IO Interactive do not know how to structure or pace a story across 3 games and I did not care about WoA's overarching narrative up until this point, but somehow the final missions of the trilogy actually managed to get me properly emotional over 47 and Diana's dynamic, and, by extension, the series's events as a whole. It's crazy how having these two extremely likable characters be the only real anchors throughout an otherwise pretty tame conspiracy thriller plot allows 3 to pull this trick and retroactively make me care about the story of Hitman (2016). The interactions between Diana and 47 were always my favorite bits of characterization in the previous games, and even in Blood Money I found their whole thing charming, but there's something about how tangible it feels here that got me. I think going through K-8 with a paraprofessional who was payed by the school district to make sure I didn't bite people just makes me predisposed to having their deal resonate with me- her helping a man who's Literally Neurodivergent distinguish between right and wrong and him being thankful enough for it to put his life at risk... such a fun concept and the execution of it in the last real mission put a smile on my face.
It's WoA so obviously the level design is fucking phenomenal and the core gameplay's still extremely engaging if you're into this kind of routing-based stealth. Camera's a weird addition and feels kind of clunky to use, and I wish the ICA facility in China had been... better? I liked the level itself but after all the goofy sci-fi shit I was dying for them to just let me infiltrate an underground supervillain facility; was very sad to find out it was one of the more underwhelming areas in the game. Anyway though- I love WoA! All games with this kind of budget should have the decency to be good