We had to wait another year after release for the game to come out of the Epic Exclusive contract – now we could finally play it. After I was particularly impressed by the gameplay of the two predecessors, that’s a safe bet – isn’t it?

When I played the first Hitman part back then, I was surprised – in a good way. Assassin’s Creed was up until that point the only game in which I really liked the stealth aspects, otherwise I often found it too long and boring. Hitman was able to change my mind: although the missions sometimes take a long time and you can often only move slowly, I really enjoyed it. This was almost not due to the story, but to the ingenious gameplay and the many details that were built into the game.

Because I would like to say this straight away: the story in the games (for me) doesn’t really matter. You’re a killer, you kill people. I usually pay a lot of attention to a deeper motivation behind what you’re actually doing; Hitman is definitely an exception for me.

With a few exceptions, the missions follow the same pattern: you are given a target, you are sent to an area where the target is and you have to adapt to the situation in order to get as close as possible – or find a point where to set a trap. You always have a few options on how to proceed. Storming in and shooting everyone is often one, but it misses the point. Instead, you slip into the roles of various supporting or main characters in order to gain access to rooms, people or resources with which you can carry out your assignment.

I particularly like three things about it. First: the level of detail. Every setting has a lot of big and small things that make the situation real. Since the first part, no map has seemed set to me – I could have imagined that the situations really happened that way. Second, the number of options. You can put hundreds of hours into the games trying them all out. I don’t do that, but I always choose what suits my playing style – very nice. Third: the creativity with which to kill. Sure, every once in a while you push someone down a mountain or just shoot them dead. But sometimes you come up with really elaborate plans to make something look like an accident – very impressive (and scary) what the developers come up with.

All this is experienced with very nice graphics and well thought-out controls, which makes all these aspects irrelevant – you can immerse yourself very deeply in the game without realizing that you are still in a game.

But now I’ve talked a lot about the first part, didn’t we play the third? I have to say, for me, Hitman is one of the most consistent series of games I’ve ever played. Each part does a little bit better than the one before, but not big leaps – something I actually really like. You know what you’re getting and you know it’s going to be good. I don’t know what to improve on it.

But since I wouldn’t be Nino if I had nothing to criticize, one more point: there were a few situations in the third part in particular that I didn’t understand. An example of this was the winery tour in a mission. During this tour, you can persuade a target to stand in the wine press, which you then “accidentally” activate. Target dies, tour continues. And that’s where I see a problem. Shall we not call anyone? Cancel the tour? Anything?

I’ve had situations like this a few times. They certainly didn’t spoil the game for me or significantly depress my opinion about it. But it’s something I didn’t want to leave unmentioned.

So what can I draw as a conclusion? I love the game series, I’m very happy to have finally played the third part and I’m curious if there will be similarly good stealth games in the future that can convince me. Until then, we’ll have to live with the fact that Agent 47’s story is over for now.

If you haven’t played the games yet, I definitely recommend it! Have you already played it or watched it with me? Then discuss it with me on Discord!