Hmm, repurposing? I hope they’re going to be total reconversions like the H1 “Bonus Maps”, not a new target vaguely thrown in the same level like H2’s “Special Assignments”.
Alright, so I’ve played a bit now and I’d give Hitman III a score of 4 out of 5 “Huh, must be rats or something”.
I think they’ve really nailed their formula, almost to laser-like precision. The H3 levels are some of the best in the entire trilogy which they started five years ago. I think they really nailed the right size for levels: complexity is good, but more isn’t necessarily better. No more “4 targets plus some extra stuff for you to do.” The new maps mostly top out at two targets plus an extra objective and I think they all gain from it in terms of focus. It goes without saying that some of the kills are delightfully creative and original.
Then again, while it is great content, H3 has probably the least amount of content in the trilogy. H1 had 7 maps, plus 3 bonus versions. H2 had, eh… 7,5 maps, plus introduced multiplayer Ghost Mode, plus 3 Sniper Maps, single and multiplayer. H3 cuts all multiplayer and has, let’s say 5,5 maps. It has VR on PS which is apparently excellent, but I don’t really care about that. On the other hand, if you’re playing the trilogy now as one package the math doesn’t really matter. Plus, we don’t know what kind of post-release content is around the corner.
What I really don’t like is that they dropped the ball on giving the players a cool arsenal to carry over from mission to mission. It’s a gamer nerd dream of mine of having your stuff carry from game to game in a series. Imagine if you could have one big remixed old-school Mega Man where you carry boss weapons from another game? Meta Man!
So technically the dream has come true now. Sort of. As I said elsewhere, most of the unlocks from H1 and H2 are kind of pointless. The open-ended nature of the levels puts limits on what you can give the player, but even then the whole thing is disappointing. H3 is even worse in that regard… almost all the new items are reskins. They didn’t bring back the “hideout” feature most other games had where you could look at your wall of weapons. It would just make sense here where you have half a decade’s worth of guns and suits built up. They added a bolt-action rifle BUT there isn’t even an animation for operating the bolt between shots. WTF? Some new items don’t even have their perks displayed correctly despite being reskins. Now that’s just pathetic. But hey, the dream came true, right?
If it sounds like I’m being harsh on the game while giving it a good score, there’s a good reason for that. For one, I can see the quality on display despite the nerd quibbles. Plus, I have to give full points to Hitman for one thing: it’s a game that’s about what it’s about, i.e. stealth. Social stealth, which is Hitman’s own subgenre. In fact, it’s probably the last game of its kind. Unlike, say, another game about assassins that’s now a collectathon with town building, ship sailing, RPG loot, brawling…
So all in all, I really respect that they made three pure stealth games, a relatively niche genre, integrated them in a single executable, and all despite going through the company restructuring and COVID. Kudos.