Developer IO Interactive's latest trip to the Hitman universe is Hitman 3, and now that reviews for the game are going live, it seems like the most recent journey into the world of Agent 47 (and, narratively, the World of Assassination trilogy) may be the best yet. If nothing else, praise is certainly being heaped onto the game, with critics highlighting features that were already a series strength that have been pushed even further into compelling spaces.
Hitman 3 is the culmination of a trilogy of games from IO Interactive following Agent 47, a trained assassin who has been in gaming for over two decades at this point. Modern Hitman games are renowned for their ability to create interesting spaces that offer players a multitude of choices as Agent 47 pursues contract targets. Eliminating assassination targets in creative ways is a calling card of the series, but also not a limiting factor, as the games also support those looking to take more direct approaches - provided they're okay with the consequences. Hitman 2, the previous instalment in the trilogy, made waves for its level design but also found criticism for its limited scope, offering just a few environments total at launch.
While Hitman 3 doesn't appear to have solved that problem for those concerned about it, nearly everything else seems to be on-par with or better than what Hitman 2 offered. Hitman 3 reviews consistently cite the game's incredible depth of options as its big draw, while the environments are memorable and the gameplay smooth and easy to grasp. Even the Hitman 3 narrative is getting some love, which is a rarity in a series that has previously been considered fairly average when it comes to its story-telling. Here's a breakdown of what critics are saying about Hitman 3:
Christopher Teuton - 4.5/5 - Screen Rant
"Hitman 3 is the best game in IO Interactive's World of Assassination trilogy and quite possibly the best Hitman game in the entire franchise."
Kirk McKeand - 4/5 - TheGamer
"In our world, Hitman stands alone. There’s nothing like it, and Hitman 3 is an outstanding refinement of that unique 21-year-old recipe. Just watch out for that secret ingredient. (It’s poison)."
Cameron Corliss - 4.5/5 - Game Rant
"Hitman 3 is one of the best stealth games ever made. Those that have enjoyed the last two games in the rebooted trilogy will find more to appreciate here, while newcomers to the franchise will get a highly replayable romp through expertly crafted levels."
Luke Reilly - 9/10 - IGN
"Rich, rewarding, and highly replayable, Hitman 3 is a superb instalment of IO’s idiosyncratic but much-loved stealth series. The fundamentals haven’t changed since 2016 but its collection of outstanding maps makes for a refined, reliable, and robust curtain-closer to the current Hitman trilogy."
Jeff Grubb - 5/5 - VentureBeat
"Hitman is a world made up entirely of Chekhov’s guns, and it’s a blast finding out how to get Agent 47 into position to pull the trigger."
Neil Bolt - 9/10 - PlayStation Universe
"Hitman 3 closes out the World of Assassination Trilogy with developer IO Interactive in confident mood. Lessons learned from the past five or six years have worked their way into this splendid epitaph for a series that looked dead and buried more than once along the way. As with its predecessor’s, there are some lows to go with the highs, but those highs? They are truly something special and make the future of IO Interactive an exciting prospect."
Most critics seem to agree: Hitman 3 reviews near-universally praise the game's environmental design as the natural end-point of all the lessons IO Interactive learned from the first two entries into the World of Assassination trilogy. Praise for the breadth of options and their viability, which seems to be unencumbered even in ridiculous scenarios should the player go about things the right way, highlights the biggest strength of Hitman 3's analyses, which is its creativity. Critics are clearly impressed by how deep the rabbit hole of weird assassinations in each level goes, with several noting they're still finding options during their subsequent playthroughs.
The fact that several critics also reference further playthroughs is also an enticing reason to give Hitman 3 a look, as its replayability seems high. While the amount of levels it offers is perhaps the most frequent point of contention among critics - six certainly feels small, even if they're all as intricate as they seem to be - it doesn't appear like there's another unifying critique among analysts, which is a strong endorsement for the game's potential. Naturally, different players will get varying mileage out of Agent 47's adventures in elaborate assassinations, but if nothing else, it appears Hitman 3 is the best way to experience them, either for the first time or as a veteran - at least as far as early Hitman 3 reviews seem to be concerned.