Hitman 3 - Review

In HITMAN 3, players will visit the United Arab Emirates, England, Germany, China, Argentina and finish the story in Romania. The foundation and ideas laid throughout a whole new plot of the game. You are waiting for huge levels-sandboxes, an interesting story.

Jan 19, 2021 - 14:47
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Hitman 3 - Review
Hitman 3 - professional Killer is back, and it seems to have no competitors.

IO Interactive successfully develops the ideas of the second season to eliminate the goals and continues to expand the gameplay mechanics, diluting them with elements from other genres. For example, in the second location in HITMAN 3, Agent 47 can take on the role of a detective and unravel the web of the mysterious death of the owner of the mansion. You will have to interrogate people and come to several endings, which was not previously in the series. And at the location in Berlin, players will not have any data about the goals at all - they will need to find them themselves. Such moments bring a certain immersiveness to the adventure-they make you listen carefully to the dialogues and study the map, and not only on possible ways to enter the closed zone.

Unfortunately, the game will be released in our country without a translation into Russian. And here it is immediately worth noting that without knowledge of English, it will be difficult for some users to delve into the ENT and understand the full biography of the members of Providence in the briefing section. On the other hand, for a general understanding of the plot, this is not so critical. HITMAN 3 is full of simple dialogues, so the English school level will be enough to translate phrases in the spirit of "I told you, no one is untouchable". IO Interactive has already confirmed that after the release, it will add a Chinese localization to HITMAN 3. We hope that eventually the Russian turn will still come.

HITMAN 3 has retained the serial structure. It will offer 5 levels and a full-fledged epilogue on the release at once. Despite the fact that there is no 6th location, we can assure you that it will take you more than 40 minutes to complete the final on the first pass. We will not go into details, so as not to spoil the intrigue.

As we already wrote in the big preview, HITMAN 3 has become in every sense larger than its predecessors and surprised with the attention to detail in huge locations. This is practically a reference stealth action game. At the same time, during our detailed acquaintance with the new product, there was a feeling that the developers have grown up and now want to go beyond their concept, or even try themselves in something new, namely in more linear projects with a full-fledged cinematic production and dialogues in the spirit of console exclusives of the Gears of War or Uncharted level. And they can do it with sufficient funding.

The next IOI game will be created under the 007 license, and in the third season of HITMAN, the authors seem to remind you of this. There are several references to the adventures of James Bond, up to the classic costume from the movie “007: Spectrum”.

In general, HITMAN 3 contains a lot of visual references to past games in the series. Deja vu and flashbacks from Contracts and Blood Money are here at almost every step-from the atmosphere of the locations to the plot twists. Every 15-20 minutes, you begin to notice a similarity with one or another event from the past of Agent 47 or remember another game. A test called "Grand Theft Auto" with a car on the preview is one example.

In HITMAN 3, the approach to starting tasks has changed. But it's more of an experiment, like the mid-level story cutscenes in season two. There are linear sections that give the impression that we are playing The Evil Within or any other story game, rather than a sandbox on a huge location. To get into the familiar open area, you will have to find a way to it and listen to the story dialogues. Those who have played in the first two seasons may not understand what is happening at first and get stuck for a while.

But there are also such missions in HITMAN 3, in which the veterans of the series can feel like a fish in water. For example, the task in China: on the streets there are detachments of “Blue Lotus", familiar to us from Codename 47, which means that there are open roofs and a sniper rifle on the map. Realizing this, you involuntarily break into a smile, and after 20-30 minutes, when it turns out that there is a huge biome with laboratories under the ground, you come to a small shock from the size of the territory as a whole.

The structure of locations in HITMAN 3 has become much more complex. Freedom Fighters from the first season will seem like a learning experience compared to the levels from the third season. It will take a very long time to study them. Each episode has several story tasks at once, which require the player to show ingenuity and observation. The task can always be solved in a variety of completely different ways.

Speaking of the latter, it should be recalled that the game was first introduced shortcuts. At each level, there are 2-3 of them. These "slices" will allow you to permanently open access for quick movement to the desired area, bypassing the complex segment with security guards and cameras. Shortcuts can be including stairs and doors. But unfortunately, they can only really be opened with a crowbar - shooting and explosions do not allow you to open the lock. Although this is not so important, because the game is designed in such a way that you will replay the mission over and over again to open new challenges, eliminate Elusive targets, or simply pass selected contracts with Aggravations.

Another new feature in HITMAN 3 is the camera that Agent 47 takes with him on every mission. It does not take up a slot in the planning and allows you to open certain hidden paths. Whether it is a window or a manhole in the ventilation-you will use the camera often. And it is also allowed to use it to create screenshots, but it does not replace a full-fledged photo mod due to strong restrictions.

As for the rest of the gadgets and weapons in the final, everything is fine. The game will return almost all the old arsenal, and the developers will add more on top. For example, a new sniper rifle with all the improvements will become a favorite weapon among regular players. Many items were edited and redrawn, and new visual effects were added. For example, three types of poison have their own color when activated to the glass. Green smoke means that you used rat poison, red-deadly, blue-sedative.

The progression system was slightly changed and made easier. If earlier, to open a certain gadget, you had to perform a specific test, now these things are unlocked for the overall level of skill. Just play and do the challenges in any order, and when you reach a certain level, you will receive new gadgets.

The plot outline in HITMAN 3 completes the trilogy and puts all the dots on the i. Together with Lucas Gray and Diana, Agent 47 goes to the leader of an organization called Providence, and the matter remains small. They will even be joined by one of the heroes of the past two seasons. There will be complications, and the heroes will need to overcome fear and hatred to achieve their goal.

Separately, it is worth noting the plot murders. For the fourth year in a row, the Danes keep the brand and manage to create creative solutions out of nothing. Some of them cause laughter through tears. The player is still the engineer of the situation, and if you stop panicking about the “Silent Killer " rating and start experimenting, you can discover literally hundreds of hours of new content. For example, if you scare your target in the first mission of the second season, and then slightly undermine the same target near the car, it will run into the sea and drown.

For such non-standard situations, when the player is free to do what he wants, in HITMAN 3, a rank system was introduced. There are about twelve of them, and the developers make it clear that the number of stars is not important here. What matters is how much fan you get when you complete a level. This trilogy has essentially evolved from a killer simulator to a killer simulator, with each type of murder counted as a game. The artificial intelligence in HITMAN 3 is too complex to implement compared to many other projects, but too easy for the player to read. You can predict where a guard will go and manipulate them to your advantage, just like in previous seasons.

The third season received graphic updates. The light sources are now placed manually, volumetric beams have been added, and the authors have recycled the water. Light gently diffuses through transparent objects, and drops slowly flow down the bald head of our hero. Clouds in detail and realism resemble the static background in Destiny 2. When you first start the Dartmoor level, your jaw will probably drop.

But the coolest visual innovation is real-time reflections without RTX technology. The Glacier 2 engine allows you to use a mask of reflections on surfaces and thus give a very cool result. These changes also affected the previous locations - the levels of previous seasons now look much more beautiful.

Add to that the detailed levels with a ton of small details, and you get perhaps one of the most beautiful independent projects in recent years, if not the most beautiful. Starting the passage, you will run for a long time and look at the inscriptions, photos on the walls and of course take screenshots.

In HITMAN 3, you can transfer progress from previous parts. To do this, you need to have the first and second seasons on your PSN or Xbox account, and at the initial launch, you will be offered to transfer the rank level, skill levels, items for skill, test progress, items for tests, rewards for elusive goals, and of course locations. For PC players, things are a little more complicated: to get the levels, they will have to buy the second season again in the Epic Games Store. For the first two weeks, it will have an 80% discount. The developers two days before the release promised to fix this misunderstanding.

In the era of open-world games, where you have to grind and craft, HITMAN 3 clearly stands out. There are no microtransactions, donat and shop with items. All the main content is available here and now. This game has no competitors in the stealth-action segment, it offers hundreds of hours of addictive gameplay and high replayability. The variety of locations and tasks, as well as the full availability of all episodes at once, make HITMAN 3 the best purchase at the start of 2021.

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