Stealth really is all the rage at the moment, yet nobody does it quite like Agent 47. Whilst Sam Fisher and Solid Snake sneak invisibly through the shadows, our brazen hitman specialises in hiding in the open. Now with Hitman: Contracts he's back for another shot at the stealth crown.

I really loved Hitman 2: Silent Assassin and so I was very excited to get my grubby little mitts on the next in the series. My feelings about it are mixed but it's safe to say that if you loved Hitman 2, you'll find a lot of enjoyment here. The story is told in flashback form and it's a very surreal start to the proceedings, as one of the first flashbacks sees Agent 47 crawling along the floor, only to be shot in the head at point blank, by, wait for it, Agent 47! Confused yet? I was. Anyway, all becomes clear as the first mission is set in a sanatorium filled with Agent 47 clones and your job is to escape the building. As you travel through the level it becomes clear that there's been a massacre, as there are loads of dead clones scattered around the place, blood is splattered and smeared everywhere and the remaining living mental patients are wandering around in their usual mental manner. Once out of the asylum, each mission is interspersed with another brief snippet of where Agent 47 ends up, in a hotel apartment critically wounded. It's a bit annoying at first but it's an intriguing idea and works quite well, as you do want to see where this hotel scene is going.

Hitman: Contracts is definitely more of the same and whilst it retains all of the classic and relatively unique concepts of Hitman 2, it also keeps the faults. Graphically it doesn't look much better than the last game, although there's a very nice soft focus kind of effect on the distant scenery that enhances the atmosphere well. All of the scenery is nicely detailed but the lighting and shadow effects are looking very dated when compared to Splinter Cell. Even more so are the clunky animations of Agent 47, which are okay but certain transitions like moving from normal to stealth and an appalling ladder effect just don't cut it in 2004. The animation just isn't as natural looking as games like Splinter Cell and whilst graphics aren't as important as gameplay, the stealth genre is definitely one where an attention to detail is needed. The sound effects are good, less is definitely more here and the gurgle as you strangle someone, the thud as they hit the floor, the sound of you dragging the body along and the stifled shot of your silenced pistol all sound spot on. The music is good too, with some quite unusual and atmospheric compositions that serve to build tension, with the music becoming dramatic and fast when your cover is blown.

There's a good range of locations in various countries, including a nightclub in an abattoir, a port where you must infiltrate a ship before the SWAT team closes in, a posh hotel, an English manor, a submarine at a snowy military base and a series of levels in and around a Triad restaurant in Hong Kong. Each level is very well themed and designed, with enjoyable and authentic voice acting; the various foreign languages sound pretty convincing to this layman's ears.

By far the biggest appeal of Hitman: Contracts is its totally open-ended gameplay. It really is fair to say that you can approach each level in any way you want. For example, on the first mission you are to assassinate two criminals and rescue a kidnapped woman. The gory venue is a meat factory being used as a nightclub, filled with guests dressed in kinky leather gear. The fact that there are about 70 individual people wandering around doing their thing is a big achievement and rarely is there any slowdown; you really get the feeling of a big party going on (and the dance floor and club music is very cool). You have two choices - go in guns blazing or dress up as a butcher and breeze straight past the guards. There's a catch though - to get in as a butcher you must leave all your weapons behind, bar your fibre cord that can only be used for stealthy strangulation, making things a bit tougher inside. If you shoot your way in and steal a guard's uniform should be okay to blend in once things have calmed down. Either way, you're inside and now it's time to earn your fee.

Being able to incapacitate or kill people silently, drag their bodies to a hiding place (much more roughly than Sam Fisher's careful lifting, which fits the style well) and then steal their clothes is hugely appealing, as is walking around in front of all the guards and getting away with it. Instead of a visibility meter, you have a suspicion meter that pulses and flashes red when someone is really suspicious of you. Generally speaking the key is not to get too close to any guards (so don't look at you too closely) and walking casually around - running raises a lot of suspicion. You can also finish off your disguises with objects too - at the frozen military base I stole an Eskimo's coat then grabbed a crate of food and walked into the heavily guarded canteen, while to infiltrate a shipyard I dressed as an engineer complete with toolbox. These are really nice touches that increase the realism and I love the concept of hiding in the open. That's not to say that you can't be stealthy though; there's plenty of sneaking around to be had here.

As a hitman you get a plentiful variety of weapons to use. As standard are a needle for knocking someone out without inflicting harm, your very cool fibre cord (watch them struggle before they gasp and fall to the floor), a silenced pistol, double pistols, a variety of sniper rifles, machine guns, shotguns and so on. You can pick up any weapon you find, including those dropped by enemies and often when dressing as a guard you'll need the right weapon in hand to avoid suspicion. You can also make use of knives, bottles and other objects for taking out enemies. The gore factor is high in this game and the blood is plentiful as you gun people down. The way your victim flies back when hit by a shotgun blast is great and there are some fairly nice rag doll physics going on here. You'll also often find poisons and sometimes even bombs to use to assassinate your targets or ways of using the scenery, like setting a fire to smoke someone out. All of these options really add to the variety of the gameplay and each time you replay a mission you'll find a different way of doing things.

You have many different choices of route to take in each level - take the sewers, disguise yourself and just walk in the front door, find a secret passage, climb on rooftops and so on. The level designs are simply awesome and very large too and you really do have a complete sense of freedom to take any path you choose, unlike the rather scripted nature of Splinter Cell. Sometimes interaction with other people reveals a new option too, such as the level where a disgruntled barman gives you a free pass to a brothel, giving you access to a hooker with the information you need. These encounters are refreshing and nicely done, whilst the voice acting is good all round.

When it comes to the huge levels, your map becomes a vital tool and in some respects it is almost too helpful! It gives an outlay of each level that shows the location of every person there, moving around and colour coded as guard, civilian, cop, VIP or target. If you choose not to use the map and go by trial and error it'll take ages and ages but somehow it feels a bit like cheating to somehow be able to see where everyone is. It also shows points of interest, which can be very obscure, such as a gas heater that you can turn off so a woman in a shower comes down to switch it back on, giving you the chance to go through her bathroom and into a secret passage behind the mirror. The fact that these are needed for you to find methods of achieving your objectives again feels a bit like cheating, yet without them the trial and error needed to find things would be seriously tedious. Oh, and the amount of poison left casually around the place in this game is truly scary!

The controls are okay but can be a little unresponsive, especially when executing a silent kill from behind. You sneak up, you press attack, you swipe at the air behind someone with your fibre cord and then they see you, turn around and start shooting as well as alerting nearby guards. Once you get used to it this doesn't happen too much but it's still annoying and it would have been better if an option to stealth attack appeared, Splinter Cell style, when you're close enough. The enemy AI is generally good, if perhaps a little tough, as they seem to see or hear you from quite a distance. The answer is sneaking - sneak and you'll be amazed that they don't see you even when they're quite close, as long as you're in the shadows by a wall. Most of the time the enemies are pretty smart, calling in back up when they spot you and they chase quite far before giving up and going back to their set patrols.

There's quite a sick side to this game and it shows some of its worst stuff very early on. There's a hugely obese man (one of your targets), a room that is like a shrine and torture chamber all in one, complete with a hanging body, pool of blood and bits of flesh, a man being tortured through electrocution and more. One of the funniest things I've ever seen in a game is also here - the ability to poison someone with a laxative. It's on the level where you begin on an aeroplane - do not pass up this opportunity. Take out the Eskimo, grab his furs, grab a crate and then make contact in the canteen with your inside man. There you'll find the laxative to put in his soup. He drinks it and a few seconds later he starts to belch and groan, clutching his stomach before rushing to the toilet. There you will find him sat on the toilet (a primitive one with dividers but no cubicles) and can watch as he belches, retches, farts and squeezes liquid diarrhoea into the toilet bowl! It's just so funny and such an original touch. When you think he's suffered enough, you can shoot him with your silenced pistol and leave, with the guards outside completely clueless.

Playing Hitman: Contracts is very enjoyable and frustrating at the same time, especially for perfectionists like me. You see, you'll often get spotted and have to kill a couple of guards. Every alarm, close encounter and enemy or civilian kill is counted in a summary at the end of the mission. Stealth and aggression are measured against each other, giving you a range of ratings from mass murderer to the coveted silent assassin, which I only achieved on one level in my first play through the whole game and that was only by working out a pretty clever strategy (no-one ever knew I was there, which is what you have to do to get the rating!) It is immensely satisfying to get this rating, although I'm not convinced it's possible to get the perfect rating on every level (prove me wrong someone, prove me wrong). Anyway, the amount of times I've done quite well then something's gone wrong and I've ended up reloading, well, I lost count, but it was a lot and the loading times, whilst not crippling, are intrusive. Thankfully you can save anytime you want, although it counts the number of saves in the ratings at the end, which is a very clever way of discouraging you from saving too frequently. However, despite the frustration (which is due to the nature of the game rather than any major flaws) I found it very addictive and played for hours on end.

There are a couple of things in the game design that can be looked upon as strengths as much as weaknesses. Agent 47 is very tough and can sustain dozens of gunshots before he finally dies. This means you can blast through a level, guns blazing, kill over one hundred guards, civilians and police, kill the targets and finish without penalty. The fact that this is possible detracts from the realism, yet it also gives you another gameplay option and every now and again going on a wanton killing spree and butchering the people that kept blowing your cover is great stress relief. Equally, the provision of a map that gives so much away could be considered a spoiler, yet would trial and error (considering the number of guards in every level) be more fun? No, it really wouldn't. The lack of a visibility meter is a pain but it's more realistic in a way, as there is no technological reason for you to tell if you're visible or not (unlike in Splinter Cell, where it's explained).

Probably the biggest letdown for me is the game's length. I wasn't paying attention to the number of levels I'd played and they are huge with multiple objectives, multi-level buildings and several sections but I was stunned when it ended. The ending was a real non-event and I was gutted that there were no more levels to play. There can't be many more than a dozen. Still, the levels are so open and so well designed that you could spend days searching for that perfect silent assassin route, giving this game much more replay value than most.

Hitman: Contracts definitely hits the target despite not moving the concept on much since Hitman 2. The graphics are nice if a little rough around the edges in places and more levels would really have been appreciated, but it's still a tough, rewarding game that will take a long time to play through, at least if you take pride in being a professional, rather than a mere thug. The gameplay is the most open-ended I've ever seen and you have such freedom to try different things that the replay value is really there. It's different enough to its competitors to warrant a look, whether you love or loathe the stealth genre.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).