Hitman 2016 was the best thing to happen to the Hitman franchise since Blood Money. It was clean, fun and brought new things to the table as well as maintaining the classic Hitman sandbox mechanic. More interactive than ever, the levels were huge, interesting and diverse. Originally intended to be a 3 part series, the latest instalment should have been Hitman: Season 2 – however somewhere along the line became a full blown sequel. This was a move I believe to be questionable considering how little this game has to offer in terms of improvement from the first, and would have worked better as an expansion as previously planned. Here is my review of Hitman 2, beware of minor spoilers.
The menu – which I found to be awkward in the first game though manageable – has become a lot more confusing. When first opening up the game, you have various modes thrown into your face; featured, destinations, escalation, sniper assassin – when all I want is the main campaign. And to make things worse, the menu music which I found so sleek and professional-sounding has been exchanged for a far more action-orientated score, which sounds generic and over the top. Hitman (2016)’s score was lacking the ‘Hitman’ feel however this is a thousand times worse. It’s times like these when I miss Blood Money’s Ave Maria which would instantly bring back some class to this messy menu system.
One of the biggest major improvements the previous game brought to the franchise as a whole was intelligent AI. Though NPCs will still fall for the old trick of leaving a body for them to investigate so you can kill them until there is a large pile of bodies, they are still impressive with their reactions to the player as a whole. However, one addition Hitman 2 brought to this was the AI ability of spotting you in a mirror – something that changes the way a lot of players take out targets or NPCs, especially in bathrooms. Despite this, some of the AI reactions to finding you doing something you shouldn’t be doing can be completely unnecessary. Whilst playing the Whittleton Creek level I came across an exterminator who looked like he was about to pump toxic gas into a series of mole holes. Upon approaching the mole hill you are given the option to place an item in there so, to see what would happen if I did so, I threw a tennis ball down there. This ultimately ended with the exterminator running off to tell the police about this action, and the police then attempting to arrest me before shooting me to death. This is either supposed to represent the American policing system in a nutshell or a fault as the AI completely overreact to minor nuisances.
The one great flaw of this game was the disappointing ‘cinematic’ cuts. Maybe cinematic wasn’t the right word because what we were given was exactly the opposite of this. Hitman (2016) had fully animated cinematic cuts which were interesting and well-made. However, Hitman 2 fell back on this and has instead opted for a more ‘artistic’ route which is the only way I can describe the frozen ‘picture book’ style cut scenes it presents us. They are off-putting and make the story line feel a lot more boring than it actually is – especially when there are long pieces of dialogue and you notice the character’s mouths aren’t moving. It was odd though I understand that this could possibly be a result of IOI’s departure from Square Enix – a move that nearly meant this game wasn’t released. This must be the fallback which I am willing to excuse if it really was the result of IOI’s struggle to put this game out in the first place, though I do hope they fix it through an update patch in the future.
In my opinion, although the map sizes have expanded and increased in their variety of weapons, interesting events and environment interaction – I found them a lot less interesting than the first game. The most enjoyable maps in its predecessor were usually the ones located within a single building such as Hokkaido, Paris and Bangkok which the sequel reflects as Miami, Isle of Sgàil and Whittleton Creek were the highlights. The larger city-like maps such as Mumbai and Santa Fortuna felt like re-skinned versions of Marrakesh – my second least favourite map to Columbia from the first game. These levels felt cluttered and hard to navigate around.
Once again, there are only six levels. Though their replayability makes up for this, I found the first level, Hawkes Bay, to borderline being the tutorial level this game should have had rather than the imported tutorials from Hitman (2016) – which I found to be lazy and underwhelming. The story also felt rushed and mediocre. The developers had already established that the first game in the trilogy would not have much of a story line as they were more focused on introduction the characters to new Hitman-goers and weaning in the new style of game play for old fans. This wasn’t a problem as Hitman is one of the very few games where I actually value the game play over the story line. Hitman (2016) was merely a build up for what was supposed to be something more detailed and in-depth in the next two games. However, I found it to be lacking in excitement – another Agent 47 origin story which was disappointing as this is something already covered in previous games and is getting old now. This is especially the case when the game acts as though Agent 47’s origin is intended to be a mystery but most long-term Hitman fans already know he is an experimental clone.
Other additions include a difficulty setting which I found to break the immersion. Having difficulty levels that determine the different levels of detection or what a character can get away with further draw the player from the game’s otherwise impressive realism. I much preferred the previous mechanism of completing the game through achieving different levels of professionalism – rather than having to complete it by doing the same thing only at different difficulties. There is also the inclusion of hiding in crowds and long grass – a much needed feature that gives the player further options in evading enemies and opting for the ‘silent assassin’ path in Agent 47’s signature suit. We were also granted the much-anticipated return of the brief case from previous Hitman games, meaning gamers can now move around the map to a position perfect for sniping without strapping it to your back and alerting every authoritive figure on the map. Agent 47’s face was given a much needed makeover and now appears more human-looking. I think we have finally found the perfect balance between the reboot’s look for Agent 47 and the older series’ more angry-looking facial features. Luckily, despite the model change Hitman 2 has maintained the much-loved voice actors for Agent 47 and Diana Burnwood, something that any long-term Hitman fan would not be able to forgive if they were changed.
Overall, although it wasn’t a major improvement of the first game, and despite the fact its minor additions are outweighed by fallbacks such as the still-clunky menu, frozen cut scenes and generic score – it’s still an enjoyable game and I do hope IOI are able to pull off a third game to complete the trilogy as planned. The first Elusive Target, The Undying, was fun to play and it was a joy to have Sean Bean in the game. Despite its flaws, Hitman 2 is an enjoyable sandbox game where the maps act as your very own murderous playground. It’s probably the most freestyle Hitman instalment to date offering many various ways to kill off your target. The maps are detailed and highly interactive – offering multiple hidden side plots that can be discovered by listening in on NPC conversations. But I still miss minor touches that made Blood Money so great, such as the classical music, the on-screen image which shows you not only when a body has been located (this is available in the options menu of Hitman 2) but also the death of your victim so you don’t miss anything if you scurried away too soon and missed it. I still long for the return of the newspaper front pages shown at the end of every level in Blood Money, insulting the player for being an ‘inexperienced shooter’ or describing a bald man with a barcode on the back of his head leaving the scene if you left too many witnesses. Although the reboot has been impressive so far, it still has much to offer and I feel this shouldn’t have been released as a full sequel, which is why I am only giving it a 7/10.
7/10
Hitbox 