What defines a stealth game? What is a stealth game? What are the elements that have to click together to make a stealth experience that is both unique and replayable? To answer those questions we have to look back to stealth roots. Not as far as let’s say, the original Metal Gear, just as far as the first few games that kicked the genre into action. Metal Gear Solid, Thief: The Dark Project, Deus Ex, these were some of the first games to incorporate functional stealth systems into games. They allowed the player to use whatever methods necessary to reach their goal and I think that’s the charm of them. Your objective is laying a few feet away from you, but the most obvious solution isn’t the safest one. You’ll have to sneak around, distract enemies, take them out one by one, find a route that will make you undetectable, or just use another solution entirely. There aren’t that many wrong solutions in stealth games, but the ones that are surely are the ones that didn’t get you to where you needed to go.
Stealth hasn’t really been my cup of tea. I always liked choosing the aggressive approach and running in guns blazing. Using quick reflexes to pump bullets into waves of foes, taking cover for a short period of time, and darting around to find more overpowered weapons to use against them. However, I’m thinking as a shooter guy right now and I do like games that reward players for taking their time and playing carefully. Mastering the many systems, knowing their terrain, and putting plans into action. So I decided to pick up two stealth games to help me get into the genre. One of them is the famously acclaimed Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain which is considered by many to be one of the best stealth games of the recent decade. The other came out late last year and I found it to be very underrated. It’s weird how this game flew under the radar with all the love and content packed into it.
The game I’m talking about of course is Hitman 2 by IOI Interactive. Not Hitman 2: Silent Assassin to confuse any of you who are familiar with the Hitman franchise, just Hitman 2 the new installment in the developer’s latest World of Assassination anthology. The original Hitman: Codename 47 was a very….. unpolished game. It was almost ahead of its time, but due to some poor design decisions it never really hit the mark. When Hitman 2: Silent Assassin came out it improved a lot of the problems the first game had. It was more refined although some problems still remain. Each new Hitman game that came out tried to improve the formula in some way. Blood Money being considered the best Hitman title to date. There was a small screw up with Hitman: Absolution in 2012 which led IOI Interactive to go back to the drawing board and ask themselves, “What is Hitman about?” The game series that was making them fat loads of cash up until this point was slowly beginning to lose its charm.
Apparently, the right solution was to do a soft reboot for the series and try to rearrange the formula in a way where the gameplay actually made the player feel like a clever assassin plotting out his next move. A soft reboot was released in 2016 simply named Hitman and it did mostly well. The levels/episodes for the game were released monthly which was kinda a bad move. It was bad because players didn't immediately get the full game as they expected, and also they didn’t know if each episode that was enrolled to them would be better or worse. Hitman (2016) wasn’t a bad game and those who went back to it after all the content was added said it’s actually really good game. However, it was due to this monthly release schedule that Hitman (2016)’s sales and player numbers somewhat dropped. Thepublishers of the Hitman series, Square Enix, decided to drop the franchise and IOI Interactive ended up firing a good chunk of it’s staff. There were plans for a Hitman 2, but development for this one would be riskier than before. Luckily, IOI Interactive got a new publisher this time being Warner Bros and the developers who stayed around poured a hefty amount of love into Hitman 2.
The game was revealed during a livestream and hype for Hitman 2 wasn’t as high as expected. However, IOI Interactive decided to release all of the episodes on day one rather than go for the monthly release plan as before. They designed each level to force the player to wander around and rely on out of their mind tricks rather than being a simplistic stealth game. Hitman 2 did have a rocky launch since it was released during the same week as Fallout 76, Spyro: The Reignited Trilogy, and Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Evee. Out of all the games though, Hitman 2 was the most well received. The people who played Hitman 2 absolutely loved it and stated it was a vast improvement from the last game. It wasn’t nominated for any end of the year awards, but it certainly was one of the more well received Triple A games of the year. I picked up Hitman 2 while it was on sale and I can confidently say that the game deserves all this attention. The time was very short with it, but was worthwhile. Today we’ll be talking about why I loved Hitman 2 and why it deserves your attention. So slip on a slick pair of black gloves, tidy up that piano wire, and prepare for another mission agent.
Story
Taking place after the events of the last game, Agent 47 now embarks on an epic mission to take a target known as “The Shadow Client”. The agency he works for known as the I.C.A, otherwise the International Contract Agency, have asked him to hunt down this individual since their recent alliance with another corporation named Providence has asked them to. The actions of The Shadow Client have been causing chaos in many third world countries and a disruption to worldly order. If everything goes wrong there may even be a World War III. Agent 47 and his employer Diana, make their way to a beach house located along the designated shore of New Zealand. We don’t know where in New Zealand, just some random shore in New Zealand. Agent 47 sneaks into the beach house and finds a computer containing files about the Shadow Client and those working along with him. The house is then overrun by armed forces who are then alerted of a trespassers. which leads to Agent 47 escaping via the sea.
The associates are all heavily guarded, reside in different locations of the world, and are all corrupt in their own way. You must take each one of them out using whatever means necessary. Looks like there is also someone watching Agent 47. A person from his past that seems to remember who he is, but Agent 47 doesn’t know. He wants Agent 47 to remember. Who he was and what he did before he was hired by the I.C.A. The stakes are high and time is of the essence. Hitman 2 has a simplistic story that drags you in and stays serious the entire time. It does push the player forward, but no offense I completely forgot the main plot after the first mission. A lot of time went into writing the story for Hitman 2, but it feels so emotionless that it doesn’t really seem to connect. It’s just an element that is there to be there. Forgettable characters and key moments that don’t hit the mark. If the story is mind numbingly boring then what do I enjoy about Hitman 2? The gameplay of course. Why listen to a five minute cutscene when you can kill someone while dressed up as a flamingo?
Gameplay
Hitman 2 doesn’t play like a stealth game and that’s a good thing. You aren’t going to be hiding in the shadows or behind cover instead you are in wide open areas crowded with people. Each mission takes place in what is basically a sandbox with tools scattered about and your goal is to take down whatever targets are assigned to you. Before a mission starts you have the ability to choose what items to bring along, but some items won’t be allowed in certain areas because they are illegal and you will get frisked for them. So how the f*ck do you kill your targets when you can’t even carry around a silenced pistol without a guy screaming? Well, there are other methods.
In Hitman 2 anything can be a weapon if you think hard enough. That screwdriver lying on the table could be chucked across the room and logged into your target’s skull. Maybe you can find some rat poison and soil the drink they are about to have. Knock them off a ledge and let them land straight on their neck. That’s why IOI Interactive decided to call this new collection of Hitman games the World of Assassination. Any object, natural structure, or substance can be used to kill anyone. It’s most encouraged that you have a plan that will allow you to escape undetected. If people get too suspicious of you they may call some guards, and those guards will gun you down as fast as they can. You do have the ability to fight back using whatever guns you have, but combat isn’t as smooth as other games and it’s hard to tell how much health Agent 47 has left. You want to isolate your targets or disguise with a uniform that will allow you to blend in. If an individual is alone in a spot where they cannot be heard you can choke them out and leave them unconscious. You then have the option to drag their body to somewhere where they can’t be seen, shove it into a locker or storage box just in case, and occasionally take their clothing. If you wear the clothing of a special official, let’s say a guard for instance, you may have easier access to areas you normally wouldn’t be allowed to go into. From there you can find a way to get to your target.
However, chucking a wrench or empty bottle of wine at their head aren’t the only options you have as well. Sometimes a background character will reveal some special information that ties into your target, and this may offer a window of opportunity. These special ways of murdering your target will require you to get certain items and uniforms, but the payoff is worth it because you have access to a method that allows you to get away without being noticed. Let’s take the mission in Miami as an example. Here you have to eliminate Robert Knox who is an engineer residing within a building that is very easy to get into, and his daughter Rebecca Knox who is racing around a racetrack and is inaccessible to get to. If you go to where all the people are watching the race you can find a pit crew member arguing on the phone. If you follow him he reveals that Rebecca’s pit crew team is looking for a new member and that he just quit his job. Follow him to the porta potties, knock him out, take his clothing, stuff him into one of the stalls, head to the garage, find a power tool, and when Rebecca comes around to have her tires changed loosen up the screws. That way her car will malfunction, flip over, and blow up into millions of pieces.
Hitman 2 rewards you for taking these options and they are often easier than going with the simplistic choice. Stoking up on a bunch of guns and killing everything you see. You are a hitman after all your goal is to kill your target without leaving evidence behind. Once you kill all your targets you have to navigate to a spot where you can leave the mission. Once you do then the mission is over. You are graded on how well you performed and what you did each mission. The more tricks or tasks you pull off, the higher the graded score. Big tip: try not to kill anyone outside of the main targets. Don’t even try to kill their guards or friends, because you are deducted points for killing innocent people. The rewards at the end of each mission are pretty good and combine that with the list of opportunities then you have levels with high amounts of replay value. There are rewards for getting around unnoticed, wearing only Agent 47’s iconic suit and not changing into anything else, and killing all your targets using a sniper rifle. Hitman 2 is a game that really lets you get creative and doesn’t restrict them in any way. Hopefully you can take down the Shadow Client before it is too late.
Thoughts
Hitman 2 is less of a stealth game and is more an immersive-sim, and I really like that. Immersive-sims are known for their open sandbox nature and allowing the player to choose whatever means necessary to solve problems. I’ve played Prey, Dishonored 2, and BioShock all of which are incredible to some degree. Hitman 2 is a creative game and isn't afraid to use ridiculous means to solve sticky situations. Every mission has from what I remember a total of eight or more chances of opportunities each which gives them a good amount of replay value. Actually, the replay value is extremely high as players may aim to get the highest graded score possible. To be the best hitman in the world. The World of Assassination. Okay I should stop now.
There is a plethora of side content with one of them being the Elusive Targets. You go back to areas you were at before, but this time you can’t save and the methods to kill your target are unknown. The Elusive Targets test whether or not you learned the ins and outs of a level and if you are willing to carry out your goal no matter what. Their very nice missions and they change each month. I heard one of the targets was Sean Bean who is a British actor known for playing villainous characters who always get killed, so that’s pretty cool. The graphics are pretty good. I wouldn’t say they are as realistic as something like God of War or Uncharted 4, but they are serviceable. The environments are dazzling to look at and some of the locations you go to are absolutely beautiful. The game is roughly about ten hours long which is very short for a game like Hitman 2, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Plus, since all the levels are highly replayable it gives the player reasons to go through the game over and over.
Hitman 2 is a really good game and I can easily recommend it to anyone who is interested in stealth games or games full of creativity. I haven’t played any of the other Hitman games, but from what I can tell this is the best one to date. Now just because Hitman 2 is awesome doesn’t mean it is flawless. The gunplay and combat isn’t that great. It’s not terrible and it does what it needs to do, but due to countless enemies patrolling around you may get gunned down within seconds. Discouraging combat whatsoever. The story as mentioned earlier is very forgettable and doesn’t really matter when you are busy running around having a fun time assassinating people. Some missions can be save scum through if you heavily abuse the save and load options. Finally while I love how you are rewarded for playing carefully, Hitman 2 is a game that requires a lot of patience. Wait for information to unfold, wait for a character to come to where you need them to be, wait for more information to unfold, or wait for that chance to strike your foe. Some people may get turned off by how much patience is in Hitman 2, but I can deal with it because I wanted to be a badass agent lurking in the shadows. Overall, Hitman 2 is another amazing entry in a long running series of games, and I cannot wait to see where the team at IOI Interactive does next with Agent 47. In the end I am giving Hitman 2 an 8.5/10 for being pretty good.
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