This review is more for Hitman as a Trilogy rather than Hitman 3 as an individual game. I played the original Hitman 2016 way back in the day when I first got my first real gaming rig. It didn't really click with me then and I struggled to find the enjoyment in it past completing the mission objectives (with the quest markers turned on). So, despite being a huge fan of Immersive Sims like Dishonored I kinda ignored Hitman 2 and Hitman 3 past watching some youtubers do goofy stuff in the games.
This christmas I finally decided to pull the trigger and acquire Hitman 3 (and all the content that came before it) so I could do one big run through the main campaign. I fell in love pretty quick. My (currently 54) hours were split between the Steam Deck and my Gaming PC. I have enjoyed nearly all of them. Between finishing the Mission Stories, which are kind of like guided quests that act as tutorials, or experimenting with the best methods to get SASO (Silent Assassin Suit Only) this game is on par with other Immersive Sims in my book. IMO it offers one of the most accessible and easy to "get into" IMMSIM experiences. Not only do you as a player have nearly complete freedom in how you complete your objectives the devs actively encourage players to get creative with challenges, achievements, and bonus xp for "stealthy but creative" kills. This leads to incredibly satisfying moments like waiting in a box for a character to stand near a cliffside so you can use an explosive to ragdoll them off the cliff and kill them or lining up the perfect sniper shot on a target and just waiting for your target to walk into your crosshairs.
If you are personally a fan of modern day CIA/MI6 "spy" thrillers this game is as close as you can get without turning into a mindless 3rd person shooter. It can sure be a mindless 3rd person shooter if you want it to be as the difficulty on professional isn't really enough to prevent you from just killing every character on the map. But that is not the goal of the game nor should it be the goal of the player on their first play-through. This game is designed to emphasize creativity and on your feet thinking.
Unfortunately of course a few things hold it back. The story didn't click with me at all, some maps are far worse than others, sometimes the game has difficulty spikes that feel really sudden and can frustrate you if you aren't mindlessly following the mission objectives layed out for you. My personal biggest gripe is in the way the mission objectives are set up to work with the HUD turned off for them. I got about halfway through the first game on this playthrough before I couldn't handle having them turned off anymore. Many of them are lacking context or direction due to them obviously being designed with a quest marker in mind. Some of them are the opposite and those I cherish. But the rest of them just get frustrating and can easily become marathon sprints in circles around the map looking for one character/objective that was mentioned as "by the garden" or a similar broad description. In addition to this this game suffers from the same issue any game that has a "detective vision" does. It kind of encourages you to play the entire game through the lens of detective vision. Characters are near impossible to hear through walls, many quest objectives blend into the environment and require detective vision to highlight them, and the all seeing enforcers don't have their enforcer dot show up through walls unless you are using detective vision. It really hinders observing the environment and I wish that there was an easy way for devs to implement detective vision without it being this all seeing eye of sauron.
All in all though even with its flaws I genuinely love this game. I never thought I would after my first attempt to play it way back when. But IO Interactive really smashed the ball out of the park. Here is to many more hours enjoying the new "freelancer" mode where the systems of this game truly put you to the test.
This christmas I finally decided to pull the trigger and acquire Hitman 3 (and all the content that came before it) so I could do one big run through the main campaign. I fell in love pretty quick. My (currently 54) hours were split between the Steam Deck and my Gaming PC. I have enjoyed nearly all of them. Between finishing the Mission Stories, which are kind of like guided quests that act as tutorials, or experimenting with the best methods to get SASO (Silent Assassin Suit Only) this game is on par with other Immersive Sims in my book. IMO it offers one of the most accessible and easy to "get into" IMMSIM experiences. Not only do you as a player have nearly complete freedom in how you complete your objectives the devs actively encourage players to get creative with challenges, achievements, and bonus xp for "stealthy but creative" kills. This leads to incredibly satisfying moments like waiting in a box for a character to stand near a cliffside so you can use an explosive to ragdoll them off the cliff and kill them or lining up the perfect sniper shot on a target and just waiting for your target to walk into your crosshairs.
If you are personally a fan of modern day CIA/MI6 "spy" thrillers this game is as close as you can get without turning into a mindless 3rd person shooter. It can sure be a mindless 3rd person shooter if you want it to be as the difficulty on professional isn't really enough to prevent you from just killing every character on the map. But that is not the goal of the game nor should it be the goal of the player on their first play-through. This game is designed to emphasize creativity and on your feet thinking.
Unfortunately of course a few things hold it back. The story didn't click with me at all, some maps are far worse than others, sometimes the game has difficulty spikes that feel really sudden and can frustrate you if you aren't mindlessly following the mission objectives layed out for you. My personal biggest gripe is in the way the mission objectives are set up to work with the HUD turned off for them. I got about halfway through the first game on this playthrough before I couldn't handle having them turned off anymore. Many of them are lacking context or direction due to them obviously being designed with a quest marker in mind. Some of them are the opposite and those I cherish. But the rest of them just get frustrating and can easily become marathon sprints in circles around the map looking for one character/objective that was mentioned as "by the garden" or a similar broad description. In addition to this this game suffers from the same issue any game that has a "detective vision" does. It kind of encourages you to play the entire game through the lens of detective vision. Characters are near impossible to hear through walls, many quest objectives blend into the environment and require detective vision to highlight them, and the all seeing enforcers don't have their enforcer dot show up through walls unless you are using detective vision. It really hinders observing the environment and I wish that there was an easy way for devs to implement detective vision without it being this all seeing eye of sauron.
All in all though even with its flaws I genuinely love this game. I never thought I would after my first attempt to play it way back when. But IO Interactive really smashed the ball out of the park. Here is to many more hours enjoying the new "freelancer" mode where the systems of this game truly put you to the test.