HITMAN III
GAME OUT NOW | PC, PS4/5, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One/Series
When you’re at the top of your game, your most dangerous enemy is complacency. But IO Interactive and Agent 47 are in no mood to rest on their laurels. The third in the Danish developer’s reboot series – and the last, as they prepare to make a new James Bond game – is a triumphant trilogy-closer that rarely puts a foot wrong.
Your first mission feels more Ethan Hunt than 007, beginning with a spectacular skydive onto a Dubai skyscraper. Here, you’ll navigate your way through a lavish shindig to a pair of targets, though it’s as much fun to drink in the extraordinary detail: it’s easy to lose an hour just mingling among guests, eavesdropping on conversations as fascinating micro-narratives emerge. Overheard dialogue also yields valuable clues to help get you closer to your mark, or to locate a vulnerability in the seemingly watertight security around them. Careful observation reveals hidden routes and key cards that open up more of these huge, intricate spaces.
Broadly speaking, you’ll rely on similar sneak tactics to the two previous games. But IO has thoughtfully refined its formula, while throwing in exciting new twists. From Dubai we head to cloudy Dartmoor, and a classic locked-room murder mystery: subdue and assume the identity of the detective called in to investigate the crime, and you can indulge your inner Poirot before getting busy with the fibre wire. In Berlin, meanwhile, you’re invited to establish yourself as the apex predator, as you mix with clubbers to pinpoint and take down five enemy agents on your tail.
It’s frequently tense, particularly when things go wrong – such as a kitchen worker idly wandering into the room as you’re choking out a guard, or a reveller spotting you stuffing an unconscious waiter into a locker. But it’s darkly funny, too: you have a broad range of outlandish ways to off your quarry, while 47 looks amusingly incongruous no matter what disguise he’s wearing. And whenever you see a guard near a high ledge, it’s hard to resist the temptation to casually shove them off.
When it’s over, you’ll be itching to dive back in again, to find a smarter or more efficient way to get the job done. Dozens of bonus objectives await thorough players, while completing a hit lets you stash items to speed up your kill times. 47 might be passing the torch to another steely-eyed agent, but he’s given 007 a tough act to follow. Chris Schilling