Hitman: Contracts (2004)
Hitman: Contracts is a 2004 shooter video game made by IO Interactive and Eidos Interactive.
Agent 47 is bleeding out in a Parisian hotel room, and the missions that flash through his mind are the ones that shaped him. Hitman: Contracts wraps its level set in this fever-dream frame, revisiting four missions from Codename 47 with updated graphics alongside new assignments spanning Romania, England, and Hong Kong. The tone is the darkest in the series to this point, leaning into rain-soaked interiors and genuinely unpleasant targets. IO Interactive's sandbox assassination design is at its most atmospheric here.
Quick answers
What is Hitman: Contracts about?
Agent 47 is bleeding out in a Parisian hotel room, and the missions that flash through his mind are the ones that shaped him. Hitman: Contracts wraps its level set in this fever-dream frame, revisiting four missions from Codename 47 with updated graphics alongside new assignments spanning Romania, England, and Hong Kong. The tone is the darkest in the series to this point, leaning into rain-soaked interiors and genuinely unpleasant targets. IO Interactive's sandbox assassination design is at its most atmospheric here.
When was Hitman: Contracts released?
Hitman: Contracts was released on 20 April 2004.
Who made Hitman: Contracts?
Hitman: Contracts was made by IO Interactive and Eidos Interactive.
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A few thoughts on Hitman: Contracts
The 2007 Hitman film translates Agent 47's clinical detachment to screen, sharing the same rain-slicked European locations and the tension of a professional moving through a hostile world. Both are best enjoyed by those who appreciate a killer with a strict code.
Dark thrillers about killers and operatives who can't just walk away
Hitman: Contracts frames Agent 47's missions as memories flashing by while he bleeds out in a Paris hotel room, cold professionalism at the center. That same world of killers, spies and double lives runs through Hitman, the film adaptation of the series, The Punisher's last contract, a Jack Ryan operation gone dark, and an undercover agent pulled back into the field.
Open-world games where you decide how the mission goes down
Contracts lets you clear each hit your own way, quiet or loud, and this batch of open-world games shares that same freedom. Grand Theft Auto V and San Andreas hand you a city and a to-do list, The Witcher 3 and Skyrim hand you a continent, and Red Dead Redemption 2 hands you a frontier, all built to reward whichever approach you bring.
Comics about killers, ninjas and fighters who live by their own code
Contracts follows a hitman shaped entirely by the job, someone whose ethics live outside the law, and these comics chase the same idea. Rurouni Kenshin follows a former assassin trying to outrun his past, Assassination Classroom puts killing itself at the center of the plot, Largo Winch runs on corporate conspiracies and contract violence, and the Ninja Turtles fight from the shadows on their own terms.