Hitman 3

My journey with the Hitman series has been an odd one, often best described as me playing "catch-up". Particularly with this new trilogy from IO Interactive (aka IOI), I've "caught" the past entries through freebies on PS+ and I outright haven't played one of the two before this. They've always come at busy times. 

Previously, I found this series (in the PS2/PS3 days) lived in the shadow of Splinter Cell, to a certain degree. There were iterations I adored - Blood Money comes to mind - and others that didn't do it for me. So, it's safe to say that my relationship with Hitman is spotty at best and non-existent at worst. 

However, Hitman 3 grabbed me. For starters, I've been looking for games that take full advantage of my PS5's graphical capabilities and this is one of the few "big" games out that has a fully-fledged PS5 version. Second, reviews for this finale were stellar and praised many of the things I wanted from the series. Lastly, and the most influential, is that IOI is hanging up the Hitman shoes for a while after this game to focus on their other endeavor, codenamed Project 007. That's right, we're getting a Bond game again, and not some cheesy knockoff; this will apparently be it's own unique story and Bond built from the ground up. As someone who's a big Bond fan - and who has been tearing their way through Retro Bonds as of late - I had to see the goods. Could IOI deliver?

After playing Hitman 3 my answer is a resounding yes. It may not mean much coming from a half-assed fan like me, but Hitman 3 is my favorite in the series, an awesome showcase for the new systems, and is quite simply: stunning. 

Jaw. Dropping.

"I'm gonna getcha!"

If I were to pick the ONE thing Hitman 3 does better than anyone it would be level design. There are only 6 levels in this game which sounds paltry, but they're expansive, re-playable, and highly unique. Given I spent about 1-2 hours on each of them in my first playthrough, I suppose you could argue the $70 is a bit overpriced, but when they're this good, it's hard to complain. These levels are "open worlds" that provide you hundreds of combinations to eliminate your target(s). Once I began the initial level in a Dubai skyscraper (that's clearly supposed to be the game world's equivalent to the Burj Dubai), I assumed: "Oh, this is the 'hook' level. It'll probably be the best one." The level was extravagant, with gold inlays everywhere, moments of jaw dropping beauty with sunlight refracting against clouds into the building, and opulence wherever you looked. If you're keeping track, yes...it did feel exactly like a Bond villain's tower (or fancy casino). But this was NOT the best level. In fact, I'd say it was probably one of my least favorites by the end. We're also given a Knives Out countryside estate in which one of the optional missions includes actually solving the mystery (it's a game within a game my dear Watson!), a highly exclusive European underground nightclub complete with pounding music, a packed dancefloor, and a laser show (along with plenty of creative kills), a fancy and rustic winery that has hilarious kills, a nighttime Asian city scattered with neon signs and rain, as well as one that I'd rather not spoil (but it works very well, despite being the shortest and again, screams "BOND!"). 

Ask yourself: when's the last time you remember every level from a videogame off the top of your head? That should reiterate how impressive it is that while few in quantity, Hitman 3 crushes it with quality of level design. It's something the development team should take great pride in and something that must find its way into Project 007.

I enter the club...

And now I'm the DJ...

From a gameplay perspective, Hitman has to be a game that you're in the mood to play. I found myself doing about 1 level per week and really setting aside 1-2 hours to get familiar with it, test different possibilities, and ultimately, eliminate the required targets. It's a slow game if you want to play it the way it's meant to be played, though I suppose you could run-and-gun if you really wanted to. Honestly, it's probably this aspect that has turned me off to recent iterations of the series - I'd eventually play too much of the game in a single setting or get myself trapped in a situation. Wiser in my years, I took heavy advantage of the game's fantastic save feature that allows you to save periodically throughout the level (and save multiple iterations) so that you can experiment, complete riskier challenges, and ultimately never feel stuck. Gameplay in Hitman isn't immediately intuitive, but by ~ 30 minutes in, it will be. With regards to Project 007, I do have the concern that the shooting mechanics need an overhaul, but since that's not a main staple here, it doesn't hinder the game too much. Instead, exploring, traversing, sneaking, and observing are all your main activities. I always tried to take out my targets in unique, often funny ways that would earn me bonus points. There's times where the game's mechanics and rules seem to catch up with it (e.g. a segment where I had an endless loop of soldiers running to the same spot comes to mind) and some of the harder challenges sound boring/tedious to me (e.g. where you stay in your suit the whole time, no bodies found, never caught, etc.) but overall for a casual player like myself, this game is easy to learn and carry out your violent will on unsuspecting targets. The PS5 version even gets a delightful trigger feedback mechanism with sniper rifles that requires a half-press to slow time, followed by a full press to fire the bullet. It works really well once I knew what was happening and although used sparingly, was very cool!

Though I wasn't up to date on the story, I could piece together the plot well enough. It's not going to win any awards, but I loved the heavy espionage/betrayal plot threads and it comes to a thrilling conclusion that I won't spoil here. I find that Agent 47 - likely to the shock of hardcore fans - still remains a fairly uninteresting robot of a character, despite what they try to do here, but it's the world around him that feels lively and full of adventures (read: murderous) possibilities. The inclusion of shadowy organizations, intertwined CEOs and politicians, and exotic locales continue to make the game feel like one big "look what we can do!" in an effort to acquire the Bond license, so - as with most things I've cited thus far - the future of Bond in these storytellers will likely be exciting, especially considering they'll have a more charismatic and relatable protagonist at its center. 

"I suspect foul play and I have
eliminated NO suspects!"

Eager to play this on my PS5, Hitman 3 doesn't disappoint. I realize that it'll be a while before we get truly "next-gen" games, but already games like Miles Morales, AC Valhalla, and even Black Ops Cold War look fantastic given the new hardware. Details are crisp and plentiful, light and the way it interacts with the environment is jaw dropping, and load times are blazing. Hitman is no different and because the locales are so varied, it provides more than its fair share of "Wow" moments. Walking up the stairs to the grand hall of a skyscraper in the clouds of Dubai...attending a NPC-filled rave with lasers in Europe...the spanning countryside of a winery...the intricate details of a English mansion...and the rain soaked ground reflecting neon signs in Asia. All of these moments felt "next-gen" in the sense they caused me to stop in my tracks. I wish I could say the same for the sound design. From a music perspective, the game rarely uses it to avoid conflicts if you're trying to listen, but I found sound effects to just...be there. There didn't seem to be much distinction as a whole which didn't ruin anything for me, but unless I'm missing something, also felt like second fiddle to the wonderful visuals.  

The game also offers the ability to play the previous titles but there's just a lot of UI issues on the home screen and it's honestly way too difficult to find where you need to go and the whole thing is noisy with a overly "buy this!" vibe. Importing the other levels seems hard to pull off on PS5 and if I didn't own the game - unless I'm missing something - it was requiring me to buy the "GOTY" versions of I and II, meaning that I'm paying like $30-40 for games that are honestly $10 now anywhere else. So yeah, I don't love IOI's price-gougy menu and I hope this element stays far away in their future games, but at the end of the day, it didn't affect my game enjoyment. 

An ally or a target? You'll have to play to find out

Hitman III - and this whole trilogy I'm assuming - is quite the resume builder for developer IOI. With III in particular, they've concluded the trilogy in exciting ways, but most importantly, they've saved the best for last in terms of level design and gameplay. It's a very unique game that, as I mentioned, you have to be in the mood to play, but Hitman III rewards patience and creativity all in an impressive next-gen package that makes you excited for what's to come for these talented game creators. 

CONS

• Horrible opening menu UI and the import feature seems broken...
• Sound effects that just feel...there?
• I do think, for $70, this is bare minimum content at about 6-10 hours of gameplay depending how fast you run through levels
• Sometimes the game's rules catch up with it and create frustrating instances or broken loops. To be fair, this was rare
• Some challenges for levels feel tedious
• Agent 47 isn't exactly an engaging protagonist

PROS

• The level design is beyond impressive. There are levels I will remember for years to come in my gaming career
• Their openness, creativity, attention to detail, and uniqueness are staggering. Each one feels almost like a different game in and of itself
• Strong gameplay and the best this series has seen. The kinks are mostly worked out, controls are intuitive, and there's many possibilities to map out
• There's nothing unique about the save feature, but it's a godsend here because it rewards experimentation and allows you to pull of drastic moves to get the fun bonus points in levels, then load your "safer" approach and move forward
• Story is easy to join along and provides a thrilling conclusion with heavy espionage, betrayals, etc. 
• Clever missions within levels and many awesome, often hilarious, deaths
• Did I mention level design?
• Incredible visuals across the board. This felt like a true next gen experience even though it wasn't developed for the ground up for these new platforms
• Fun DualSense functionality! It's great to see 3rd party developers taking advantage of this
• A highly memorable game that executes on what it sets out to do, providing the best Hitman experience yet, which is saying a lot for a franchise this storied

Rath's Review Score | 9/10