CODENAME 47
Hitman is a stealth video game series developed by the Danish company IO Interactive. Previously published by Eidos Interactive and Square Enix. IO Interactive remained a subsidiary of Square Enix until 2017, when Square Enix started seeking sellers for the studio. IO Interactive completed a management buyout, regaining their independent status and retaining the rights for Hitman, in June 2017. The series is available on Microsoft Windows as well as several video game consoles, including the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The franchise includes two novels, Hitman: Enemy Within written by William C. Dietz, followed by Hitman: Damnation.
A film adaptation in 2007, which is loosely based on the storyline of the games, was negatively received, but became a financial success. Another film, Hitman: Agent 47 was released in 2015, to negative reviews.
The story revolves around Agent 47 (usually simply referred to as "47" or "Mr. 47"), a cloned assassin-for-hire, whose flawless record places him in high demand among the wealthy and elite. The first original scriptwriter was Morten Iversen, who wrote the scripts for Hitman: Codename 47 and Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. He also contributed to Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money. The games feature a mix of orchestral and electronica musical scores, composed by Jesper Kyd. A fifth installment of the series, Hitman: Absolution, was released on 20 November 2012. With it, a spin-off has been released for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 called Hitman Sniper Challenge. For mobile and tablet, a spin-off game developed by Square Enix Montreal was released as a turn-based strategy game, titled Hitman Go. Another game released for mobile, Hitman: Sniper, consists of first-person sniping gameplay. The sixth game, titled Hitman, was released episodically, the first of which released in March 2016, and the last released in December 2016.
Methods of assassination
The Hitman series permits the player to kill targets (or non-targets) in a variety of ways, using firearms, melee weapons, or conventional objects that 47 picks up (such as shovels, fireplace pokers, pool cues, etc.). In Hitman: Contracts, melee weapons such as knives can be used to kill in more than one method, including forward stabs, horizontal throat slitting, frontal slashes, repeated stabs under the ribcage, or thrusting the blade into the carotid artery.
47 also has a garrote, or fiber wire. The fiber wire is specially made for strangulation, with reinforced handles. He carries it with him on every mission, even those in which he is stripped of all other weaponry. It is also one of the few weapons which can bypass metal detectors.
To achieve the ideal 'Silent Assassin' rank, it is required that 47 only kill his assigned targets, and few or no one other targets.
The sedative syringes, or chloroform
in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (which only has a temporary, dose-dependent effect, unlike syringes), exist for this purpose, so that 47 may incapacitate an innocent person to take items or clothing from their body without harming them, so it does not count against the player in the final ranking. In Blood Money, the ability to add sedatives to food and drink was added, to avoid direct confrontation. Blood Money also introduced the option to hold any NPC hostage using smaller arms and use them as a human shield, and allows the player to knock the hostage unconscious with the gun, saving the player sedatives for food items or any impeding characters that are seated in chairs. In some missions, if a murder can be made to look like accidental death (using the accident system introduced in Blood Money), some kills will not be counted as hits, but as accidents. Any civilians or armed personnel who witness a kill will count as witnesses, and will harm the player's rank if they remain alive or alert nearby guards. If however, someone (target or civilian) dies because of an accident, it will not matter if there are witnesses. 47 has the option of killing witnesses before they reach a guard, but the unnecessary murder will still count against his rank, unless he kills them with an accident. Witnesses also include anybody who sees 47 changing disguises or holding a weapon. In the games prior to Blood Money, the only consequence of having witnesses to a crime is that they will seek out police/guards and trigger an alert.
There are mission-specific options for killing a target in certain levels. Notable examples include locking a target in a sauna to stimulate a heart condition and cause cardiac arrest, poisoning a target's meal (this becomes more widespread in Blood Money), disguising 47 as a doctor and sabotaging a surgical operation, replacing a prop Mauser C96 handgun with a real one at an opera rehearsal, causing an actor to unwittingly kill the target, and causing stage pyrotechnics to explode and set the target on fire.
In most cases, it is required that 47 also hide the body of killed or unconscious victims, in order to avoid any unwanted alarm or if this is the desired effect 47 can leave the victims body in a wide open space for all to see.
Characters
- Agent 47: A genetically-engineered assassin created from the recombinant DNA of five of the world's most dangerous criminals. The fact that the DNA came from multiple ethnicities allows 47 to blend in to a certain degree in most places in the world, or at least not look immediately suspicious and out-of-place. His name comes from the last two digits of a bar code on the back of his head – 640509-040147. According to Jacob Andersen, lead designer of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Agent 47 went from being "a mean old hairy guy" to having "hi-tech glasses" before getting to his current design. More inspiration came from "comic books, Hong Kong movies," and other similar media. According to game director Rasmus Højengaard, the idea of a clone whose future is decided by the people that created him, intrigued the Hitman team. Højengaard felt the idea of creating the "ultimate assassin" by cloning "evolved with the character before the first Hitman game was done". David Bateson has voiced 47 in every Hitman game to date.
- Diana Burnwood: 47's handler at the Agency. Diana briefs 47 on his assignments, oversees his progress, and 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 do come face-to-face at the conclusion of Hitman: Blood Money and Hitman: Contracts. Although Diana usually handles 47's affairs from afar, she turns out to be a major character in Hitman: Blood Money; serving as a double agent, faking 47's death, saving the Agency from liquidation, and dodging death herself a few times. In the end, her efforts pay off when the Agency is brought back online. Diana is voiced by Vivienne McKee. In Hitman: Absolution, she is shot by 47 in her home after betraying the agency. Although presumed dead, it is later revealed that 47 had only non-lethally wounded Diana, allowing her to fake her own death. She returns as 47's handler with the ICA in the 2016 Hitman game. She also presumably continues to care for Victoria, a young girl that she and 47 both rescued from the ICA and other captors. In the Hitman film, Diana's only form of contact with 47 is through a synthesized voice via laptop. However, she does directly call 47 by phone in order to warn him that the Organization has targeted him.
- Agent Smith: A fairly inept American CIA agent with ties to the Agency. He has a tendency to be captured and tortured by the people he has been 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. 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. 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 a hindrance. In Hitman Blood Money, 47 puts a gun to Smith's head and threatens to kill him, but in the end didn't as Smith provides him a job which will then lead to the White House assassination. Smith's appearance changes somewhat in Hitman: Blood Money, having lost most of his hair through long term alcoholism and depression. In the Hitman film, Smith is instead portrayed as a very competent and dutiful CIA agent. In return for assassinating a high priority CIA target (Udre Belicoff, the brother of 47's original target), Smith helps 47 elude arrest by Interpol.
- Mei-Ling: A young woman from the Chinese mainland, abducted and recruited into the brothel of Hong Kong crime lord Lee Hong. 47 rescues her in exchange for information about her employer in preparation for assassinating him. After escaping from Lee Hong, Mei-Ling is later revealed to be prostituting herself to Hayamoto, another Asian crime lord. 47 ends up rescuing her again (much to his consternation).Mei-Ling is apparently the first woman who has ever kissed 47; his reaction is different in the original game from the remake. In the original Hitman: Codename 47, 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 game.
- Dr. Otto Wolfgang Ort-Meyer: 47's creator and the ultimate villain of Hitman: Codename 47. A brilliant but dangerous individual. Ostracized by the scientific community for his radical theories on genetic manipulation, Ort-Meyer ran a sophisticated lab hidden beneath a Romanian asylum. There he labored on DNA splicing in an effort to create a flawless human being. He took a great part in raising and indoctrinating 47 at the asylum, where 47 was kept a prisoner until he matured. 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 contracted with the Agency to have 47 kill the other 4 men behind the Hitman Project (47's "fathers"), so that Ort-Meyer could enjoy the fruits of his labor by himself. Ort-Meyer then attempted to lure 47 to his death, having perfected "No. 48", an improved, mindlessly loyal clone. However, Ort-Meyer underestimated how far 47 had advanced. In the final showdown, 47 slaughtered 48 and the clones, then killed Ort-Meyer himself by snapping his neck.
Hitman: Codename 47 (2000)
The first installment in the Hitman series revolves around the test subject known as 47 escaping the asylum where he had been experimented on all his life and being employed by the Agency. 47 meets his handler, Diana Burnwood, who assigns him to kill four criminal masterminds and then a doctor who is revealed to be the one who treated 47 at the asylum. 47 learns that he is a clone who has been trained since birth to become an assassin. The four criminal masterminds that 47 killed were part of the cloning experiment and their deaths were ordered by Professor Wolfgang Ort-Meyer, the one behind the entire cloning process. Ort-Meyer planned 47's escape, so he could have 47 kill the other four associates and use 47 for his own purposes. 47, with the help of a CIA agent named Smith, returns to the asylum and plans to kill his creator. Ort-Meyer, having prepared for 47's return, sends his group of clones to kill 47. The clones fail their duties and 47 confronts Ort-Meyer. 47 shoots Ort-Meyer, then snaps his neck, killing him.
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002)
After murdering Dr. Ort-Meyer, Agent 47 has faked his death and unofficially resigned from the ICA, leaving behind his life as an assassin, and retreated to a church in Sicily to seek peace. He works as a gardener for Father Vittorio, his best friend and mentor. 47 attends a confession to admit his sins, but Vittorio understands and believes 47 is decent at heart.
One day, while 47 is working in a garden, Father Vittorio is kidnapped and a ransom note is left for 47. 47 decides to go back to his old job as an assassin to track down Father Vittorio. He contacts his agency, who thought he was dead, and makes a deal with his handler, Diana Burnwood. He states that he will return to his post as an ICA assassin if the agency can help him locate Father Vittorio. They accept the deal.
Diana informs 47 that Father Vittorio was kidnapped by a Sicilian Mafia boss named Giuseppe Giuliano. The man is holding the priest in a cell under his mansion, dubbed Villa Borghese. 47 infiltrates and kills Giuliano, but fails to find Vittorio. 47 is later told by Diana, that a satellite image shows Father Vittorio being taken away by 'Russian-looking types in uniform'.
47 works with the Agency to repay their attempt to find Vittorio, and eventually save him. As 47 realizes that he cannot find inner peace, 47 leaves the church and narrates that he can never retire in safety and must return to his life as an assassin.
Hitman: Contracts (2004)
The game begins with a cutscene showing a wounded Agent 47 wandering through a dark hotel corridor and entering his room. He collapses and begins to have flashbacks regarding previous assassinations he committed, beginning with the aftermath of killing Dr. Ort-Meyer at the end of the first Hitman game. The missions are primarily focused on replays of previous missions in the original game, except played in reverse. The graphics, maps and artificial intelligence have been customized and improved. In the game, 47 visits several locations, including Romania, Kamchatka, the United Kingdom, Rotterdam, Budapest, Hong Kong, and finally Paris.
Hitman: Blood Money (2006)
Each mission is framed around the killing of one or more individuals, which the main protagonist, Agent 47 must accomplish. Standing between him and success are armed guards, security checkpoints, possible witnesses and other obstacles. The player guides 47 through the game's levels with the help of a satellite map which can be accessed at any time. The map indicates the layout of each topographical area of the level, the whereabouts of 47 's main targets, and other AI-controlled characters. In order to carry out his mission, 47 may use any method at his disposal to eliminate his targets, regardless of witnesses or violence done to bystanders. Beyond rewarding stealth over bloodshed as is traditional in the series, Blood Money includes features that directly penalize the player for making too much noise and/or being too violent; either toward their targets, bystanders, or both.
Hitman Trilogy (2007/13)
A compilation called Hitman Trilogy (Hitman: The Triple Hit Pack in Europe) was released for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 2 on 19 June 2007 in.North America and on 22 June 2007 in Europe. It contains three games, which are Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money.
The compilation was later released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 called Hitman HD Trilogy and was released on 29 January 2013 in North America,31 January 2013 in Australia and 1 February 2013 in Europe. The purpose for the release of the three Hitman games is to introduce new players to the series as well as giving old players one Hitmanpackage and for the first time Hitman: Blood Money on PlayStation 3.
Hitman: Absolution (2012)
Hitman: Absolution was announced by Square Enix and it was released on 20 November 2012 worldwide for Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.The fifth installation in the series offers a few different angles from which to observe surroundings.
Hitman Go (2014)
Hitman Go is a turn based puzzle video game developed by Square Enix Montreal.The game was released for iOS on 17 April 2014, and for Android on 4 June 2014.The Microsoft Windows and the Windows Phones version of the game was released on 27 April 2015.
Hitman: Sniper (2015)
Hitman: Sniper is a first-person shooter developed by Square Enix Montreal. It was released for iOS and Android on 4 June 2015.
Hitman (2016)
A new Hitman game was originally to be developed by Square Enix developer Square Enix Montreal, a newly established studio.However, due to cutbacks and layoffs at IO Interactive, a Square Enix representative said that IO Interactive will only focus on the Hitman franchise in the future.
Square Enix Montreal, which was originally working on the next Hitman title, will focus on developing smartphone and tablet versions of Hitman and other games.On 15 June 2015, a full reveal of the game took place at Sony's E3 2015 press conference. Titled Hitman, the game was released in March 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
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