The Hitman franchise has likely been the longest-running most successful series to leave me both emotionally and professionally conflicted in all years of reviewing games. It all started 20 years ago, and I remember it like it was yesterday:
Late 2002, the gaming world was in the throes of the original Xbox vs. PS2 battle for supremacy. PlayStation was riding high with respect to stealth action, a genre all but perfected on the console in Hideo Kojima’s epic Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. A month before the holiday season, two new stealth-based franchises hit the shelves within weeks of each other, both to stellar reviews; UbiSoft Montreal’s Xbox exclusive Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, and I/O Interactive’s Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (a follow-up to their previously released PC-only title Hitman: Agent 47).
Early December, I’m at the local video game store counter with both titles in hand, but only enough store credit for to purchase one. I ask the clerk which of the two games he would recommend. His reply: “If you are into being super-calculated about every move you make, and levels taking a super long time to complete, and ultimately getting caught and having to start all over from the beginning, then Hitman 2 is what you want. But if you want to be an absolute bad-ass and actually enjoy yourself while you play the game, then I would definitely go with Splinter Cell, because it is infinitely more fun than Hitman.” I walked out of the store with Splinter Cell that day and had an awesome holiday gaming.
A few months later, the price of Hitman 2 was to a manageable $18 preowned, so I grabbed a copy and eagerly popped it into my Xbox. It didn’t take long before I completely understood why that clerk was so emphatic in his recommendation that day. Because for all that Hitman 2 was far ahead of its time in pseudo-open-world design, nonlinear gameplay, and customization, but it just wasn’t all that much fun. Rewarding – but not fun. In fact, it felt like work – and with a character that I had a hard time finding any emotional ties with. Technically amazing, but it was hollow, confusing, and tedious – as least compared to the likes of Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell.
Because of that early experience I have pretty much avoided the Hitman franchise. But when I found out that IO Interactive was releasing a bundle of what is essentially the content from the three most recent titles of the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy, but with the first two games of the trilogy recoded using the third game’s technical advancements, with some extra modes thrown in to boot – I figured I’d give the franchise another shot. I am glad that I did because this package one hell of a deal.
The game starts you out in a training mission to orient you to the concept of Hitman, in which you are given a scenario and a target (or targets) within the scenario who must be eliminated in whichever way you see fit. Agent 47 will need to assume disguises to gain access to areas and/or blend into the surroundings. Some disguises can be found lying around, but more often are liberated off the backs of subdued NPCs whose bodies must be hidden to avoid raising alarm. Agent 47 must act naturally to avoid suspicion and avoid any supervisory characters (denoted by a special icon) who will recognize that he is not an employee of whatever disguise he is wearing.
Killing can be accomplished in just as many ways as the gamer can figure how to use the tools and weapons he can find in the level. Shooting, strangling, poisoning, drowning, blunt force trauma – the options are absolutely endless – the difficulty is in getting the subject alone, doing it as quickly as possible, and getting the hell out of Dodge without being discovered. It’s tough, it’s exhilarating, and it’s frustrating, and it’s rewarding.
The game package includes the campaigns of all three games of the World of Assassination trilogy – simply titled Hitman 1, Hitman 2 and Hitman 3. The game also allows gamers to replay individual levels from each of the games – seemingly even when they haven’t been already unlocked in the campaign – including special side missions. There is a Contracts mode where players from the community make up special missions using the levels from the game (often designed specifically to increase XP level). There is an Arcade mode in which gamers have to progress through a series of targets with no saves, and failure locks the gamer out of the mode for 12 real time hours. There is an awesome Sniper Assassin mode that tasks gamers with taking out multiple targets from afar with a time limit. And then there’s the all-new mode everyone is talking about: Freelancer.
Freelancer eschews the linear campaign model for a ‘roguelike” freelance model in which Agent 47 resides in a safehouse that gamers can use to store gained weapons, tools, and even decorations. The safehouse has a table with a selection of campaigns each consisting of a bundle of four Syndicate Contracts that the gamer can address in whichever order they desire. Once selected, a plane ticket is issued, and the gamer can access their caches of weapons and tools to pan out the perfect assassination. When all is set, the gamer proceeds to the plane and is transported to the job.
Freelancer ups the ante with the NPCs in the mission – some will be helpful (providing weapons and assistance) but most are more suspicious and alert, and as so more apt to raise the alarm and lash out at Agent 47. The weapons and gadgets are not totally persistent in Freelancer – any weapons lost in a mission will be gone from the inventory until the gamer can repurchase them in a subsequent mission. This really adds a sense of vulnerability to the missions, as gamers will want to be very careful to not lose prized firearms and tools.
Freelancer – more than any other mode – really proves to me that I absolutely suck at Hitman. But it also provides a great deal of incentive to keep plodding along, learning how to attack the missions carefully, quietly, and creatively – because when you do get one of the elusive targets it feels like a real accomplishment.
I am happy that I gave the Hitman franchise another try after all these years, because it really is an awesome concept with excellent presentation and a fantastic amount of user customization. It might not be as accessible or intuitive as some of the other stealth franchises I’ve enjoyed over the years, but it is infinitely more calculated and rewarding.
