Hitman 2 | Xbox One | Review

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​The trap was set. Disguised as a barber, Agent 47 waits patiently for his prey. The barber himself was simple enough to subue, as was his wife (who he’d been arguing with only moments before) once she objected to her apparent husband’s sudden change in appearance.

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by James Michael Parry

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​@james_parry

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Developer: IO Interactive
Publisher: WB Games
Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Players: 1-3

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Minutes ticked by, the target sauntering ever closer, but just short of entering the barber’s shop. Something was missing. Some sort of spiked face lotion which made him feel compelled to get a shave? Hurtful comments about his beard shouted in the street? Alas, it wasn’t to be and he walked on.

The target was slipping away, which called for drastic action. Scaling a nearby ladder, 47 readied his silenced pistol and from the gangways above the packed street below squeezed the trigger. Target down.

Memorable gameplay experiences like this are par for the course in the world of Hitman. While there are elaborate, pre-planned scenarios which you can follow to set up delightful, elaborate deaths, more often than not (even on the easier difficulties), things don’t quite go to plan.

​Hitman 2 sets off in Bond-lite fashion, the iconic Agent 47 arriving by sea to search a beachside property for intel. While the prologue naturally acts as a tutorial, it’s difficult not to feel slightly pandered to by the extremely basic introduction, where scope is limited to a point that first impressions are unrepresentative of the game to come, at least for the most part.

Across the six main levels, there’s an emphasis on depth and variety. Miami and Mumbai are teeming with activity and huge crowds to merge with, while the fictional Santa Fortuna in Columbia is more of a remote wilderness, complete with a local shaman who you can impersonate to enact one of the game’s more obvious, but nonetheless satisfying, scripted kill sequences.

For this sequel - actually the ninth outing for 47, counting two mobile titles - the episodic format is out (as is Square Enix as publisher), but Elusive Targets, which served to keep players coming back for more after the game’s initial release, will return, kicking off with none other than terminal on-screen casualty Sean Bean in mere days time.

Star power gives us something to look forward to, but the game as it is on release day is something of a mixed bag. While the mission stories (previously known as opportunities) reveal themselves fairly naturally as you explore the world, normally when overhearing a conversation about one of the targets being in need of something from a certain person, who you can then impersonate to get close to them, the scenarios come off as somewhat contrived.

For example, dispatching one cartel boss in the jungles of Columbia, inside his compound no less, can be achieved by impersonating a renown tattoo artist (presumably whose face is known for him to be internationally recognised) and finding an excuse to get everyone else out of the room before doing the deed.​

Afterwards, you might hear the guards you pass by noting how quick the tattoo process was, but otherwise you can be clear of the compound before his body is ever discovered. It all feels a bit convenient… but of course, this wasn’t on the hardest difficulty, which even limits you to one save per level, similar to the restriction found on earlier titles in the series.

To take it too seriously though, would be a mistake, and largely that’s a tone which developer IO Interactive manages to strike effectively. Miami is probably the level in which you see the most madness going on all at once, with an F1-style race happening in the background and you somehow being able to blend in by dressing as a ridiculous mascot character, but there’s no denying it’s extremely satisfying to explore these dense sandboxes.​​

Where the tone does take an odd left turn is in the game’s story, which presents itself very seriously in cutscenes, but doesn’t hold up to too much thought. Fortunately you can skip and forget the cinematics, jumping straight back into another adventure, but it’s a shame that IO didn’t find a way to effectively marry the two.

Miami is probably the level in which you see the most madness going on all at once, with you somehow being able to blend in by dressing as a ridiculous mascot character.

Largely speaking, the game is a perfectly serviceable entry in the franchise and certainly has some memorable locations to boast about, but perhaps for those steeped in the series things might not feel so fresh.​

The biggest additions this time around are new multiplayer modes like Ghost, which has players competing to stealthily assassinate the most targets in parallel versions of a level, while doing what they can to sabotage one another, and the Sniper Assassin mode, which sees you working cooperatively, or alone, to take out multiple targets using, you guessed it, sniper rifles.

Overall, Hitman 2 isn’t a step too far from the 2016 iteration of the game, so those that had fun with that release will find plenty more to get stuck into here. The levels are effectively designed with replayability in mind, and there are certainly great moments hidden in various nooks and crannies for an exacting specialist to discover - or, if you’re so inclined, you can simply grab the biggest gun to hand and shoot the place up (at the cost of a decent mission score) while having almost as much fun.

Pros

• Six levels packed with disguises & inventive things to mess with
• Accessible on lower difficulties, suitably fiendish on higher ones
• Mission stories are inventive & memorable...

Cons

• … but can feel a bit contrived or convenient at times
• AI can have a very short memory, or be very belligerent
• While it’s made to be replayed, a single playthrough won’t take too long

8/10