Hitman: Blood Money

AceGamez

An epic experience from beginning to end, filled with dark humour, lots of action and most importantly the perfect blend of engrossing story and engaging gameplay.

Times Online

This episode has more depth than the two previous follow- ups, and its developer, IO Interactive, has introduced many intelligent refinements.

PSM2 Magazine UK

Even compared to previous Hitman games, Blood Money feels focused, fresh and utterly compelling. You owe it to yourself to play this. [July 2006, p.66]

Gaming Age

Hitman: Blood Money is an extremely solid title, with small problems here and there. If you’re looking for a game where obsessive-compulsive tendencies and people watching is valued over hide and seek gameplay, you really can’t go wrong with Blood Money—but just don’t expect it to be an easy ride.

Pelit (Finland)

Hitman: Blood Money is the turbocharged, ultra-sophisticated version of the previous Hitmans. As such, I liked it a lot, but at the same time there was the feeling that I have now murdered everyone there is to murder. Next time, something radically new is needed. [June 2006]

GameSpy

All in all, the game features enough choices and entertaining kills to have you playing some missions more than once, striving for that elusive Silent Assassin rating.

Official Playstation 2 Magazine UK

Blood Money is without question the best Hitman yet, and although it can be punishing at times, it's also hugely compelling and stylish. [June 2006, p.78]

Cheat Code Central

If you’re just looking to blast your way through level after level, Blood Money, is not the game for you. If you want to assume the role of an actual hitman and utilize the most dangerous weapon of all, your imagination, then by all means get your hands on this one.

GamerNode

In the end, Hitman: Blood Money does come out on top as the best title in the series. Blood Money makes up for most of its faults and shortcomings by offering a load of new features and entirely new ways of completing mission objectives.

Digital Entertainment News

Newbie or veteran, fan or critic, you will enjoy this game. Blood Money is frustrating enough to be challenging, but fun enough to keep you coming back for more. Best game in the series.

GameZone

Agent 47 is a great character and the game is so original and fun that you will want to go back and try all sorts of wacky ways of eliminating your quarry.

TotalPlayStation

Blood Money is, in every way, the best Hitman game IO Interactive has made yet. The missions are more open and the noteriety and upgrades systems give you more reason to go back and play through the missions again. Just ignore that feeling of deja vu.

Game Over Online

The gameplay gives you plenty of choices regarding progressing through a stage, and it looks good while you do so. It would've been very easy to churn out another boring murderfest, but instead we get a thinking man's game. Good showing.

GamePro

The open, expansive world of Hitman is certainly what makes this game an enjoyable experience. There's a good mix of stealth and action, and your enemies are smart enough to give you a challenge to the very end.

PSM Magazine

With Blood Money, the fourth offering in the series, Eidos makes some big changes to fix these flaws, and the end result is a game that is definitely the best "Hitman" yet. [July 2006, p.80]

Play.tm

Played in the spirit in which it is intended, Hitman: Blood Money proves that even in the series' fourth installment it still has the means to impress with its gameplay, freedom of exploration and high production values. Although there are still one or two little annoyances, there's no doubting that there's more than enough here to satisfy even the most experienced of contracted killers.

Game Almighty

Hitman: Blood Money is an enjoyable sequel that doesn’t take too many risks in regards to changes to its now successful formula. So fans who were content with most of Agent 47s methods should be happy. For those neophytes out there considering some experience with murder-for-hire, you will find getting Blood Money to be very rewarding.

GameSpot

Though very similar to the last two games in the series, the open-ended stealth action gameplay offered by Hitman: Blood Money is still just about as tensely exciting as ever. A few new twists to the formula, an intriguing story, and a memorably diverse, cinematic sequence of missions further make Blood Money worth it.

Next Level Gaming

It's overall a solid title with a couple little glitchy AI issues that don't take too much away from things.

Console Gameworld

All in all, however, Hitman Blood Money is a worthwhile experience. The satisfaction of seamlessly pulling off an assassination and raking in the highest reward makes all the trial and error worthwhile and, frustration aside, the act of playing through a mission again in an attempt to end up with less notoriety or more money becomes challenging rather than tedious.

games(TM)

This is by far the finest Hitman yet. The level design is superb, the enemy AI is decent, and the story is suitably entertaining, which all captures the feeling of being a cold-blooded killer wonderfully. [July 2006, p.120]

PSX Extreme

It’s well worth playing for stealth aficionados, and the PS2 version might be the lesser version, but it’s still quite acceptable.

Gamestyle

It may not be perfect, but few if any titles of late will generate such a compulsive hold with such economic use of power.

1UP

All 13 of the game's missions are well crafted and challenging, but after four iterations of this series, I felt a need for a new challenge.

IGN

There is a little more accessibility on all fronts, controls, AI behavior, and combat. The level design is consistently good, and each new level requires a smart, logical approach to beat it.

Games Radar (in-house)

It manages to provide an incredibly compelling experience by consistently setting an intense mood, forgiving player errors and providing numerous options for accomplishing your fiendish goals.

Yahoo! Games

Though all the elements are familiar, IO has polished them up and the end result is like a favorite dish: You know what it tastes like, but you're still looking forward to eating it.

VideoGamer

Depth way beyond that of any other action game released this year, sleek presentation and some of the best levels ever created in a video game.

PSW Magazine UK

The bigger picture is what Blood Money really thrives on. Ignore the control issues, and bear in mind instead the large scale setpieces that are second to none in terms of both scope and execution.

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine

We don't have to worry about the Hitman franchise feeling like a sports-game series with incremental updates, as Hitman: Blood Money adds three features that make it feel like a real sequel: money, notoriety, and publicity. [June 2006, p.90]

Electronic Gaming Monthly

While the A.I. could use some improvement (one guard spots you, and they all suddenly know where you are), it's the save system that totally knocks a point off for me. [June 2006, p.112]

Game Informer

While there's a lot to love about this series, and this entry in particular, Agent 47's world still foesn't offer the subtlety necessary for this great premise to really be satisfying. [June 2006, p.110]

Worth Playing

The locations look decent, if not a bit overwhelming at times, and the gameplay is solid, with the exception of a few hiccups. Newcomers can have fun, but the frustration factor is high, only rising as you progress.

GameCritics

Hitman still has plenty of potential and I look forward to seeing if the new direction comes closer to fulfilling it in the future, but for the moment it's hard to tell if the formula has changed too much or too little and if Blood Money represents a brave re-birth for the series or the beginning of the end.

Edge Magazine

Blood Money feels only slightly closer to the series’ ideal of a gameworld that’s both complex and cogent, and is more accessible and entertaining with it. [July 2006, p.80]

Play Magazine

With Eidos' latest foray into professional assassination, players will have to dig deep, wading through mission after mission of trial-and-error gameplay to hunt down a series of targets. [June 2006, p.49]