Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal Review (Switch & Mobile)

It was going to happen at some point or another — a mobile and handheld iteration of Hitman: Blood Money. Sure, it might’ve taken well over a decade for IO Interactive to slide over the keys and grant Feral Interactive access to its casket of contracts and beloved characters, but lo and behold, it happened, and we’re all the merrier about that. Agent 47 is back, and that blood red tie and fiber wire combo has never looked so darn good. And yes, even on Android and iOS—two platforms that, in all honesty, I worried wouldn’t be able to emulate the bittersweet nostalgia of the 2006 original. But boy, how wrong I turned out to be.

Of course, they say you should never judge a book by its cover. Well, I’ll be the first to put my hands up and say that, going in to the Feral Interactive’s Reprisal, I was ambivalent—oddly cautious, or protective, even. In my mind, there wasn’t a need to reinvent Blood Money; it was a time capsule that, quite frankly, didn’t need to be reopened for the sake of conjuring mere nostalgia fodder. But again, having unshackled that very box and spent a great deal of time sifting through its newly revamped contents, I have to say — I am, for lack of a better word, an idiot. That’s twice. Well played, Feral.

At its core, Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal is the same powerhouse phenomenon that its predecessor worked tirelessly to capture back in ‘06. But there’s more, and it goes without saying that, as far as vanilla ports go, this certainly isn’t one of them. But I’m getting ahead of myself. So, let’s rewind the clock back to that initial contract that gave me the opportunity to wield the Silverballers for a second inning.

Hello, 47

To set the record straight, Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal isn’t a new game, nor is it an extension to one of the other entries in the series. On the contrary, it is, more or less, a handheld port of 2006’s Blood Money, a game that went on to score mass acclaim and, to our best knowledge, ship upwards of 2.1 million copies worldwide. Reprisal is, in short, a souped-up version of that same product — only with a vast collection of new audio-visual improvements and gameplay elements.

So, what’s new in Reprisal, and how does it manage to breathe new blood into the core framework? Well, for starters, the handheld port touts a new form of Instinct Mode—an in-game ability that essentially allows Agent 47 to examine his surroundings and identity certain points of interest and other valuable sources of intelligence. Of course, this isn’t a new feature by any means; it’s been an active ability for most of the post-Absolution games, in all fairness. However, unlike those entries, Reprisal’s iteration of the feature doesn’t allow you to see for miles and miles. On the contrary, it only allows you to examine what’s actually within 47’s field of view. So, hardly worth bragging about, what with the common person having the exact same ability.

In addition to the Instinct Mode, Reprisal also offers a slew of quality-of-life updates—a mini-map, being one of them. There’s also gyro-aiming—a node that allows you to manually target your victims. Granted, this isn’t exactly a revolutionary thing, though it does make the process of eliminating your chosen targets feel a little more hands on, so to speak. Little things, for sure, but when merged into the same gene pool, they actually stand out rather well — especially on a handheld device.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Aside from the odd update and visual improvement, Reprisal isn’t in receipt of much more than the previous features and modes as seen in the original Blood Money. This isn’t a bad thing at all, though it isn’t exactly much to write home about, either, as it is, more or less, a port with a few updated interface options and visual overhauls. And that’s fine, you know, so long as you don’t waltz into Reprisal with the hopes of seeing anything more than that.

The good news is, Reprisal plays out in the exact same way as the original, in the fact that its gameplay is smooth enough to work with without any unwanted consequences or molehills to clamber over. For me, I didn’t really need to restart the game at any point in order to progress deeper into the campaign. Thankfully, it rolled out like a stick of blood-soaked butter, which, really, meant I wasn’t ever thrown from the hot seat and forced to tweak the options and start over from scratch. Just as well, because some of those contracts — sheesh!

It goes without saying that, if you haven’t found the time to binge Blood Money on an older piece of hardware, then you’re probably going to find something of value in Feral Interactive’s Reprisal. With that said, if the scent of Agent 47’s previous blood-stained victim is still hot in your nostrils, then you might want to consider taking an alternate route; World of Assassination is a worthy substitute, for example. If, however, it’s nostalgia fodder you’re on the market for, then you could certainly do a lot worse than Feral Interactive’s latest reincarnation.

Home Sweet Home

With Hitman: Blood Money being the eighteen-year-old game that it is, the newest incarnation does come lauded with its fair share of somewhat laughable AI-type technical faults, which often includes NPCs and other characters mindlessly roaming into random quarters and doing, well, things that they probably shouldn’t be doing. Also being a game with an enormous supply of positives, though, I’m willing to give Feral Interactive the benefits and simply brush over the odd tidbit. It isn’t exactly perfect, but it does fire on all cylinders and deliver a fluid flow of content that rarely ever touches the brakes.

Visually, Reprisal does look like a souped-up version of a PlayStation 2 game, and that’s, you know, fine. It’s fine, mainly because its refined mechanics greatly outweigh the lack of modern polish and life-like character models. It’s evidently port-like, but due to the creators also spending a considerable amount of time finessing the formula and tweaking several of the core gameplay mechanics, it’s also easy to see it for a lot more than what it actually is.

Verdict

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased to return to the boots of Agent 47 in Feral Interactive’s Reprisal. And whilst I was slightly apprehensive about slugging through a handheld port of a game that, in my mind, held all of the best qualities on its original platform, I was nevertheless wrong to judge before getting my hands dirty. And if there’s anything I can say about my time in Reprisal, it’s that, honestly, I absolutely loved getting my hands dirty — so much that I was often willing to rewrite my sins and jump back in to make the exact same errors, only with alternate ink and verses.

In ways, there’s a certain beauty to Hitman; it pretty much always warrants a series of reruns, and it gets progressively better with each new perspective that you unlock throughout the campaign. Hitman: Blood Money —  Reprisal, in spite of everything, oddly excels in capturing each of the aforementioned perspectives, and it does so by introducing a freshly revamped batch of quality-of-life improvements and technical overhauls. Sure enough, it is a port of an older game — but as the saying goes, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ And I think I speak on behalf of the Hitman fan base when I say this: Blood Money isn’t broken.

To answer the question, is Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal worth pouring a few hours into? Yes, it is, and not just for the sake of unlocking a core memory or two, but to experience a journey that, in all honesty, was already well ahead of its time even back in 2006. It’s a port, clear as day, but if you love Hitman just enough to return for another round, then you probably won’t be disappointed with what Feral Interactive’s Reprisal has to offer.