Platform reviewed on: Xbox One.
Also on: Playstation 4, PC, OS X, Linux.
General/ Plot:…7
Hitman is a long running quality gaming series, no doubt about it. The adventures of agent 47 are well known among gamers. I remember back in the Playstation 2 days, i played Hitman: Silent Assassin and i was quite astounded. 17 years after, not much has changed. You assume control of our favorite bald agent and you are given a number of contracts on bad guys’ heads. There is a small twist towards the end but in general, there is little that stands out as far as plot is concerned. Prior to each mission, you are given information about your target, why he is on Santa’s naughty list and some potential ways to carry out your orders. And that pretty much sums it up.
Graphics…7
The graphics of the game are functional but did not manage to surprise me. Character models are fine and the environments are surprisingly detailed for a near open world game. Each level is huge and pretty much every location you see is accessible. Another thing i liked was that in some missions, about 40 to 50 NPCs appear simultaneously on the screen and despite this huge number, the FPS remained stable.
Sound Design…7
Nothing extraordinary here as well. The soundtrack reminded me a bit of the legendary James Bond’s movies but it is nowhere close to that. Sound effects are decent and the voice acting is pretty good as well. As you walk in the streets of Sapienza, you can hear the sound of waves near the beach, the seagulls soaring over you ,people having small talk and many other environmental sounds that create a believable audiovisual landscape.
Gameplay…8.5
This is the only true reason to play the game. You can approach each mission any way you like. Feeling like Jack the Ripper?? Grab an assault rifle and mow down everyone in your path, whether he is innocent or not. Feeling like Ezio Auditore from Assassin’s Creed? Disguise yourself into anyone (or anything) you like (even a scarecrow!) approach your target, poison his glass of wine by pouring in it rat poison, follow him in the bathroom as he is searching a place to vomit , grab his hair and drown him in the toilet. The possibilities are endless. After completing each episode, the game rewards you with mastery points. These points are either deducted from your final score or added to it, depending whether they found out about the havoc you created or not. In addition, there is an online mode, where players create their own contracts and assign them to other players online, thus giving you even more reasons to invest your time in the game. Only downside here is, that this absence of restrictions means that you can finish the entire game in no time by transforming it into a 3rd person shooter.
Value for money…7
I bought the complete first season (7 episodes) for 25 euros and i can say i am satisfied for the most part. The game has high replayability due to the variety of the gameplay, but to tell you the truth, once i finished all the episodes (in a stealthy manner, so it took me enough time to plan accordingly) i did not want to come back to it. To be fair though, the fans of these types of games might appreciate it more than i did.
P.S.: To see some gameplay footage of the game, click here to see me playing!
Hel.Ga.Te.S 