Third Hitman revisiting Agent 47's past missions through retrospective storytelling. Redesigned levels and darker tone make Contracts an appreciated entry. Less innovative than Blood Money but technically solid and faithful to franchise spirit.
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Category
Action1 player16+
Description
The third entry in the series, released in 2004 by IO Interactive, revisiting and reimagining the missions of the first PC Hitman. Wounded in a Parisian church, Agent 47 remembers his older contracts. A dark, foggy and melancholy rework of the formula, with levels reshaped for PS2.
Hitman - Contracts review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
The art direction bathes the adventure in a feverish delirium. Wounded and dying in a rain-lashed Paris hotel room, Agent 47 relives his past contracts through the veil of fever, and the imagery carries this alteration: persistent mists, desaturated tints, driving rain, sickly lights and shadow-drowned settings. The resurfaced missions seem filtered by a wavering consciousness, grimier and more nightmarish than real.
The soundtrack sounds like a memory going out of tune. Since the missions rise from a dying man's delirium, the music weds their strangeness: slowed themes, veiled timbres, trailing echoes, as if heard through a fading consciousness. The ambiances, darker than in the other entries, bathe the infiltration in a dull, clammy unease.
The story makes a dying killer the narrator of his own life. On the ground, a bullet in his body, Agent 47 relives in flashbacks a selection of his past contracts, reimagined through the prism of his failing memory. The adventure becomes a mute confession, a man without a past contemplating, perhaps a last time, the murders that made him what he is.
The Korean edition of Hitman Contracts, from a market with narrow physical distribution, which makes it markedly rarer than its Western and Japanese counterparts. This local release appeals to collectors attentive to thinly documented regional runs of IO Interactive's stealth series. Its desirability rests mainly on this geographic scarcity rather than on the game's distribution.
A questionable morality
Planning a target's perfect removal feels like an elegant puzzle: disguises, poisons, staged accidents and a quiet exit. You almost forget the goal is still to kill people for a fee, with the game rewarding you all the more for working cleanly. Assassination becomes an exercise in style, and you set about acing it like a diligent pupil.
Is Hitman - Contracts still worth playing in 2026?
Released in 2004 on PS2, IO Interactive's entry revisits several levels from the very first Hitman through the feverish memories of a wounded Agent 47. The rainy, grimy, desaturated atmosphere gives the game a strong visual identity, bleaker than the other chapters. The missions lean on disguise, observation and freedom of approach, with assassinations to orchestrate patiently. Jesper Kyd's score stays superb. The lack of innovation over Silent Assassin and stiff controls make themselves felt. Recommended for series fans and for lovers of old school stealth who value atmosphere and methodical planning over fast action.
