Hit The Man.
Its an odd feeling, finally finishing all this. I mean, I'm still gonna complete some escalations, some Elusive Targets, more puzzles to unfold, and I have an entire new game mode in Freelancer to push through (which I'll cover in a World of Assassination log if it makes a good impression on me). But for the idea of new Hitman levels and new Hitman storylines, this is essentially the end.
I would never claim that the story is why I go to Hitman, its ridiculous clone plotline and spy games broadly sort of fill the needs of gameplay. But I also genuinely think that this franchise is incredible at weaving its narrative into the gameplay and level design. Dubai places you on a skyscraper that extends into the clouds. You kill men who can only think of themselves, unable to give a dime to the "little" people down below. Dartmoor focuses on a more grounded perspective, facing off against a woman who sacrificed everything for her family, never realizing that she's burned up any familial love around her she could have enjoyed. Dartmoor is an incredible level, but I admit to feeling a little cold. Dartmoor is regarded as a series highlight, but that also means it struggled to match the expectations I unwittingly put it up against. And with how arduous I found it maxing out my Mastery in Dubai, I was sincerely starting to worry that 3 would be a major let-down. There felt like so much less content than other maps. Fewer mission stories, fewer variety in kills.
And then I hit Berlin.
There's so much wonder and excitement once the level gimmick is revealed: one Agent 47 versus 11 different assassins. Its kind of sad when subsequent playthroughs start highlighting all the potential Targets, instead of letting you run around blind, investigating everyone for yourself. Its Berlin that really teaches you how much trust the series has in your skills by this point. There's fewer Mission Stories because the game expects you to discover the possibilities by yourself. Berlin completely removes any guides to your target, giving you full reign to demolish 5-11 fellow assassins. And since the game expects you to have all the skills you might require, it feels more free to experiment. I found new joy in Dartmoor and Dubai, and I recognized all the ways its switched up the framing.
While Chongqing might be more traditional than Berlin, it really takes time to show off how expertly IOI weaves storytelling into its environments and dialogue. The opening narration hypes up how technologically advanced the China Municipality is, leaning into Cyberpunk imagery in a way that prepped me to feel concerned. Hitman has been hit or miss with depicting non-white cultures. But I think what makes Chongqing so compelling is how it depicts a "cyberpunk" city: miserable. All these grand expansions in tech are hidden away in towers and fancy buildings. What we encounter initially as a player is the homeless population, wandering through the streets, brains and bodies broken from the various experiments the elitist tech geniuses have utilized against so-called "weaker" elements of society. Hitman has heavily leaned into class tensions as its major framework, but its perhaps at its best here. As Agent 47 has developed a genuine ideology and genuine interest in fixing the world, he's forced to confront how his former allegiance to the ICA benefited these existing social structures. The ICA claims to be neutral, but it profits from the subjugation of the lower class just as much as Providence. 47 is given more personality, more sincerity, as he takes a dramatic step away from just working for pay versus working for a purpose.
And finally, he arrives in Mendoza.
More than anything, Mendoza feels like the last hurrah of the Hitman franchise. Maybe the series will return someday, but you can truly feel that IOI was ready to take a step away from the bald goober. 47 has been important to their company, but everyone's ready for a change. So, one last rich party. Dubai, Dartmoor, and Berlin were experiments. An ode to the parties of Silent Assassin, Blood Money, and Contracts, an ole to all the rich morons you've gotten to kill over the years. It doesn't feel as densely packed as other maps, but it just makes me happy to be there. To overhear conversations, to follow NPC paths, to just soak in the mood. Its a level that just screams Hitman. Its everything you want these games to be.
The final narrative beats of Hitman are strange feelings. 47 is never a character I necessarily need to be a real person. He's a cartoon character. He's Bugs Bunny. He's a little mischief maker. Its certainly compelling when 47 wonders if he's just an emotionless tool or if he's capable of more. But I don't know if I need him to give big heroic speeches about responsibility and power. It feels too much like he's talking to them in their rich monster language. Confirming their beliefs of a Special Person to Decide for Humanity. I don't need 47 to speak about the virtues of humanity, I want him to deliver cold, hard data points for why the Targets need to die. To hammer homes to these people that they don't actually matter. That defeating them isn't a great moment in history- its just calculated pest control. I don't play these games for 47 to be a character who says hero lines, I play them for 47 to make rich people look like dumb idiots who die before he turns to the camera and goes "ain't I a stinker?"
I say all that, but there's one moment in all of Hitman that really stuck out to me. Chongqing, arriving on a Bridge. A woman worries that her friend hates her. 47, listening carefully, suddenly speaks up to offer sincere advice. Your friend is meeting you at 2 am, in the rain. That must mean she cares. If now you worry about being selfish, why don't you pay for dinner? Its a short, cute, optional moment. But its the most sincere kindness 47 has ever offered. If the franchise returns with Heroic 47, that might be the version I want to see. A 47 who can actually connect to the world around him.
Because more than anything, the World of Assassination Trilogy truly felt like a world. Every game built an incredible clockwork mechanism, with little pieces moving to their cues to deliver goofy, hokey lines. But each piece moved with such charming purpose. For a series that prided itself on being a Video Game Ass Video Game, each corner felt so well realized. The hundreds of hours of incidental NPC dialogue, building storylines from the large and complex, to the small and personal. Even as the game embraced the fact that you were playing a video game, it made that world feel real through its artificiality, rather than in spite of it. I see myself walking through the entire series again if I want to, just to drop myself into all the incredible effort and care the devs put into this franchise.
I thought I was gonna be harsher on this when I started. But I just got so swept up with the memories of joy and discovery, all my gripes melted away. I love these stupid games. Whatever the future of IOI holds, I'm there.
Its an odd feeling, finally finishing all this. I mean, I'm still gonna complete some escalations, some Elusive Targets, more puzzles to unfold, and I have an entire new game mode in Freelancer to push through (which I'll cover in a World of Assassination log if it makes a good impression on me). But for the idea of new Hitman levels and new Hitman storylines, this is essentially the end.
I would never claim that the story is why I go to Hitman, its ridiculous clone plotline and spy games broadly sort of fill the needs of gameplay. But I also genuinely think that this franchise is incredible at weaving its narrative into the gameplay and level design. Dubai places you on a skyscraper that extends into the clouds. You kill men who can only think of themselves, unable to give a dime to the "little" people down below. Dartmoor focuses on a more grounded perspective, facing off against a woman who sacrificed everything for her family, never realizing that she's burned up any familial love around her she could have enjoyed. Dartmoor is an incredible level, but I admit to feeling a little cold. Dartmoor is regarded as a series highlight, but that also means it struggled to match the expectations I unwittingly put it up against. And with how arduous I found it maxing out my Mastery in Dubai, I was sincerely starting to worry that 3 would be a major let-down. There felt like so much less content than other maps. Fewer mission stories, fewer variety in kills.
And then I hit Berlin.
There's so much wonder and excitement once the level gimmick is revealed: one Agent 47 versus 11 different assassins. Its kind of sad when subsequent playthroughs start highlighting all the potential Targets, instead of letting you run around blind, investigating everyone for yourself. Its Berlin that really teaches you how much trust the series has in your skills by this point. There's fewer Mission Stories because the game expects you to discover the possibilities by yourself. Berlin completely removes any guides to your target, giving you full reign to demolish 5-11 fellow assassins. And since the game expects you to have all the skills you might require, it feels more free to experiment. I found new joy in Dartmoor and Dubai, and I recognized all the ways its switched up the framing.
While Chongqing might be more traditional than Berlin, it really takes time to show off how expertly IOI weaves storytelling into its environments and dialogue. The opening narration hypes up how technologically advanced the China Municipality is, leaning into Cyberpunk imagery in a way that prepped me to feel concerned. Hitman has been hit or miss with depicting non-white cultures. But I think what makes Chongqing so compelling is how it depicts a "cyberpunk" city: miserable. All these grand expansions in tech are hidden away in towers and fancy buildings. What we encounter initially as a player is the homeless population, wandering through the streets, brains and bodies broken from the various experiments the elitist tech geniuses have utilized against so-called "weaker" elements of society. Hitman has heavily leaned into class tensions as its major framework, but its perhaps at its best here. As Agent 47 has developed a genuine ideology and genuine interest in fixing the world, he's forced to confront how his former allegiance to the ICA benefited these existing social structures. The ICA claims to be neutral, but it profits from the subjugation of the lower class just as much as Providence. 47 is given more personality, more sincerity, as he takes a dramatic step away from just working for pay versus working for a purpose.
And finally, he arrives in Mendoza.
More than anything, Mendoza feels like the last hurrah of the Hitman franchise. Maybe the series will return someday, but you can truly feel that IOI was ready to take a step away from the bald goober. 47 has been important to their company, but everyone's ready for a change. So, one last rich party. Dubai, Dartmoor, and Berlin were experiments. An ode to the parties of Silent Assassin, Blood Money, and Contracts, an ole to all the rich morons you've gotten to kill over the years. It doesn't feel as densely packed as other maps, but it just makes me happy to be there. To overhear conversations, to follow NPC paths, to just soak in the mood. Its a level that just screams Hitman. Its everything you want these games to be.
The final narrative beats of Hitman are strange feelings. 47 is never a character I necessarily need to be a real person. He's a cartoon character. He's Bugs Bunny. He's a little mischief maker. Its certainly compelling when 47 wonders if he's just an emotionless tool or if he's capable of more. But I don't know if I need him to give big heroic speeches about responsibility and power. It feels too much like he's talking to them in their rich monster language. Confirming their beliefs of a Special Person to Decide for Humanity. I don't need 47 to speak about the virtues of humanity, I want him to deliver cold, hard data points for why the Targets need to die. To hammer homes to these people that they don't actually matter. That defeating them isn't a great moment in history- its just calculated pest control. I don't play these games for 47 to be a character who says hero lines, I play them for 47 to make rich people look like dumb idiots who die before he turns to the camera and goes "ain't I a stinker?"
I say all that, but there's one moment in all of Hitman that really stuck out to me. Chongqing, arriving on a Bridge. A woman worries that her friend hates her. 47, listening carefully, suddenly speaks up to offer sincere advice. Your friend is meeting you at 2 am, in the rain. That must mean she cares. If now you worry about being selfish, why don't you pay for dinner? Its a short, cute, optional moment. But its the most sincere kindness 47 has ever offered. If the franchise returns with Heroic 47, that might be the version I want to see. A 47 who can actually connect to the world around him.
Because more than anything, the World of Assassination Trilogy truly felt like a world. Every game built an incredible clockwork mechanism, with little pieces moving to their cues to deliver goofy, hokey lines. But each piece moved with such charming purpose. For a series that prided itself on being a Video Game Ass Video Game, each corner felt so well realized. The hundreds of hours of incidental NPC dialogue, building storylines from the large and complex, to the small and personal. Even as the game embraced the fact that you were playing a video game, it made that world feel real through its artificiality, rather than in spite of it. I see myself walking through the entire series again if I want to, just to drop myself into all the incredible effort and care the devs put into this franchise.
I thought I was gonna be harsher on this when I started. But I just got so swept up with the memories of joy and discovery, all my gripes melted away. I love these stupid games. Whatever the future of IOI holds, I'm there.