Felix Games reviews: Hitman 2

It’s the return of your favourite barcode brandishing assassin in the latest instalment to the Hitman series; with an all-new set of weapons and costumes, Agent 47 is better than ever. I can definitely tell you it’s better than ever, having played through several psychotic rampages as a soda can wielding madman dressed in a fluorescent flamingo outfit in some form of twisted reincarnation of Pepsi man.

Story:

After the mishaps that took place in the last game, and the veil being lifted from Agent 47’s eyes concerning the shadow client, he continues to endeavour to find out more about his past whilst being assigned contracts by Providence to take down Providence members who pose a risk to the society. All the while gathering information on his former friend and compatriot. Taking down the members one by one, you find yourself more and more entrapped in the ever-weaving web that is the story of Agent 47’s past and what will become of his future.

Gameplay:

Have you ever wanted to murder a person by a) simply shooting them b) throwing them off a building or c) dropping a plastic shark on them? Then you’re in luck, as you have all of the above available in just one mission, with plenty of wackier ways of killing your target including rigging a safety test for a fighter jet to cause the person to be ejected into the air.

Worried you don’t have the time or imagination to think up the most elaborate and crazy assassinations to pull off? Have no fear, the game provides you with some story objectives for each different mission. In essence, the game guides you on how to pull off elaborate plots, such as getting a prototype military robot to assassinate the target for you. While the game tells you the gist of what you need to do, you’re given some freedom to complete the objectives in any way you see fit. The system is intuitive and helps tell you how to pull off all sorts of crazy schemes with unintuitive steps. All in all, it’s a nice way to kill creatively if you’re short on time or don’t have the imagination to think up crazy schemes.

Because there are so many ways to take down your targets, this means that all the missions, and the game as a whole, has great replay value. Each mission has a galore of different unique challenges, such as assassinating someone in their sleep, stabbing in the shower aka Alfred Hitchcock style, and more. The game doesn’t tell you how to do the challenges, only the end result; this means you’re free to approach and tackle them in any way you want. Overall, replaying missions feels like a unique experience every time, as opposed to seeming like a chore as with most games, cough replaying herding missions in RDR2.

The game doesn’t stop, with fun features like its standalone sniper mode. Situated at a vantage point, you have to shoot off targets at a distance in all their ragdoll glory. Even here, there are different challenges for you to replay the mission and play with different styles. Unfortunately, there is only one sniper mode mission at the moment which is a bit of let-down as you’ll be eliminating the same targets and working with the same scenery over and over again. In addition to this, some of the challenges require very precise timing and sharpshooting which can test even the most patient of gamers. Despite its drawbacks, sniper mode is still a fun addition to the game which contrasts from the standard missions.

Unfortunately, I cannot comment on the multiplayer aspect because the onlines features were not yet available in the press copy of the game I received.

The Verdict:

For those wanting a bit more extra fun, Hitman 2 comes with an included remaster of the previous game built in for those who owned the previous game, or you’re given an option of paying £15 for the GOTY legacy pack, which has a list of benefits, including the previous game completely remastered in the Hitman 2 engine.

Overall, Hitman 2 is a very fun game and a welcome addition to the franchise. The intuitive guidance system and the ability to choose the means of killing the target helps makes the experience an utter blast, and gives you a more than satisfactory choice mechanism in a way that Telltale games were never able to master. Honestly, it is worth dressing up as a flamingo and throwing soda cans at people to knock them out, even if the approach makes you fail a few times. Seeing your elaborate killing schemes work out in the end just makes this game worth it.