The Hitman franchise has always been one I've held much love for. At their core, they're what I like to call "toybox" games. Video games that build a setting and world, then give the players a bunch of toys to experiment with. Essentially IO Interactive realizes that the variability is one of the biggest draws of the franchise. It's more open-ended than sandbox games that act like they're open, but guide you by the hand the entire way. There's only a small number of games that do this well, and Hitman is among them. Other examples would be Metal Gear Solid 5 or maybe Witcher 3. The most recent Hitman was released in 2016 and overall was well received. For the sake of confusion, throughout this article the title for the 2016 classic Hitman I'll be calling Hitman 2016. Its predecessor was Hitman: Absolution, which was a game pretty universally accepted as mediocre. Sure Hitman 2016 faced some setbacks such as its odd episodic release, the always online system, and it🐼's awful DRM.
But in generalꦆ, people look back𒁏 to it in fondness as it has so much to offer to the stealth genre.
Hitman 2 is "officially" releasing on November 13th but players who bought the Gold Edition get early access to it since the 9th. The reviews have come in and are pretty universal in their opinion. It's more of the same, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Hitman 2 is intensely similar to Hitman 2016 𝐆but there are some key differences. And to aid you in figuring those out here's The 15 Worst Things About Hitman 2 (And The 10 Best)
25 Worst - 🌟It's ꦐHitman 1.5
All reviews of this game so far agree that "It's more Hitman 2016, and that's great." Halfway through 2017, Square Enixಌ and IO interactive went their separate ways.
Likely Hitman 2 is only a sequel because they couldn't release it as Season 2 DLC for the original 2016 game.
But that's just speculation, what bothers me is just how exactly the same it all is. There are minor new features and additions to the mechanics, sure. But overall its a $60 version of some Hitman 2016 DLC. They didn't need to change the gameplay, but evolve on i🍰t in some way, at least.
24 Worst - Comౠplex Systems With Weird Hiccups
While most people are okay with the fact that Hitman 2 is similar to Hitman 2016, there are a few thin🐷gs that almost feel like a step backward.
Hitman 2 still only lets you hide bodies in specific areas as opposed to any closed area. Dumpsters and closets are your main hiding areas.
The crowds are still made up of "fake NPCs" ones that have a model and react to explosions but are ghosts in every other way. And the AI still completely breaks at times. These were all present in Hitman 2016 but now that this is an "off♍icial" sequel, it's odd that they are still present.
23 🥃 Wor🌌st - Completable In Less Than Ten Hours
Any fan who has ever played a Hitman title knows that most of the hours spent on the game are experimenting with levels over and oveꦛr again.
The mainline plot is pretty short and you'll be spending most of your time combing through all the content within each densely packed level.
Hitman 2 is the same. It's just really short if you bee-line it. The cine🧜matics has been turned into slideshows of artwork to save money, and the story is overall poor. Combine these two factors with the low amount of maps and you get a game that you "technically" beat in under 10 hours, regardless of how much content it has.
22 🌳 Worst - Only Six Maps
I'm a bit sick and tired of games that are focused around maps and environments releasing with so few of them. Just recently Super Mario Party r🍰eleased with 5 maps. That is a game entirely about the board♏s you play it in, and they release 5.
Granted the situation with Hitman 2 is most certainly not as bad as that. That is still about as many as Hitman 2016 had on release as well.
It's not awful considering each map is about as complex as solving a Rubix cube, but it's still decently small. Plus some of them feel like rehashes of ideas used in older Hitman titles.
21 🌠 Worst - Awful Plot
There are plenty of games renowned for their scripts and stories, Hitman is not one of them.
The games are a blast and have insane complexity beneath the surface. But their writing is also complex in the worst sort of way.
Hitman 2 is more of the same. The story this time around is full of more twists and turns than the California Hills. I won't spoil the story but there are some v🅺ery crucial plot twists that straight up rip off one of the Marvel movies. It's honestly odd 🐎to see awful campy writing in such a popular franchise.
20 🌄 ༒ Best - It Runs Really Well
Hitman 2016 didn't run poorly. It actually ran rather well on both consoles and PC. But it did have its fair share of wonky textures, r🤡agdoll mishaps, and framerate drops.
Hitman 2 is a very, very slight graphical upgrade on the first, but the more important aspect is that it runs better.
What that equates to is that you'll rarely notice any hiccups, but having an uninterrupted exper🅠ience is still a major positive. Especially with a game that has such a high amount of variables that could cause issues.
19 Worst - Slideshow Cutscenes ꧋
There's been a couple of games I truly adore that have some really awful money-saving tactics. Bayonetta 2 comes to mind first as 🧸it's one of my favorite games of all time, with some of the worst cutscenes known to man. Slideshow c🃏utscenes are a telltale sign of low budget or budget saving tactics.
Unfortunately, Hitman 2 has fallen prey to them.
Nevermind that the story in Hitman 2 has more twists than a Spanish Soap Opera, the cutsc🎃enes are just a slideshow. Essentially, ignore anyth💧ing that looks like a plot in this game, and you should be fine.
18 🍷 Best - The Maps Are Diverse And 😼Dense
Anyone who has played a Hitman game before will tell you, the best part about it is the replayability. And that replayability comes from the absolutely labyrinthian design to the maps. Each map has an incred꧒ible amount of complexity in the weapons, methods of target acquisition, dialogue, and🙈 variables to offer.
Hitman 2 is back with 6 maps that are incredibly diverse.
From a massively populated car race to the bustling streets of Dubai, there is an environment here for everyone. Sure six maps is a bit of a small number, but if you were to compare them to maps in any other game, you'd have to triple that amo🎃unt.
17 🧸 Worst - Bad Release Date
An🅠ot💝her huge misstep in the planning for this title is its release date.
Red Dead Redemption 2 has been in the minds of gamers for 10 years now, why would any AAA game release even remotely close to it?
Plus Assassins Creed Odyssey is still pretty fresh, and Smash Ultimate releases in less than a month! Hitman 2 just popped up with no advertising in a time where ever✃yone is saving up for these huge other games over the holidays. Hopefully, their sales oveℱr time will make up for it, but it just seems like incredibly poor planning on IO Interactive's part.
16 ♕ Best - Ghost And Sniper Modes Are W꧑elcome Additions
This time around Hitman 2 is including two additional modes that are actually quite unique. One is the Ghost multiplayer mode in which two players go after the same target♏s at the same time.
Players can't interact with each other but they are competing for points in the exact same instance of the level.
The other is Sniper mode where two friends can co-op an entire campaign solely looking down a sniper scope. It's obviously an evolution of the Hitman Sniper mobile game but in th🌳e best way. Both of these modes add tens of hours to your playtime an🐟d are welcome additions to the franchise.