There’s this feeling that settles in quickly, playing Hitman 3. Perhaps it hits immediately, as you look out from the world’s tallest building, sunlight bouncing off its exterior, a hot-air balloon bobbing along at eye level. Or maybe while you’re elbowing your way through another of the densest crowds we’ve ever seen in a videogame. It might even take until the second or third time the game upends the rules of how a Hitman mission can operate. Once it does, though, it’s hard to ignore the sense that IO Interactive is showing off.
It’s earned the right to. Starting with 2016’s reboot, the studio took a series with as much life in it as one of Agent 47’s victims and made it viable once more. The ensuing trilogy has won a new audience for these games, survived two changes of publisher and the studio being sold by its parent company – and now Hitman 3 is IO’s first self-published title. But if that’s led to a tightening of belts, you wouldn’t know it from these maps.
The game opens with the opulence of Dubai’s aforementioned Burj Khalifa knockoff, which proves no less impressive once you make it inside, all gilded architecture and glossy surfaces. The art installation at its heart is a particular treat, especially once you figure out how to wield it as an oversized murder weapon. Later on, the neon-lit streets of Chongqing provide another visual showcase, with drones and mind-control experiments dialling up the science-fiction elements to match the city’s cyberpunk gleam.
Denne historien er fra April 2021-utgaven av Edge.
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Denne historien er fra April 2021-utgaven av Edge.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
BONAPARTE: A MECHANIZED REVOLUTION
No sooner have we stepped into the boots of royal guard Bonaparte than we’re faced with a life-altering decision.
TOWERS OF AGHASBA
Watch Towers Of Aghasba in action and it feels vast. Given your activities range from deepwater dives to climbing up cliffs or lumbering beasts, and from nurturing plants or building settlements to pinging arrows at the undead, it’s hard to get a bead on the game’s limits.
THE STONE OF MADNESS
The makers of Blasphemous return to religion and insanity
Vampire Survivors
As Vampire Survivors expanded through early access and then its two first DLCs, it gained arenas, characters and weapons, but the formula remained unchanged.
Devil May Cry
The Resident Evil 4 that never was, and the Soulslike precursor we never saw coming
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
With Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare has made a deeply self-conscious game, visibly inspired by some of the best-loved ideas from Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
SKATE STORY
Hades is a halfpipe
SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION VII
Firaxis rethinks who makes history, and how it unfolds
FINAL FANTASY VII: REBIRTH
Remaking an iconic game was daunting enough then the developers faced the difficult second entry
THUNDER LOTUS
How Spirit farer's developer tripled in size without tearing itself apart