Strange bald guy with a red tie in a suit? You guessed it, Agent 47 is back! I never properly played any of the previous Hitman games in the franchise. I always rushed through them in order to experience the hit-or-miss storylines and never went back to change my approach to tackling any assassination. However, just from the first three hours of playing this year’s Hitman, I have to say that it’s a promising title with great potential to become an epic game. Not only does it encourage you to approach problems from different angles, it hints of an intriguing storyline from the first few missions. If you are into stealth action, or were just blown away by Ruper Friend’s swag in the Hitman movie—which I quite enjoyed just so you know—this is definitely worth looking into.
Like quite a few games out there, Hitman is marketed in an episodic fashion. There is a $14.99 intro version that comes with the Prologue and Paris missions (basically all the content available at launch). Alternatively, a $59.99 full version is available which guarantees you access to all future missions. New locations are scheduled to release every month following launch. I personally think it’s not necessarily a bad thing for gamers because it offers the chance to selectively buy the locations that you like. As for now, both the intro version and full version all have pre-order perks that include cosmetic changes and an explosive.
At the time of writing, the story mode consists of only the Prologue and Paris missions. This review will only be for the intro pack as a result of that. The Prologue is a mix of cutscenes and training sequences that help you get acquainted with the mechanisms in the game and, at the same time, stay informed about the background story. My first impressions of the Prologue were that the graphics look amazingly good at 60 FPS. Cutscenes are well-made with decent voice acting and meaningful and witty dialogues. However, they lack depth and intensity, as I didn’t feel a strong impact nor a strong bond with the character I was playing.
As you may already have observed, the character in the game doesn’t look anything like Ruper Friend. He’s a bald, tall, fit Caucasian male with chiseled cheekbones, mean-looking blue eyes, and a barcode on the back of his head. No wonder he has to change disguises more often than David Bowie in order to dampen his conspicuity and infiltrate the target location. In fact, changing disguises is how this game is intended to be played. In the Prologue, the first training mission is to infiltrate a yacht and eliminate a target. Agent 47, for example, in this mission can assume many disguises such as yacht crew, engineer, and security guard. Being in a disguise doesn’t mean he has a free pass to roam around though. For instance, in an engineer outfit, I was not able to access the engine room without arousing suspicion (I suppose it’s because all engineers know each other and a new face is very sketchy). However, when I acquired a yacht crew disguise I could just walk right past them. It’s not uncommon for Agent 47 to assume many different identities in order to reach certain areas in the level. I personally found it very challenging and fun.
The play style of this game relies heavily on stealth but there’s also some shooting involved now and then. I tried to go guns blazing and it was practically impossible. Agent 47 doesn’t wear a bulletproof vest so after taking a few bullets he’s down and out. There are in total 28 bullets in his silenced pistol, and the number of armed guards is just too overwhelming for him to kill overtly. To make matters worse, unlike Assassin’s Creed, civilians in this game do rat you out if they see you knock someone out cold…and they do it very swiftly. Your cover will be compromised and security officers will start a search and hunt you down. All of that makes it much harder to proceed further in the level.
Luckily, Agent 47 can see through walls with his special ability. This makes planning and evading patrols possible. When activated, time slows down and he has heightened senses. Additionally, interactable objects are also glowing bright. In this game, killing is a creative art. Other than the signature fiber wire, neck snap, or a simple bullet to the head, many objects can be used to masquerade killing as a freak accident. I won’t say more since it’ll ruin the surprise and spoil the fun for you but there are so many options it’s mind-boggling. By killing with creativity, you can unlock challenges and earn XP rewards. More XP unlocks more planning options for the game, so you can revisit the mission in more ways. Although I finished the Paris mission in under two hours, it by no means implies that I was done with the game. The replayability of the mission is so incredible that I immediately went back and tried another approach. I can’t say a lot of games have hooked me in the past like Hitman did.
The online component at the time of writing hasn’t been fully unlocked yet and the elusive target mode isn’t available. There is a contract mode in which a player can revisit a level, mark a target, and make it a contract so others can play. It is an interesting concept but we’ll have to see how it works when the game goes live in a day. It sounds like a lot of fun and will definitely enhance replayability by fostering a community.
As mentioned earlier, the game mostly runs at 60 FPS on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The performance of this game is generally good, but the frame rate does drop significantly when many people are crowded in the same map. You can lock the frame rate though but that makes the controls feel a little clunky and strange. How I wish it could’ve been optimized to run at 60 FPS all the time.
The line of sight is also a tricky business. Sometimes I feel that the guards and civilians have X-ray vision and they know exactly where to look in order to find me. I don’t know if these are glitches or what. Maybe I’m just not being careful enough. Apart from that, I haven’t encountered any major bugs or critical crashes, but the loading time and menu responsiveness definitely need to be refined. There is some texture pop-in too.
Summary
So far, after playing a modicum amount of content in the intro version, I can safely say that Hitman is a great game that’s worth the $14.99 price tag. It offers a great stealth action experience and replayability. Hardcore fans can also get plenty of challenges by completing feats and achievements. I hope to see more epic content release soon and can’t wait to experience Morocco and Japan. You’re getting a proper AAA experience for $14.99 and I definitely recommend this purchase.
Xian was a regular ICXM contributor between 2015–2017, publishing 162 articles across game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative.