Hitman: Blood Money - Reprisal Review - Screenshot 1 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

Before IO Interactive blew everyone’s socks off with the sublime World of Assassination Trilogy, Hitman: Blood Money was widely considered to be the crown jewel of the stealth franchise. In fact, many consider Blood Money to be the progenitor of World of Assassination; a game that thrives on freedom of choice, offering up a total of 14 excellent sandboxes, from a Chilean vineyard to the White House.

This re-release on Switch, dubbed Hitman: Blood Money - Reprisal, is a straightforward port of the original, retaining the same controls and visuals with slight tweaks to the user interface. What Feral Interactive has done, however, is take a few cues from IO’s more modern Hitman titles and introduce a few quality-of-life updates for players who might not have joined Agent 47 back in 2006.

The biggest new feature is Instinct Mode, an ability that was introduced in Hitman: Absolution and greatly expanded upon in World of Assassination. For those who haven’t played those games, it essentially hones Agent 47’s senses, slowing down time slightly and highlighting your targets, enemies, and key points of interest. It allowed you to see exactly where your targets were located even if you happened to be on the other end of the map; how you reached them, mind, was entirely up to you.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

The problem with Instinct Mode in Blood Money - Reprisal is that it’s not able to fully replicate its functionality in the later games. You can’t use it to scope out targets or enemies from a distance since it’s only able to highlight points of interest that are physically visible to 47; in other words, objects or people that are within close proximity. One might argue that this is a more realistic version of the ability, but from a gameplay perspective, its limited functionality renders it almost useless in certain scenarios.

Aside from Instinct mode, Reprisal also adds a new mini-map. This proves far more handy in many instances since it displays your enemies and targets in real-time, with guards showing up as yellow icons, police as blue, and assassination targets as red. If you happen to be in a restricted area, the mini-map allows you to track the movement of your enemies without necessarily revealing yourself to them in-game; simply hide behind a corner or in a cupboard and wait for the opportune moment to strike.

Finally, gyro-aiming has been implemented for the Switch and stands as perhaps the most welcome new addition. It’s not enabled by default, and if you opt to keep it that way, then the game does offer up an auto-aim perk as standard, as aiming with the analogue can feel a tad finicky at times. Turn gyro-aiming on and crank up the sensitivity, however, and you’ll be pulling off headshots left, right, and centre.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

Of course, all of these new additions can be enabled and disabled as you like in the options menu. So if you’re someone who happens to be well acquainted with the original Blood Money, you might find that disabling options such as Instinct Mode and the mini-map results in a purer, more familiar experience. For those completely new to the game, however, even the limited functionality of Instinct Mode may still prove useful, as keeping track of your target in crowded environments can otherwise be a tricky endeavor.

Quality-of-life improvements aside, this is the same game that launched nearly 18 years ago (feel old yet?). In many ways, it remains an absolute masterclass in stealth gameplay, providing a bevy of options when it comes to offing your targets. There’s nothing quite like perfectly infiltrating a heavily guarded suburban home dressed as a clown, tampering with a barbeque so that it explodes upon inspection before calmly snatching a valuable piece of jewelry from the smouldering corpse. The game rewards patience and precision in spades, and it’s easily the most complete vision of the Hitman series outside of World of Assassination.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

On the other hand, it’s an 18-year-old game. Many aspects have dated considerably, including the visuals, AI, and controls. For those already familiar with Blood Money, it’ll be like slipping on a comfortable pair of gloves, but for newcomers, getting to grips with some of the mechanics might prove frustrating at times. For example, it took us a long time to remember that dropping items requires pressing down on the D-pad — hardly the most obvious button choice in the world — so during the first main mission, we flailed around with a lifeless corpse stuck to our hands while a bunch of guards unloaded shotgun shells into our back. Needless to say, we didn’t survive.

Despite its faults, however, Hitman: Blood Money is just so darn fun. Thanks to its rating system, there’s an almost limitless sense of replayability as you work to find out the most efficient way of completing each level. On the flip side, you can go completely off the wall and run in guns blazing, just to see what happens. The enemy AI is smart enough to know when something might be a bit off, but apparently, it doesn’t think twice before sprinting directly into the line of fire, making for some chaotic and bloody encounters. As we said, it’s aged, but the way you can manipulate the game's systems is a fun challenge in itself.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

As for the Switch port, you’re looking at a relatively stable 30fps for the most part. There are, however, frustrating moments where the game will freeze for a few seconds when either unpausing or transitioning from gameplay to a cutscene. It’s not so frequent as to ruin the experience, but it happens often enough that it’s worth highlighting. Hopefully, Feral Interactive will patch it out in due course. Otherwise, you’re looking at a solid port that looks good and runs well on Nintendo's system — as an 18-year-old game should.

Conclusion

Hitman: Blood Money - Reprisal is a solid Switch port that offers up several quality-of-life updates that, if you're a newcomer, will make your first experience with Agent 47 much more palatable. Not all of it works perfectly, and there's no denying that certain aspects of Blood Money have aged considerably since 2006. That said, once you get to grips with it, Reprisal offers up almost limitless replayability and fun as you hone your assassination skills. Minor performance glitches aside, it's a port well worth checking out.