Silent Assassin has, in my opinion, the best music of all the games in the Hitman series, representing the best of Jesper Kyd, being more operatic and orchestral and less techno than both Codename: 47 and Contracts, while being less action-oriented than Blood Money. This is combined with both a great story and plot, as well as the best characterisation of 47 that I've seen from any of the other games in the entire series. The plot is far less contrived than the story of the World of Assassination trilogy and has 47 engaged with much more believable missions, filled with the tension, urgency and paranoia expected of real assassination attempts, not with the comedic quipping of the new trilogy. 47 often provides interesting monologues at the beginning of some missions and has proper conversations with Diana, far from being austere in his dialogue. The briefings from Diana, combined with the target information, are something sorely missed in later titles and they bring a great sense of narrative. The briefings contained within World of Assassination are far too cosmopolitan and lacking in a clandestine character or an urgent tone from Diana, reminding me more of a Bond briefing than an illegal assassination agency briefing tailored towards an infamous clone. The targets are all connected in Silent Assassin in a way that they are not really as connected as they seem in Blood Money or World of Assassination, which provides you with a sense that you are embroiled in a very specific series of interconnected assassinations in several acts within a short amount of time.

The rating system in this game is much more forgiving than in subsequent games, but the mechanics can be far less forgiving than others. Running while disguised is a guaranteed way to compromise your disguise and ruin your cover, so you must walk. Even then, if you get too close to another character while disguised, there is quite a high change they will detect you regardless, so keep your distance and be prepared to hear the "Fast Ambience" or "Action" soundtrack every time you get close to a guard. Fortunately, you are still able to get Silent Assassin rating if a body is found or you have killed one guard, which makes it much more bearable to obtain a disguise and kill a target, particularly in a certain situation. You are allowed two mission alerts, or one alert and one guard killed, two shots fired, two guards killed if no shots are fired, and even one civilian killed. However, you will never be in a situation where you need to kill a civilian. Contrary to what you would expect from the age of the game, many missions can be completed in more than one way. Of course it lacks in the diversity of kills from Blood Money or World of Assassination, but in terms of actual planned assassinations, they are highly realistic.

Probably my favourite out of them all. Tough as nails but this is where the series started getting it's identity.

To get it to work on modern systems you literally just need the widescreen fix from nexus mods

This game is basically begging for a refund...

There’s a version of this review that could just stop at one line:
"This game barely runs in 2025, do not buy it."
But let’s dig in, because what I went through with this port is worth warning you about.

First off, it’s almost impossible to start playing this game on a modern PC. I spent nearly 20 minutes just trying to get it to launch. This was not a one-off bug. The recent Steam reviews are full of the same complaints. The only way I got it working was by downloading a third-party file, manually dropping it into the directory, and forcing a resolution change in the code. If that already sounds like too much work for a $12.49 game (even on sale for $1.24), you can stop reading here.

Once I got past the technical mess, the actual gameplay has not aged well. Levels feel empty and confusing. Doors constantly close behind you, making navigation more annoying than tense. Stealth mechanics are clunky, aiming feels rough, and enemies react inconsistently. The tutorial does not guide you at all, which could have been interesting - actually appreciate that a lot of old games don't hold your hand, but it mostly just adds to the confusion. I eventually stopped bothering with stealth and just started blasting my way through, even shooting civilians, because figuring out the "right" way to play was not the move here for me.

There are some interesting touches for a 2002 game. The music is solid, the audio design holds up, and you unlock weapons as you go, which is a neat throwback feature. But those small positives do not outweigh the frustration. Between poor optimization, broken setup, and dated mechanics that feel more tedious than tense, this port does not do the original game justice.

If you have strong nostalgia for Hitman 2 and are willing to spend time troubleshooting, you might get something out of it. For everyone else, this Steam version is a broken, frustrating experience that is not worth the money or time, even at $1.24 on sale.

Final Rating: 3/10
A classic game trapped in a busted port that actively fights you at every step.