Hitman: Codename 47

you gotta do what you're told to do

Honestly, this is awful. Even accounting for the fact that it's a 2000 release, which doesn't really mean much as lots of peoples' favorite games are just that old. Nevertheless, here are the reasons in no particular order:

Controls. Default control map is done by someone who has never played an RPG by the looks or it. Granted that todays conventions may have been not present back then but what this game comes out with is best described as a PC-specific attempt at gesture navigation.

Mission setup. Having familiarised ourselves with controls and definitively decided that they are indeed awful, can't be changed and will do for now, we start a mission. Any mission. We immediately fail it because reasons (like say... trying to get over the fence or looking for sane vantage point). We restart it and find out that checkpoints are either nonexistent or useless since game/NPC state is not what it should have been. Also missions, including and especially starting two, might require precise action timing. Add to this a tendency of the game to explain barely half of the controls, none of the map markers and having awful charater mobility.

Graphics. I don't particularly care if they are blurry, have about as much draw distance as one would have in a dense fog (that is not much if you've been in a fog like that) or otherwise look "outdated". As long as they look good enough for the time, it's mostly playable. What I do care about is how it scales to various screen sizes and resolutions (accounting for release year) and this one does so in most uniquely strange fashion. Mission/Inventory/action UI elements stick to screen corners and are tiny with pixelated text, central menu (briefing/settings) takes up an area roughly that of a postcard at highest possible resolution. Used screen space is also forced to 4:3 or 3:4 (take your pick) and is absolutely out of sync with menus. In other words... yeah... not for modern systems.

What did it for me though was a combination of these things, especially checkpoints and buggy item interactions. Don't want to replay the same mission again, again and again because some piece of code derped out and went on vacation. Take for nostalgia or whatever but as far as RPG/FPS go, I'm ranking this below Just Cause 1 which is an achievement on its own.

Missions are trial and error with no checkpoints, and starting over on a single mistake can quickly become frustrating.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a patient gamer, I have played the old games (except for the first one) as a kid when they came out (forgot most about them due to old age and passing years though), recently I decided to buy every single Hitman game on steam so I could do a full recap and eventually finally start World of Assassination, but holy fuck, this game is just pure agony.

The entire design philosophy is built on dying and then re-spawning again with more knowledge, much like dark souls...except, this is no dark souls, this is just a poorly designed American-action-movie-inspired shit game. Like i seriously wish it was about the controls or the graphics, but no, it's just inherently bad.

You are honestly better off just reading the plot on the Wiki page for more context and then just skip ahead and play the second game right away.

codename 47 and blood money are competitors for best hitman ever made, why 47? various locations, addicting soundtrack god bless Jesper kydd, cool targets to assassinate, nice locations

This game hasn't really aged well and it's really challenging and hard to play without having the save game feature it's really a pain in the ass but it's the debut of the awesome franchise and it's nice and cool. :P

This is a legendary stealth action game that every diehard fan of the genre should play. The score by Jesper Kyd as always lends itself to an exotic and otherworldly ambiance, the solutions to levels feel satisfying to pull off, the levels are memorable, and it lets you take a loadout to fit your style. The jungle stages while having great music didn't seem as well thought-out as the rest, so my final rating is 9/10.

If there was a neutral rating, it would fit this game, in my opinion. I can only recommend this game if you are a hardcore fan of the Hitman series or want to explore old games for nostalgia, because you will lose your mind trying to figure out how to complete these missions. The hardcore damage and level design would be okay if there were a quicksave option

The very first Hitman game, released back in 2000, is a somewhat of a janky experience. Graphics are obviously outdated, so do not expect a visual masterpiece.
Codename 47 is rather different from other Hitman games. Other games reward you for being a silent assassin, a precise and calculated killer, leaving no trace of your presence. Here, you will more often than not cause collateral damage, detonating explosives and killing lots of people before reaching your target. But still, there are several missions where you can catch a glimpse of the future development of Hitman franchise.
This game is worth playing, just for those few missions that paved the way for the franchise.
Janky visuals can be a turn off for some people. Hitman identity is not yet fully formed.
But it's a fun nostalgia trip. I recommend it to all the fans of the franchise, as well as to all who are nostalgic for games from the early 00's.

pretty cool game wish it gets remade in the future though

The story is probably the best in the series, but the lack of a saving system and the AI has objectively made this unplayable.

Pathetic game, missions are too hard.

worst controls ive ever had to deal with.

You will constantly lose a lot of progress to janky, effectively random interactions. The difficulty and brutality of this game is not consistent and you need a little imagination to complete it without a guide. Right now, I don't want anyone to go through what I went through with this game, but maybe I'll think differently about it after playing the rest of the series.

Right now I can say it's all style, no substance. You will want to give this game more respect than it deserves and power through the confusion and frustration instead of consulting a strategy guide and blitzing through. In my case I think that was a mistake.

I like Hitman games, and I’ll cut it some slack for it being the first. But this game has aged like 1% milk. The enemies in this game will sometimes get pissed at you for no reason because of jank ai(which is a problem in the older Hitman titles, especially this one and 2:silent Assassin) Levels like plutonium runs loose has the worst level design in history. I’m not even gonna pull the “first game” card for this level. Having to wait for a guard with the disguise that you already have just to say a password, so he can open the gates. Also, make sure you follow him closely, or else you either have to wait for another guard or if you are too quick you can’t enter because the guards are already alerted and will alert Boris who will get to his getaway car by the time you get to him. Also, you don’t want to get into a firefight because you will die 95% of the time even with body armor which is the equivalent of using a pillow as a chestplate. It’s that useless. But, another thing is the crappy life system. You have two lives for each mission you die once and enemies are still on high alert, so you are better off just restarting anyway. Other levels like the Columbia levels are annoying and tedious to set up and Gunrunners Paradise has the same problems as plutonium runs loose just slightly better, but still awful. Also, the level says hello to my little friend which is a scarface reference. The main target Pablo Ochoa is a funny reference to Tony Montana, but the refrence gets old really quick because he’s an annoying bullet sponge who doesn’t die immediatly(like scarface) but he’s wielding an m60, so if you die you have to take this long tedious walk back to him and after you kill him take this long tedious walk to blow up a drug lab, and hope and pray the guards don’t get agitated with you and make it to the plane with hostile guards. Anyways i’ll leave this review on a good note, if you really like hitman. Go ahead and get this game, and experience it and especially make the comparison to the Hitman: Contracts reimaginations. The Hong Kong missions and Traditions of the Trade are the best in my opinion.

Even after installing mods to make the game run properly, it just did not age well.

feels like im overdosing on ketamine while trying to drive my kids to soccer practice. doesn't age well and feels terrible and boring.

It's actually pretty good for how old it is. The controls are definitely geriatric but once you get used to it you'll have fun. Nice to finally be able to play the first game at least for me.

Unplayable

no saves, hardly any checkpoints, when there are they start with enemies alerted. pure hardcore hitman stuff with bugs and glitches, oh the nostalgia

funny

considering it was released in 2000, it makes sense why the graphics looks rough. the storyline and narrative are not too shabby. however, controls are clunky, even basic movement and aiming are frustrating. the environment design lacks detail, though it may have been acceptable for its time. there's no save option, so if you die, you die fr. mission objectives are not always clear, it's extremely difficult to understand what to do next. you are almost certainly need a youtube guide to advance. the game is pretty short, but i (think) it gets the job done for the franchise.

it's like the game has an enigma of either being a stealth game, or straight up a tps.

while it may not hold up by modern standards (it didn't), the game still manage (it didn't) to deliver great narratives and does well (it didn't) as the beginning of an iconic series. minus the graphics and controls, for sure. 4/10

Irritating game
Very uncomfortable keyboard controls - the only 2 lame options.
What annoys me the most is the No Saving option, each time you die in a mission, you have to restart from beginning... I tried as long as I could,

Hitman: Codename 47 is stuck in a crossfire trying to be both an action game and a stealth game at the same time, but doesn't particularly succeed at either. Only about half the levels are decent and a lack of a proper save game feature ensures that you will be repeating the entire level all over again —annoying and excessively long at times walking sequences included— if you make a single mistake, either due to your fault or because the game just felt like being janky that particular moment. This is probably the worst game in the Hitman franchise and is much less refined than it's successor titles, but even then it is still not a terrible game, just a slightly below mediocore one. Codename: 47 is still pretty fun in it's own and a right and a challenge for hardcore gamers, so if you really want that or want a Hitman retrospective then play this. If you don't care so much for that, then there are far better Hitman games out there.

Works pretty well for an old game

Kiddos these days and normies will never understand how groundbreaking this game was for its time when there was no other game where you could play as a hitman accomplishing missions in all the different ways you can imagine, especially for us in eastern european countries where most people grew up with a low budget ATi card and had to lower all settings to get a passable 20-25 FPS in most games we played, it is as hardcore as any other game from that time, either git gud or play something else, leave the classics to us old farts instead if you can't handle it, the XP era will forever be in my heart <3

buggy as all hell, very hard yet very fun

Fun, but a bit difficult

What an irritating game!
Very uncomfortable keyboard controls - the only 2 lame options.
Graphics are old because it's an old game from 2000 which is understandable.
What annoys me the most is the No Saving option, each time you die in a mission, you have to restart from beginning... I tried as long as I could, no thanks. Games without saving options shouldn't exist.
Do NOT recommend!

This game honestly aged like milk, I understand this was IO's debut game for the franchise, but even a few years later, a lot of the gameplay mechanics and design choices were surpassed by other titles within the genre, it's a humble beginning, sure, but at the end of the day it is still a tedious and repetitive game, with janky mechanics, unpolished design, and undercooked gameplay that, as stated earlier, was outdone by subsequent entries in the franchise as well as other games within the stealth genre (Splinter Cell, Thief 2 namely)

If you want to see where the franchise first started, then by all means play it, but if you want to play a game with actual polish and properly cooked mechanics, then go play Hitman 2 or Contracts instead.

Washing Machine

only play this game if you just want to know how this franchise was even started and make sure to watch youtube videos in the back to see how to complete the levels in this game even

PLAY THIS GAME WHEN YOU ARE DONE WITH EVERY OTHER GAME OR WATCH YOUTUBE FOR THE STORY OF THIS GAME BUT PLEASE PLAY SILENT ASSASSIAN 2 AND CONTRACTS DONT COME IN THIS GAME

The controlling system is really annoying, but it's a highly-recommended game for any HITMAN lover.

First time getting filtered by a hitman title.

Hitman: Codename 47 is a really hard game to recommend. From the janky mechanics to the insane difficulty on some levels, Codename 47 is more frustrating than enjoyable. While it is cool to see where the Hitman franchise started, overall, it's just a really rough game that isn't worth the time.

THIS is an old game, but for those of you searching for a pure stealth experience, Hitman: Codename 47 is definitely what you’re looking for.

This game needs to be played in a very specific way—one wrong move, and you're DEAD.
You'll FAIL a lot in every mission you take on, as enemy NPCs react EXTREMELY AGGRESSIVELY in this one. Disguises aren’t very useful—BEWARE OF DOGS! Your disguise is useless against them.

This game will test your patience and timing—every second counts. Plan your moves carefully!

I need to use the bathroom. Rotterdam is a nightmare. Colombia is somehow worse. Traditions of the Trade and Hong Kong are fun, but those are in Contracts. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, JUST GO TO CONTRACTS

I tried to get back into this game but it's just too cumbersome for controls. don't recommend unless real nostalgic

First game in the series, nice graphics for its age but very complex missions that need guidance to complete. I actually wanted to have the full 2000s Hitman experience, so I left everything as it was, even the controls, making this game even harder, although it was quite fun. In the end, I just watched the entire walkthrough so I know the story to continue on the next game in the series.

Hitman: Agent 47 is a solid game overall, despite some of the bigger levels being a bit of a drag. The hotel level is where the game really shines—it’s peak level design. It runs well on modern hardware too; just tweak the INI file, and you should be good to go.

game is good

Nowadays this game is garbage, but.... There are many memories in this game. The beginning of the hitman story. With this game you can see how much games have changed over the years

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An essential game to the Hitman franchise, but many of the levels truly do need a guide and multiple rage inducing attempts. Every now and then, you can see glimpses of the future Hitman games, but they are too few to make this game a net positive. It is somewhat short however, so you can get through it in not too long.

There's some good parts but most of the game is absolute dogshite.

Sorry, but it's very very very rough, no save points, bad controls, even if it was iconic for the time i just can't recomend it.

Incredibly difficult and unfair. No saves and inconsistencies with the AI and stealth kill mechanics. I'm all for a challenge but not when you're expected to be almost perfect in doing a one shot attempt for each mission. Add save points.

I think Hitman 47 is a classic in stealth games. The game that made a breakthrough in the genre. And everyone should try this part to understand the essence of the Hitman game. Here, the pith of the game is cautious planning and perfect execution of each mission, which instantly reminded me of the fabulous game SWAT 3.

The game takes us to three diverse parts of the world - we begin in Hong Kong, at that point move to the Colombian jungle, to end the game in Europe. The game consists of 12 missions. Before starting each of them, we receive comprehensive review materials, taking into account primarily the mission objectives, tactical tips, character descriptions with video recordings, maps of the area where we will carry out the action and a detailed list of available equipment, along with prices. As in life, nothing is free - we get money for completing the mission, but we will have to pay for the equipment from our own pocket. At this stage we decide what weapon to take, how much ammunition to buy for it, etc. It may not be an impressive arsenal, but it has everything you need to complete the task - pistols, silencers, a sniper rifle, machine guns for larger events, a nylon cord around the neck, a bomb with a detonator if necessary, etc. Similarly, we are not able to hide a larger toy such as a Kalashnikov in the bosom of a tasteful suit, which at certain moments in the game completely excludes its possession.

Interestingly, our assignments are not constrained to killing the "object" - regularly you have got to carry out other orders, the usage of which can be more troublesome than basically disposing of another awful fellow. Exceptionally frequently, it includes maintaining watchfulness, taking an item from the scene of action or coordinating doubt at other individuals. Be that as it may, they don't tell us HOW to do it - and at this point we come to the magnificence of this game - the capacity to plan the course of the mission yourself and the joy of finding ideal arrangements.

What I acknowledged the foremost was the best character animations I`ve seen for year 2000. They moved easily and naturally, characters passing by turn their heads looking at us all the time, guards on duty extend from time to time etc. It may sound a bit grotesque, but the skeletal models of cadavers made the greatest impression on me. A shot opponent falls defenselessly down the stairs, a dead body lying on the ground treated with an extra burst from a heavier weapon moves with a tremble pushed by the force of bullets, the bodies we drag twist their limbs, catching on the obstacles they encounter.

At first, i myself reacted with a frown of dissatisfaction, but after a while, intrigued by the game, I gritted my teeth and tried, attempted, tried until i succeeded. I ensure that the satisfaction of completing a assignment "in one go" is much greater than securely completing a mission thanks to the "save" option piece by piece. This is often also part of the magnificence of this game - the first few attempts are about investigating the territory, the behavior of the opponent, finding unused conceivable outcomes of strategic moves, more and more experience until we reach the point when already know HOW to do everything - at that point all that is left for full victory is consistency, perfect timing of all actions, and as usual - a stroke of good fortune.

In conclusion.
Hitman Codename 47 is one of those games that you simply can play despite its age. It`s an inventive take on the stealth genre which has brought forth an notorious and long running series that has only gotten way better and better with time. It has its few imperfections, for the most part due to its age. Its still a fun time, but it is admittedly an extremely dated game in the event that you`ve played later entries. But they don`t truly affect the quality of the gameplay so, you'll be able to get a lot of delight from playing the first Hitman.

Incredible climate, wonderful design for its time, possibility of numerous combinations, cinematic embeds and a astounding ending have set this game in a place of honor in my collection.
8.4/10

The beginning missions are completely fine and I had an insane amount of fun trying to complete them. However once you get to the Jungle missions not only does the level design take an insane dive, some enemies instantly aggro on you for no reason. The mission "Say Hello To My Little Friend" was about 3/4ths of my playtime because the amount of health you get compared to the amount of enemies in the mission is completely lopsided. Not to mention stealth isn't an option. Once again the Rotterdam missions suffer from the same flaws. Insanely huge maps, too many enemies, not enough health nor ammo to dispose of them efficiently if you look at one of them the wrong way. I heard the best levels in this game were remade in later titles so just start there. I didn't absolutely hate it, the soundtrack is bitching, the combat and stealth are fun and rewarding and the story is great. Just taking 15 minutes to set up and having it all blown because one NPC doesn't like your vibe ruined a lot of the missions for me.

I loved this game it has an amazing original story and awsome characters but the only problem is the mechanics everytime i would try to kill someone with the fiber wire it would miss and i would get shot almost immediatly and the safe in the reasurant wouldnt open and theres like 4 diffrent safes

I played this cause I wanted to see and feel the series' roots, that I have loved since I played Absolution on PS3, and I was... confused to say the least. This entry absolutely sets up some of the core mechanics of the series going forward, but it doesn't feel like the other entries I've played at all outside of maybe one or two really good levels. The series has always felt like there are nearly infinite options to take to get to the finish, but this one almost always feels like there's really only one, and you can't do anything else. Top that off with the fact that a bullet grazing you practically kills you, and I'm wondering how 47 is even special in this game aside from story reasons. I played the game on normal, cause there are no achievements and I'm new to mouse and keyboard controls, and the game still felt nigh impossible at times because if you get spotted, which you occasionally HAVE to, you'll die in mere milliseconds to immediate gun fire. The lack of any real cover mechanic the later games have means that going in guns ablazing will never work. This really feels like it came from a different, and far worse, series, and I really hope for my sake that 2 is MUCH better. I'm excited to get deeper into the series to see how it became one I can love, but this one was not my style. Also, it's a REAL pain to get running on modern computers, I couldn't even get it to run at its built-in maximum resolution, and the hud doesn't scale anyway, so the better the resolution, the less you'll be able to even properly play the game. Oh, and the default key bindings are absolutely terrible, if you wanna see the series roots, I implore you to at least change those, cause they're worse than mission 10, the worst mission in this game.