Hitman: World of Assassination

Hitman: World of Assassination is a trilogy of stealth video games developed by IO Interactive. The games serve as a reboot of the Hitman series. The first installment was released in the form of seasons with each level being released episodically.

Overall

 * 1) The games are now a full on sandbox (deviating from the previous games) meaning you can go about and complete the mission in any way you want.
 * 2) You no longer only have 7 saves per mission (nor is there a checkpoint system). Players can save their game anytime during missions, with Professional(Hitman)/Master difficulty being the only exception. Auto-saving is also available.
 * 3) Amazing graphics that get better with each new entry.
 * 4) Player's mission performance review is rated on a 5-star rating system, influenced by factors such as time is taken, the number of non-targets killed, whether the player was spotted, whether or not they have been recorded on camera, or if bodies were found.
 * 5) Great voice acting.
 * 6) Disguises work like they did in previous games deviating from Absolution.
 * 7) The story is pretty interesting as it involves Diana and 47 taking on the secretive and powerful organization known as Providence.
 * 8) Master difficulty (Hitman 2 & 3)/Professional difficulty (Hitman) allows you to complete the same assassination challenges, but with some changes.
 * 9) * You may only save once per mission. Autosaves are disabled.
 * 10) * All Opportunity/Mission Stories communication is turned off.
 * 11) * Getting spotted by cameras will affect your rating and score. Guards will also react to illegal actions recorded by cameras.
 * 12) ** NOTE: If you are recorded by a security camera, but the actions are not illegal, deleting the evidence will result in "No Recordings" and will not affect your Silent Assassin rating
 * 13) * NPCs are more receptive, and combat is very dangerous.
 * 14) * Ruined disguises cannot be taken from anyone killed in a bloody manner.
 * 15) * Many items are considered illegal when equipped.
 * 16) * Missions have been altered for a greater challenge.
 * 17) The cutscenes look amazing.
 * 18) Mission Stories (originally Opportunities) are introduced, which require multiple tasks to complete, eventually ending on target(s) assassination. These can be helpful in trying to get an idea on how to complete certain challenges.
 * 19) Instinct Mode returns from Absolution, but is this time used as more like an information gathering tool and not used to hide from guards.
 * 20) Contracts Mode returns allowing players to assign up to five NPCs as assassination targets, set requirements for how to kill them, and share their contract with other players to compete for high scores on.
 * 21) Along with Contracts is Escalation Contracts, which require the player to kill certain targets, while giving them a side objective along the levels as the difficulty ramps up. They are meant to be challenging, so certain requisites will change the number of guards, add security cameras, or make a person or group see through all or certain disguises, artificially affecting normal gameplay.
 * 22) Challenges return and now rewards the player with Mastery points.
 * 23) Mastery points are introduced which can earn players new items including new gadgets such as weapons, different types of poison and explosives, new agency pickup locations, or new starting locations.
 * 24) You are no longer are restricted to one starting location. With enough Mastery points you can unlock new starting points, some start with you already in disguise.
 * 25) The game will let you know if what you're holding is suspicious, illegal, and if you're trespassing like in the previous game.
 * 26) The games have over 100 hours of content and tons of replayability.
 * 27) Time-limited Elusive Targets are introduced, which are specialized contracts and will only surface once. These contracts made by Square Enix, have new stories, looks, and ways to complete the missions. Once the player dies, they can no longer play the Elusive Contract. However, Elusive Contract can be restarted at any point, except after the player killed the target, or begun combat or are hunted by hostiles. If a player fails to assassinate an elusive target before the mission expires, or alert the target and allow them to escape, the target will not return. Successful completion of multiple targets yields cosmetic rewards for the player.
 * 28) There are bonus missions including the Patient Zero campaign.
 * 29) You can now throw certain objects to knock out NPCs.
 * 30) If players who own one of the previous entries it will allow them to import maps, levels and their progress into the next entry.
 * 31) You can choose what outfit 47 can wear when going into a mission.
 * 32) IOI made some really good tributes to the classic games.
 * 33) * Agent Smith, a recurring character, is yet again trapped (and optionally rescued) in three levels.
 * 34) * Some disguises from the old games return as unlockable suits, including the Clown Suit from Blood Money and the Hunting Party Suit from Contracts.
 * 35) * Some of the missions are good, spiritual homages to classic missions, including Another Life (homage to "A New Life" from Blood Money) in Hitman 2 and Death in the Family (homage to "Beldingford Manor" from Contracts) in Hitman 3.
 * 36) * A secret bad ending for Hitman 3 pays homage to the very first game, Hitman: Codename 47.

Hitman 2

 * 1) Improves many aspects of Hitman from the mini-map, detection cursors, and even the optimization especially on console allowing the game to play at 60 FPS consistently.
 * 2) * It also added the feature to turn off certain mechanics like the mini-map and instincts.
 * 3) This entry reintroduces Sniper Assassin allowing you to play three different levels. It even comes with a multiplayer.

Hitman 3

 * 1) Adds VR as a feature and you can even play the maps from Season 1 and 2 in VR.

Overall

 * 1) As said, you can't retry Elusive Contracts and if you missed the contract you can't play it.
 * 2) Along with that, they didn't sell or input the cosmetic rewards from the Elusive Contracts to other missions, so if you want a specific outfit, you can't get it.
 * 3) Always Online-DRM: The challenges and progressions are only available if you're connected to the internet, meaning you can't complete challenges nor save the progress offline.
 * 4) The Switch version is only playable through cloud streaming due to hardware limitations.
 * 5) Some of the feats challenges are too cryptic since they don't even give you a hint as to what to do. For example, in Hitman the level "Club 27" has a challenge called "The Looking In The Distance", which requires you to shoot a golfer that is north of the hotel, but the only way for him to spawn is by killing the guy sleeping on the floor in room 207 and let the guards find the body.
 * 6) The titles of the WOA trilogy games are easy to confuse with the first three games in the series. Hitman 2 (2018) especially, as there was already Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002).
 * 7) The "complete collection" Hitman: Trilogy which only contains the regular missions of these games, and not Hitman 2 Expansion Pass nor Hitman 3 - Seven Deadly Sins together at once which ended up expensive for a World of Assassination "Definitive Experience".

Hitman

 * 1) The frame rate drops a lot when fighting against multiple people.
 * 2) If you have the physical release, you can't play the last mission: Hokkaido. This is due to the game taking up all the disc space meaning you would have to instead input a code that would allow you to play it, but if you bought a copy pre-owned then there is no way to. Fortunately, you can if you have Hitman 2.
 * 3) The Scarecrow challenge pack in the Freedom Fighters level is frustrating. The challenges require you to kill people in a particular way, have them or someone spot you killing them, and then return to normalcy afterwards. Most of the frustration comes from the design of the level since there is almost no isolated area for you to complete these since enemies are everywhere.

Hitman 2

 * 1) The remastered levels from Hitman have some noticeable glitches like fabric clipping.
 * 2) The cutscenes are not fully animated, but instead replaced with still images. This is due to IO wanting to save money after buying themselves out after Square Enix wanted to disband, making Hitman 3 IO's first independent game.
 * 3) The multiplayer shut down mainly because of the release of Hitman 3.
 * 4) Trophy/Achievements Hunters has to get the Expansion Pass separately (New York, Siberia & Haven Island) which the price is too steep ($40) for two Sandbox missions and one Sniper Assassin mission (on the latter).

Hitman
Hitman received generally positive reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic. Many reviewers regarded the game as a "return to form" for the series after the controversial release of Absolution in 2012.

Sales
Contrary to the developers' expectations, Hitman 's episodic format did not succeed commercially. Most of the players purchased the full-priced versions and the sales volume was significantly lower than the traditional boxed release. Due to market confusion over the game's episodic format, even when the game's development was completed, the retail version did not meet publisher Square Enix's expectations, causing it to divest from the studio. Hitman: The Complete First Season was the fourth-best-selling video game at retail in the UK during its week of release, behind Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), Grand Theft Auto V (2013), and FIFA 17 (2016). Despite the slow start, IO Interactive announced the game had attracted seven million players as of November 2017 and more than 13 million players had played the game by May 2018.

Accolades
Hitman was nominated for Best Action/Adventure Game at The Game Awards 2016 and Evolving Game at the 13th British Academy Games Awards. Video game publication Giant Bomb named Hitman their Game of the Year in 2016; the staff said, "2016 was filled with huge debuts, finales, and resurrections, but the surprise success of Hitman had us talking, sweating, cursing, and laughing more than any other game this year".

Hitman 2
Hitman 2 received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Reviewers agreed the game does not significantly deviate from its predecessor's formula but they enjoyed the general gameplay loop and its improvements. Some gaming journalists said the episodic model of Hitman helped players thoroughly explore each level and were disappointed IO Interactive abandoned this release strategy for Hitman 2.

Ghost mode had a divided reception; some reviewers said its design does not well complement the slow, methodical gameplay of the single-player campaign. Some reviewers, however, said it is a fun, satisfying experience. Some reviewers expressed disappointment Sniper Assassin had only one map at launch.

Sales
Hitman 2 debuted at tenth place in the UK's all-format sales charts. It was released in a competitive week that also saw the launches of Pokémon: Let's Go, Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Fallout 76. In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version sold 10,162 copies in its debut week, making it the week's fifth-best-selling retail game in the country. IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak said releasing the game so close to other blockbuster titles such as Red Dead Redemption 2 negatively impacted the game's sales. Hitman 2, however, recouped its development cost more quickly than Hitman had.

Hitman III
Hitman 3 received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

IGN gave the game a 9/10, writing "Rich, rewarding, and highly replayable, Hitman 3 is a superb instalment of IO's idiosyncratic but much-loved stealth series."

GamesRadar+ gave the game 4.5/5 stars, praising the "fun and imaginative murders, beautiful levels to explore, and incredible world-building" and calling it a "slick and entertaining conclusion to the trilogy".

GameSpot wrote: "What's good about Hitman—its level design and the creativity, experimentation, and exploration that affords—is great in Hitman 3."

Sales
It was reported on 24 January 2021, Hitman 3 had taken the No.1 position in the UK game boxed charts, with launch sales up 17% over Hitman 2. By April 2021, IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak stated that Hitman 3 had performed “300% better commercially” than its predecessor Hitman 2. As of November 22, 2021, Hitman 3 is now the most successful game from the franchise.

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