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47 marches on. Everyone’s favourite cuddly contract killer must be drinking from the same fountain of youth as elven time-king Paul Rudd. The longevity of the Hitman franchise is phenomenal in itself. The fact that it continues to evolve and improve is arguably industry-defying. Hitman 3 rounded out this latest trilogy last year, reviewed by Stephen Clark on Zatu Games. However, on PC, it was a timed exclusive to the Epic Games platform. A year passed, littered with the confetti of critical acclaim. Then, on January 20th, the Hitman finale celebrated its first birthday in style.
IOI released an endearingly enthusiastic and action-packed trailer to water the mouth of any hit-happy fan. These are the main points of interest from the plans for year 2:
Full Steam Ahead
Hitman 3 is finally on steam, to the relief of all those like myself who waited impatiently. You can carry your progress over from Hitman 2 with the use of an I.O account. After much tinkering and frantic clicking, I succeeded. Now I enjoy my sparkling steam achievements with great smug relish. The option was there to carry it all on to the Epic version, though there was a delay and it tended to be unreliable.
Some fans are unhappy that the Steam release of Hitman 3 is full price. But the number of hours I spent on these last two games would make a clock’s eyes water, and the ongoing content and support are beyond reproach. Multiple free missions, stories, and even the chance to kill the sticky bandit tribute act was plenty of justification for me. I’m happy to pay full whack and pay I did. I’m sorry, wallet. I almost tried to resist 47’s pixelated charms. It must be those cheekbones.
All-Access Pass
Gamepass scores another slam dunk in the net of public approval by piling all the three latest Hitman games onto the platform. This is insane value, although those with the first two games may be hesitant to take advantage. To my understanding, it doesn’t seem like you can carry the progress of the first games forward from Steam to Gamepass. Also, with exciting additions stretching into the future it will be interesting to see how long the Hitman Trilogy stays available on Gamepass. Either way, it’s the perfect jumping-in point for those not yet addicted to the grind. Come on in, the water’s fine. And stained with the blood of your enemies.
Eye Candy
Many game bugs are now squashed, with hitman-appropriate ruthlessness. Some tasty visual updates were spoon-fed into our waiting eyeballs. Ray-tracing is now added to the already delicious and impressively populated maps. Intel’s XeSS is being applied too, with exciting graphical upscaling promise. Also, a potentially game-changing option of VR is available. The gun control and throwing mechanics alone promise hours of fun. Shoot blind around corners with ninja flinging angles in a more intimate, pulse-racing setting. Or you can simply choose to run around the maps with open palms like a happy-slapping John Wick.
Less Elusive Targets
Elusive targets were originally an enjoyable yet flawed addition to Hitman. Missions would appear with only one chance to complete them. The challenges were individually tailored and professionally made to almost campaign standards, not just mashed together with haphazard lazy-paste. It was sweaty palms all around and really gave a sense of just desperately getting the job done any way you can. However, the missions only came around once, and for a limited window of time, so if you had the sheer audacity to have a life then you often missed out.
This time around it is an ‘arcade’ version. Now you must get rid of three targets in one go, but missions are here to stay. Also, if you fail, the mission becomes locked for a day. This is more forgiving and re-playable but retains that original tension. It's a great example of reading your audience's furrowed brows and tweaking a game mode accordingly. We’re smiling now IOI, the murderous Grinch smiles of happy Hitman gamers.
Going Roguelike in Hitman 3
This change coming for spring 2022 and sounds by far the most exciting. A new mode called ‘Freelancer’ promises to extend the lifespan of the game and drastically reduce the lifespan of more NPCs for ages to come. Players will be lovingly shoved from the nest to flap their frantic wings, starting out on their own with zero agency support.
This time you will have a customisable base of operations, a house in the woods. From this semi-evil lair, you plan operations to take down organisations around the world. Working your way through missions and lieutenants until the final operation to cut the head off the snake.
This tricky snake head is wriggly and disguised though. The target will remain unclear. Counter-assassins hide in the level, and filthy stitch-deserving snitches can warn the target to escape. Freelancer runs are ever-changing and give a potentially eternal mode.
You can buy and store weapons proudly in your slaughterhouse. If you die on a mission, then you lose all carried weapons until you purchase them again. It strikes the delicate balance of risk and reward perfectly, for which we should all laud IOI. In fact, I do, I laud you IOI, enjoy my lauding in your general direction.
Hitman has gone from strength to scientifically-enhanced strength. It found its signature, less serious tone with ‘Mr. Reaper,’ and adapted roguelike elements of progression, to ultimately make a fun playground of stealth and satisfaction. The dry humour, bombastic killing methods, and evolving quality of continuous content is standard-setting in a competitive market. The bald avenging angel has served gamers well.
Hitman 3 fearlessly shoulders the weight of expectation with no signs of slowing down. In a world of quantity vs quality, this franchise has both in weaponised spades. Short-lived are your victims, long live Hitman.