Collecting My Thought on Hitman 2 (2018)—Unfollowable

What is Hitman all about? It's a question that has stayed on the back of my mind ever since I demoed Hitman 2 five years ago. It was my first interaction with the franchise and now I have learned that this is actually not the second, but seventh Hitman game since the franchise began in 2000. So now that I've played a game in full, what is it all about? Big crowds, myriad disguises, lavish set pieces and spectacular ways to murder. It all sounds fun, and it was, though I couldn't help but feel an unsettling discordance through it all.

Agent 47 and his ICA handler Diana Burnwood is caught in an invisible war between an individual known as the Shadow Client and the organisation of secretly powerful individuals he is hunting known as Providence. The Shadow Client has had Burnwood and 47 eliminate members of Providence one by one in the previous game. In quite the turning of the tables, the controller of that organisation, the Constant, has now reached out to Burnwood to have her track down the Shadow Client in exchange for information on 47's wiped past. Now, 47 is tasked with crippling the Shadow Client's network of associates in the hopes of exposing the mysterious figure to a coup de grace.

The overarching narrative is told through moody, quasi-still vignettes between levels. This was an effective and stylish way of doing so if not for the flat-at-times voicework for some of the characters (especially Answering Machine 47). Within each of the several wonderfully grand levels, there were good attempts at creating detailed storylines to supplement gameplay and reveal outlandish methods of killing. But often these were borderline unfollowable or even undiscoverable, and the most reliable and highest-scoring way to kill a target usually came down to quick suffocation or silenced headshots. Because of this, the game never felt like it neared its true potential and came off more repetitive than intended. It definitely seems the case here that the money's worth is in the replays, if one had such time and patience.

#FavouriteLevel The Finish Line. Assassinations at a motorsport event is quite a bold undertaking.

#FavouriteName Ort-Meyer.

#FavouriteOutfit P-Power. Taking his disguise also meant taking his tattoos apparently.

#SequelNeeded With that abrupt ending? Yes. It was an interesting plot point which calls for resolution, but it felt more appropriate as a buildup to a climax, which the game lacked.