You may not like the Hitman saga, that Agent 47 slips you or that stealth games choke you, but surely if you are here today it is because, even if it is just a little bit, you have a certain passion and interest in video games. Well, Hitman 3 is one of the jewels that give meaning to this medium.
It does not do so with an overwhelming jump compared to the two previous installments of iO Interactive – although it does include improvements to take into account – but it does take care of shaping a more ambitious game. A playable and replayable behemoth right from the start.
A delicate piece of bloody watchmaking
Just two scenarios have been more than enough to understand to what extent there are more complex and exquisitely assembled levels, more and better emergent narrative stories and, of course, also the most creative and spectacular ways to shape our murders.
Two extreme locations such as a Dubai super-skyscraper and a mansion in the English countryside serve as a backdrop for the now common playable strategy of this trilogy. That is, for those who unfortunately have missed the excellent Hitman and Hitman 2, a kind of sandbox with one main objective -kill X and get X- and infinite layers of options .
It’s time to infiltrate, dress up and explore the stage not only to get special weapons with which to carry out our work, but also to discover clues and stories that will open up other possibilities when it comes to meeting your challenges.
Become a knife-throwing bodyguard to get as close to your target as possible and take the life of the slightest mistake? Of course. A real-time narrative with dozens of different options and developments that you can jump from one to another at any time as it suits you.
That or find your target and shoot him in the head with a sniper rifle from the other end of the map, of course. Total freedom to do what you please in a saga that makes sense of the sandbox genre more than any other open world that comes to mind.
Imagine being a private detective
My hands are pretty tied when it comes to getting into the details of the killings because, after all, they are a big part of the game’s fun. Nothing would bother me more than ruining someone’s surprise, but I think going over it is part of the key when it comes to showing the potential of the game .
In the second of the levels it is time to take care of an old acquaintance in a luxurious country mansion on English soil. Among the many stories that will allow us to approach our objective in a narrated way, the most striking of all is the one that invites us to pass ourselves off as a detective .
Once disguised we approach the mansion and we are told that there has been a death in the house. From there we have the opportunity to gain the trust of family members by trying to discover the culprit , and for this it will be necessary to collect information based on tests and interviews with the suspects.
A formidable way of making yourself known about the house and its members, inviting you to walk from here to there to try to rule out suspects with what they themselves and the assistance staff relate.
An Agatha Christie or Daggers in the Back plot that stretches out to twist the characters’ speeches and actions and catch them red-handed when they’re doing the wrong thing.
A worked excuse to shape something as simple as killing one of the family members, our main objective, but also one more sample of how each level of Hitman 3 is an onion with infinite layers waiting to be revealed game by game .
The perfect sandbox
There will be time to rave about if the rest of the levels that remain to be played are still up to par, but the feelings are tremendous. As we said, not so much because of the sum of new features, which are there but are incapable of overshadowing the basic structure of the trilogy, the possibility of playing and replaying each level until exhaustion, enjoying its endless challenges and surprises.
To favor the latter, returning in search of new objectives or deaths that unlock additional accessories and make us rise among the best assassins on the globe, one of its great assets is to encourage exploration to open permanent shortcuts .
The emergency ladder you just activated, which could only be accessed from above with a lever at the start of your game, will continue to be deployed in future iterations, to take the clearest example.
Along with the shortcuts comes the camera . A mobile phone with which we can take snapshots in a kind of limited photo mode, but which will also serve to shape new playable options and information on objectives.
Two assets that, in addition, carry over to the two previous games in the saga, maintaining the spirit of updating and constant growth that has characterized the trilogy since its launch.
A fantastic brooch that, in addition to coming to us all at once, this time without an episodic format and with all the levels available since its launch , it also looks fabulous visually and technically.
I can’t talk about it excessively, but those who come to know the closing of its story can prepare the popcorn. You cannot imagine the one that is coming our way and 47 is going to have a hard time to put it away. What a joy and what crazy desire to continue discovering more and more hidden layers of Hitman 3 . We have a game for a while.
