Spent most of February playing through the whole Hitman trilogy for the first time in this one and had a blast - this 4.5 star is for all three games as a whole. I can see how if you were following the games as they released the third game might have felt a bit thin, but as a single package I really liked its tweaks to the formula, and Berlin might be my favorite level in the series.

In general these were three wonderful stealth games with a great sense of tongue-in-cheek dark humor and beautiful level design. My one complaint is that for all the fancy explosives and guns you unlock over time, the game really really doesn't give much opportunity or incentive to ever "go loud", so I have about two dozen cool weapons I've never ever touched. A few more challenges focused on that aspect might have helped, since so much of the game's design is pushing for you to stick to silenced pistols, poisons, and lockpicks as your loadout.

Berlin is the best map in the trilogy which is saying so much knowing how I felt about Miami and other favorites. Dartmoor wasn't far behind and is another favorite.

it was very hit or miss on average but i enjoyed how much IOI played with the map and opportunity design framework on almost all of the levels here. i thought i knew what i was in for in terms of opportunities and general gameplay flow on multiple maps but ended up getting blown away. stuff like the investigation in Dartmoor and multiple targets to pick from of Berlin completely shifted what i could see as a Hitman level.

elsewhere i found myself really disappointed with maps like Dubai and Carpathian Mountains while ones like Chongqing and Mendoza were more middling. out of the three games in the trilogy, this is definitely the most inconsistent in quality. lots of ups and downs, it's just that the highs are so incredibly high this time around with both Berlin and Dartmoor. i might never play the bookending maps again.

i've definitely hit a bit of Hitman fatigue near the end of this so i'm glad to be finished. i enjoyed the trilogy a ton but will need to have some time away before i come back to sweep up extra mission stories or go backwards and try some of the other games.

as always, here's a map ranking:

Berlin
Dartmoor
Chongqing
Mendoza
Dubai
Carpathian Mountains

Fun like the previous two games, yet this one manages to feel like the weakest of the trilogy despite having absolutely stunning graphics. The story is pretty much nonsensical here and impossible to ignore because the stages entirely revolve around the annoying plot. The stages have had a small dip in quality too, with the Romania feeling especially egregious, in a series revolving around large open environments you can explore at your own pace, Romania is nothing but a linear train that you can gun down enemies through with no penalty. It almost feels like an insult. There's an entire stage in Britain that's a trespass zone to Agent 47 while in his starting suit, which is something the developers should've learned their lesson with the disastrous Colorado in 1, because it simply goes against the social stealth concept the series is built on and feels much more limited due to it. The stage heavily featured in the marketing, China, while stunning with it's beautiful lighting combined with rain effects, is ultimately annoying because of poor design choices throughout. The concept is fun yet the stage's layout is just irritating to navigate and even after playing it numerous times and getting the Silent Assassin rating, I still find myself getting confused occasionally because it's just so winding.

Overall, despite my incessant complaining, the game is still a pretty good capstone to one of the most phenomenal trilogies in recent memory and manages to be fun throughout, even if it is less so than it's predecessors.

Review completo: https://gamelodge.com.br/critica-hitman-3-fluente-em-6-mihoes-de-formas-de-matar/

Hitman 3 fecha com chave de outro o ciclo do Agente 47 no arco World of Assassination. O jogo é polido, divertido e desafiador. Caso você ache que está fácil demais, ainda pode aumentar o nível de dificuldade que acrescenta novas camadas de desafio, com mais guardas, câmeras e mudanças na IA dos inimigos.

A IO Interactive já confirmou que apesar de ser o fim da trilogia, esse não é o fim da franquia. Com a nova geração já presente, fico curioso em como a desenvolvedora irá aprimorar ainda mais o que ela já fez de forma competente. Até o próximo contrato, Agente.

It's difficult to know how to rate Hitman 3. Each game in this recent trilogy has not so much been a game unto themselves, but rather contributes to the larger picture of the trilogy due to the way each game's levels can be transferred forward. When I play Hitman and Hitman 2 levels in Hitman 3, I am playing Hitman 3, so should they not factor into its evaluation? Beyond this, Hitman 3's campaign works with the others to strengthen the whole; despite inconsistent presentation across the trilogy which sees the most lavish cutscenes frontloaded, the story feels very cohesive and compelling now that it's finally complete. Individually disappointing plot-driven missions play a LOT better as part larger game; I actually quite liked ending on what is essentially an Absolution mission as I felt it gave the ending a sense of momentum and reframed the mechanics to suit a different narrative purpose, whereas I might have enjoyed it less if I were to evaluate Hitman 3 purely based on the new levels it brings to the table.

Regarding the actual content, I'm honestly not sure what there is to say that hasn't already been said. The fantastic reviews and analysis videos from Super Bunnyhop and Writing on Games get easy recommendations from me, so I guess just go and watch those! All I'll say is, there's been nothing like this before, not on this scale. The social stealth that only Hitman has ever really been at the forefront of is taken to such ludicrous heights here, with a newfound level of polish that is a far cry from the Euro-jank label that the series used to be stuck with. I too share Super Bunnyhop's concerns over the always-online element of this trilogy, and I hope once IO decide to move on from supporting it, they do a massive update to make sure progression can be achieved and saved locally. I hate the thought of a future where this masterpiece is unavailable.

In an attempt to say something unique, I'll point out the fun mirrored progression we see between the classic and modern iterations of Hitman. Codename 47 was a mediocre game which set the mechanical framework for the series. Silent Assassin made significant mechanical improvements, rethought which types of level-design to prioritise, and then boom, a good game, followed by two more good games in Contracts and Blood Money which ran with Silent Assassin's general framework. Absolution then comes along and completely retools the mechanical framework of Hitman for the modern era, but botches up basically everything else. Hitman (2016) then does for Absolution what Silent Assassin did for Codename 47, taking a slightly adjusted version of Absolution's mechanical framework and putting it in a whole new level-design context. And just like that, we get a good game, once again followed by two more games building on it before we put the modern era to rest. Not exactly a substantial observation, but I don't know, I find a nerdy satisfaction in how similarly both iterations progressed.

Finally Platinum'd this. Offers perhaps the best level (in terms of design and gameplay) in the trilogy with Berlin, but the rest is more of the same - which, if you're a fan of the series, is hardly a complaint. Pretty great gameplay and I think it has overall the most consistently enjoyable run of levels (Hitman suffers in the middle, as does 2), but IO-I have really dropped the ball with all the stupid online features, the recycled elusive targets and, though I haven't bought them so can't say for sure, the "Seasons of Sin" (lol) are pretty underwhelming. Oh well. Fun game!

This is more of a review of the whole trilogy altogether, because it’s all available in one package now, called Hitman: World of Assassination. As for the third game specifically, it’s pretty much as good as the previous two. Story isn’t fantastic, but the worldbuilding is fun. But who cares about any of that, it’s all about the big, intricate sandbox levels. The last level is the worst they’ve done so far, but the other ones are fantastic. From a luxurious tower in Dubai, to an underground dance club in Berlin; all of them very unique and very fun. Add onto that all the extra stuff like challenges and elusive targets, and it’s hard not to recommend this title. But now that all 3 games are all put together, it’s impossible not to recommend it. Not even mentioning a whole ass rogue lite mode they added, which adds dozens of hours of fun, on top of the dozens of hours of fun already available. The online only DRM still bothers me, but I am forced to look past it, cause the games are that good. Outside of indie games, they just don’t make big stealth games anymore. Agent 47 is the only one left, but boy is he making a last stand.

Hitman 3 é a prova cabal de que a trilogia World of Assassination é um dos, que sá o maior clássico moderno do gênero Stealth.

Em Hitman 3, os principais alicerces da gameplay "criados" em Hitman 2016 e evoluídos em Hitman 2 são, não só mantidos nesta edição como também são ampliados, e dão novas formas do jogador de experimentar os mapas aqui propostos. O principal exemplo foi a câmera, introduzida em Hitman 2 era apenas um elemento in game para o modo foto, agora em Hitman 3, ela ganha a capacidade de hackear determinados elementos chaves em algumas missões.

Ao contrário da história confusa de Hitman 1 e da história boa, porém esquecível de Hitman 2 - estas por sua vez servindo apenas como um pano de fundo pra justificar as ações e ambientes ao qual 47 estava inserido - em Hitman 3 a história é, não só extremamente presente e um ponto chave (e muito bom) do jogo, como também é intrínseca ao gameplay e mapas. Todas as missões trazem uma parte da história, não só no começo e no fim como antes, mas no meio das mesmas, o que traz, em uma primeira jogada, o sentimento maior de imprevisibilidade e torna os mapas muito mais orgânicos. Por outro lado, a história mais presente, ao meu ver, tira boa parte da rejogabilidade incrível que todos os mapas anteriores, desde 2016, traziam. Mesmo que, ao meu ver, esse seja o principal e único ponto negativo do jogo, esses são de longe a variedade de mapas/missões mais legais e criativos de toda a franquia. É impressionante ver como a IO Interactive conseguiu misturar elementos de franquias do cinema e da literatura como Bourne, 007, Missão Impossível, Sherlock Holmes e Agatha Christie com o refinado stealth de Hitman!

Falando em mapa, esse é de longe o Hitman mais bonito nesse quesito. Não só pelos gráficos - que sim, são mais bonitos que Hitman 2, mesmo dentro da coletânea World of Assassination - mas a direção de arte de todos, sem exceção, é perfeita. Não teve um único mapa que eu não parei para tirar fotos da paisagem, e graças aos gráficos hiper realistas, tornaram as fotos mais belas e facilmente confundíveis com a realidade.

Outro ponto que ganhou um excelente upgrade em relação aos dois anteriores foi a trilha sonora. Além dela ser excelente e de longe a melhor dos três, a trilha deste jogo servem pra gerar o impacto exato que o jogador deve sentir ao executar certas ações, ou entrar em situações desconfortáveis. Pra mim era comum sentir um levíssimo medo de ser descoberto ao longo dos mapas, pois, tal qual um filme de terror, uma música soturna aumentava de tom conforme o perigo se aproximava do personagem. Em momentos de deslumbre, uma música mais épica era tocada no primeiro plano. E em momentos de ação extrema, músicas mais enérgicas compunham a "cena" perfeitamente. É evidente que a IO se utilizou de artifícios do cinema pra compor o jogo, o que deu ao mesmo uma aura diferente e, de certa forma, delicada ao jogo.

Me repetindo pela terceira vez seguida, Hitman 3 (e os dois jogos anteriores) é sim obrigatório pra todo e qualquer fã de Stealth que exista, não só os veteranos mas os novatos. Ele é não só uma experiência completa dentro do gênero, mas uma aula de como criar mapas que estimulem o jogador a desfrutar os mesmos de formas completamente diferentes. Ao meu ver, esse jogo em específico, é a verdadeira evolução do Stealth tático, e uma breve visão ao o que o gênero poderá propor no futuro.

Yeah, Hitman 3 is really good. I loved how the levels are more connected with the story this time around, bringing a more intimate feeling. They are also extremely different in how your approach your objetives and each location is very unique. This really felt like a dramatic conclusion in the series.

Level design is still great and what you would expect from IOI, it continues too push the boundaries of what can be done with systems and AI. They did a fantastic job with this trilogy and the 007 project couldn't be in better hands.