Now I don't know if any of you ever watched the 1984 film called, The Last Starfighter? Basically it's about a guy who plays this arcade game and when he beats the top score, he is contacted by the game creator, who then informs him that the game is actually a training program to recruit pilots for a intergalactic alien defense force. You're probably thinking, what the hell does this have anything to do with Hitman? Well nothing, I've just always imagined, what if games like Hitman was actually used as a way to recruit assassins for the secret organizations or governments. Would we ever really know, cue mysterious music.
I have been a fan of the franchise since my first introduction, which was the fourth title in the series, Blood Money on the good old PlayStation 2, which was released back in 2006. I loved it so much I went and got the second game Silent Assassin, but didn't get to deep into it, this was due to graphics being nowhere close to as good as the newer games. After that I skipped Hitman: Trilogy, which was basically the first few games repackaged, then my good friend George borrowed me his copy of Absolution which was on the PS3. So it has been about six years since then and the new installment of Hitman was a pretty epic adventure.
Despite showing exceptional aptitude as an assassin, the ICA are unable the find any background information about 47 for the purposes of getting leverage over him. The training instructor intentionally fails 47 on his final exam even though he passes it with flying colours. Luckily 47's handler and fellow trainee, Diana discovers this plot and helps 47 to pass the test a second time round, which then causes the ICA to reluctantly approve his agent status. We then get a awesome cinematic montage of his career as an assassin, that goes through all the previous games in the series, leading up to now.
The real story starts in 2019 when the Shadow Client plans to sell some very sensitive intelligence to two leaders of an international spy ring known as IAGO, which is to take place at a France. Agent 47 is hired by MI6 to prevent the sale by assassinating both IAGO ringleaders, Novikov and Dalia Margolis, at the fashion show in Paris, before the sale goes through.
The developers created the game with the idea in mind that it can be played over and over, each time you are only limited by your imagination as to how you will go about it getting the job done. The prologue training mission will get you well versed with the game mechanics and how important the new revamped disguise system is. In this game the right disguise means everything and will pretty much fool most of those around you indefinitely, and is not tied to an in-game ability resource or skill tree. Another great improvement was the artificial intelligence of the non-player characters, they somehow felt a little bit more real, where as in previous games even the slightest suspicion would get you shot on sight. The game has an added new ‘Opportunities’ menu will really help you track down the different ways you are able to approach the situation. The levels also feel much more populated than they did before, and there is far less people standing around aimlessly, it almost feels like everyone has purpose, which brings the game to life.
"The Agent program was initiated in August of 1967 by a man named Peter Aaron Litvenko. It's purpose was to create the perfect killing machine. Human beings without emotion, or fear, or remorse. The resulting subjects were called, Agents. The Program was a success. But the price of creating men without humanity, was Litvenko's conscience. Applying his brilliant mind to his flight, he vanished. Fearing that it would be exposed, the Govt shut down the Program, and surviving Agents drifted into shadows. Realizing it's potential, many tried to re-start the Program. All failed. So they focused their efforts on finding the one man who could." - Diana
This was one of the main reasons I only recently picked up this game, and I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much play time you can get out of just this first mission. The added bonus is that each and every time you play the mission it's not just that you get to do it completely differently, but you get rewarded with new gear and new mission starting locations.
The biggest issue I had with this game was the insanely long loading times, not sure if it was just because I was playing this on console, but it got rather annoying. At the end of the day, If you are fan of Agent 47 and the series then you are going to enjoy this, visually it unfortunately does not come close to some other the newer games out there.
The game is published by Square Enix and released in January 2017, and available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The game is made up of nine different episode which were periodically released monthly after the initial release. I've seen a few special deals on this in the PlayStation store at some really bargain prices, so no need to worrying that buying all nine episodes will break the bank. A sequel titled Hitman 2, will be released on 13 November 2018.
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