Contracts was saddled with the reputation of being the middle child of the trilogy for years after it's release - with the brunt of the criticism levelled at it's overall lack of improvement over it's predecessor in regards to breaking new ground. But when you really got down to it, Contracts just had the rotten luck of following a tough act - the problem wasn't that it was a mediocre game by any means, the problem was that it just wasn't the massive leap in quality that Hitman 2 was after the inaugural installment. It's a shame, really, because Contracts actually surpasses Silent Assassin in terms of overall consistency. Was Contracts as expansive as it's globe-spanning predecessor? Not by a long shot. In fact, Silent Assassin spans a whopping 24 missions in comparison to Contracts' meagre 12-level count, and therein lies the rub - some just couldn't get past the small-scale feel, and thus wrote off the game's strengths. Contracts is a smaller affair than Silent Assassin for sure, but every single mission was crafted with the utmost attention to detail; resulting in a game that felt more layered than it's predecessor - nothing was wasted, and execution opportunities were doubled. And that's without mentioning the story, which portrayed 47's grisly profession in a style that hasn't really been done in the same way since.
