Game gives taste of hitman's job

By Daniel Etherington
BBC Collective

The third in IO Interactive's franchise about the silent but deadly Agent 47, Hitman: Contracts is riding high in the UK games charts, proving that gamers enjoy sneaking around knocking off folk in inventive ways.

Hitman has been selling well in the UK

But how do IO keep 47's activities fresh? After all, he is a pretty straightforward character. He is mysterious. He kills.

Thor Frolich, lead designer at IO, describes him as "an emotionally and ethically barren wasteland".

"Having no real upbringing makes him able to do very questionable things," he said, "which makes him pretty predictable, but at the same time very hard to get at, since he doesn't attach himself to other people."

In effect, this means he is a flexible character, not burdened by an overwhelming storyline.

Sneaky or gun-toting

The Hitman team at IO intentionally seem to want to keep the character vague, so he is effective as "a vessel for the player's fantasies".

"We try to reveal as little as possible about 47's preferences, and his thoughts and emotions in general, to allow the players to invest their own visions in the character," explained Mr Frolich.

"Yet we still need to drive the story forth and have the character evolve."

Our games are often pretty difficult. But it's one of those things where it's almost impossible to satisfy everyone Thor Frolich, IO Interactive Discuss this story on BBC Collective

Hitman: Contracts, however, does develop the character by providing further fragmentary back story, by means of a non-continuous game structure.

Mr Frolich said they did not want to do a linear game. "In the first Hitman, it just seemed like the natural thing to do. Now it's the most important part of our gameplay and level design."

As with the earlier versions, the gamer also has a choice of means for completing the missions.

"Many players do what I do," said Mr Frolich. "They start out really clever and sneaky, then revert to a gun-toting maniac when they screw up at a critical point.

"I find that many players also complete each mission more than once to try out other approaches."

Many gamers, however, find the titles unforgiving so they may not even complete the missions once, let alone multiple times.

"Our games are often pretty difficult," admitted Mr Frolich. "But it's one of those things where it's almost impossible to satisfy everyone.

"Half the feedback we get on this issue complains about how easy the game is while the other half say they find it very challenging."

Killer for hire

More controversial than the difficulty of the game, however, are the moral issues of basing a game around cold-blooded assassination.

"Obviously, the Hitman series is controversial in its choice of subject," said Mr Frolich, "and it's not suitable for children."

The game is rated for an older audience

But, rightly, he pointed out that "games play the same role as entertainment media in general. We're not in gaming to lecture our players on ethical issues or subjects of morality. We're here to entertain.

"Morality in gaming is great if that's the goal you have for your game. In our case it's not."

Fair enough, especially for a game with a PEGI rating of 16+.

With such concerns out of the way, it must be fun for the team to sit around brainstorming about Agent 47's different hits, a chance to exercise the more macabre imaginative muscles to come up with obscure kills.

"It's great implementing a really brilliant idea," said Mr Frolich. "The only problem with the open-ended gameplay is that only a limited number of players will opt for that particular solution. So there's a lot of 'wasted' energy, but it's worth it, no doubt."

As long as Mr Frolich and his colleagues can keep on coming up with scenarios for Agent 47, we are likely to play out more challenges for the formidable assassin.

Hitman: Contracts is available now on PC, PS2 and Xbox