The Art of Killing

It’s rare that a reboot of a classic series manages to outdo the original but the new “World of Assassination” trilogy that kicked off with Hitman (2016) has been a stellar re-imagining of the series, leveraging and strengthening the core gameplay elements that made the original games unique and fun.

With the release of Hitman 3 the trilogy comes to a close, and given how its predecessors had some of the best missions in series history, it has a lot to live up to.

Welcome back to the world of assassination.

MSRP: $59.99
Platform: PS5/X1X, PS4, X1, PC, Switch (Cloud)
Played on: PC (Epic Games Store Exclusive)
Multiplayer: Must be online to log challenge progress.
Length: 8~ hours, Played: 15~ hours (Very replayable)

Following the events of Hitman 2, Agent 47 and his cohorts are on the hunt for the last few members of Providence so that they can end the tyranny of their global influence, but with the Constant no longer in their captivity, they find themselves in the thick of a great conspiracy that threatens to consume them all.

While the overarching storyline and characters have never been the main draw for me in Hitman, it serves as a connective tissue that links the missions together cohesively, which is just good enough for what it is. However, I did wish that I could have felt more invested in the characters, as there are some notable moments in the story that could have hit harder. Still, it was mostly a satisfying conclusion, and despite some of the buildup not feeling justified, I enjoyed seeing things through all the same.

The visual upgrades are noticeable even without the implementation of ray tracing which is in the works for the game.

As was the case with Hitman 2, there is a visual upgrade to the new entry, which carries over to all the previous missions in the older titles. While not a stark difference, the use of lightning and reflections has been improved, and each of the new locations were brought to life with painstaking detail. The sheer amount of NPCs on screen at once was impressive as well, especially in the mission taking place in a club where a mosh pit of people were dancing the night away. On my RTX 3070 card, I was able to max out all the settings and play on an ultrawide monitor without notable performance dips, which leads me to believe that the engine is quite well optimized.

Also, the developers have stated that they will release a patch to include ray tracing to the engine in the future, and I personally can’t wait to check it out with all the new technological bells and whistles, as I have been thoroughly impressed with what RTX can do for visual fidelity in games like Metro Exodus and Cyberpunk 2077.

The master of disguises. Just don’t try to make sense of it logically, it’ll hurt your brain.

To those who are familiar with Hitman, there isn’t much to add about the gameplay, as it remains mostly the same – just refined and complemented by stellar level designs.

As for those who don’t know what Hitman is all about, it says it right there in the title.

Be a Hitman.

Ending the lives of high value targets can be done in numerous ways, but despite there being an option to run and gun my way to the target to get the job done, it is hardly the most effective or interesting way to go about it.

It would be akin to playing a Devil May Cry game and beating the entire thing just by mashing the sword attack button over and over again. I certainly could do that, but then I would be missing out on what makes the genre of “Spectacle Fighter” so enjoyable.

In Hitman, it’s about finding creative approaches to get close to the target and to dispose of them without anyone ever finding out that I was even involved. This would often involve me surveying the area and observing the behavior of my targets to plan out a perfect assassination, and when a plan comes together, the satisfaction is immense.

Luckily, the folks at IOI have a knack for creating interesting scenarios, and I feel they have presented some of their best work to cap off this trilogy. I can’t explain what makes these scenarios so great without going into one of them, so I will delve a bit into the second mission so if you are wary of any kind of spoilers, be aware.

Strong Knives Out vibes.

In the second mission, Agent 47 is tasked with assassinating a target who has retreated to her mansion and faked her own death with the hopes that would throw him off her scent. Unexpectedly, her brother is found dead in his bed. Suspecting foul play, she hires a renowned investigator to get to the bottom of her brother’s untimely demise.

As I approached the mansion, I knew that I would most certainly want to disguise myself as the investigator to get closer to my target, but I was ill prepared for what was in store for me. As I was introduced to a laundry list of suspects, I was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery and only when I have solved it, would I claim my prize. As I wandered the mansion, questioning suspects, uncovering hidden passageways and clues, my target was killed in a poisoning by the same culprit that killed her brother. With my task “completed”, I could simply pick up a file out of her safe and walk away to complete the mission.

However, I wasn’t going to let things just end that way, so I restarted the mission once more and this time I was able to gather all the evidence and expose the true culprit before the target was poisoned. In fact, she was so grateful for my services that she willingly gave me the file from her own safe. Afterwards, I poisoned her myself to complete the contract, which seemed appropriate given the circumstances.

That was just one of the many different options that became apparent to me during that attempt and since then, I have played through that mission four more times, witnessing different events each time. It’s this level of discovery and choice that makes Hitman missions so replayable, and I daresay that Hitman 3 has some of the best level designs of the series so far.

It’s just a shame that the final mission ends up being quite different from the rest of the game with its linear progression. Even though it makes sense in the context of the story, I would have liked the final mission to be the most elaborate and interesting of the bunch to cap off the story.

You have been disconnected from the server.

Outside of the final mission, the only other major complaint I would pose is the completely and utterly unnecessary “always online” aspect of Hitman. It has rubbed me the wrong way since its inception, but it didn’t hamper the experience much until now.

Throughout my playthrough, I was constantly bombarded with messages that I was disconnected from the server and had to reconnect dozens of times. Given my internet connection is rock solid and this has been widely reported, I can only assume that there are issues with the game servers.

If those interruptions weren’t enough, I also saw my game freeze for seconds at a time in numerous occasions while it was having issues connecting to the server, and along with the constant pop ups for server connectivity issues, it took an otherwise perfectly engrossing experience and ripped me away from it, time and time again.

The fact that I had to suffer through these issues to progress my profile despite Hitman being an entirely single player experience is baffling, and serves to be yet another case of elements outside of the actual game hurting the overall package.

Doesn’t take an investigator to see that always online on a single player game is a terrible idea.

Despite the less than stellar final mission and instability of the servers, Hitman 3 is a worthy entry to bring the World of Assassination trilogy to a close. While it’s uncertain where Agent 47 will go from here, I feel the series is in good hands and I’ll be sure to have my Fiber Wire handy for the next contract.

Fun Tidbit – The escalations are back and they offer some really great rewards for those who can complete them. I’m also eagerly anticipating the upcoming elusive contract.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.