HITMAN EPISODE FIVE – COLORADO
All salute the Star Strangled Banner
Depending on your appreciation for high pressure infiltration levels, the not-quite-penultimate episode in the assassination sim series1 is either the American Dream (if you love a bit of Metal Gear-style sneaking), or a bitter case of Stars And Gripes. But whatever your preference for social stealthing, there’s no question that the muddy brown farm setting is the ugliest environment 47’s visited so far.
Colorado’s aesthetics are downright offputting, especially off the back of Bangkok’s lavish architecture, but its disappointing skin masks decent design. The grody farm’s been transformed into a militia training camp, and that means it’s now overrun with armed enemies – and a decent (if not dizzying) range of opportunities for creative kills, too. 2
That small army’s used smartly. With the target count doubled to four for this episode, Colorado’s comfortably the biggest mission yet. It’s daunting and a touch bloated as a result, but snag a guard outfit early on and the intimidating setup becomes easier to digest without panicking.
For all the relentless focus on Hitman’s maps, targets and varied executions, Colorado scores an unexpected win when it comes to a much overlooked element – the story. Until the end of the Bangkok episode the cutscenes and the plotline dialogue hidden in the series had been little more than background noise. Now the tale finally takes centre stage, and it’s good to at last feel invested in the narrative throughline. It means all the pieces are in place for a perfect series sign-off – I just hope Japan plays host to a more interesting level than this mudfest.