greeklover: Since we are talking about Blood Money, first time experience with Hitman here. I just got Blood Money and Absolution in a trade. Which should I play first? Steam reviews say Absolution is more story and less mission. I'd like more content and challenging missions.
Skip Absolution, it is a complete failure of a game. Mechanically it is one of the best Hitman games (great controls, great shooting), but the execution is terrible. The story, mission designs and stealth mechanics completely tank all the potential the game ever had.
Blood Money is a very decent game. It's not my favorite, but I think that's a generational thing. It was the first game in the series to really innovate and not be extremely difficult and buggy. Intuitive controls, simpler missions that are not prone to spiral out of control for things you can't predict (either because of bugs or too much complexity), decent presentation.
Hitman 2 and 3 (Silent Assassin and Contracts) are of a previous generation. Quite wonky and unpolished. Niche games for hardcore fans. Hitman 1 is very different from the rest. Thematically it's the same, but most of the Hitman template was laid down in the second game. Hitman 1 is just a game where you kill people without getting caught, but from Hitman 2 and onwards it is all about perfect mission executions.
