Hitman is one of my most favourite series of games of all time. Hitman is one of those games that challenges your mind and places you in the shoes of an assassin where he uses his smarts and brains to assassinate his targets and completes his objective rather than just running and gunning anything that moves. With the release of Hitman: World of Assassination, I feel that it is one of the best and most polished Hitman experience that any old and new fans can experience being the legendary assassin Mr 47.
Agent 47
If you are new to Hitman, let me introduce you to… Agent 47.
We follow the story of agent 47, the legendary assassin with superhuman but realistic strength, ultra high intelligence and most importantly, the best at cracking a deadly pun in front of his assassination targets.
As the name suggests, we will step in his shoes as an assassin who makes his way towards his target and takes out his target stealthily and silently (or not, more on that later).
Superhuman but Realistic
In many, many other games, when you play as an assassin, it is either you are a superhuman that moves as fast as lightning that jumps 30 feet down, kills people swiftly then immediately vanish away.. or you trudge along slowly in the darkness, avoiding many, many hostile guards like they are blind before finally meeting your target for a battle to the death.
Outsmarting your targets
Hitman is not that type of assassination game (though there are elements of that, depending on your playstyle). For me, what makes Hitman, well, Hitman, is how it emphasises on how you, an assassin, assassinate your target by actually outsmarting everyone to reach and carry out your objective. It is all about duping the guards, taking advantage of the crowd, observing the people’s routine for opportunities, adapting your approach for the scenarios given in the levels, and in some cases, even trick the target into completing the objective for you.
It is a game that hugely rewards creativity and problem solving instead of quick aiming or reflexes (though you can also go that way if you so choose).
Huge and open levels
In each level if Hitman: World of Assassination, at first, you will be given a brief of the mission objectives and the target, and then you are thrown into that level to carry out your hits and complete your objectives.
Each level of Hitman is huge, lively and full of non-playable characters which makes the assassination very exciting. The game simply leaves you alone, trusting you as the elite assassin that you are. you will have to just walk around and observe your surroundings to see and understand all the subtle nuances and interactions to discern anything that you can do and use to help you with your objective.
For example where you are supposed to enter an invite-only club. But as you enter, the bouncers that blocks your way and tells you to sod off, because you do not have an invite. So, what can you do?
Well, Hitman is a very open game that allows you to do pretty much anything you want. So you can either just take out your gun and shoot them (of course everybody will see you and start running away).. or you can wait and realize that there is one person standing outside on the phone, because his mom was calling and telling him about that otome gacha game and she wants to get that handsome guy’s latest costume, while the guy was trying to talk his mum out of it because she already spent more than $1k on the game.
Seems like “Huh, that’s funny” but then you heard “Mum, you’re making me late! I need to enter now or I’ll be late!” Ohhh.. so he is an attendee, meaning he might has the invitation letter.. hmm.. maybe, just maybe, we should take it from him?
Or… you realize that there’s a guard that is off duty and is having a smoke break in a secluded place.. hmm.. maybe we can take his clothes and pose as a guard instead?
Or.. as you walk around you see there is a drunk person that keeps harassing others? Hmm maybe if you give him a nudge, he might cause a bigger ruckus that forces the guard to take care of him?
So those are the kind of thought process that you would go through in a typical Hitman level. If you are the kind of person that enjoys those kind of thinking, I would bet you would love playing Hitman.
Enjoyable story that ties well into gameplay
To be honest with you, the overall story, in my humble opinion, is nothing groundbreaking. I mean it is not bad, but it is not the kind of story where you would be sitting on the edge of your seat wanting to know what is next either.
However, they are good enough that the story manage to tie each levels cleanly from one level to the next. But, what they make up for the story is how each character and targets act and talk during the gameplay itself truly feels as part of the story. The voice acting is great and how the npcs and target act throughout the level truly sells the over-arching story and makes you immersed in the plot as agent 47.
Twists and turns
Now, in previous Hitmans, there are always a few level that subverts your expectations which truly makes the game feel “oh my god!” even if you didnt really pay attention to the story that much.
One of my favourite twists in a previous Hitman game (skip this if you want to avoid spoiler!) is where you are contracted to kill a certain target, but since the target were scheduled to be at a level you’ve played before, you were sent to that level again.
As you carry out your mission, which is, up to that point, the same (approach the target and find a way to assassinate him) plus this is a level that you have been before, you would probably simply follow the path you have used before.
This is where the genius of Hitman comes in. Depending on your playstyle, you may have decided to snipe that guy from afar instead. Then you go to the familiar high building and shoot your shot from there. But.. he did not die! Well, there was a previous level where the windows are bullet proof. Okay, no issue, guess it is up close and personal then.
…And when you actually manage to sneak inside and crept towards the target from behind.. That is when you realise.. the target is actually a cardboard cut-out! And… if you were not careful or slightly too late, you yourself would be assassinated by another assassin waiting for you from behind. That double crossing customer! This mission was a setup to kill you!
That level felt so great when playing it for the first time. And this kind of story that you would also get from playing Hitman World of Assassination.
Judgment?
If you love puzzle games, you will absolutely love Hitman games. And Hitman World of Assassination is, in my opinion, currently the best way to experience the Hitman world. Play Hitman: World of Assassination and avoid spoilers to enjoy Hitman to the fullest.
How to Purchase?
Now the only thing about Hitman: World of Assassination is that purchasing the game is pretty confusing, due to how the current latest Hitman game was actually three different games released gradually over multiple years, which was consolidated into one game called Hitman: World of Assassination.
So, if you are buying through Steam, you should buy Hitman: World of Assassination or Hitman: World of Assassination Deluxe Pack. Do NOT buy Hitman World of Assassination Part One, because you will not get the full game. Buy Hitman: World of Assassination to enjoy all non-DLC levels, which I feel is already enough to enjoy Hitman. You can always add any downloadable contents later if you find yourself wanting more new levels to explore and more targets to assassinate.
