Upcoming stealth shooter Hitman 3's launch trailer has officially been released, heralding the triumphant return of Agent 47 and IO Interactive's self-styled World of Assassination. The trailer features 47 wielding his usual vast arsenal of weapons to take down hits in perfectly-timed slow motions shots in highly detailed settings, giving a gorgeous cinematic glimpse of what players can expect when the game releases on January 20.
Hitman 3, the eighth main-game installment in developer IO Interactive's acclaimed Hitman series and the third and final installment of its reboot trilogy, takes up where Hitman 2 left off. Players will assume the role of Agent 47 in chasing down targets across six geographical locations, including Dubai, Berlin, and Chongqing, before wrapping up his storyline, possibly for good. IOI has recently signed a deal with MGM and Eon Productions to work on a game focusing on legendary British spy (and cash cow) James Bond, so it's also likely that Hitman 3 will be the last installment in the ongoing series for the foreseeable future.
But the launch trailer, released today by IO Interactive, demonstrates that IOI is sending Agent 47 off in style, with gorgeously rendered character models and environments that show off the incredible graphical power of current-gen consoles. Players who have already checked out the game's opening cinematic will recognize a few of the early scenes in Saudi Arabia, before 47 is whisked off to to a variety of different locations: whether it's across the golden dunes of Dubai, the glowing streets of Chongqing, or the lush greenery of Dartmoor, every locale has been painstakingly rendered in incredible detail, so that watching Agent 47 skillfully dispatch his targets with his usual stoic professionalism is a thing of beauty:
While watching the trailer is a bittersweet experience, knowing that it's heralding the last installment featuring Agent 47, it does carry the promise that Hitman 3 will be a fitting finale for the man considered to be one of the biggest badasses in gaming history. This is reassuring, considering that the title has already garnered some controversy ahead of its upcoming release, which IOI is already working to address, and frankly, 47 deserves the best.
Although it's impossible to glean how good a game actually is from its trailer, at the very least, the Hitman series encapsulates what IOI has learned from its 20-year run, including the lessons it took from the far-less successful Kane and Lynch series. So while there will be a certain sense of loss in the wake of the World of Assassination arc and 47's storyline's finally wrapping up, it's reassuring to know that those lessons will carry over in both the upcoming Bond game, and more importantly, to the assassin who takes up 47's mantle in Hitman's future.
Hitman 3 will be available for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on January 20, 2020
Source: IO Interactive