PLAY THE HITS
AFTER MUCH-NEEDED 2016’s REBOOT, THIS LATEST BATCH OF HITMAN MISSIONS STICKS SENSIBLY TO THE WINNING FORMULA
EPISODIC gaming seemed to reach a peak in 2016 – developers adopting a ‘treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen’ approach to fans.
And you can’t really blame them, Telltale Games’ Walking Dead, Minecraft, and Batman games were a triumph, and Dotnod Entertainment was enjoying immense success with its Life Is Strange series – being released over five parts.
But it was a bold move to choose the drip-feed approach to the Hitman series, and one which divided fans. Agent 47 had been stuck in a bit of a rut with lacklustre releases dulling the assassin’s reputation – so 2016’s slick reboot was a welcome shot-in-the-arm.
This new release is a direct sequel to that game, casting off its episodic roots to bring you the adventure in its entirety in a single release.
And that’s probably the only noticeable difference between the two games, with Hitman 2 enjoying just a sprinkling of new features – it almost feels like developer IO Interactive stumbled over a bunch of episodes it forgot to release, and knocked them together.
The action literally picks up where the last game left off, with Agent 47
and his handler setting off to uncover more details about his past.
I found the cut scenes quite jarring to begin with, a series of stills with voice acting playing over them – although the interactions are actually quite witty.
The game offers six missions set in six distinct sandbox locations, with the first taking place in Hawke’s Bay.
Don’t let the first mission put you off the game, it’s much smaller and much slower than the rest – almost like a training mission without explicitly saying so.
Once you get past that, it starts to feel much more like a Hitman game, with multiple and inventive ways to try out assassinating targets.
The method in which you dispatch your target is entirely up to you. Stick with the traditional silencer, or maybe some piano wire – try lobbing an axe at your quarry, perhaps a brick, a hammer or, if you’re feeling more playful, a fish.
One of the new items that have been introduced is the concussive gadget, which renders your prey unconscious. Another nice new addition is the ability to blend into crowds, allowing you to evade guards and sneak around more easily.
Sitting alongside the main game is Sniper Assassin, a multiplayer co-op, which sees players tasked with offing targets against the clock using a sniper rifle. It’s immense fun, although you do have to be patient, as picking off a bodyguard too early will alert the baddies to your presence.
Another fun co-op is Ghost Mode – which gives you the chance to hunt targets in the same location, seeing a ‘ghost’ version of your rival player. This way you can track their progress, but their actions don’t impact on your mission. Timelimited Elusive Targets missions are back, with Game of Thrones star Sean Bean lending his face to the first mission.
Elusive Targets are time-sensitive contracts appearing in the game for a limited time. You have a single chance to assassinate your prey and the contract cannot be retried – it makes for tense gameplay.
While Hitman 2 feels more like a continuation of it predecessor, it still offers interesting maps to lose yourself in.