Hitman: Blood Money interview

Agent 47, everyone's favorite hired killer, makes a welcome return this summer, and we tracked down Rasmus Hojengaard, game director at IO Interactive, for a Hitman: Blood Money interrogation.

Born in a secret lab and genetically engineered to be a ruthless killer, Agent 47 uses his shadowy ties to an unknown agency to acquire missions - and for the first time, we'll finally be able to earn cash for killings and blow it on gleaming metal murder-tools.

Hitman: Contracts gave us some excellent mercenary moments, so we were eager to find out what Blood Money has in store.

GamesRadar: Where does Blood Money's story begin? Does it continue straight on from Agent 47 escaping the hotel at the end of Hitman: Contracts?

Rasmus Hojengaard: No, not really. Blood Money actually initiates a little before that. Contracts takes place as a small time segment within the time span of Blood Money, if that makes sense to you.

GR: Do the missions follow a single path? Or can you pick and choose, say, between taking a hit-job in Florida or one in California?

RH: We are very keen on telling a story and we feel that the best way of doing that is to not let the player control the flow of the story. If you hand over the control, you also sacrifice a certain amount of solidity and form of the story.

This is very easy to see in games such as MMORPGs, where the fact that the universe is player-controlled totally eliminates the importance of the story. So as an answer to your question: no, the story and missions follow a linear path.

GR: How does the Blood Money screen-display show if your disguise is working or if you've been spotted/suspected by a character in the game?

RH: There is a gauge which shows the current suspicion of the non-playable characters. This is based on the quality of your outfit, your behavior, etc.

The value in the gauge will slowly (or quickly) increase depending on what you do and, if you get out of the range of the NPC, it will slowly deteriorate again.

The better the outfit, the slower the value will increase, and if you do not behave like a crazy man, you will yield even better cover. The bar is color-coded green, yellow and red depending on value. In the yellow, you should consider getting away.