The ICA has played its hand, and it lost. Not only have we eliminated some of its best and brightest, but we only leaked the details of all its operations to the public.
It is an End to an Era, but only a single step in our path. Arthur Edwards is still out there, and Providence will remain a threat so long as he lives. Thankfully, an old friend has the perfect plan in mind to get us as close as we need to be.
We just need to help her out before she’s safe to return the favor.
For someone like me, who has played all of the Hitman games, seeing Diana Burnwood in a level, as an NPC we can interact with, is genuinely shocking. She’s always been a presence in the series, but she was always an offsite operative. Her role was to monitor and help Agent 47 remotely as his handler.
Even more unique is seeing Agent 47 act as his own handler. They tried something similar in Hitman: Absolution. Unfortunately, they game fell flat on its face for a whole multitude of reasons. Perhaps due to the fact that this story has been delivered to us slowly over the course of several years, it feels far more natural and believable this time around for 47 to grow into his own as a character.
Speaking of which, I’ve been playing in this World of Assassination since the first part of this new trilogy came out in 2016. This is the finale to a story I’ve grown invested in over the course of almost five years. I’m ultimately happy with the way it ends, wrapping up all lingering plot threads while still leaving room for future Hitman games. Though I won’t deny that it’s strange to not be looking forward to another sequel and set of levels in roughly two years’ time.
As a whole, this trilogy is one of the strongest set of stealth games I have ever played. While Blood Money is a legendary video game, the new Hitman games offer so much more in terms of level and mechanical design. Ever aspect of them has so much care and polish put into it that one cannot help but marvel at the complete package.
More than that, in an era where many major studios go for a gritty, hyper-realistic look and feel, a game that is unapologetically “video game-y” is such a breath of fresh air. I don’t want to say there’s no place for realism in-game. At the same time, I just want to disguise myself as a supermodel to walk the runway or drop a giant moose on an evil banker’s head.
We don’t need to shy away from the absurd. And often it’s a stronger statement to embrace and play with it.
PS: I wanted to call attention to this piece by Diego Arguello over at Polygon, detailing the care IO took into realizing his native Argentina in the Mendoza map.
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