January 20th is a day many Hitman fans have marked on their calendar, and for good reason, as this is the day when Hitman 3 will be hitting shelves (as well as having a digital release, as is the norm these days, of course).
Hitman 3 will be a conclusion to the “World of Assassination” trilogy which launched with the Hitman reboot game back in 2016. But rather than coming up with anything radically new, Hitman 3 will be an evolution of what was seen in Hitman 2016 and 2018’s Hitman 2. But given how good those two games were, more of the same won’t be grounds for complaint if Hitman 3 turns out to be another good entry in the series.
This is especially true taking into account that protagonist Agent 47 is getting new gadgets such as a special camera which players will be able to use to open locks in the game. Agent 47 will also get to visit several new locations such as Dubai in order to kill some of “the best-protected people in the world” as game makers IO Interactive put it in a trailer released for the game back in December.
After getting to strut his stuff in the world’s tallest building in Dubai, Agent 47 will head to Dartmoor, England in a mission that represents a slight departure from what IO has done with the series to date. This is because you’ll have to play detective in the British manor and solve a murder mystery, as well as kill the person responsible for it in typical Agent 47 fashion (“two birds, one disguise”, as IO Interactive writes in its blog).
Following this, the story takes Agent 47 to Germany. The outskirts of Berlin are the setting for this mission, which takes place at night. According to IO’s description players will be able to “experience the dizzying adrenaline rush of an epic rave” in the German capital. And hopefully the Berlin outskirts will be as impressively detailed as anything yet seen in Hitman too…
Next comes a location which IO already showcased last November. The streets of Chongqing, China, will be another murder sandbox for players to lose themselves in. It remains to be seen, though, whether this will be as good as the other Asian location featured in the series such as Hokkaido in Hitman 2016, one of the best in the trilogy so far.
After killing yet more people in China, Agent 47 then travels to the penultimate location in the game: Mendoza, Argentina. This South American wine region is “the perfect place to take in the beautiful sights and acquired tastes of Argentina” according to IO. And looking at the image below this location reminds me a bit of Hitman 2016’s Villa Caruso in Sapienza, so fingers crossed this will be as memorable as what arguably was the best location in 2016’s game.
Finally, Agent 47 returns to Romania for the game’s conclusion (a setting last seen in 2004’s Hitman: Contracts game). This final level taking place in the Carpathian Mountains serves as an epilogue for the current Hitman trilogy. This location is likely to be smaller in scale than the others, perhaps at the level of Hitman 2’s prologue in Hawke’s Bay (which still contained plenty of good sandbox gameplay though). Nonetheless, I’m still hoping this will be a riveting end to Hitman 3.
Also, as was the case with the previous two games, IO Interactive will be supporting Hitman 3 post-launch, with the Elusive Targets: those tense, one-shot missions Hitman fans have been enjoying since 2016.
There are also the multi-stage escalation contracts, of which IO will likely release quite a few extra ones after the game’s launch. Sadly, though, Hitman 3 won’t be getting an expansion pass like Hitman 2 did, and no new locations either (rather, current locations could be repurposed for future DLC as was the case with the 2016 game).
Despite this, there’s no doubt Hitman 3 is one of the most exciting video game releases of the year, so it would be a great thing if this final outing of the “World of Assassination” trilogy ends up being as good as people are hoping it will be when it releases this week.
Read more: Hitman 3 trailer showcases gameplay