Episode 39: Hitman: Codename 47

Retro Spectives

Stealth games have a long and varied history. Amongst others exist the purist Thief, the story driven Metal Gear, and the slick secret agent stylings of Splinter Cell. But in the year 2000, Hitman: Codename 47 challenged stealth conventions by letting players freely walk around in hostile territory...provided they had the right disguise. With a heavy emphasis on puzzle-solving, the game wanted players to think laterally and come up with a plan to achieve the perfect assassination.

But how successful was it at achieving this goal? In modern times, titles such as Dishonored, Metal Gear Solid V and even Hitman’s reboot provide varied platforms for dynamic stealth gameplay. Does Codename 47’s take on an action/stealth/puzzle hybrid hold up today, or does it just feel like a confused and clunky mess?

On this week’s episode, we ask ourselves:

• Is Hitman’s narrative deftly woven into the experience or does it feel shoehorned into a series of unrelated escapades?
• Does it pay dividends to take a focus on perfection to its logical extreme? Or is Hitman too unforgiving for the average player.
• How much joy is there to have in the exploration, puzzle solving and execution stages of Hitman’s missions? Are some parts more enjoyable than others?

We answer these questions and many more on the 39th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!
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Playing Hitman in its vanilla state is not recommended!
If you wish to give the game a go then take a look at these easy fixes to vastly improve the experience!

• Link to the steam community guide
• Link to the PC Gaming Wiki

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Are there solutions to some assassinations we were too dumb to solve? Which Hitman game should we play next? Are the Jungle levels really as bad as we think? Let us know over on our text-based community discord server