Hitman Hands-On Impressions: Agent 47 is Back

As a fan of Agent 47, having the opportunity to not only experience how 47 was recruited but play the prologue is a dream come true. Square Enix recently granted one of the many dreams (aside fans waiting on Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3) as on the PlayStation 4 and PC, Hitman beta opened for a short period.

Straight to the experience, the beta took you back 20 years, before 47 was a full-blown agent. There were two missions: one involving a yacht and the other an airplane. And as you can imagine, your objective is to eliminate the targets.

Eliminating Kalvin Ritter is the first training mission you partake in. In short, it’s the tutorial mission, teaching you all the controls for Agent 47 and strategic ways to take down enemies while remaining undetected.

The first mission begins with you finding a way on the yacht, giving you multiple ways in doing so. Once on the yacht the next objective is to find and tail your target. Changing disguise will be required multiple times throughout, and Hitman gives you plenty of angles of doing so. Even when killing your targets, there are so many ways to do so, and Sqaure Enix will be awarding you for creativity.

With Hitman stepping away from Absolution and showing more favor to Blood Money, stealth is essential as people can identify who you are in different disguises. Don’t expect to dress as a cop and not have other officers recognize you. Even the owner of the yacht knows everyone on it and can spot you without blinking twice.

An example would be when I crossed paths with Kalvin and he immediately knew I wasn’t supposed to be on that yacht. Dressed in the cooks outfit I tried to focus on cleaning a table, hoping that he’d forget about me and look away. He never did. In fact, he caused so much of a scene that everyone in that area of the yacht just stared at me ad ask who was I. Nervous as heck, I broke trying to blend in and walked away.

A lady chased after asking who was I, so naturally I ran, assuming leaving the area they’d give up. To my surprise she walked to an officer and gave them my description. It didn’t end so well, but the experience did.

Hitman in beta was simply amazing! The realism in regards to situations was off the charts. Luckily, Hitman allows you to save at any time to protect your gameplay and for those critical situations that may take a few times, closer than checkpoints.

My only complaints would be getting used to the camera angles that felt a bit sluggish and the cutscenes. The scenes render, uploading in real-time like a youtube video rather than an in-game transition, causing shutters in the cutscenes.

Again, dare I say wow! Hitman is a must have, promising some the highest replay value any game plans to offer. Hitman deliver great visuals and overall, nothing less than astonishing.