modern killer Trilogy just did a rebrand.This needs some explaining, but basically the whole trilogy is in it now killer 3which itself has been renamed Hitman: World of Assassination. The other two games will be removed from the storefront to avoid confusion. This may not have been the plan at the outset – Back in Hitman 2016 was an ill-advised plot jaunt for Square Enix – but it’s a clever and fitting approach to this saga: a huge game with a lot of content, all in a very High prices offer fair prices.
And, man, what a great package. There’s no doubt that the bundle that’s shipping now as the unique Modern Hitman game is one of the best deals in gaming, at least in addition to getting you a subscription for a ton of games. If you’re looking to buy a game, Hitman is an excellent choice – sprung in a way that means it rarely gets old, and has a great variety of levels and objectives. It has great replayability. And it gets even more so.
Launched with the entire experience merged into the “World of Assassination” repack Killer Freelancer, a new mode, it might really be a paid DLC, but IO Interactive just made it available for free. It’s so good, it might actually be my favorite mode in an already fun game right now.
A short way to explain Freelancer is that it’s a roguelike mode; you as Agent 47 conduct a series of strikes — but mostly at random — across the many maps that make up all three Hitman games. If you know a level from the inside out, its layout elements don’t change. The main storyline events are still unfolding, and rat poison or hidden guns will still appear on every map where you remember them, but your targets are completely random, and to some extent, so are the gear you can parachute into work.
Successful completion of hits and other side objectives rewards “Mercers,” points that can be used to purchase new gear and equipment for that hit and future hits. Pick up guns and other key items and take them to the level exit after a strike so you can store them in your luxurious base – a full 3D space where you can explore and unlock new areas – then take them out Perform future missions. However, if the mission fails, you will lose half of your Mercer currency and all equipment you are currently carrying. Too many failures and your “campaign” is over, clearing the slate for another run.
Some things do carry over: non-special weapons can still be equipped unless lost in a mission, and even if the campaign is lost, the general freelancer “mastery” level will increase your chances of some things, such as increasing the amount of gear you can perform on missions. But beyond that, it’s Hitman Unchained; out of its usual structure, which in turn unleashes IO Interactive, the wonderful sandbox made with those three games.
It is also as hard as a nail. First off, I think you have to unlearn a lot about killers.Knowing the level layout helps, and the main story campaign will teach you that, but other than that, Freelancer just feels like Very different. Zero hands-on, and if you want something like an elaborate accidental death, no cutesy story thread to follow the breadcrumbs of – tracking you to that climactic moment – you have to make it yourself.
Especially in the early days, you don’t have any equipment and you’re just kind of stuck. Unless you’re some kind of sick killer expert, the fancy ways aren’t open to you, so I found myself taking the 47 back to basics – a pistol without a suppressor, since I haven’t used one yet, and Some quick bangs. Sometimes, I’ll manage to hit someone from mid-range without being seen. Other times, I can’t create a situation where my target is left alone, so I’ll walk up to them and kill them in full view, Jack Ruby style, and fight my way out.
I’ve never played Hitman like this. This is new and exciting. It breathes new life into a game I’ve played for over a hundred hours in some form. But as the campaign progresses — and when I’m lucky enough to advance through them — I’ll unlock new tools and objectives, which in turn invite experimentation and other new playstyles. I rarely take the kind of approach I usually take when tackling story missions or elusive objectives. This pattern hits differently.
Every few missions, the traditional assassination gives way to a more open-ended one–you don’t have a strictly defined objective or two, but just a description of one. For example, you might be told they have red hair, wear earrings and hats, smoke cigarettes, and are obsessed with food. If you use the magic killer vision that 47 has, instead of defined targets glowing red, you’ll find multiple people that fit the broad description glowing purple – it’s up to you to try and figure out which is the actual target.
This is a game changer again. You have to keep track of these characters. Taking pictures of them with a camera allows you to study the pictures closely for details. Does this person have earrings? Well, they fit the physical description – time to hang around in as unsuspicious a way as possible and see if they light up a cigarette while obsessively snacking. It’s not necessarily easy either – as the campaign escalates, there will be lookouts who will quickly see through your disguise, and anti-assassins will be the first to take out you.
This might sound boring, but it’s not. It slows things down in a way that structurally enriches the Freelancer experience. While you could kill all potential suspects indiscriminately, there is a huge risk in doing so – every kill is a risk, and every risk can take your items with you, making the rest of the campaign difficult. Make it harder, or end the campaign entirely. So, you sneak around. look. You bet. And, damn it, wrong again? I do it a lot (but I’m getting better at it now).
All of this builds on systems that already exist, but the result is a new type of campaign that’s very replayable, and it also kind of highlights what’s special about each sandbox. I’ve compared them to the complex Rube Goldberg machines that have served as level design in the past–but they’re actually a bit different here, with no kill setup to guide the dominoes topple over there. Instead, the simulation slowly unraveled in all its glory, and it had logic, but definitely a typical twisted logic that only works in video games.
I honestly can’t believe how good it is. I can’t believe it’s free. And, more than that, I can’t quite get over what a clever design this is. It reuses everything from Hitman 1, Hitman 2, and Hitman 3, but it doesn’t feel like content reusing victory laps. There’s no meat left on this corpse; it’s all sublimated into this rich broth.
Anyway. I don’t know what else to tell you. I’m already convinced that IO’s new Hitman trilogy is one of the greatest games of its kind. The more I think about it, with these additions and tweaks that bring it all together in one package, I’m convinced this is one of the best games ever made, full stop. period. But you want to write it.
And, man, as a lifelong Bond fan…I can’t wait to see what the studio does with the franchise. At the same time, however, it’s a very welcome distraction.
