Publisher: Eidos
Developer: IO Interactive

You wake up in a cold, concrete cell wearing a drafty hospital gown. You have no memory and no identity. A disembodied voice from above instructs you to get dressed and begin your "training." Training? In what? In assassination, of course. Didn't you ever see La Femme Nikita? You are a genetically engineered killer – Hitman: Codename 47 – who will do your masters' bidding in a series of missions across several continents.

Much like Thief, Hitman is a sneaker/shooter that revolves around an anti-hero – in this case a cool killer who even sports a UPC product bar code on the back of his bald head (which has to be a pain to scan at the grocery store). During my playing of a very early build of the training and first mission levels, the game struck me as a promising action adventure that requires as much strategic thinking as shooting skills.

Publisher Eidos has pushed the release date into early 2001, but even this alpha shows the signs of an ambitious design. The graphics engine is third-person 3D. Your mouse controls point of view and targeting while the keyboard moves our billiard-headed killer around. The graphics also display a decent design sense. The detailed training mission has that Femme Nikita feel, an underground complex of sweating cement walls, echoed footsteps and rusty metal works. The first level is an enormous labyrinth of a hotel. While our gunman doesn't have the gazelle-like movements of Lara Croft, I gather from playing the alpha that he isn't meant to hang from ledges or do fancy shoot and roll maneuvers. If you move him into a ladder, he climbs it. Maneuver him up to a short chasm, and he jumps it automatically.

Much of the action will involve locating the targets for the mission – there usually are multiple goals – and then deciding on the most efficient path to the kills. On the hotel level, for instance, metal detectors at the entrance and throughout the floors force you to start empty-handed. Not only must you talk to hotel personnel to figure out where your targets are staying, but you need to locate a weapon and navigate the network of metal detectors. Hiding your deadly intentions until the last possible moment is critical. If your weapons are holstered, bodyguards and cops will talk with you, and even let vital information slip out. With your gun at the ready, however, they start firing. And don't expect a lengthy health meter in this game. Take one good shot to the head, and your character is a goner.