I’ve made no secret of my love for Hitman and roguelikes. So when I heard that Hitman was introducing a roguelike “Freelancer” mode to the game, you better believe I was intrigued.
Some of the most fun I have playing a Hitman game comes from trying to salvage runs that have clearly gone wrong. Either I was too reckless and killed a target when there was a witness, or I was caught by a guard doing a naughty, or something else gave me away. Regardless, the systems have turned against me and I have to make use of my resources to turn them around.
It’s in those moments, where improvisation and quick thinking are put to the test, that Hitman generates those sequences that, win or lose, are hilarious/incredible enough to tell stories about to all of our friends. And for that reason, pairing those mechanics and systems with a rougelike structure makes perfect sense. Roguelikes are defined by the variance that comes from rolling the dice to see what challenges are generated for us. Like Hitman proper, they inspire creative thinking and force us to weigh the odds of success both short-term and long-term.
I couldn’t think of a better pairing.
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