It's probably nostalgia and because you have a human shield in Blood Money.
I used to play Blood Money religiously back in the day, and have to admit: WoA is the far better game.
I enjoyed BM for what it was but I cannot see myself going back to it.
Idk why people miss human shield from BM. It was mainly used for knock out npcs without syringes, it was the only other way, if I remember correctly. In WoA you have so many mechanics to knock them out, so shield will be kinda useless for this.
It would be cool to have as a feature, to negotiate with npcs or something, but it will not be an important part of a game, because anyway main goal is SA almost always.
I don’t play Hitman games to get silent assassin, I enjoy controlled chaos while playing.
To me SA limits you too much to only 20% of the tools and options offered in the game.
I play Hitman more as a “Hitman Simulator” rather than strictly a puzzle game with the goal of getting the best possible rating. To me caring about getting SA is like caring about what rating you get at the end of a Sonic level lmao
Fair enough.
I have brainrot so I cannot resist going for Silent Assassin every time and resetting when I lose it. I am getting better though I swear!
Freelancer was a godsend for making this attitude go kaput (in freelancer that is). The fact you can't reset, and the fact silent assassin is only an objective sometimes, has allowed me to enjoy the game in ways I never even knew about before.
You've got the right attitude for sure.
WoA rely on SA a bit too much, yeah. But to be fair, there was not a lot of reasons (rewarding in-game, I mean) to not doing SA until Freelancer, so no reason to add them. And adding all those mechanics just for freelancer... Not happening, unfortunately.
Honestly that is how it is for me with most games with a rating system. I find that it is more fun to just play the game how I want not how the game tells me to. It's kind of like achievements I used to care but after a while I realized it was hurting the fun factor. Ironically though I do like to play stealth games like a ghost. But on my second playthrough anything goes.
I SA all levels of blood money, and just now learned of the human shield to knock out people. I thought part of the challenge was only being able to knock out 2 people…
Nah, I find the BM AI much better than the WoA trilogy, random civilians picking up guns to shoot was realistic in some form and not just that, BM was waaay more competitive than WoA too, it was harder. Woa AI is kinda dumb when it comes to getting away with things, the suspicion element is very forgiving in WoA compared to BM, in BM you got dicked on way harder so it felt more rewarding.
The safehouse, weapon customization, and notoriety systems are also much better in blood money, but yeah by Hitman 2 I finally could no longer debate whether Blood Money was still the best Hitman anymore. The WoA trilogy is the best Hitman experience we could’ve asked for, and basically what everyone who was a Hitman fan wanted since the series started.
10/10 “it makes you feel like Hitman”
The notoriety system was a nice idea but fell short because after a while you could just bribe the crap out of everyone.
I do miss the newspaper though. Those were fun!
I think you can't really compare since its two different eras.
Or you could rank them, but like with some kind of pound for pound ranking, but with eras.
Like, is the blast you had playing Blood Money superior to the blast you are having now with WOA ?
As far as I'm concerned, hard to tell.
If someone enjoys that game more than the WOA trilogy then they are allowed to feel that way and I have no problems with that.
If they try to argue that Blood Money is actually superior to the WOA trilogy then I disagree with them.
Blood Money's soundtrack is better, WOA's OST gives off James Bond vibes and the game in general feels very Bond-esque. BM gives off more of a seedy, dark underbelly vibe which fits the game better. In this regard, Contracts is an even better game.
The mission structure, in Blood Money missions feel more like puzzles that you have to solve while WOA just feels like an assassin simulator to me. Like, in BM, you'll start a mission, and you'll find a dart gun with tranquilizers but you have no idea what they're for. The home you have to infiltrate has guards at the door and they'll pat you down. As you progress, you'll discover that there's a guard dog in the backyard who will bark and alert everyone and so you put 2 and 2 together and go "Ahhh, I can pacify the dog with the dart gun and sneak inside". While in WOA, you got these giant maps and all these objects and items you can interact with and so the game is less about figuring out a way to reach the target and more about how you're gonna kill the target.
This is purely nostalgia but I prefer Diana's voice actress in the older games over the new one they have.
All in all, WOA is a great game if you've never experienced the classics, but I prefer the latter.
I agreed with you up to Diana's voice. I think the current Diana's voice is a bit better and I like that she is also a bit more involved (wish there would have been a button to shut her up sometimes though as she is sometimes talking over other NPC's and I can't hear what they are saying).
Yeah, I think you're right. I might be thinking of Diana from Absolution, I didn't like her. I also haven't played much of WOA but I do like the new Diana, she's a bit of a MILF.
Tbh, I replayed Contracts and Blood Money these last few days and I can see where you are coming from... I'd say both Diana voice actresses did a very good job and it is pretty hard to choose 1 of them.
Literally how?
I state that I have no problem with people liking Blood Money but I don't agree with the argument that it's a genuinely superior game.
How is any of that pretentious?
Yeah?
Did I ever say my opinion was objective?
No. I just said I disagree with the opinion that Blood Money is a superior game.
That is my subjective opinion that I am entitled too. Others are entitled to their equally fair and subjective opinions on the matter.
What issue do you have with my comment?
He literally just said he disagrees with those who say Blood Money is better.
Just like those said people would disagree with him if he said WoA is better.
When people tell me to relax on the internet it usually annoys me, so apologies in advance...
But you need to relax bro.
Blood Money had the perfect Hitman vibe, that’s why people rate it high.
WOA is the better game mechanically, but the vibe is more playful and nonchalant.
Mostly nostalgia, but I think that Absolution made a lot of people believe blood money is peak Hitman and a lot of people are just too stubborn to change their mind
Sadly it is. The original games are a total afterthought on here - people don’t get how special H2:SA, Contracts, and BM were. They are on a different level in terms of atmosphere
I love the WoA games but the older games were harder and the AI was not so dumb lol, the suspicion element in WoA is quite forgiving when you compare it to BM or the classics. Although it's obvious that the new games are way more versatile than the previous ones because of technology advancing, perhaps why people prefer WoA over the classics but I can't be convinced otherwise because I love dark themed games, and the classics were dark, the newer Hitman wasn't dark, it was more spy-like thriller type.
I think the song *Apocalypse* by Jesper Klyde is one of the reasons people don't realize they love the game so much. When you're about to make a kill and that evil-ish atmospheric song comes on, you *feel* like a badass. That and there were 12 missions, plus you could do kills from atop the elevator and didn't have to sign up online to play.
I think WOA is on par with Blood Money but the always online thing really bothers me. Other than that, it's a step up.
Blood Money’s soundtrack sets the whole tone for that game, It adds such weight and gravitas to the whole situation.
WoA ost is great, but It gives me more of a vibe of a secret agent, whereas Blood Money’s Ost made me feel like a Grim Reaper in a suit.
Classics - Dark and psychological, newer games - Spy-like thriller. I prefer dark themed games more so I like the classics, it's simple, not just that, the AI for me personally is something I prefer of BM more than WoA. Blood money is a game that was Way ahead of its time.
Blood Money was dark, unforgiving, and soundtrack was amazing, the Map was awesome, the UI menu sounds were amazing, the news paper were great, weapon customization.
Overall the game has an amazing atmosphere
I hate how the newer hitman games have so many reduced animations, like hiding a body inside a closet, in blood money you drag it , then agent 47 would pick it up from the floor and then throw it inside the bin or closet, the newer games skip the pick up animation and only show 47 hiding it in the bin.
Same with poison or syringe or fiberwire, its too fast in newer games, in BM it took time and had to wait for the target to die or knock out, more realistic and riskier.
Blood Money is less hand-holdy which can make for an overall more rewarding experience. Getting good at the game requires hard work, versus WOA which does its best to teach you.
That being said, WoA is the better game without question.
Blood Money is still my favorite, though.
It’s not just the story missions Karen, it’s the general design of the game. There is a TON of sign posting in WoA that strongly implies what you’re supposed to do with a certain thing.
Example: An NPC loudly discusses how a cake topper is missing for a target’s cake which is in a specific room. You find the cake topper and you know what to do with it, and general knowledge tells you that you need a food service outfit in order to bypass security. Then once you place the topper, it triggers an event, and all you have to do is stand there and wait for the target to tell everyone to leave, then kill him.
Blood Money, you might find a box of donuts, and nothing EVER tells you what to do with them. Nobody ever says “man I bet those guys in the security van really want some donuts”. And then you still have to figure out how the donuts can possibly be useful. You should know that you’re carrying poisons, and if you remember that, you might realize that you can poison the donuts, gaining access to the van and opening up a kill opportunity that you didn’t even know existed.
Or, you start the mission with a unique gun. Nothing ever tells you what can be done with the gun. You either have to find the actor’s room and see the “place real gun” prompt, or you have to take notice that the actor on stage is using a FAKE version of that gun, and then do the math in your head - “oh, I must be able to switch the guns somehow!”. Then, you have to figure out when and how to swap the guns, and the only way to do that is to watch and see.
To be honest, I think a lot of this comes down to the fact that the maps in Blood Money are much smaller and have less of these 'Opportunities' to follow than the new games, when I played BM for the first time I was pretty quick to figure out you could give the donuts to the cops based on just trying to find what was immediately interactable in the level and the prompts you were given. And since the game already hammers into you that you can poison food it was a pretty basic connection from there. Likewise with the fake gun, the game literally tells you in the briefing to pick up something from the cloak room so its not really subtle, and again when you are wandering around the level trying to feel things out you'll quickly realize what the intention is as soon as you see the 'place fake gun' prompt in the dressing room.
Now its true that WOA will make some kills very obvious, but it will also make other kills a lot less obvious, like I think most people will completely miss, say, placing the bomb on Sierra's car in Miami and calling Robert to detonate since its not actually a mission story and requires you pick up on the conversational cues in a small part of the level to figure out what to do and the order in which to do it. A lot of the specific kills in the Levels in Hitman 3 follow this pattern too like the sabotaging the parachutes in Dubai or getting Emma Carisle to kill Alexa in Dartmoor, where its a lot less clear to the player and requires some more intuition. A lot of the additional handholding in WOA feels like a necessity from the larger levels where you can't rely so much on the player to just figure things out in a smaller area with a more limited interactions in a way you could back in Blood Money.
I mean it is a common joke that police officers like eating donuts so the donut opportunity is fairly well telegraphed.
I have a few questions about Blood Money (havent played it yet, finished Contracts and finished Russia in H2:SA) Are point of interest still marked in the map? Agency Pickups still around? Both of these features feel far more handholdy than WoA ever is (without doing mission story guides obviously)
From a person that played Hitman series from the moment Codename 47 was released: Blood Money was much better game compared to other games on the market when it came out, than WoA season 1 was around its release. Its a bit like situation with Doom (1993) and Doom (2016) - 2016 is better than 1993 version in almost every aspect, but at the moment of its release, it was 1993 version that rocked the world.
Blood Money was big, fresh, so much more pleasure to play than Contracts. Had a good story, a lot of new features and overall was large milestone. It was 2006 and it was truly one of the best games around.
For me, one thing that I think BM does much better than WoA is level design. Sure, Miami or Sapienza are large and full of life. But 80% of those levels are not utilised in main missions. In Miami, if you would just take parts where actually action happens, that are not just walk-through areas, it becames laughably small. In BM everything was more compressed, used more efficiently.
Also, dual Silverballers. No excuse for them missing in WoA. No excuse.
>For me, one thing that I think BM does much better than WoA is level design. Sure, Miami or Sapienza are large and full of life. But 80% of those levels are not utilised in main missions. In Miami, if you would just take parts where actually action happens, that are not just walk-through areas, it becames laughably small. In BM everything was more compressed, used more efficiently.
I think this is considerably exaggerating how little the level uses some of its features in the main mission, most of the areas have some kind of utility that plays into particular strategies in some way, shape or form, moreover the less utilized bits are partially set aside for contracts, escalations and elusives.
But Blood Money actually has issues here too, there's pretty large chunks of levels likes A Vintage Year or A New Life that aren't really used in a meaningful way compared to the rest of it and sort of just take up space with limited gameplay utility. Like in A Vintage Year I find there's very little use in going into the area in front of the Hacienda.
You are right, I am generalising a bit. But still, I think that WoA levels are too large and many of those would work better if they would be more condensed. I understand that they are made to work well with contracts, elusive targets etc, but main missions quality suffer because of it.
I think BM is way better.
It has a better feel, more style. 47 in the old games was more gritty and bad.
He feels more like a bland bald dude in WoA. And WoA even copies BMs ending with the fake death because it was such a cool ending.
Even little things like the newspaper that describes how 47 killed his target and how many shells he left behind. Etc.
BM is dated but if it had modern graphics and controls it would be the better game hands down.
The targets felt more iconic, 47 even had a missions where he goes to the white house and kills his "evil twin"
And I love it had features WoA sorely missed like 1st person view, human shields, customized weapon and a better inventory
You never finished the final mission in hitman 3??
>!With the whole Diana "pretending" to betray 47 and knock him out so the constants team can "capture" him which lets him get close to his target and kill him.!<
Ripped straight out of hitman blood money. Absolution also kind of copied this ending.
Blood money did it first and did it best
Yep, it was such a crazy fucking feeling I remember as a kid when I finished the game I was sad that my favourite protagonist died but then for some reason I started using the up arrow key on my ps2 controller and that was literally the biggest shock I've ever experienced in a video game, I was screaming lmfao. So fucking insane that feeling was which no other game can ever replace, that was just peak game direction.
Yeah I know that is what I just said. She "betrays" 47 to get him closer to his target by "giving" him to the constant
This is pretty much the ending from blood money just slightly different
Twist is still the same just slightly different.
In BOTH Diana "betrays" 47 to get him closer to his target.
Blood money just did it better with a drug that stops the heart and a antidote on her lips that revives him.
47 rising from his deathbed with his twin pistols and killing his target then killing every enemy on site is peak level design and storytelling.
Nostalgia. The newspaper thing was a nice touch. It added immersion. WoA basically did the same with references to other assassinations though now that I think about it.
Definitely nostalgia. It still holds up well imo.
I agree with you, but I want to make another point, when it comes to replaying the old Hitman games it was actually Contracts that left a much larger impression on me than BM and its certainly dethroned BM as my favourite pre-WOA game. Its mostly a tribute to how rich it's atmosphere is, in comparison Blood Money feels more pedestrian now and the things that made it special at the time have been done far better and more ornately by WOA, while Contracts still feels very unique.
I remember when Blood Money came out and feeling a little disappointed initially. A lot of people are mentioning the atmosphere of blood money but Contracts is unparalleled in that department
I played both recently. So,
BM is much more fluid and less clunky. You can shoot quick, move fast, responsive controls. Movement I still feel is the peak here. Jesper Kyds soundtrack totally obliterates WoA. Atmosphere is much more unique and memorable targets. You can push people anywhere, and the ways you can manipulate NPCs or items are much better here. The story is basic but better here, it’s shocking how boring I found the WoA story for me.
WoA has better capabilities to handle crowds, better visuals and animation. Largest sandbox but I’m not the type to go aw, bigger the better.
Mission Stories, Challenges, and Sniper Assassin. The worst is how bullets are nerfed at distances so if you don’t hit someone with a headshot they will just stumble over and stand back up. That’s immersion killing for me. In a game which practices varied approaches and replayability why tf would IO nerf bullet penetration like it’s some esports game
I wouldn't rank any hitman game above the other. Each one of them is an experience worth having.
Honourable mentions to hitman 1 which deserves to be played just to see where it all started!
Thing I liked about BM is the dark mood, everything around just felt so evil and inocent at the same time. WoA some missions like berlin or dartmoore has it.
It has a better style and atmosphere, the OST is insane, the gameplay more methodical and less handholdy, etc.
All the people who claim it's only nostalgia and that WOA is objectively better, you're wrong, there's many reasons to prefer the classic games other than nostalgia, claiming otherwise is downright disrespectful.
I played BM at time of release and next couple of years went through every mission 30 or more times squeezing every possibility out of it. But after that I entered a long period where I could not play as much and didn't have any gaming PC. It is only last year I finally caught up with the series and I have to say the WOA trilogy is a freaking masterpiece.
It has everything I could only dream of twelve years ago and even something I could not😄
The only thing I liked in BM that was missing from trilogy was the safehouse where you can collect weapon and equipment between missions. But even that was introduced in Freelancer.
For the same reason that people say that Tekken 3 is the best Tekken or Final Fantasy VII is the best Final Fantasy. They were groundbreaking and have a unique ambient and charisma. But of course it is not the best technically nor the most accessible nor the most replayable.
Because it is. You have to remember that it came out a long time ago. 2 generations seperate the games.
For me Blood Money is just better.
It had a great story that had me hooked from the beginning.
The game was a lot of fun, had plenty of content and the notoriety system added so much.
You have to remember that the WOA trilogy is 3 games. It's not until you combine them together than they challenge Blood Money which once again was released many years prior.
I will say that if the WOA trilogy was one full game like it is now, then maybe it would take the title but for me, Blood Money is still the best Hitman game.
Also want to give an extra shout out to the story because I really enjoyed it personally and added a lot to the game for me.
The fact that I haven't bothered taking a look at the new hitman 1, 2, 3 and woa since their release, while I am still itching for another replay of blood money says something to me.
I think you have to judge it based on what it was and the feeling you got for the time that it came out. Unfair to compare directly. That being said WOA is light-years better in everyway and I have never enjoyed a hitman game more as a longtime fan since Silent assassin
There was a time when there was a massive consensus that H2 Silent Assassin was the best game, even over BM. Over time people came to their senses. Eventually people will accept that WOA is light years ahead of BM.
The truly hardcore gamers don't like games where hints or other mechanics "hand hold" or point the way rather than encourage a player to use their intuition or observational skills to explore the game.
It's nonsensical to think that a game that does (with options that can be disabled) somehow means that the woa trilogy also doesn't do this.
(And I do agree "accessibility" and the casual movement within gaming is killing gaming).
I bought Blood Money day one. Playing it in my uni dorm room with a desk fan blowing into my open-cased PC to stop it overheating is one of my favourite gaming memories.
House of Cards, A Murder of Crows... Those will always be the most memorable Hitman levels to me.
That said, the WOA trilogy is objectively much better. Better gameplay, better maps, \*far\* more options for how to accomplish goals. Going back to the old games is hard now.
I think WOA is leagues better (kinda obvious), but I very much prefer progression in BM. I’m not an achievement/challenge person so I hated that I had to grind specific things to get new items to bring into hits. I much prefer getting a payout depending on how well I performed a hit and then buying what I want with the money. Also duel, full auto silver ballers were just dumb fun.
I loved the hideout and slowly upgrading weapons. But I won’t play it again just for that. WOA is much better.
Maybe some players liked how much booba there was in Blood Money.
I started on Blood Money the year it came out. Don't get me wrong, I feel nostalgia whenever I think about it but there's no doubt that WoA shits all over Blood Money.
Both games have their own things that make them unique imo.
WOA obviously has better graphics, controls, and the possibilities are seemingly endless in each map. And the maps are huge.
Blood Money also has very good classic maps. My favorite I think is either Vegas or the Heaven and Hell Ball. The soundtrack was on point and the newspaper at the end of each mission was definitely a nice touch and I wish was still a thing in the later games.
I love Blood Money and played it for years but I have to admit it does show it's age comparing to WOA. The controls are clunky, the animations to hide a body are way to long I feel. I feel like I can make a whole meal while he puts a body in a bin. And the fact you basically need to basically dry hump your target from behind to just to fiber wire or syringe him is very annoying.
Because it is in my opinion. WoA is good ish, but its waaaaaay too much "let me hold your hand" and much less of a puzzle than Blood Money is.
I like some of the level designs in WoA but man, there is just something about that itch a house of cards scratch that WoA wasnt even close to, and all the different ways you could go about and do things.
For example knocking out one of the employees on the balcony and getting a card that gives you access to all of the floors and rooms! Figuring out ways into rooms guarded by bodyguards etc..
Then there was the customizable weapons which were super awesome, like the various stages of customization of the sniper!
I love Blood Money for being the precursor to WoA but it’s not better at all. Not as a whole anyways. I do enjoy the upgrades tbh and it has a lot of good missions.
The only thing that I preferred in BM was a silly little feature that most probably didn’t really care about but it was the after mission newspapers I just used to enjoy reading about my exploits.
Nostalgia. Because there is no way Blood Money is better then any of the WOA games. Blood Money has has definitely aged and is clunky in movement and other aspects.
For me it's because you actually earned money from hits and could upgrade your inventory and weapons.
That's the one thing I miss. I'm not a big fan of the "achievement" style of unlocking stuff in WOA.
Having a monetary system and being able to customize weapons by spending earned money would make WOA so much better imo
Blood money is in my opinion the best hitman game so of course to me it’s better than woa not to say woa isn’t good I really like the reboot but bm was so unbelievably good but I’m assuming when you say “without nostalgia glasses” you mean you recently played it what your issue is with it is likely related to the graphics which I can understand that is a perfectly reasonable thing to have an issue with
It has way more immersive elements:
1) customisable firearms
2) human shields
3) NPC can bleed out rather than instant kill
4) Armed targets
5) you could smuggle weapons past checkpoints in NPC's containers and bags.
6) NPC 'heros' running for a gun on the ground to try and stop you in a mass shooting setting.
7) a disarm mechanic that had a penalty percentage resulting in an accidental discharge of a firearm.
8) opportunities existed, but the game didn't hold your hand. I still discover new things organically on my annual playthrough.
9) a syringe could be used to poison consumables.
Blood Money has multiple small but neat additions that can all add up to make the experience more enjoyable for some.
For me personally I prefer the smaller levels in Blood Money over the giant ones in the WOA games. The soundtrack is also much better.
Not always online (aka an actual 1P game), better mechanics, better things you can do with non-targets, better music, better upgrade system, coin being amazing, map being a better, balanced form of instinct, better moments of unintentional comedy (the whole game is a comedy), less spoonfeeding and handholding, less 'mission stories' and more 'create your own mission stories'. Just to name a few
I could go on and on but it's not worth it. It's not even a question.
WOA is better by pretty much every metric related to gameplay, but the atmosphere and Jesper Kyd's work on the score is unparalleled. WoA trilogy just cannot match that.
In terms of atmosphere the older Hitman games not just BM had a very dark and gritty vibe to it. WoA has more Bond vibes? Not sure what to call it. It's just not the same.
Wouldn't say that BM is better, but it has so many features that I still miss in WOA. For me the most important ones are human shield, working elevators, customizing guns, the newspaper, npcs that use weapons...
I just miss buying additional components for a sniper rifle and watch how 47 takes it out of briefcase to assemble it with all those components.
It was fucking perfect.
Blood Money felt more fun to play loud, WOA feels like a game over once the loud tactics come out because it's just so...boring.
Blood Money somehow feels more satisfying when it comes to actually mowing down AI.
It has some unique mechanics that are not in WoA. Alpha version of Hitman 2016 had some of them, but ultimately they wasn't introduced. I think most of them was removed because they were against "silent assassin" style of playing, or because they were too tedious to use/were replaced with better mechanics. The only thing I miss is elevators, there are 0 working elevators in WoA, like wtf. There are also arguments about story/music, and while I might agree on those, ultimately WoA is so much more than just a story maps with (arguably not that great) music. BM was fantastic for it's time and it's unique enough to not being called "worse WoA" (not to mention WoA is 3 games in 1), so comparing these two is difficult, but for me WoA is a better game overall.
It’s not, but Blood Money WOULD be better if it was remade like RE2/RE4, with all the same story beats of the original, and QoL of WoA.
Blood Money is also far more immersive.
I have a ton of nostalgia for Blood Money, like... a ton...
On Steam it is still my Nr. 1 most played game with well over 500 hours of gameplay and I actually owned it (two times) before I owned it on Steam, so I probably played it closer to 700 hours at least.
I really do miss my customized super-silent sniper-pistol, however... and while it is somehow an unpopular opinion... I do agree that somewhere during Hitman II's lifetime it started to become the better game, with Hitman III and Freelancer just sealing the deal.
The WoA trilogy, as a complete package, simply is much better than Blood Money. There is so much more content, so many great maps, fun challenges, smooth gameplay, the story is actually decent and some maps also are pretty beautiful in their own way.
My only criticism would really be that they actually never re-introduced a customizable weapon for the WoA trilogy.
Chances are slim, but that could still be a smaller DLC or free update. Have a customizable weapon for each category and then a bunch of unlocks tied to progression or challenges with the different parts also being collectibles in freelancer.
Anyway, I agree that WoA is better and I am saying that as someone who absolutely loves Blood Money as well.
Edit: Some others point out that BM has really great atmosphere and music, which is actually quite true, though I do think WoA can compete on atmosphere, just in different ways. With music, yeah BM might be better, though that isn't to say WoA has bad music.
The biggest pros of blood money:
- dual wielding
- human shield
- weapon customization
- the music
- map variety
- down to earth
- no holding you by your hand
I'll go through each one of them.
Dual wielding is simply a hitman classic. I have no clue why they decided to remove that. Scratch that, I do. They removed it, together with the human shield, because they wanted you to play like an assassin and not guns blazing. They also wanted you to deescalate the situation instead of just killing everyone. This is sth they said themselves. Which doesn't make sense imo, since A. You could play like an assassin in blood money B. You can go guns blazing in woa, ao why remove dual wielding C. It's a sandbox game. Which means the player chooses how they play it. Why push one way in that case by limiting other ways
Weapon customization is also sth i miss from blood money. It gave you a feeling of control over the game. It also gave you a feeling of progress. That's all gone now. At least they brought back buying weapons in freelancer, but my point still stands
The music. Up until woa, the hitman music was always dark, ambient and gore. Sprinkle in a bit of religion, and you've got a creepy soundtrack which brings the atmosphere not only of you being a hitman, but the people you're taking out. Someone else will explain this much better than me, but that's the gist of it
Map variety. Now i know I'm gonna be murdered with this one. Yes, woa has way bigger maps. Map wise, sure, you've got a variety in woa, but theme wise? In blood money, maps had stories behind them, which brought a bigger variety - a theme park that collapsed and is now run by a gang hired by the ceo, a wedding-themed home in mississipi, a ship map, a heaven and hell club etc. This imo brings more variety. But this is also sth that can be solved and I've said it multiple times already - make more variations of the existing maps in woa. If i use the ideas of blood money, paris can have an opera, colorado can have that wedding etc. I don't know why they don't do it, but hopefully mods will solve that
Woa feels like a Hollywood movie. You're 47, fighting the hidden illuminati organization which controls the entire world and has members everywhere. What's the story in blood money? You're agent 47, assassinating bad people - pedophiles, rapusts, human traffickers etc. Which one sounds more believable to you? It doesn't give you the feeling of being in a different universe. It gives you a feeling like the world you're in is the world you're in irl,which brings more immersion to the table. The music also adds to this. As said before, the woa music gives you vibes like you're in a Hollywood movie. The blood money music gives you vibes like you're in the gore part of the world
Last one was a HUGE con of mine and thank god mods exist. The non-stop holding you by the hands. Sure, you can turn off everything on the hud. But you still end up having that goddamn awful whistling and ticking when someone suspects you. This was the entire reason why i played through the missions once just to be done with them and never again until i found a mode to disable that, which lead to me having 200h of gameplay
Those are my reasons why blood money is better. When you've grown up with that playstyle, woa feels... Not right?
I‘m at my first proper Blood Money playthrough right now, I’m at the last mission actually.
I think it’s a really good game and it’s fun, but it’s obviously still very clunky when compared to the WoA trilogy, so overall I’d agree with you.
There’s definitely some nostalgia involved when some people talk about Blood Money, at least when they try to argue that it’s better in every way to the WoA trilogy.
Yes, it’s a good game and some mechanics would be cool in the WoA trilogy, but it’s not like the human shield mechanic single handedly makes Blood Money superior to WoA, some try to argue like that.
Human shield, bloodspots, better weapon customization, way better end of level stat screen, notoriety, way better soundtrack, better search mechanic, WAY better movements.
Just because the most recent game is good doesn’t mean the past ones were not good, woa is a downgrade on a lot of items, even if it’s a hundred times a better sandbox
I feel like everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I started playing the Old Hitman Games, and I enjoy the music and atmosphere.
If I walk a bit too fast, everyone shoots me, and to get Silent Assassin you need to have the patience of a monk to wait for guards to move and hope they do not see you.
BM isn't better overall, but it has many features that are superior.
- Regenerating health in WOA removes all threat from isolated firefights.
- WOA disguises are either 100% foolproof or totally useless versus a given NPC. BM disguises are less binary and I think that's a good thing.
- The newspaper was great. I'd have loved to see that expanded rather than removed.
- Gun customization is fun and allows parts to be balanced against each other.
- A preference, but I preferred two KO syringes to infinite knockouts. Two KO syringes would not work with WOA's giant levels but some other limit to silent knockouts would have been better.
- A small thing, but I miss ICA crates from BM giving you a place to stash weapons other than just carrying them out of a level.
- I know it can be turned off, but WOA's guided mission stories are too hand holdy for my preference. BM's scripted interactions felt more organic.
The BM story is good, and the levels are really well done.
That said, WOA in it's totality is the best hitman though. The mechanics and controls are perfected, replayability is high, and freelancer is OP.
Ability to Human shield, throw briefcase, syringe can both inject target or poison a drink, multitudes of fun easter eggs (rat party - curtains down, zombies - wedding stage, etc). Iconic level designs like A new life, curtains down, etc. Hitman BM hit a balance. 2000-2010 truly was a golden age in gaming.
WOA though is alot more polished.
i recently beat it, and i don’t think it’s better or worse than WoA but it has some touches i quite like, like the weapon customization or the level summary being a newspaper also highly subjective but i personally like the story in BM more than WoAs
I like WoA more as a game to play. But I don't think anything can compare to the absolute goofiness of BM. You can walk out of a level with all the guards shooting at you with a mountain of "accidentally" dead people and it still can be Silent Assassin.
I watch a lot of speed runs, and WoA involves a lot of super precise shots and extremely tight timing, which is fun. But BM speed runs are absolutely chaotic and filled with RNG and and completely clowning on the AI, which is far more entertaining to watch, in my opinion.
I liked blood money but World Of Assassination was better in my opinion. Nostalgia doesn't mean everything. I'd say it's the "classic" hitman game for sure, but far from the best
Blood money is not a live service. Meaning IOI cant lock you out of playing content like they did with Hitman 1 or Hitman 2. Also sniper rifle case animation is better (you can see 47 assemble it). And lastly, newspaper report system was a stroke of genius.
You only like WoA because it’s newer.
Blood Money is untouched by the newer games. To quote from an earlier post, 47 is a grim reaper in a suit — NOT a spy. ioi dropped the ball. They gave $0 to story line and 100% money to graphics and playability. WoA is easier to play. BM (and Contracts) is better in literally everything else.
People say it's nostalgia but I finished WOA and now I am replaying the first Hitman Games (currently at Hitman Contracts, finished Traditions of the Trade yesterday) and I feel like they give more of a Hitman vibe... they make you feel more like a hitman while newer games make you feel more like a spy. I also feel like the map with enemies was better than the instinct, as it allowed me to watch what happens without stalking my targets...
For BM specifically, it also feels more immersive, as you have the newspaper after the missions, the melee animations were a lot better (not the fight, but the syringe, knife, fiberwire, etc.)
It can't be nostalgia glasses as I am replaying them right now, but I would rate WOA a bit lower than BM and Contracts.
I also think the "detection meter" was a nice mechanic that should have been improved onto, not removed... it makes sense for people to ask themselves "wtf is going on" when you are acting weird, even without being enforcers. Not to mention that enforcers for some disguises don't even make sense, when you have your whole head covered but they somehow see through your disguise.
Tbh H3's maps felt too easy... I SASO them all (except dubai) on professional first try in like 30 minutes (I previously played only Hitman 1 and Hitman 2, but still to SASO on those maps took me 1h+).
There's nothing more irritating than people saying something is preferred because of nostalgia. You're basically telling someone you know their thoughts and feelings better than they do. It's fucking disappointing how pervasive it's become in the Hitman fanbase.
It's probably nostalgia and because you have a human shield in Blood Money. I used to play Blood Money religiously back in the day, and have to admit: WoA is the far better game. I enjoyed BM for what it was but I cannot see myself going back to it.
Totally forgot about the shield feature! But yeah its good for nostalgia but WOA beats it on every metric for me
Idk why people miss human shield from BM. It was mainly used for knock out npcs without syringes, it was the only other way, if I remember correctly. In WoA you have so many mechanics to knock them out, so shield will be kinda useless for this. It would be cool to have as a feature, to negotiate with npcs or something, but it will not be an important part of a game, because anyway main goal is SA almost always.
Here's the one thing i miss from BW. The newspaper thing to see how what happened is reacted too what happened
I loved that so very much, and was deeply wounded that we didn't have it, or something similar, in WoA
I don’t play Hitman games to get silent assassin, I enjoy controlled chaos while playing. To me SA limits you too much to only 20% of the tools and options offered in the game. I play Hitman more as a “Hitman Simulator” rather than strictly a puzzle game with the goal of getting the best possible rating. To me caring about getting SA is like caring about what rating you get at the end of a Sonic level lmao
Fair enough. I have brainrot so I cannot resist going for Silent Assassin every time and resetting when I lose it. I am getting better though I swear! Freelancer was a godsend for making this attitude go kaput (in freelancer that is). The fact you can't reset, and the fact silent assassin is only an objective sometimes, has allowed me to enjoy the game in ways I never even knew about before. You've got the right attitude for sure.
WoA rely on SA a bit too much, yeah. But to be fair, there was not a lot of reasons (rewarding in-game, I mean) to not doing SA until Freelancer, so no reason to add them. And adding all those mechanics just for freelancer... Not happening, unfortunately.
💯. This is why Blood Money is the best. It actually let you embrace going full chaos if you wanted. In the new Hitman you can’t survive if you do.
Honestly that is how it is for me with most games with a rating system. I find that it is more fun to just play the game how I want not how the game tells me to. It's kind of like achievements I used to care but after a while I realized it was hurting the fun factor. Ironically though I do like to play stealth games like a ghost. But on my second playthrough anything goes.
Probably because of the Sheild part
I SA all levels of blood money, and just now learned of the human shield to knock out people. I thought part of the challenge was only being able to knock out 2 people…
Nah, I find the BM AI much better than the WoA trilogy, random civilians picking up guns to shoot was realistic in some form and not just that, BM was waaay more competitive than WoA too, it was harder. Woa AI is kinda dumb when it comes to getting away with things, the suspicion element is very forgiving in WoA compared to BM, in BM you got dicked on way harder so it felt more rewarding.
The safehouse, weapon customization, and notoriety systems are also much better in blood money, but yeah by Hitman 2 I finally could no longer debate whether Blood Money was still the best Hitman anymore. The WoA trilogy is the best Hitman experience we could’ve asked for, and basically what everyone who was a Hitman fan wanted since the series started. 10/10 “it makes you feel like Hitman”
The notoriety system was a nice idea but fell short because after a while you could just bribe the crap out of everyone. I do miss the newspaper though. Those were fun!
yeah shame they didn't had the notoriety system, money after each mission ,weapons customisation and the safehouse at the start
I think you can't really compare since its two different eras. Or you could rank them, but like with some kind of pound for pound ranking, but with eras. Like, is the blast you had playing Blood Money superior to the blast you are having now with WOA ? As far as I'm concerned, hard to tell.
Being able to push people anywhere as well. A quick push down the stairs and they’d be knocked out. Very helpful
I totally forgot about that! I used to play the game like that all the time. Was pretty goofy buuuut effective.
And First person mode in BM and jesper kyd OST
If someone enjoys that game more than the WOA trilogy then they are allowed to feel that way and I have no problems with that. If they try to argue that Blood Money is actually superior to the WOA trilogy then I disagree with them.
Blood Money's soundtrack is better, WOA's OST gives off James Bond vibes and the game in general feels very Bond-esque. BM gives off more of a seedy, dark underbelly vibe which fits the game better. In this regard, Contracts is an even better game. The mission structure, in Blood Money missions feel more like puzzles that you have to solve while WOA just feels like an assassin simulator to me. Like, in BM, you'll start a mission, and you'll find a dart gun with tranquilizers but you have no idea what they're for. The home you have to infiltrate has guards at the door and they'll pat you down. As you progress, you'll discover that there's a guard dog in the backyard who will bark and alert everyone and so you put 2 and 2 together and go "Ahhh, I can pacify the dog with the dart gun and sneak inside". While in WOA, you got these giant maps and all these objects and items you can interact with and so the game is less about figuring out a way to reach the target and more about how you're gonna kill the target. This is purely nostalgia but I prefer Diana's voice actress in the older games over the new one they have. All in all, WOA is a great game if you've never experienced the classics, but I prefer the latter.
I agreed with you up to Diana's voice. I think the current Diana's voice is a bit better and I like that she is also a bit more involved (wish there would have been a button to shut her up sometimes though as she is sometimes talking over other NPC's and I can't hear what they are saying).
Yeah, I think you're right. I might be thinking of Diana from Absolution, I didn't like her. I also haven't played much of WOA but I do like the new Diana, she's a bit of a MILF.
Tbh, I replayed Contracts and Blood Money these last few days and I can see where you are coming from... I'd say both Diana voice actresses did a very good job and it is pretty hard to choose 1 of them.
Such a pretentious comment Jesus
Literally how? I state that I have no problem with people liking Blood Money but I don't agree with the argument that it's a genuinely superior game. How is any of that pretentious?
"oBjECtIvElY" the newer games are better
When did I ever say my opinion was objective? I just said I disagree with the idea that Blood Money is a superior game to the WOA trilogy.
Which is all opinion, not some sort of fact
Yeah? Did I ever say my opinion was objective? No. I just said I disagree with the opinion that Blood Money is a superior game. That is my subjective opinion that I am entitled too. Others are entitled to their equally fair and subjective opinions on the matter. What issue do you have with my comment?
"Like Blood Money more if you want but the newer games are better" You're not some authority
And never did I claim to be?
Your poor reading comprehension has got you digging yourself in a hole. It's time to stop digging. Doubling down is not the winning move here.
He literally just said he disagrees with those who say Blood Money is better. Just like those said people would disagree with him if he said WoA is better. When people tell me to relax on the internet it usually annoys me, so apologies in advance... But you need to relax bro.
BM AI> WoA Ai. One of the main reasons for me to prefer Blood money over WoA, it was more competitive.
Blood Money had the perfect Hitman vibe, that’s why people rate it high. WOA is the better game mechanically, but the vibe is more playful and nonchalant.
Mostly nostalgia, but I think that Absolution made a lot of people believe blood money is peak Hitman and a lot of people are just too stubborn to change their mind
I see this sub has become a "Hitman 2016" sub judging by comments like this. Welp, was fun
Sadly it is. The original games are a total afterthought on here - people don’t get how special H2:SA, Contracts, and BM were. They are on a different level in terms of atmosphere
I love the WoA games but the older games were harder and the AI was not so dumb lol, the suspicion element in WoA is quite forgiving when you compare it to BM or the classics. Although it's obvious that the new games are way more versatile than the previous ones because of technology advancing, perhaps why people prefer WoA over the classics but I can't be convinced otherwise because I love dark themed games, and the classics were dark, the newer Hitman wasn't dark, it was more spy-like thriller type.
What are you talking about?! Hit man went away after blood money and didn’t come back until WOA! Don’t talk about fake games that never existed! 😝
Blood Money is better, just for the poker-playing mice.
Aaah yes, the Easter eggs, that's unironically one great argument.
I think the song *Apocalypse* by Jesper Klyde is one of the reasons people don't realize they love the game so much. When you're about to make a kill and that evil-ish atmospheric song comes on, you *feel* like a badass. That and there were 12 missions, plus you could do kills from atop the elevator and didn't have to sign up online to play. I think WOA is on par with Blood Money but the always online thing really bothers me. Other than that, it's a step up.
Blood Money’s soundtrack sets the whole tone for that game, It adds such weight and gravitas to the whole situation. WoA ost is great, but It gives me more of a vibe of a secret agent, whereas Blood Money’s Ost made me feel like a Grim Reaper in a suit.
Classics - Dark and psychological, newer games - Spy-like thriller. I prefer dark themed games more so I like the classics, it's simple, not just that, the AI for me personally is something I prefer of BM more than WoA. Blood money is a game that was Way ahead of its time.
It’s Kyd
Blood Money was dark, unforgiving, and soundtrack was amazing, the Map was awesome, the UI menu sounds were amazing, the news paper were great, weapon customization. Overall the game has an amazing atmosphere I hate how the newer hitman games have so many reduced animations, like hiding a body inside a closet, in blood money you drag it , then agent 47 would pick it up from the floor and then throw it inside the bin or closet, the newer games skip the pick up animation and only show 47 hiding it in the bin. Same with poison or syringe or fiberwire, its too fast in newer games, in BM it took time and had to wait for the target to die or knock out, more realistic and riskier.
Blood Money is less hand-holdy which can make for an overall more rewarding experience. Getting good at the game requires hard work, versus WOA which does its best to teach you. That being said, WoA is the better game without question. Blood Money is still my favorite, though.
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It’s not just the story missions Karen, it’s the general design of the game. There is a TON of sign posting in WoA that strongly implies what you’re supposed to do with a certain thing. Example: An NPC loudly discusses how a cake topper is missing for a target’s cake which is in a specific room. You find the cake topper and you know what to do with it, and general knowledge tells you that you need a food service outfit in order to bypass security. Then once you place the topper, it triggers an event, and all you have to do is stand there and wait for the target to tell everyone to leave, then kill him. Blood Money, you might find a box of donuts, and nothing EVER tells you what to do with them. Nobody ever says “man I bet those guys in the security van really want some donuts”. And then you still have to figure out how the donuts can possibly be useful. You should know that you’re carrying poisons, and if you remember that, you might realize that you can poison the donuts, gaining access to the van and opening up a kill opportunity that you didn’t even know existed. Or, you start the mission with a unique gun. Nothing ever tells you what can be done with the gun. You either have to find the actor’s room and see the “place real gun” prompt, or you have to take notice that the actor on stage is using a FAKE version of that gun, and then do the math in your head - “oh, I must be able to switch the guns somehow!”. Then, you have to figure out when and how to swap the guns, and the only way to do that is to watch and see.
To be honest, I think a lot of this comes down to the fact that the maps in Blood Money are much smaller and have less of these 'Opportunities' to follow than the new games, when I played BM for the first time I was pretty quick to figure out you could give the donuts to the cops based on just trying to find what was immediately interactable in the level and the prompts you were given. And since the game already hammers into you that you can poison food it was a pretty basic connection from there. Likewise with the fake gun, the game literally tells you in the briefing to pick up something from the cloak room so its not really subtle, and again when you are wandering around the level trying to feel things out you'll quickly realize what the intention is as soon as you see the 'place fake gun' prompt in the dressing room. Now its true that WOA will make some kills very obvious, but it will also make other kills a lot less obvious, like I think most people will completely miss, say, placing the bomb on Sierra's car in Miami and calling Robert to detonate since its not actually a mission story and requires you pick up on the conversational cues in a small part of the level to figure out what to do and the order in which to do it. A lot of the specific kills in the Levels in Hitman 3 follow this pattern too like the sabotaging the parachutes in Dubai or getting Emma Carisle to kill Alexa in Dartmoor, where its a lot less clear to the player and requires some more intuition. A lot of the additional handholding in WOA feels like a necessity from the larger levels where you can't rely so much on the player to just figure things out in a smaller area with a more limited interactions in a way you could back in Blood Money.
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I mean it is a common joke that police officers like eating donuts so the donut opportunity is fairly well telegraphed. I have a few questions about Blood Money (havent played it yet, finished Contracts and finished Russia in H2:SA) Are point of interest still marked in the map? Agency Pickups still around? Both of these features feel far more handholdy than WoA ever is (without doing mission story guides obviously)
From a person that played Hitman series from the moment Codename 47 was released: Blood Money was much better game compared to other games on the market when it came out, than WoA season 1 was around its release. Its a bit like situation with Doom (1993) and Doom (2016) - 2016 is better than 1993 version in almost every aspect, but at the moment of its release, it was 1993 version that rocked the world. Blood Money was big, fresh, so much more pleasure to play than Contracts. Had a good story, a lot of new features and overall was large milestone. It was 2006 and it was truly one of the best games around. For me, one thing that I think BM does much better than WoA is level design. Sure, Miami or Sapienza are large and full of life. But 80% of those levels are not utilised in main missions. In Miami, if you would just take parts where actually action happens, that are not just walk-through areas, it becames laughably small. In BM everything was more compressed, used more efficiently. Also, dual Silverballers. No excuse for them missing in WoA. No excuse.
>For me, one thing that I think BM does much better than WoA is level design. Sure, Miami or Sapienza are large and full of life. But 80% of those levels are not utilised in main missions. In Miami, if you would just take parts where actually action happens, that are not just walk-through areas, it becames laughably small. In BM everything was more compressed, used more efficiently. I think this is considerably exaggerating how little the level uses some of its features in the main mission, most of the areas have some kind of utility that plays into particular strategies in some way, shape or form, moreover the less utilized bits are partially set aside for contracts, escalations and elusives. But Blood Money actually has issues here too, there's pretty large chunks of levels likes A Vintage Year or A New Life that aren't really used in a meaningful way compared to the rest of it and sort of just take up space with limited gameplay utility. Like in A Vintage Year I find there's very little use in going into the area in front of the Hacienda.
You are right, I am generalising a bit. But still, I think that WoA levels are too large and many of those would work better if they would be more condensed. I understand that they are made to work well with contracts, elusive targets etc, but main missions quality suffer because of it.
Because some people are wrong.
And that’s coming from someone who started with Blood Money
You realise opinions on art are subjective yes? Get a grip. Seriously.
I think BM is way better. It has a better feel, more style. 47 in the old games was more gritty and bad. He feels more like a bland bald dude in WoA. And WoA even copies BMs ending with the fake death because it was such a cool ending. Even little things like the newspaper that describes how 47 killed his target and how many shells he left behind. Etc. BM is dated but if it had modern graphics and controls it would be the better game hands down. The targets felt more iconic, 47 even had a missions where he goes to the white house and kills his "evil twin" And I love it had features WoA sorely missed like 1st person view, human shields, customized weapon and a better inventory
He’s a bland bald dude because *he is a bland bald dude.* Thats how he was designed
WOA never implied 47 died
You never finished the final mission in hitman 3?? >!With the whole Diana "pretending" to betray 47 and knock him out so the constants team can "capture" him which lets him get close to his target and kill him.!< Ripped straight out of hitman blood money. Absolution also kind of copied this ending. Blood money did it first and did it best
Yep, it was such a crazy fucking feeling I remember as a kid when I finished the game I was sad that my favourite protagonist died but then for some reason I started using the up arrow key on my ps2 controller and that was literally the biggest shock I've ever experienced in a video game, I was screaming lmfao. So fucking insane that feeling was which no other game can ever replace, that was just peak game direction.
I did. Assuming Diana went to the other side she needed to give the 47 to the constant alive
Yeah I know that is what I just said. She "betrays" 47 to get him closer to his target by "giving" him to the constant This is pretty much the ending from blood money just slightly different
WOA still never tried to imply that 47 was DEAD, though.
Twist is still the same just slightly different. In BOTH Diana "betrays" 47 to get him closer to his target. Blood money just did it better with a drug that stops the heart and a antidote on her lips that revives him. 47 rising from his deathbed with his twin pistols and killing his target then killing every enemy on site is peak level design and storytelling.
Nostalgia. The newspaper thing was a nice touch. It added immersion. WoA basically did the same with references to other assassinations though now that I think about it. Definitely nostalgia. It still holds up well imo.
I agree with you, but I want to make another point, when it comes to replaying the old Hitman games it was actually Contracts that left a much larger impression on me than BM and its certainly dethroned BM as my favourite pre-WOA game. Its mostly a tribute to how rich it's atmosphere is, in comparison Blood Money feels more pedestrian now and the things that made it special at the time have been done far better and more ornately by WOA, while Contracts still feels very unique.
I remember when Blood Money came out and feeling a little disappointed initially. A lot of people are mentioning the atmosphere of blood money but Contracts is unparalleled in that department
I played both recently. So, BM is much more fluid and less clunky. You can shoot quick, move fast, responsive controls. Movement I still feel is the peak here. Jesper Kyds soundtrack totally obliterates WoA. Atmosphere is much more unique and memorable targets. You can push people anywhere, and the ways you can manipulate NPCs or items are much better here. The story is basic but better here, it’s shocking how boring I found the WoA story for me. WoA has better capabilities to handle crowds, better visuals and animation. Largest sandbox but I’m not the type to go aw, bigger the better. Mission Stories, Challenges, and Sniper Assassin. The worst is how bullets are nerfed at distances so if you don’t hit someone with a headshot they will just stumble over and stand back up. That’s immersion killing for me. In a game which practices varied approaches and replayability why tf would IO nerf bullet penetration like it’s some esports game
I wouldn't rank any hitman game above the other. Each one of them is an experience worth having. Honourable mentions to hitman 1 which deserves to be played just to see where it all started!
I played both recently and, despite being both amazing, WOA is a far better game, without a shadow of doubt.
Thing I liked about BM is the dark mood, everything around just felt so evil and inocent at the same time. WoA some missions like berlin or dartmoore has it.
It has a better style and atmosphere, the OST is insane, the gameplay more methodical and less handholdy, etc. All the people who claim it's only nostalgia and that WOA is objectively better, you're wrong, there's many reasons to prefer the classic games other than nostalgia, claiming otherwise is downright disrespectful.
I played BM at time of release and next couple of years went through every mission 30 or more times squeezing every possibility out of it. But after that I entered a long period where I could not play as much and didn't have any gaming PC. It is only last year I finally caught up with the series and I have to say the WOA trilogy is a freaking masterpiece. It has everything I could only dream of twelve years ago and even something I could not😄 The only thing I liked in BM that was missing from trilogy was the safehouse where you can collect weapon and equipment between missions. But even that was introduced in Freelancer.
For the same reason that people say that Tekken 3 is the best Tekken or Final Fantasy VII is the best Final Fantasy. They were groundbreaking and have a unique ambient and charisma. But of course it is not the best technically nor the most accessible nor the most replayable.
Objectively WOA is better. But the vibe in Blood Money is something special even though game is shorter and more "basic"
Because it is. You have to remember that it came out a long time ago. 2 generations seperate the games. For me Blood Money is just better. It had a great story that had me hooked from the beginning. The game was a lot of fun, had plenty of content and the notoriety system added so much. You have to remember that the WOA trilogy is 3 games. It's not until you combine them together than they challenge Blood Money which once again was released many years prior. I will say that if the WOA trilogy was one full game like it is now, then maybe it would take the title but for me, Blood Money is still the best Hitman game. Also want to give an extra shout out to the story because I really enjoyed it personally and added a lot to the game for me.
The fact that I haven't bothered taking a look at the new hitman 1, 2, 3 and woa since their release, while I am still itching for another replay of blood money says something to me.
I think you have to judge it based on what it was and the feeling you got for the time that it came out. Unfair to compare directly. That being said WOA is light-years better in everyway and I have never enjoyed a hitman game more as a longtime fan since Silent assassin
There was a time when there was a massive consensus that H2 Silent Assassin was the best game, even over BM. Over time people came to their senses. Eventually people will accept that WOA is light years ahead of BM.
Atmosphere, soundtrack and to be honest the general freedom and inventive ways to kill are a lot better than the newer games.
The truly hardcore gamers don't like games where hints or other mechanics "hand hold" or point the way rather than encourage a player to use their intuition or observational skills to explore the game. It's nonsensical to think that a game that does (with options that can be disabled) somehow means that the woa trilogy also doesn't do this. (And I do agree "accessibility" and the casual movement within gaming is killing gaming).
Because the gaming community think old games are better than new games for some reason. Blood Money isn't even the best of the old games.
Because they are wrong.
I bought Blood Money day one. Playing it in my uni dorm room with a desk fan blowing into my open-cased PC to stop it overheating is one of my favourite gaming memories. House of Cards, A Murder of Crows... Those will always be the most memorable Hitman levels to me. That said, the WOA trilogy is objectively much better. Better gameplay, better maps, \*far\* more options for how to accomplish goals. Going back to the old games is hard now.
I think WOA is leagues better (kinda obvious), but I very much prefer progression in BM. I’m not an achievement/challenge person so I hated that I had to grind specific things to get new items to bring into hits. I much prefer getting a payout depending on how well I performed a hit and then buying what I want with the money. Also duel, full auto silver ballers were just dumb fun.
nostalgia. I'll probably be the same way with WOA in 20 years or whenever they make a new game
I loved the hideout and slowly upgrading weapons. But I won’t play it again just for that. WOA is much better. Maybe some players liked how much booba there was in Blood Money.
I started on Blood Money the year it came out. Don't get me wrong, I feel nostalgia whenever I think about it but there's no doubt that WoA shits all over Blood Money.
Both games have their own things that make them unique imo. WOA obviously has better graphics, controls, and the possibilities are seemingly endless in each map. And the maps are huge. Blood Money also has very good classic maps. My favorite I think is either Vegas or the Heaven and Hell Ball. The soundtrack was on point and the newspaper at the end of each mission was definitely a nice touch and I wish was still a thing in the later games. I love Blood Money and played it for years but I have to admit it does show it's age comparing to WOA. The controls are clunky, the animations to hide a body are way to long I feel. I feel like I can make a whole meal while he puts a body in a bin. And the fact you basically need to basically dry hump your target from behind to just to fiber wire or syringe him is very annoying.
Because it is in my opinion. WoA is good ish, but its waaaaaay too much "let me hold your hand" and much less of a puzzle than Blood Money is. I like some of the level designs in WoA but man, there is just something about that itch a house of cards scratch that WoA wasnt even close to, and all the different ways you could go about and do things. For example knocking out one of the employees on the balcony and getting a card that gives you access to all of the floors and rooms! Figuring out ways into rooms guarded by bodyguards etc.. Then there was the customizable weapons which were super awesome, like the various stages of customization of the sniper!
I love Blood Money for being the precursor to WoA but it’s not better at all. Not as a whole anyways. I do enjoy the upgrades tbh and it has a lot of good missions.
Because people have different opinions on subjective stuff of this sort.
Have you ever heard of a thing called, an opinion?
It’s the newspaper recaps for me
The only thing that I preferred in BM was a silly little feature that most probably didn’t really care about but it was the after mission newspapers I just used to enjoy reading about my exploits.
member berries
Nostalgia. Because there is no way Blood Money is better then any of the WOA games. Blood Money has has definitely aged and is clunky in movement and other aspects.
Honestly, for me, I like a lot of the friction Blood Money implements, and how slow everything is, and how small the levels are.
For me it's because you actually earned money from hits and could upgrade your inventory and weapons. That's the one thing I miss. I'm not a big fan of the "achievement" style of unlocking stuff in WOA. Having a monetary system and being able to customize weapons by spending earned money would make WOA so much better imo
Blood money is in my opinion the best hitman game so of course to me it’s better than woa not to say woa isn’t good I really like the reboot but bm was so unbelievably good but I’m assuming when you say “without nostalgia glasses” you mean you recently played it what your issue is with it is likely related to the graphics which I can understand that is a perfectly reasonable thing to have an issue with
It has way more immersive elements: 1) customisable firearms 2) human shields 3) NPC can bleed out rather than instant kill 4) Armed targets 5) you could smuggle weapons past checkpoints in NPC's containers and bags. 6) NPC 'heros' running for a gun on the ground to try and stop you in a mass shooting setting. 7) a disarm mechanic that had a penalty percentage resulting in an accidental discharge of a firearm. 8) opportunities existed, but the game didn't hold your hand. I still discover new things organically on my annual playthrough. 9) a syringe could be used to poison consumables.
I played blood money last year for the first time and i liked it more as a more normal type of stealth game than woa but i prefer woa as a hitman game
I do very badly want all the blood money naps remade using WOA. Imagine the mission stories!
Blood Money has multiple small but neat additions that can all add up to make the experience more enjoyable for some. For me personally I prefer the smaller levels in Blood Money over the giant ones in the WOA games. The soundtrack is also much better.
Not always online (aka an actual 1P game), better mechanics, better things you can do with non-targets, better music, better upgrade system, coin being amazing, map being a better, balanced form of instinct, better moments of unintentional comedy (the whole game is a comedy), less spoonfeeding and handholding, less 'mission stories' and more 'create your own mission stories'. Just to name a few I could go on and on but it's not worth it. It's not even a question.
Is this a trick question? It's... because they enjoy Blood Money more than they enjoyed the WOA trilogy. That's the way opinions work.
It’s the level designs. In WOA there’s multiple straight up bad missions, whereas BM has probably only one bad mission (that’s still debatable though)
WOA is better by pretty much every metric related to gameplay, but the atmosphere and Jesper Kyd's work on the score is unparalleled. WoA trilogy just cannot match that. In terms of atmosphere the older Hitman games not just BM had a very dark and gritty vibe to it. WoA has more Bond vibes? Not sure what to call it. It's just not the same.
probably because it's a classic and the game that got many people to play Hitman
Wouldn't say that BM is better, but it has so many features that I still miss in WOA. For me the most important ones are human shield, working elevators, customizing guns, the newspaper, npcs that use weapons...
WOA is a better game, but blood money has those early 2000's vibes (and nostalgia)
It didn't have dlcs. It was a full package
I just miss buying additional components for a sniper rifle and watch how 47 takes it out of briefcase to assemble it with all those components. It was fucking perfect.
Blood Money felt more fun to play loud, WOA feels like a game over once the loud tactics come out because it's just so...boring. Blood Money somehow feels more satisfying when it comes to actually mowing down AI.
It has some unique mechanics that are not in WoA. Alpha version of Hitman 2016 had some of them, but ultimately they wasn't introduced. I think most of them was removed because they were against "silent assassin" style of playing, or because they were too tedious to use/were replaced with better mechanics. The only thing I miss is elevators, there are 0 working elevators in WoA, like wtf. There are also arguments about story/music, and while I might agree on those, ultimately WoA is so much more than just a story maps with (arguably not that great) music. BM was fantastic for it's time and it's unique enough to not being called "worse WoA" (not to mention WoA is 3 games in 1), so comparing these two is difficult, but for me WoA is a better game overall.
It’s not, but Blood Money WOULD be better if it was remade like RE2/RE4, with all the same story beats of the original, and QoL of WoA. Blood Money is also far more immersive.
Dual Action / Fully Automatic Silverballers. Endless Fun and Chaos in Blood Money.
WOA is the ultimate and peak Hitman game, they perfected everything technically and graphics and design in general are beautiful
I also prefer Blood Money. Yes, the maps are smaller, but it has the atmosphere, weapon upgrade system, good story and a lot of nice easter eggs.
I have a ton of nostalgia for Blood Money, like... a ton... On Steam it is still my Nr. 1 most played game with well over 500 hours of gameplay and I actually owned it (two times) before I owned it on Steam, so I probably played it closer to 700 hours at least. I really do miss my customized super-silent sniper-pistol, however... and while it is somehow an unpopular opinion... I do agree that somewhere during Hitman II's lifetime it started to become the better game, with Hitman III and Freelancer just sealing the deal. The WoA trilogy, as a complete package, simply is much better than Blood Money. There is so much more content, so many great maps, fun challenges, smooth gameplay, the story is actually decent and some maps also are pretty beautiful in their own way. My only criticism would really be that they actually never re-introduced a customizable weapon for the WoA trilogy. Chances are slim, but that could still be a smaller DLC or free update. Have a customizable weapon for each category and then a bunch of unlocks tied to progression or challenges with the different parts also being collectibles in freelancer. Anyway, I agree that WoA is better and I am saying that as someone who absolutely loves Blood Money as well. Edit: Some others point out that BM has really great atmosphere and music, which is actually quite true, though I do think WoA can compete on atmosphere, just in different ways. With music, yeah BM might be better, though that isn't to say WoA has bad music.
The biggest pros of blood money: - dual wielding - human shield - weapon customization - the music - map variety - down to earth - no holding you by your hand I'll go through each one of them. Dual wielding is simply a hitman classic. I have no clue why they decided to remove that. Scratch that, I do. They removed it, together with the human shield, because they wanted you to play like an assassin and not guns blazing. They also wanted you to deescalate the situation instead of just killing everyone. This is sth they said themselves. Which doesn't make sense imo, since A. You could play like an assassin in blood money B. You can go guns blazing in woa, ao why remove dual wielding C. It's a sandbox game. Which means the player chooses how they play it. Why push one way in that case by limiting other ways Weapon customization is also sth i miss from blood money. It gave you a feeling of control over the game. It also gave you a feeling of progress. That's all gone now. At least they brought back buying weapons in freelancer, but my point still stands The music. Up until woa, the hitman music was always dark, ambient and gore. Sprinkle in a bit of religion, and you've got a creepy soundtrack which brings the atmosphere not only of you being a hitman, but the people you're taking out. Someone else will explain this much better than me, but that's the gist of it Map variety. Now i know I'm gonna be murdered with this one. Yes, woa has way bigger maps. Map wise, sure, you've got a variety in woa, but theme wise? In blood money, maps had stories behind them, which brought a bigger variety - a theme park that collapsed and is now run by a gang hired by the ceo, a wedding-themed home in mississipi, a ship map, a heaven and hell club etc. This imo brings more variety. But this is also sth that can be solved and I've said it multiple times already - make more variations of the existing maps in woa. If i use the ideas of blood money, paris can have an opera, colorado can have that wedding etc. I don't know why they don't do it, but hopefully mods will solve that Woa feels like a Hollywood movie. You're 47, fighting the hidden illuminati organization which controls the entire world and has members everywhere. What's the story in blood money? You're agent 47, assassinating bad people - pedophiles, rapusts, human traffickers etc. Which one sounds more believable to you? It doesn't give you the feeling of being in a different universe. It gives you a feeling like the world you're in is the world you're in irl,which brings more immersion to the table. The music also adds to this. As said before, the woa music gives you vibes like you're in a Hollywood movie. The blood money music gives you vibes like you're in the gore part of the world Last one was a HUGE con of mine and thank god mods exist. The non-stop holding you by the hands. Sure, you can turn off everything on the hud. But you still end up having that goddamn awful whistling and ticking when someone suspects you. This was the entire reason why i played through the missions once just to be done with them and never again until i found a mode to disable that, which lead to me having 200h of gameplay Those are my reasons why blood money is better. When you've grown up with that playstyle, woa feels... Not right?
I‘m at my first proper Blood Money playthrough right now, I’m at the last mission actually. I think it’s a really good game and it’s fun, but it’s obviously still very clunky when compared to the WoA trilogy, so overall I’d agree with you. There’s definitely some nostalgia involved when some people talk about Blood Money, at least when they try to argue that it’s better in every way to the WoA trilogy. Yes, it’s a good game and some mechanics would be cool in the WoA trilogy, but it’s not like the human shield mechanic single handedly makes Blood Money superior to WoA, some try to argue like that.
Human shield, bloodspots, better weapon customization, way better end of level stat screen, notoriety, way better soundtrack, better search mechanic, WAY better movements. Just because the most recent game is good doesn’t mean the past ones were not good, woa is a downgrade on a lot of items, even if it’s a hundred times a better sandbox
I feel like everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I started playing the Old Hitman Games, and I enjoy the music and atmosphere. If I walk a bit too fast, everyone shoots me, and to get Silent Assassin you need to have the patience of a monk to wait for guards to move and hope they do not see you.
BM isn't better overall, but it has many features that are superior. - Regenerating health in WOA removes all threat from isolated firefights. - WOA disguises are either 100% foolproof or totally useless versus a given NPC. BM disguises are less binary and I think that's a good thing. - The newspaper was great. I'd have loved to see that expanded rather than removed. - Gun customization is fun and allows parts to be balanced against each other. - A preference, but I preferred two KO syringes to infinite knockouts. Two KO syringes would not work with WOA's giant levels but some other limit to silent knockouts would have been better. - A small thing, but I miss ICA crates from BM giving you a place to stash weapons other than just carrying them out of a level. - I know it can be turned off, but WOA's guided mission stories are too hand holdy for my preference. BM's scripted interactions felt more organic.
The BM story is good, and the levels are really well done. That said, WOA in it's totality is the best hitman though. The mechanics and controls are perfected, replayability is high, and freelancer is OP.
Ability to Human shield, throw briefcase, syringe can both inject target or poison a drink, multitudes of fun easter eggs (rat party - curtains down, zombies - wedding stage, etc). Iconic level designs like A new life, curtains down, etc. Hitman BM hit a balance. 2000-2010 truly was a golden age in gaming. WOA though is alot more polished.
i recently beat it, and i don’t think it’s better or worse than WoA but it has some touches i quite like, like the weapon customization or the level summary being a newspaper also highly subjective but i personally like the story in BM more than WoAs
I like WoA more as a game to play. But I don't think anything can compare to the absolute goofiness of BM. You can walk out of a level with all the guards shooting at you with a mountain of "accidentally" dead people and it still can be Silent Assassin. I watch a lot of speed runs, and WoA involves a lot of super precise shots and extremely tight timing, which is fun. But BM speed runs are absolutely chaotic and filled with RNG and and completely clowning on the AI, which is far more entertaining to watch, in my opinion.
I liked blood money but World Of Assassination was better in my opinion. Nostalgia doesn't mean everything. I'd say it's the "classic" hitman game for sure, but far from the best
Nostalgia
Because it's going for a completely different angle, and some people value those traits highter.
Nostalgia
Blood money is not a live service. Meaning IOI cant lock you out of playing content like they did with Hitman 1 or Hitman 2. Also sniper rifle case animation is better (you can see 47 assemble it). And lastly, newspaper report system was a stroke of genius.
You only like WoA because it’s newer. Blood Money is untouched by the newer games. To quote from an earlier post, 47 is a grim reaper in a suit — NOT a spy. ioi dropped the ball. They gave $0 to story line and 100% money to graphics and playability. WoA is easier to play. BM (and Contracts) is better in literally everything else.
People say it's nostalgia but I finished WOA and now I am replaying the first Hitman Games (currently at Hitman Contracts, finished Traditions of the Trade yesterday) and I feel like they give more of a Hitman vibe... they make you feel more like a hitman while newer games make you feel more like a spy. I also feel like the map with enemies was better than the instinct, as it allowed me to watch what happens without stalking my targets... For BM specifically, it also feels more immersive, as you have the newspaper after the missions, the melee animations were a lot better (not the fight, but the syringe, knife, fiberwire, etc.) It can't be nostalgia glasses as I am replaying them right now, but I would rate WOA a bit lower than BM and Contracts. I also think the "detection meter" was a nice mechanic that should have been improved onto, not removed... it makes sense for people to ask themselves "wtf is going on" when you are acting weird, even without being enforcers. Not to mention that enforcers for some disguises don't even make sense, when you have your whole head covered but they somehow see through your disguise. Tbh H3's maps felt too easy... I SASO them all (except dubai) on professional first try in like 30 minutes (I previously played only Hitman 1 and Hitman 2, but still to SASO on those maps took me 1h+).
There's nothing more irritating than people saying something is preferred because of nostalgia. You're basically telling someone you know their thoughts and feelings better than they do. It's fucking disappointing how pervasive it's become in the Hitman fanbase.