The Hitman series has been long-adored by gamers for its freedom and creativity while carrying out macabre hits made for some truly amazing and memorable gameplay. The Hitman series has certainly gone through some growing pains though, trading out more open-ended gameplay for some more linear games like Hitman: Absolution and Hitman (2016). Hitman 3 is a return to form with a plethora of ways to maim, stab, pulverize, and generally take out targets. 

The story of Hitman 3 is the final in the World of Assassins trilogy beginning with the beloved Agent 47 hunting down members of Providence, a group of corporate elites with their hands in everything, in the world’s largest building, the Sceptre. Right from the get-go, you know you’re in for something big, but that something is not the story. It’s not bad by any means, but Hitman 3 doesn’t come off as a narrative-driven game. Some older fans may find this storyline engaging, but I was just there for the gameplay and freedom. The narrative is fine with bonafide bad guys, double-agents, and bad-ass mercs, but didn’t quite manage to demand my attention to the story when it mostly just boiled down to “go here and kill him.” Despite the story not being my favorite, IOI definitely worked at giving Agent 47 more personality with tongue-in-cheek jokes towards targets while he’s in disguise.  Diana Burnwood rejoins the cast for the 3rd installment and she’s as smooth-talking as ever with some solid voice acting by Jane Perry. The antagonists of this story aren’t too bad either, even if they’re not really fleshed out. Providence and its partners serve as decent cannon fodder for the varieties of ways to dispose of them. Most people don’t play the World of Assassins trilogy for the plot though, they play it for that sweet, sweet, gameplay.

Gameplay is what has made this title one of my favorites of 2021 so far. To start, there are only 6 regular levels, which may not seem like nearly enough but these levels are massive and insanely dense. They’re full of huge crowds and a number of ways to hide in plain sight and eliminate targets without anybody raising so much as an eyebrow at you. Poking around and exploring is good fun and planning and executing a strategy is extremely satisfying. You can go for the classics like a headshot from your trusty silenced pistol or something more elaborate like dressing like an undertaker and kicking a target into their own grave at a fake funeral.  For maximum enjoyment, I’d suggest avoiding the storyline mission objectives since they end up handholding a little too much for my taste. The reasoning behind the limited number of levels is because the replayability is so incredibly high. They’re designed so you can play through again and again trying out different methods of assassinations, disguises, and tools. One playthrough barely scratches the surface of what’s possible in Hitman 3. Most importantly it’s just a good time all around. The disguise mechanics can feel a little goofy sometimes since apparently nobody has facial recognition in this game, but that doesn’t detract away from this game at all. IOI knows what people want from Hitman and they provided it for us in this game. My one complaint is that some in-game interactions were a little bit wonky and required me to load one of my save where I ended losing about 10 minutes of progress. I’d hand a character an item they requested and stand there while they went through the dialogue, then suddenly the question mark indicating suspicion would pop up. This completely interrupted the dialogue and it wouldn’t resume even after returning to normal which prevented me from progressing my objectives. Another very minor issue is that occasionally a duplicate guard would appear or spawn inside of another guard which made some objective marginally more complicated. The great gameplay overshadows any minor bugs I had to deal with though and I was more than happy to continue playing.

Graphics on PC were top-notch; I was able to see Agent 47’s shining head in all its bald glory. Cutscenes were smooth and reflections were pretty sharp too. The neon lights in China were a beautiful sight with shadows and colors popping in high resolution. The graphical fidelity, even with tons of NPCs filtering in and out of rooms, was amazing and should be commended. The locations were gorgeous as well. Nightclubs with flashing lights, massive skyscrapers laded in gold, and an old British mansion all made appearances with incredible design and impressive graphics. Of course, these levels need to be good-looking since there are only 6 levels in the game. Framerate was a stable 60FPS at 4k with two 980 Ti’s with only a couple of slight hiccups during my playtime. 

The sounds of Hitman 3 were fine too, not particularly exceptional but worked well and on time within the game. The music really ended up being forgettable for me but served as a way to break up the silence and match the tone, with the exception of a club level with thumping base and electronic riffs. The voice acting, however, was great. NPC’s talk to you while you’re choking a man out to get his uniform and targets’ voices are well-acted and filled with creative and engaging dialogue. 

Hitman 3 was a joy for me to experience. None of the issues I mentioned really took away any enjoyment from my time with the title. The freedom and expansive levels really elevate Hitman 3 to the upper echelon of games this year. It’s all but guaranteed that I’ll end up doing all the challenges and extra content that Hitman 3 has to offer. It’s absolutely worth your time if you like Hitman, and it’s certainly worth a shot if you’ve never played. 

Rating: 9/10