Hitman 2
IO’s rejuvenated stealth series continues to work the crowd
PC, PS4, Xbox One
Of all the stealth-action series in videogames, only Hitman could make a suitcase exciting. One of a handful of new props in IO’s first Hitman game since buying the IP back from Square Enix, it serves as both a portable hiding place for eyecatching toys like foldable rifles, and as yet another way of turning each level’s complex AI script against it. You might, for example, drop the suitcase somewhere for a civilian to find, much like a weapon in the 2016 instalment, but where a weapon would probably be taken to a saferoom (where you might later recover it), the suitcase is comparatively innocuous. Perhaps the civilian will take it to a guard, who might then ask another guard to watch her post while she figures out what to do with it – opening a tiny hole in the map’s defences. Perhaps the suitcase contains a bomb. Perhaps somebody will carry it closer to the target, allowing you to bag your prey with minimal legwork.
It’s a cliché to say that little details make a game, but Hitman’s details generally go a long way – especially in the hands of an unsuspecting bystander. Admittedly, many of the additions here are quality-of-life improvements, a sharpening of Agent 47’s act following 2016’s well-received return to sandbox action. There’s a new picture-inpicture HUD feature, which makes it easier to work out what a CCTV camera can see or which NPC specifically has noticed that something’s amiss. The combat AI is said to be more coordinated, less prone to galloping one-by-one into a chokepoint, though we’ve yet to put it through its paces.
More significantly, NPCs are now able to see you in mirrors, which we’re hoping will give rise to some tricksier sightline considerations in later levels. The execution of visibility is, in general, a touch more plausible in Hitman 2 – you can stand in amongst crowds to lower your profile, or skulk in the undergrowth. This latter gambit seems retrograde for a character who excels at hiding in plain sight, winding his way through layers of security to a facility’s heart by dressing appropriately, but you can’t deny its utility on maps where civilians are scarce like 2016’s Colorado. Speaking of which, all of the new features will be retrospectively applied to the previous game via Hitman 2’ s free Legacy DLC – an obvious attempt to pad out the new offering’s somewhat scant seven-map launch line-up, but forgiveable when you ponder what these deceptively minor additions might bring to those much-infiltrated spaces.
The biggest change of all for Hitman 2, of course, is that it’s no longer an episodic release, though it will retain the 2016 game’s accomplished live-service elements, with
“We thought, ‘Alright, let’s give the players the full package from the get-go’”
new targets, variables and engagement criteria added to each level after release. “I’ll honestly say that it’s a beautiful thing to work episodically,” associate producer Eskil Mohl says. “But we found that that became the top story when talking about the previous game – people not quite understanding what it was. I think episodic fits a game like Hitman, which is so much about replay, learning the level, but on the other hand, a lot of people wanted the full Monty all at once.” Episodic releases are often justified with reference to Netflix, but as Mohl notes, this overlooks the fact that many Netflix series are released in one big dollop, a season at a time. “So we thought, ‘Alright, let’s give the players the full package from the get-go, and then double down on the live content’ – which was super-interesting to us, with the elusive targets, the bonus missions, new escalations and stuff like that.” There will be plenty of brand new maps after release, he adds.
Naturally, releasing a batch of maps at once means that IO has less opportunity to respond to player tactics and tendencies from map to map. The payoff, Mohl says, is that there’s more of an overarching theme from the outset. “Before it was total concentration on this map, then total concentration on that map, and also everything needs to be a certain size, whereas here we have more wiggle room. We can look at it as a menu, and say what would make a good hors d’oeuvre, and what should come next?” The game’s Miami map seems almost too grand for an appetiser, a blend of circuit-racing event and product showcase split between a crowded network of booths and trim backlots where you’ll need a pitstop engineer’s outfit to avoid suspicion.
One of the map’s targets, Sierra Knox is participating in the race; the other, Sierra’s father Robert, is presiding over the conference itself. As ever with Hitman, the assassination strategies are as ingenious as you can make them. You could gun down Sierra mid-race through a sniper rifle (a tip: the roar of the engines may not be loud enough to drown out a gunshot) or exploit another character’s attempt to blackmail her, or take advantage of a flaw in the stage electronics. “Miami is very bright and noisy, as you would expect from a racing event,” Mohl observes. “We have others that are the complete opposite, maybe closer to the classic assassination fantasy.”
Miami’s most impressive feature is the circuit race itself, a huge, unfolding setpiece that extends beyond the map’s navigable parameters. Many of the series’ finest levels are built around similar grand conceits – the highlight is probably Hitman: Blood Money’s ongoing opera house rehearsal. These setups often, however, reveal the shortfall between the developer’s ambitions and the constraints of the simulation: most of them are static, fundamentally, incapable of evolving in a believable way once you meddle with their key pieces. This was especially apparent in
Hitman 2016’s otherwise superb Marrakesh level, a city on the brink of civil war with protestors baying for blood outside a consulate. IO had originally intended to let players trigger a full-scale riot as cover for an assassination, but this proved a nightmare to execute. “You could rig this thing, and the crowds would storm the embassy, but unfortunately a spanner got into the works,” Mohl says, adding that “the hardest thing [in game development] is killing your darlings.”
If IO has often struggled on this front, however, the studio isn’t tired of trying, and over a decade on from Blood Money, it may finally have the tools to do such ambitions justice. “We have a lot of different pitches,” Mohl says. “And with the opera house level – I wasn’t at IO at the time, but I’ve talked to the producer, and he said that of course, they wanted it to be the full production with an NPC audience, but they didn’t have the technology to do it. We do now, with the number of NPCs we can put in one level. I know for a fact that a lot of people at IO also have that level as their favourite. I think you’ll see that in Hitman 2 – there are definitely some nods to the classics.”