Hitman: Sniper Assassin is hopefully a suiting prelude to the kind of decision-making and variety players will get when Hitman 2 releases on November 13.
Hitman’s playground of murder gave players a baffling amount of freedom when IO Interactive rebooted the series in 2016. “Here’s the objective, here’s dozens of ways to complete the objective, have fun,” IO whispered as it plopped each episodic entry into players’ laps. Initial reactions to a trickled release cycle over a full-blown game were met with skepticism, mainly due to publisher Square Enix’s poor communication of how the flow of content would work.
Thankfully, Agent 47 came back in full force as one of gaming’s premiere kill artists. Each episode of Hitman was a buffet of possibility, asking players to dispatch targets as creatively, efficiently, and silently as possible. Before the launch of Hitman 2 in November, players who pre-order the game are given access to Hitman: Sniper Assassin, a small yet effective piece of DLC that satiates the yearning for experimental bloodlust while whetting the appetite for Agent 47’s more hands-on approach.
The mission is simple: Agent 47 has been hired by a member of The Yardbirds to kill the three remaining members of the five-piece group of thieves. After stealing from a casino that had its hands in organized crime, The Yardbirds went on permanent hiatus to avoid imminent death but not before burying millions of dollars. The money would only be claimed by the last living member of The Yardbirds and someone got tired of waiting. Now Agent 47 must sit on a faraway perch in Himmelstein, Austria and use a Sieger 300 Ghost sniper rifle to eliminate three targets and 15 guards.
“The Last Yardbird” is prime Hitman material in its contained scope and tense execution. Players have 15 minutes to identify and eliminate all 18 targets as they rub elbows with an insanely rich crowd at an elaborate mansion. Dorian Lang, one of the final members of The Yardbirds, is attending the wedding of his daughter, so players should expect large swaths of people gathered around cheering and partying and engaging in the finer things in life.
Unlike missions where Agent 47 is on foot, players do everything from afar. There’s no blending in with crowds or avoiding patrols or waiting for the right moment to pounce. The bald grim reaper instead sits, calm as a cucumber, in his trademark black suit and red tie waiting to take aim and make a shot. If you wish, the mission can be over in a handful of minutes. By that time Doris Lee will have left her helicopter (if you haven’t already shot her inside) and Dorian Lang will have exited his limo after arriving on scene. If you have trouble identifying the bodyguards, holding down R1 will highlight any remaining targets on sight. Despite a sloppy execution, the mission will be complete.
Most tasks in Hitman can be completed with a combination of haste and dumb luck, yet it takes a true strategist to become a silent assassin and raise no alarms until Agent 47 has already disappeared into the ether. From such a distance, players must account for bullet drop and how long it will take a shot to reach a target who is already moving or about to move. Instead of taking the shot once a target is in the crosshairs, players should wait a few seconds to identify their patrol routes.
Sniper Assassin is a faithful representation of the Hitman formula with a twist. Just like the reboot, players are given challenges and feats that can be accomplished over the course of multiple replays. Keep in mind, the 15-minute time limit means that it’s easy to lose a couple hours to multiple attempts or just play a few rounds before bed. Flubbed a near-perfect attempt where you were only pulling off headshots? Take a breath and try to see how things play out. Maybe you will discover your targets moving and acting in a way that could potentially unlock a challenge.
While the NPC AI isn’t insanely advanced, it helps goad players towards specific goals. One challenge asks players to eliminate all three main targets with the same suspended object. Around ten minutes into the mission, players will watch the three Yardbirds walks to the top of the mansion and chat under a chandelier. I give you one guess as to how things unfold after that. Agent 47 can be as aggressive or as stealthy as the player decides but if any of the main targets escape, the mission fails.
Through the lens of Agent 47’s sniper rifle, players become a voyeur to a slice of life unfolding before them. A bride and groom will unite their hands in marriage. Dozens of people will dance and listen to a band play an unheard song. A party inside will turn their heads in shock if the wedding cake explodes after being pierced with a bullet. It pays to observe every facet of this Austrian chateau. Not only does it hint at the challenges that lie in wait, it leaves you in awe at the puzzle pieces IO Interactive lays out waiting to be put together.
There is a skydiver high above the chateau that keeps talking himself out of jumping and instead drinks to boost his confidence. Shoot his bottle and he will make the plunge. Watch Guillaume Maison storm into the kitchen to yell at his staff upon seeing the destroyed remains of what was likely an expensive wedding cake. Players can shoot lamps and speakers and fire extinguishers to make deaths look more accidental. Like any open world, this Hitman mission is a sandbox of possibilities and the sniper rifle is merely one tool to wreak havoc upon a seemingly innocent party.
Hitman: Sniper Assassin presents a distinct challenge: to bridge the gap from now until the game’s release and convince players that IO Interactive still has what it takes, despite changing publishers. When I look at the amount of challenges that players can shoot for and the upgrades to the sniper rifle that can make execution a bit simpler, I’m hopeful.
While it’s somewhat frustrating that the co-op aspect of Sniper Assassin doesn’t allow for online matchmaking, it’s still thrilling to tackle “The Last Yardbird” with a friend who you can communicate every shot with. Even when things go awry and panic sets in, it’s still fun to wildly shoot at a wedding party to try and finish the mission. Watching a playthrough on YouTube is almost a disservice to allowing yourself to work out how to complete challenges and feats. Though Hitman is primarily an action game, the light puzzle elements are equally entrancing in how they wrap around the brain.
My hope is that between now and the November 13 release date, more Sniper Assassin missions will be released to further tease and captivate players. It’s hard to say how Hitman 2 will transform with a full release over an episodic one but this small tease has me hopeful that IO Interactive knows how to preserve the magic. If any part of you is waiting to pull the trigger on a Hitman 2 pre-order, Hitman: Sniper Assassin is an extremely tempting morsel that may make that decision harder to resist.
