GAMES / REVIEWS
I
O Interactive has chased the dream of perfecting
the professional murder simulator for 20 years,
and from the highs of Blood Money to the lows of
Absolution, its success has been decidedly uneven.
However, the studio finally nailed it with 2016’s Hitman,
which offered some of the most majestic and elaborate
sandboxes ever designed.
Since then, it’s all been gravy for Agent 47. Hitman 2 was
a fantastic follow-up to that experimental first game, and
Hitman 3 is the culmination of all that effort. It provides six
more assassination adventures that sees IO at the height of
its programming powers. Well, mostly. We’ll get to that later,
but let’s focus on the good for now, as there’s plenty of it.
Hitman 3 kicks off in Dubai, where Agent 47 infiltrates
the world’s tallest building (the Burj Al-Ghazali) on a
mission to assassinate the leaders of Providence – a
secret society of horrible rich people who control the world
from the shadows. Hitman 3’s story is just as absurd and
nonsensical as that of the previous two games, althoughit adds some personal stakes that make a few of its twists
more interesting.
Fortunately, Hitman has never been about plot. It’s
about tracking down your quarry and using one of the
environment’s innumerable opportunities to kill them.
Mechanically, Hitman 3 is virtually identical to the previous
games. The biggest new feature is a camera that doubles as
a hacking device, which is useful in certain circumstances,
but doesn’t alter the core game much. That’s good, because
the core game works just fine. Rather, the appeal of Hitman
3 is its levels, and how they elaborate upon the conventions
established in the previous two games.
To this end, Dubai provides an excellent reintroduction
to Hitman’s play. Occupying the top three floors of the
Burj Al-Ghazali, the area is perfectly sized for warming up
your murder muscles – it’s large enough to accommodate
some freedom of choice, but small enough that you don’t
feel overwhelmed by the opportunities available. It also
perfectly encapsulates the tone of Hitman, with the Burj’s
overwhelming opulence acting as a screen for more sinister
ongoings beneath the surface.
After completing his mission in Dubai, 47 then jets off to
sunny Dartmoor, where the last of Providence’s leaders, the
matriarchal Alexa Carlisle, awaits her fate in her sprawling
family estate. This is where Hitman 3 starts to show off.
Dartmoor dedicates most of its resources to an elaborate
and hilarious set-piece as it turns out Agent 47 isn’t the
only killer on Dartmoor. Someone has murdered Alexa’s
reclusive brother the previous night, and as a way of getting
to his target, Agent 47 can assume the identity of the
detective assigned to the case, before trying to solve it.GAMES / REVIEWS
DEVELOPER IO Interactive / PUBLISHER IO InteractiveHitman 3 / £49.99 inc VAT
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