Episode 59: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

Hitman: Codename 47 was a bold experiment. It sought to create a stealth game like any other, where you could hide in plain sight. It wanted to make planning a perfect murder to function like a puzzle, instead of having the player rely on lightning fast reflexes. And for the most part, it was a dismal failure. It was a fascinating curio, but a miserable trial to endure, one that Pat and James complained about at length.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, released two years later in 2002, massively expands on everything in the first game. There are saves, a real time map, a revamped shooting system, a new suspicion meter, crouching, increased draw distance and a first person mode, just to name a few of its new features. It immediately feels like a completely different kind of experience from the first.

But can the expansion really fix the fundamental flaws that seem to lie at the heart of the Hitman experience? Can you actually have assassinations work as a puzzle game without it being frustrating? Or were the early entries in the series more of a miss than a hit?

On this episode, we discuss:

• Does Silent Assassin do stealth well? Different entries into the franchise sit somewhere at the genre intersection of stealth, puzzle and immersive sim. When Hitman leans more heavily into its stealth is it still fun to play?
• What did we think of the map? Silent Assassin introduces a real time map, with points of interest, weapon drops, and live positions of all NPCS. Is having the map ultimately for the better, or does it go too far in revealing information to the player?
• How functional is the suspicion system? Does it go a long way to add tension and immersion, or is it just inconsistent and clunky to avoid detection?

We answer these questions and many more on the 59th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Hitman 2 SA OST: Jesper Kyd

Link to black screen and widescreen fix for Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.

Are there more secret ways to go about assassinations that we were not able to figure out? Is Blood Money the best in the entire early game series? Is At The Gates really as bad as everyone seems to think? Come let us know our our community discord server!