Hitman preview: Agent 47 is back with some time to kill

With all the furore surrounding The Division, it would be easy to forget that another big game is released for Xbox One, PS4 and PC this week too. Agent 47 returns to our consoles and computers this Friday and he demands every bit as much attention.

That’s for a couple of reasons. First, from a preview build we’ve played ahead of a full, in-depth review, developer IO Interactive has really stepped up a notch in how much freedom it is offering the player when carrying out a hit. And second, the decision has been made to do something quite different with the release.

Hitman: Episodes

Instead of a full-on, all-in-one game, as was originally touted, Hitman will be seeded episodically. The main game and first episode will arrive on 11 March with different missions arriving regularly thereafter.

Of course, Telltale adopts a similar release system with its adventure games series, such as The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, while Life is Strange – one of our favourite games of last year – followed a similar pattern. Where Hitman differs though is that it crams a whole lot of gameplay into each episode, and they will be set in different locations around the globe.

There will also be plenty of replay value in that you will be able to complete your objectives in a myriad of ways. Levels are sandboxes full of intricate traps and weapons to use. We doubt any one hit will be the same as another.

Hitman will also be seasonal in that, once this series and its overarching story is complete, there will be another.

Hitman: Missions

For now though, the game starts 20 years before the first Hitman game, Codename 47, and offers three tutorial missions for you to tackle before launching into episode one.

Once you do though, you soon discover exactly what makes this outing different from, say, Absolution. While the control method is similarly fluid, with simple actions sending 47 to seek cover in the environment and the ability to chop and change outfits more often than the cast of TOWIE, the open world locations reward exploration and give ample opportunities to craft cunning and, at times, hilarious plans to dispatch targets.

Square Enix

Hitman: Gameplay

We played plenty of the Paris level, based at a fashion show, and wherever we turned we seemed to find a different item we could use to kill someone with, or a staff member to knock out and unclothe in order to disguise ourselves. There are also set “opportunities” which will take you on a step-by-step path to getting close to a designated target. You can pick these up by simply overhearing a conversation, and they can lead you down some interesting paths.

For example, you might end up taking out one of the world’s top male models in order to infiltrate higher levels, or use the TV camera crew to get closer to the action.

Finding these is a large part of the fun. But what we love about Hitman already, even from the preview version, is that you don’t even have to follow either yourself. It’s up to you how to proceed and that freedom is refreshing.

Graphically, Hitman definitely looks like it’s had a current generation refresh, but without heading down the nitty gritty route. It still looks slightly cartoonified, as always. We wouldn’t want it any other way.

First Impressions

It remains to be seen whether the rest of the episodes are as engaging as the first. And if the final game expands upon the sandbox locations on offer with extra missions and additional objectives. But we can already tell that we’ll have a blast finding out.

Pricing has previously been revealed to be very reasonable, with the launch pack to be available for $15 (UK pricing yet to be confirmed) and subsequent episodes will cost $10 a pop. We’ll reveal more in the full review soon about whether it’s worth that outlay, but we suspect so, especially as the moment we finished our preview session we fancied popping back into the Parisian setting for another crack.