The Oppressive Atmosphere And Darkness Of Hitman: Contracts

I wonder sometimes why games from the early 2000s such as Thief, Silent Hill, Deus Ex and others had such strong atmosphere. It might have something to do with earlier tech: less draw distance being compensated for by fog and in general, a fascination with finally being able to use light and darkness in game engines in new and interesting ways.

That said, I’ve rarely played something as dark and sombre as Hitman: Contracts. It probably helps that every level is set on a rainy night for instance. Every missions also takes place in the main protagonist’s mind, and it colours the locations with a haze of green and brown. Kind of dreary.

This vagueness and sense of dislocation is perfect for Agent 47’s view of the world, you aren’t really playing missions, you’re playing his memory of the missions and -well, his mood during them.

I can’t think of much else that really portrays a character in this way. You could do it in a book or movie maybe, where in certain recurring memories it’s always raining. The nightmare sequences from the Elm Street films come to mind.

The film Inception probably delivers something similar, or Shutter Island, but even films with that kind of feel are often striking and unique.

It doesn’t hold up all the way through the game though. Most of the early levels feature short cinematics linking the present and past, but this sort of falls off by the end of the game during the Triad Missions which are just not as interesting as the brand new ideas in the earlier section of Hitman: Contracts.

Still Hitman: Contracts makes a strong impression. A lot of people might be reluctant to play the earlier games, especially since Contracts came across as more of an expansion than a mainline game, but you’d miss out on something like “The Meat King”, a level so dark and twisted everyone remembers it long after they’ve played this game.

I read someone’s comment on the Contracts before, saying

“somewhere out there there is a game with the mechanics of Hitman 3, and the atmosphere of contracts, but we will never get it”.

They are probably right, unfortunately. Some of the scenes in Contracts don’t have the slapstick humour of the newer games to hide behind. It’s a very serious game and a little nihilistic, yet in no way does that make it less fun.

You’re kind of glad the series went there, even if you probably wouldn’t want to stay too long.