Blood Money worshipping

That’s one of the things I extremely missed in Hitman 2016 and Hitman 2018:
That the game doesn’t pause while using the map, that you have effectively to put more planning into it as time doesn’t stop running.

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It’s in ghost mode (cause it’s multiplayer).
But yeah I know what you mean.

blood money is still best ever

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Blood Money is overrated imo.

It has some moments, but to me it was a huge let down in terms of atmosphere and style compared to Silent Assassin and Contracts.

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I really wanted to like it, but when I played it, it just didn’t hit right, didn’t feel special.

I agree with @JohnnyDrama that it has it’s moments but ultimately it didn’t feel that special. I see sometimes people compare BM to previous games considering how improved Blood Money is in terms of basically everything, models, textures, animations, graphics in general and mainly AI. Despite all these wins for Blood Money, it just doesn’t have the same charm of the previous two-three games. The maps may be memorable, but they are also pretty dull in some ways, they just lack feeling to them.

If I go to some of the memorable locations of the previous games, Hong Kong, Budapest, Japan, Romania (Meat King’s Party), they all give you a specific atmosphere and feel, I just didn’t get that with Blood Money. Music from Blood Money is very good, but that’s how it is for all the Hitman games.

Imo Blood Money is definitely worth a play if you haven’t, but to me, it was more impressive and amazing for it’s time, and that nostalgia just stands with a lot of people, which is understandable. This post sounds like a shitfest on Blood Money but I actually do enjoy it btw! It’s just not very special to me. Especially compared to what it’s up against.

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if atmosphere is the mood or tone of a piece, then i would argue that blood money has, if not the ‘best’, then the most interesting in the entire series so far.

it’s all about tension.

i adore contracts’ incredible gothic european-flavoured noir. it’s many things - a heady mix of rain, ghosts, blood, ruminations on death - but it is not in any way subtle.

contracts wears it’s unsettling aspects entirely on its proverbial sleeve, hiding very little from the player. almost every level immediately lets the player know how they should feel. we know, even without the brief, that there is something very off about beldingford manor simply by looking at it. precisely what it hides requires exploration, but there is absolutely no room for doubt that something is very wrong there.

blood money’s a new life, on the other hand, isn’t so obvious. on the surface, and without looking at the brief, it appears to be an idyllic north american suburb; the peak of the elusive american dream. it’s only when we scratch the surface - open the doughnut van, meet the wife, etc. - that you can see the rot brewing underneath.

it’s like looking through a beautiful lawn of rich green grass and coming across a rotting, severed ear.

that’s a reference to blue velvet, by the way, which i suspect was an influence on a new life, if not the entirety of blood money. i’ve said this elsewhere, but i’ve always felt that blood money comes across as quite lynchian in-and-of-itself. by lynchian, i mean a juxtaposition between the relatively mundane (boring, everyday, earthly) and the macabre (horrifying, gruesome, pertaining to death).

47’s deathly presence alone is enough to strain each locations’ superficiality. he is death, invading these blandly iconic american locations: theme parks, rehab, steamboats, weddings, vegas, suburbs, etc. compare this to contracts where 47 doesn’t look out of place at all; he is very much part of that sleazy, seedy universe.

(i know contracts is all in his head narratively speaking, but that’s besides the point. we’re talking from a gameplay experience here).

this is, i think, blood money’s greatest trick: it appears at first sight to be bright, clean, colourful and even cartoonish, but the juxtaposition between its overwrought surfaces and the grim machinations underneath provide a tension contracts’ can’t.

i also think it’s no coincidence that the first hitman to explore america chooses to do so using this technique as opposed to contracts’ brooding take.

blood money is the first game in the series that really embraces its dark, satirical potential (which 2016 kind of carries on, i think), and it aims it squarely at the veneer of the american dream. it’s not exactly brass eye or swift, but it does a relatively good job, i think. it doesn’t get enough credit in this regard.

i could bang on about this and go into deeper examples, but i think i’ve blathered on way too long already. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Well, I can see what you mean by how happy go lucky Blood Money looks when it’s quite seedy underneath, and it does seem to do this but imo it’s not very effective and as I have said, just feels dull to me.

Even though I said I see what you mean, this is not a very good example, what’s so special about the doughnut van and meeting the wife that makes it “the rot brewing underneath”, did I miss something? You’re sent in to kill a former crime lord in a beautiful location and retrieve some evidence, maybe encounter something dark or two along the way too, sure, pretty normal Hitman stuff. Also, you generally should look at the briefing, it doesn’t change a whole lot except telling you why you’re basically doing something and giving you some extra handy info.

47 being the only thing that brings unique character to these maps doesn’t make them or the atmosphere any better. Contracts was intentionally dark but each level still feels quite different in their own respect, same for Blood Money but to a lesser extent.

true though

You mentioned this and how Contracts isn’t subtle and Blood Money kinda is, which I agree with, the problem is that Blood Money makes itself too subtle to the point where it basically drowns itself out and screws up the technique you refer to. From a gameplay perspective (quoting you), Contracts and especially Silent Assassin are way more tense, you can’t even walk by a guard calmly without holding your breath and hoping to god he doesn’t start spraying you. Meanwhile Blood Money is more subtle and relaxed, the most tension I feel when playing it is in relation to how much time I got before a target moves or something, and that’s in every Hitman game.

I think a lot of people agree with this but just don’t go this in-depth, which I appreciate that you did. I guess it just boils down to how you experience the game, might feel dull to some or amazing to others.

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thanks for the reply, @ingvar , and for reading all that crap :smile:

Even though I said I see what you mean, this is not a very good example, what’s so special about the doughnut van and meeting the wife that makes it “the rot brewing underneath”, did I miss something?

nah, fair point. let me elaborate.

‘rot’ is possibly too strong a term for a new life specifically, but bear in mind this is ‘rot’ in direct relation to the whole ‘suburban dream’ setting, so it’s not necessarily like the severed ear example and more in line with, say, a ken loach, kitchen sink kind of decay:

a paranoid and restless vinnie trapped in this idyllic suburban life with only cocaine and tv for company; his depressed, alcoholic wife in ‘paradise’ throwing herself at any man that shows her any interest because she gets nothing from her husband; the implication that their kid vindictively shoots the neighbour’s dog with a bb gun; the equally depressed alcoholic children’s entertainer; the fbi agent sniffing the daughter’s underwear; the flower van (i got it mixed up) hiding his colleagues to maintain the neighbourhood’s facade…

…all these things are at odds with how the setting presents itself on the surface level - the ideal suburban neighbourhood.

like i said, this isn’t swiftian level satire here, but, you know, there is a tension there and it points towards the superficiality of the ‘american dream’. it’s 47 specifically that brings the lynch in that level.

47 being the only thing that brings unique character to these maps doesn’t make them or the atmosphere any better. Contracts was intentionally dark but each level still feels quite different in their own respect, same for Blood Money but to a lesser extent.

sorry, i wasn’t very clear there.

if we assume a new life is intentionally trying to evoke that 50’s, white picket fence suburban dream, 47’s presence in that kind of setting would be enough to create that lynchian tension (mundane vs macabre) i mentioned; ‘a murderer in paradise’ type deal. i think that dichotomy is what makes a new life (and even whittleton creek) so popular.

however, i’m saying his presence works with what’s happening beneath the surface (as mentioned above). it’s not as pronounced in, say, the club hell mission, but if you compare a new life to, say, the meat king’s party, a murderer’s presence in an old meat packing plant that’s hosting a sadomasochistic party doesn’t have that inherent tension.

does that make sense?

You mentioned this and how Contracts isn’t subtle and Blood Money kinda is, which I agree with, the problem is that Blood Money makes itself too subtle to the point where it basically drowns itself out and screws up the technique you refer to. From a gameplay perspective (quoting you), Contracts and especially Silent Assassin are way more tense, you can’t even walk by a guard calmly without holding your breath and hoping to god he doesn’t start spraying you. Meanwhile Blood Money is more subtle and relaxed, the most tension I feel when playing it is in relation to how much time I got before a target moves or something, and that’s in every Hitman game.

it’s not really related to the gameplay. when i say tension, i’m only talking about that which exists between the surface level appearance and what lies underneath.

I think a lot of people agree with this but just don’t go this in-depth, which I appreciate that you did. I guess it just boils down to how you experience the game, might feel dull to some or amazing to others.

oh yeah; this is all coming from my experience with the game. i don’t expect to change anyone’s mind, just explaining how i see it. i think it’s all there and plain to see, but whether you think the execution (no pun intended) works is not my place to say.

honestly, from what i’ve read, most people say that contracts has the ‘better’ atmosphere and leave it at that. blood money is all about the undercurrent.

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Interesting, I see what you mean better now but I have a question or two

Sorry I assumed were talking gameplay when you said this, mb

I completely agree with this except for the latter part because, in my opinion atleast, the whole supposedly lighthearted top and seedy underbelly atmosphere of Blood Money doesn’t make a map like the Meat King’s Party any weaker, the darkness was intentional and pulled off very well, which makes it just as good as, I’ll use your example, A New Life, in it’s own respect of course. Basically, Blood Money had it’s own respective, charming atmosphere for those who liked it, and likewise for other games.

The way you use the word tension is new to me though, so sorry about my confusion (I completely get what you mean now).

I’m surprised that you’ve read that people say Contracts has a better atmosphere, I always see people complimenting Blood Money more while Contracts gets disregarded as a lazy remake.

Anyways, I do really appreciate you going this in-depth about why you appreciate the game, a lot of people just chalk it up to improved AI, graphics and “it’s a classic” vaguely.

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it’s been good! thanks for reading through all my crap.

no no no, i’m sorry. :smile: that didn’t get across what i meant at all, so it’s on me.

so, on that first bit - “i know contracts is…” - i was clumsily trying to draw a distinction between an in-story explanation for why he fits in (it’s in his head) and the more meta-narrative reason (he is hitman in a seedy world), if that makes sense? i totally used the wrong wording and i don’t even think i needed to explain that. :smile:

the tension of moving around the levels in h2:sa and contracts is totally a thing, but like you already noted, that wasn’t the tension i was talking about. maybe friction is a better word? i dunno.

100% agree. they’re going for totally different things, i’m not saying one is necessarily ‘better’ than the other, just that i find what blood money went for more interesting; we have to pick at it more to get what it was doing (though not a lot, admittedly).

mechanically and level design-wise, for sure, but not in terms of atmosphere. contracts nailed that broody tone. even back in the day, people missed it.

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Simply the Best Hitman Game ever created, even if the latest HITMAN videogames are interesting :+1:

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your posts aren’t crap, I’d say your making some thoughtful observations,
it really is a stylistic pattern all through BM to have surface level comfy locations with a dark underbelly to explore

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ah, i appreciate that :blush:

i was thinking the other day, there’s even that same kind of tension in the overall story; between what caine (is that the right spelling?) feeds the reporter and what we see when we actually play the level. i distinctly remember being a bit confused by it during my initial playthrough till it clicked that he wasn’t on the level. they did a great job with it, i think.

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Anybody has an idea why do people at io only seem to give credit to blood money for it’s level design and not it’s atmosphere(music, locations, plot, targets etc)?

maybe because they took the reboot mostly (not completely) in a different direction on those aspects.
but sandboxy level design is the main thing they want to make a point of carrying over.

Fair enough. But now it seems as if they borrowed all of those aspects from bond movies rather than hitman games.

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to be fair there’s always been a spy/secret agent vibe in Hitman, but you’re right, they really went all-out on that angle and made it replace other character traits and themes that were so iconic in the classics.

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i such a wish to return of hideouts

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Tried to SASO every mission last week, but the last 2 are near impossible and really not designed to do. :sweat_smile:

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LOL. I hated that because sometimes you need to go to the bathroom.