsense individual, who prefers to wear well-tailored suits. Engineered from conception to be a ruthless killing machine, 47's strength, speed, and stamina are significantly above the human norm, and he possesses a single-minded, cunning intellect.

Raised in the sterile environment of the laboratory and trained in the fine arts of infiltration and execution, 47 naturally wanted to be a hitman upon his release into the real world. He eventually became the top assassin in the International Contract Agency. Yet, in spite of his creator's best efforts, 47 still possesses fierce individuality and the beginnings of a conscience.

Although he's usually cold and to the point in his dealings with others, 47 can at times be quite introspective, especially when he's contemplating his own existence. He has no qualms and will kill anyone for money; corrupt crime lords, unfortunate opera singers, and even the Vice President of the United States. He shows no mercy whatsoever towards said targets. However 47 can be kind, freeing a kidnapped prostitute in Contracts as well as taking pride in not creating any collateral damage during a hit. He has demonstrated a degree of mercy towards those people not on his kill list (for example, in Hitman: Contracts, 47 knocks out a butcher with the blunt end of a meat hook, rather than cutting out his throat with the sharp tip).

Dr. Ort-Meyer's Journal on 47: http://www.hitman2.com/content/history.htm

47 is voiced by David Bateson.

Diana Burnwood: 47's controller at the Agency. Diana gives 47 his assignments, briefs him on his missions, and occasionally serves as his guide over the radio. For the vast majority of the series 47 never sees Diana, recognising her only by voice. However they come face to face near the end of Hitman: Blood Money. She appears to have a serious, business-like demeanor, as well as an English accent. She is also a cunning and useful member of the Agency; single handedly saving 47's life, saving the Agency from liquidation, formulating a plan to kill those who'd been threatening 47's life throughout Hitman: Blood Money and dodging death herself several times (she and 47 were the only members of Agency to survive Hitman: Blood Money). Diana was seated behind 47 on a plane giving him a briefing at the end of Hitman Contracts. She is also a major character in Hitman: Blood Money appearing in many cutscenes, and in the final scene her face can be seen from a distance. She can be considered an unseen character.

Dr. Ort-Meyer: 47's creator and the ultimate villain of Hitman: Codename 47. A brilliant and dangerous individual. Expelled from the scientific community for his radical theories on genetic manipulation, Ort-Meyer has spent almost half a century combining and manipulating DNA in an effort to create an army of perfect super-soldiers. He was responsible for raising and indoctrinating 47 at his asylum, where 47 was kept as a virtual prisoner for most of his life. Ort-Meyer eventually engineered 47's "escape" from the asylum in order to test his performance in the real world. The consummate megalomaniac, Ort-Meyer used his powerful hold over the Agency to manipulate 47 into killing the other 4 masterminds behind the Hitman Project, so that Ort-Meyer could have the fruits of his labor all to himself. Ort-Meyer then attempted to have 47 himself eliminated, having perfected "Mr. 48", an improved, mindlessly loyal series of clones. Ort-Meyer underestimated 47's abilities, and in the final showdown, 47 eliminated the Mr. 48s and Ort-Meyer himself.

Agent Smith: A fairly inept American secret agent with ties to the CIA and the Agency. He has an unfortunate tendency to be captured and tortured by the very people he's assigned to spy on. As a result, the Agency has sent 47 to rescue him on a number of occasions. His torture experiences have caused him to take up drinking on the job, making him even more ineffective. Smith is about as close to a comic relief character as the Hitman series has.

Like 47, Agent Smith dons a variety of disguises, but most often he's seen beaten and stripped down to his American Flag boxer shorts. He seems to regard 47 as a friend, no doubt because 47 has rescued him so many times. Of course, the feeling is not mutual. 47 initially treats his relationship with Agent Smith as detached and professional, but as he is forced to rescue Smith again and again he increasingly sees Smith as an ineffective hindrance. In Hitman: Blood Money, 47's annoyance with Smith reaches a peak, and 47 puts a gun to his head and seems ready to kill him in cold blood (but ultimately relents at the last moment, due to his mission orders).

Mei-Ling: A young woman from the Chinese mainland, abducted and recruited into the brothel of Hong Kong crimelord Lee Hong. 47 rescues her in exchange for information about her employer in preparation for assassinating him. After escaping from Lee Hong, Mei-Ling somehow ends up hooking up with Hayamoto, yet another Asian crime lord, and 47 ends up rescuing her again (much to his consternation).

Mei-Ling is apparently the only woman 47 has ever kissed. 47 did not seem to enjoy the experience much, since he was conditioned to be as asexual as possible. His reaction is different in the original game and the remake. In the original Hitman, 47 reacts with significant revulsion. In the remake Hitman: Contracts, his reaction is one of detached bemusement. She was known as Lei Ling in the original Hitman: Codename 47. The reason for the later change remains unclear.

Sergei Zavorotko: The central villain of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. An influential Russian mafia boss and arms dealer specializing in the transport of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons (NBC weapons). Sergei is the boss and older brother of Boris, one of 47's five "fathers", although he is much more powerful than Boris ever was.

Sergei brought 47 out of retirement by arranging for the kidnapping of 47's friend Father Vittorio, then anonymously arranged through the Agency for 47 to perform a series of hits on his business partners. The hits were merely a diversion, however, and in reality Sergei was using 47 to assemble the parts of a Nuclear Missile System capable of penetrating the American Missile Shield, a system Sergei planned to sell to a wealthy Sikh doomsday cult for a considerable sum of money. However, the nukes were intercepted by the UN, and Sergei attempted to cover up his involvement in the scheme by having 47 assassinated. 47 escaped the assassination attempt, however, and killed Sergei and his bodyguards in a bloody shootout at Gontranno Sanctuary.

Like 47, Sergei has incredible strength and durability, capable of smashing through wooden walls and surviving a few dozen bullets to the chest. He's no superhuman, though, and dies after a single headshot or 3–4 shotgun blasts. He's very temperamental and often peppers his speech with Russian profanities. He also always carries around a large SPAS-12 shotgun.

Mystery Man: A mysterious man in a black suit. Little is known about his past other than the fact that he himself claims to have seen 47 while in Rotterdam, presumably during Hitman: Codename 47. He first appears in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin as an advisor to Sergei, he is the one who brings 47 to the attention of Sergei. Ultimately, he convinces Sergei to put out a hit on 47, leading to 47 learning about and killing Sergei. A couple of cutscenes towards the end of the game suggest he is really manipulating Sergei for a higher power. He may be related to the "Rival Agency" in Hitman: Blood Money. He is also been given the nickname G-Man by some fans because of his similarity to the Half-Life character.

Alexander Leland Cayne: Alexander Cayne is the narrator of Hitman: Blood Money, and in the final mission is also revealed to be the game's main antagonist. A former director of the FBI, Cayne is paralyzed from the waist down and half of his face is severely deformed. Having performed extensive research on political assassination, Cayne has become the leading expert in the field, and has even uncovered the truth behind the Ort-Meyer Project and the existence of Agent 47. Cayne despises Agent 47, and the events of Hitman: Blood Money are recounted as flashbacks to 47's career being told by Cayne to a reporter, due to Cayne's desire to expose 47's existence to the world.

Late in the game it is revealed that Cayne is the one who has been hiring assassins from the Franchise to hunt down Agent 47, as well as to eliminate various prominent political figures. In reality, his actions are not governed by any moral objection to assassination. Instead, Cayne's ultimate goal is to prevent the legalization of human cloning, as he regards Ort-Meyer's assassin clones such as Agent 47 and Mark III as proof of the dangers of cloning to the survival of the human race.

At the very end of the game, Diana appears to betray Agent 47, injecting poison into him and and delivering his corpse to Cayne, who gleefully arranges for a cremation and funeral for 47 at his private chapel. It was all a set-up, however, the poison turning out to be a "fake-death" serum, and during the funeral Diana gives 47 a "kiss of life" while administering an antidote to restart his heart. 47 revives and slays the attending priest as well as Cayne's bodyguards. Pursuing Cayne outside the chapel, 47 engages in a gunbattle with him and ultimately slays Cayne and the helpless reporter, thus preserving the secret of his existence.

The Albino: 47's nemesis in Hitman: Blood Money. Mark Pachezzi III aka "The Albino" is an expert assassin and a master of disguises. Possessing many of the same abilities as Agent 47, he is able to blend into the background like a chameleon to carry out subversive operations. With a white suit over a black shirt and tie, his color scheme is the exact opposite of 47's (although like 47, he is fond of disguises and thus is often seen in other clothes as well). He is mentioned in newspaper reports and radio broadcasts throughout the game, and various newspaper clippings note that he tops the FBI's most wanted list.

It is eventually revealed that his real name is simply "Mark III", and like 47 he is a genetically engineered clone, the strongest in a series of clones seperate from 47's genetic line (A lesser clone in the line, Mark II, is seen earlier in the game as the leader of the assassin group "the Crows"). Ultimately, the Albino is revealed to be the leader of the Franchise, the arch-enemy of the Agency, as well as having been hired to assassinate the President of the United States. Near the end of the game, Agent 47 foils the assassination and kills Mark III in a climactic shootout on the roof of the White House.

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Methods of execution

The Hitman series permits the player to kill targets (or non-targets) in a variety of silent, innovative or even sadistic ways. In Contracts, melée weapons such as knives can be used to kill in several different ways including forward stabs, horizontal throat slitting, frontal slashes, repeated stabs under the ribcage or a thrust to the side of the head. Along the course of some missions, 47 can also run a sword (or a pool cue) through the back of an unsuspecting person, tear through the back of skulls with a meathook, as well as electrocute, drown, boil, strangle, axe, bomb, suffocate, poison, crush or stab some of his adversaries. Wounded people can be quickly prevented from drawing attention to themselves by being beaten to death with pool cues or the butt of a gun.

To achieve the coveted silent assassin rank, 47 must often sneak behind the mark and use his fiber wire to strangle a (usually male) mark. The system for getting a "Silent Assassin" rating in Contracts is generally more forgiving if shooting your target, provided it is done with one unheard bullet. A number of other targets require poison in milk, whiskey, soup, or tea. One hit can be accomplished by shooting the mark through a pillow or suffocating him. Another can be done by throwing a gas can down a chimney or stabbing him with a fire poker while his hopelessly inebriated friend sits close by. The silent assassin approach to the Lee Hong hit culminates in removing Hong's food taster, either through poison (causing an alert) or laxative (temporarily causing him to leave). In the first game, a player can even kill a mark, who's having problems with his heart, by increasing the steam pressure in a sauna.

Contracts' arguably most elaborate hit involves disguising 47 as a SWAT team member, and then participating in a raid. It has been speculated that this mission was inspired by the finalé of the movie Léon, in which the title character (a contract killer) uses similar methods in a similar scenario.

Excluding a few special cases, most of those who appear in the series can only realistically be killed with firearms, bladed weapons or by being bludgeoned with blunt objects. The standard weapons for 47 include a piano wire with which to garrote, a pair of Arcadia Hardballers and on occasion a sniper rifle. In addition to these weapons, hitman can also take scores of weapons from guards, police, targets or cachés across the series. Other weapons, often appearing under different names include;

Ranged weaponry

Handguns

Shotguns

Machine pistols and Submachine guns

Military Rifles

AK-47 variants, particularly AK-74 and AKS-74U (1)
M4 Carbine (1)
M60 machine gun
M14
FN F2000
SIG 552

Heavy Weapons

Minigun

Melée Weapons

Explosives

Remote detonated carbomb
Improvised explosive devices

Notes: (1) indicates that this weapon can feature a suppressor, (2) indicates that it is possible to wield two of these weapons at the same time, (3) indicates that it is possible to wield dual suppressed versions of these weapons.