DOUBLE-O 47

With Project 007 on the horizon, it’s impossible to play Hitman 3 and not hear the stings of that John Barry theme. It’s not just the dinner jackets or speedboat escapes, or even the sprawling underground lairs, but a sense that IO is focusing its lens on more cinematic ambitions. The closing set-piece in particular is lifted almost wholesale, but this narrows the game into something more linear. The new cold opens are more successful – each mission begins in a prologue area which tells its own miniature story, with Dubai’s skydive and Berlin’s creep through the woods playing like homages to very different traditions of Bond. But vitally, these can be shaken off after the first visit, so there’s no loss of freedom. It’s a balance we hope IO can maintain as it makes a blockbuster.