Nerds That Geek Game Review: ‘Hitman 2’

Written by Scott Murray

Hitman 2 feels more like a massive level pack with a ton of patches than a true sequel, and that’s absolutely perfect.
 
The reboot of the Hitman franchise, released in 2016 and titled simply Hitman, was a beautiful playground of assassination and controlled chaos. Each level, released slowly over time as ‘episodes,’ was a massive sandbox filled with people and things, all of which could be manipulated as the player saw fit. Whether that was for comedy or killing, or just to see how far you could push the game before it fell apart, the levels in Hitman really felt like they were toyboxes - the longer you spent learning all their little secrets, the more wonderful glorious fun they would give back in return.
 
To that end, Hitman 2 is more of the same, with some improvements. But since the first game provided so many hours of fun, I was still playing it when the sequel came out, two years later, and that’s really all I could have asked for. You get a collection of new levels, each one even more detailed and full of fun than those in the first game, you get a bunch of new items and objects to play with, and you get some UI and Quality of Life improvements. Unspectacular, but delightful. Like eating a wonderful meal at a restaurant, then going back to that restaurant again for the same meal. You know exactly what you’re getting and that it will be the same as last time, but that’s exactly why you’re going back at all: the first time was so wonderful you simply want more. And, somehow, developer IO Interactive has actually managed to make it better while keeping it the same. The server remembers your name, and the presentation on your plate is done with just a little more care, so-to-speak.
 
In game that translates to a better UI that more clearly shows what your options are, how to do them, and the potential consequences. You get better descriptions for your items and tasks, and a cleaner view that presents information more clearly without feeling overbearing or taking up too much of the screen. The game is prettier, too, but largely in the details. The lighting is better and more nuanced, the variety of colors pop just a little more, and the environments react more realistically to your interactions with them. The NPC animations are more fluid, and there’s more dialogue for them to use, whether it’s mission-critical or just idle chit-chat. Load times are noticeably shorter, and the menus are easier to navigate.

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​My one quibble is, rather than releasing the levels over a time delay like they did with the first game, all of them are available to you from the start in Hitman 2. As a result, I feel myself pressured to finish them quickly and move on, rather than take my time to get to know each mission intimately and really squeeze every last drop out of it before playing the next one. I can always go back and wring them dry, of course, and I most certainly will. But it feels sort of like having all the courses of your meal placed on the table at once, rather than brought to you one by one to each be savored in turn. This is, as they say, ‘a personal problem,’ more a result of my own excitement than any actual fault in the game, but I feel it’s worth mentioning.
 
Alongside the returning Contracts and Elusive Targets modes adding longevity outside the story missions, Hitman 2 does come with a couple of major new additions: Sniper Assassin mode, where two players work together to coordinate their efforts to eliminate a variety of targets and accrue the most points while doing so, and Ghost Mode, where two players play on the same level at once and race to get a higher score. This mode earns its name from the ghostly nature of your competitor: although the two of you share a map, and affect each other’s worlds, you cannot interact directly. Instead your opponent appears as a see-through specter, to be observed but never touched. Both these modes offer a breath of fresh air between the single-player sessions, and I’m particularly excited to see what the online community manages to achieve with Ghost Mode.
 
In the end, Hitman 2 is exactly what I ordered: more of the same, with a few subtle improvements making my fun even more fun. I’m sure that, like the first game, I’ll easily get years of joy out of Hitman 2, and if Hitman 3 comes along and with more of the same, I’ll be eagerly lining up, hungry for more.

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