• Platform:
• Published by:
• Developed by:
• Release Date:
• Genre:
• Multiplayer:
• Online:

 

Hitman: Blood Money Interview

-- February 14, 2006 by: David Craddock

If you've ever walked into a large room of people and considered what in your environment you could use to "off" one or two of them... well, you might want to get back on your meds. But luckily for you, there is a game that encourages just that kind of macabre train of thought. The emphasis in Hitman has never been, "how do I do this," but "how do I want to do this?" I had a chance to talk with Rasmus Højengaard, Game Director for the upcoming Hitman: Blood Money to see what new moves agent 47 will bring to the table.

Shack: What is the storyline for Hitman: Blood Money?

Rasmus: A rival contract agency enters the scene and war breaks out. Assassins are going missing and it becomes very clear that only one person is going to be left standing. That's a very basic version because Blood Money's overall story is multi-layered – there is an ongoing epic storyline and then of course there's a build-up story to each level and a story that takes place within each mission. Within each mission there's also lots of little stories going on totally separately, and you will even notice progress on the main storyline via little things on the level.

It's all up to the player how much they wished to dive into this.

Shack: Is this a new engine, or has the current engine been given a face lift? If the latter, what are some new improvements in the way of AI, graphics, etc. to keep fans coming back to the Hitman series?

Rasmus: It is a new engine. We have new character system, that makes for better deformation and more variants without the memory overhead. We have a brand new render that takes much more advantage of each platform - many new render shaders and features on all platforms. We even have normal maps and specular maps on the PlayStation 2.

The script engine and the AI has been revamped too, to fit the many new features in the game.

Shack: What new steatlh/athletic moves does Agent 47 have in order to keep up with the likes of Solid Snake and Sam Fisher?

Rasmus: We don't feel we need to keep up. There are 3 [main entries] in this genre - there's Hitman, Splinter Cell and Metal Gear. All games are different and [have] different approaches. Solid Snake is very linear and rule bound ... but makes use of excellent visuals and avantgarde style. Sam Fisher is also very linear, and takes [a] high tech approach. We've made an open ended game, where the point is not to be athletic, not to be a tech-stealth ninja, but to be a cool, believable assassin in cool believable and recognizable environments.

We did though include new moves like scaling walls, sidling ledges, climbing drainpipes, etc. But the idea with this has not been to create a "Sam Fisher" but rather give us more possibility of making the levels more interesting, with even more ways of approaching the objective.

Shack: What does 47 have in his repertoire to deal with gun-packing foes, bodies lying around, etc.?

Rasmus: You can (and should) hide your bodies. This will make everything a lot easier on you, and you will save quite a lot of money in the end from not having to clean up the mess you have left behind. So all over the levels there are dumpsters, freezers, containers and the like, and they can be used for this.

Also if you need items from the characters it's good to not leave them lying around, because if you do, they will be body-bagged if found and dragged to an area with guards and higher security, hence making it more difficult to retrieve those items.

In regards to the still living NPCs, you will be able to disarm them if you're at close range - this is especially helpful if you're out of ammo. You can also take human shields and if you're packing you are able to move around with your weapon semi concealed from view to be ready to take action fast if necessary.

Shack: How will HBM continue the series' strong support of non-linear game play? (e.g., free choice in how to complete missions, setting up deaths to make them look accidental, etc.)

Rasmus: The level design is a lot better and more thought through. There [are] so many new features, that we were forced to make [many changes] in our level design, to keep the game complex, yet understandable and approachable.

The levels are bigger, there are sub objectives, and there are many, many ways to approach each and every one of them. Some are very obvious, and some require a great deal of patience and research to perform.

Especially the new moves gave us a lot more freedom to design the levels in a way that made non-linearity even more evident.

Shack: Can you tell us about some of the levels that have been created to showcase HBM's open-ended game play?

Rasmus: There is an elaborate opera with all the little corridors, back stage areas, actor's rooms, service and maintenance area etc, just like you would expect [at] a real opera.

There's a multi level elaborate rocky mountain mansion, with studios, bars, lounges, staff areas, security quarters, helicopter platform, and all the nice stuff a mansion should have.

All these realistic environments can be accessed however you want to - you just need to take the proper precautions depending on what approach suits you.

I could go on for all 13 of the levels, but that will take too much time, and we're in crunch at the moment.

More on mission objectives, weapons, the Notoriety system and other topics on page 2!

Page One   Page Two   Comments