With the trilogy now done, it’s time to share our experience with game, did it live up to your expectations? This thread will be place where we can share our overall thoughts on H3.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
0 voters
My review
H3 was the Hitman game I looked the least forward to overall, coming off from a strong start with H16 going into H2 which felt more like a glorified DLC and the same can be said about H3. Yet it was the game in the trilogy that surprised me the most and I didn’t actually count on liking it as much as I did.
Dubai - On Top of the World
Was the level I looked least forward to, thinking I would find it as forgettable as I found ‘The Showstopper’ from H16. However the level quickly surprised me for the better, with it’s gorgeous level design, it felt very much in the tone of the previous levels from WOA trilogy and for me it elevated the experience and was a very strong first impression.
Dartmoor - Death in the Family
Upped the stakes and was a total shift in tone from the over luxurious setting of Dubai with it’s gold and black marble. This level was set in a gloomy almost marsh area where a Mansion stood tall and broke the depressing scenery. I couldn’t stop thinking about the Dead Marshes from Lord of the Rings, but instead of dead Elves, Men and Orcs there was a Mansion with a mystery to be solved. I of course choose to play the role of the Detective, solving the murder and later committing a murder. I have never used that much time in a Hitman game avoiding killing my target, to instead solve it. I took the role very serious, so serious that I didn’t finish asking all the suspects before Alexa died in front of my eyes, being killed by the murder I was looking for. If this had been L.A Noire, I would have failed the objective. Here I won, without even trying to. That said, I was lucky that I had a save that predated this scenario with around two minutes to spare. I loaded it up, rushed over to the murder and questioned her, getting the info I needed, raced to the Butler and cutting Alexa short from drinking poison. Well sadly in her case, it did not save her from death by my hands. Much like her older brother she had an awful accident.
Berlin - Apex Predator
Oh boy this was a ride and it totally blind sided me. It was never a level I truly looked forward to, thought it would be good. But nothing special, the slow start walking from the Gas Station, tracking Oliva and the mess she left behind made me warm more up to the level.
Then stumbling upon Agent Price it soon dawned on me that this was a target and a target who wanted to kill me as much as I wanted to kill him. Yet I couldn’t truly believe it, in the same vein as if someone called to inform me I won a million dollars (not that I can compare the two, I have yet to win a million). But to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, I excitedly ran straight past him and soon felt the sweet feelings of bullets raining upon me. I quickly reloaded, in which I stabbed Price and took his earpiece. Soon after the hunt began and once again for the first time in this trilogy I felt like a Apex Predator.
If you haven’t figured out by now, these kind of levels have always been my favourite Hitman maps, all from ‘Temple City Ambush’ to Absolution’s ‘Hunter and Hunted’. This level felt the most natural and closest to the Hitman experience that I grew up with and truly wanted out of this trilogy. Unlike other levels 47 had agency and there was no information to go on, no hand holding, no objectives other then to track down the ICA Agents. It’s a level that let’s you figure out things for yourself and easily became the best level in the trilogy for me. I felt like this level was written especially for me and the gods knows that I been talking about missing armed targets since H16. I have yet to explore the hole map, I have yet to truly explore the lower level, other then taking a couples of screenshot.
Chongqing - End of an Era
This was the level that I looked the most forward to and the level that sold me on the game. Yet sadly I was also the level that to some degree disappointed me the most. I didn’t really enjoy Hush’s fortress and felt it was too restrictive and I felt a lot of the city setting was wasted. That said I believe that playing the level more and getting to know it, will improve my experience with it. I do love the level and it’s great, yet I over hyped myself for this level and therefor it feel short.
Mendoza - The Farewell
I loved the dynamic with having Diana inside the game, yet my first impression wasn’t that magical. I felt the game was a bit to open and empty. I choose to follow the mission story, where you take part in the vine tasting and Yates conspires to kill Diana. It was a very enjoyable mission story, however it did cost me my Silent Assassin rating. So I moved on from the level and continued to the final. Then I revisited the level today to get that SA rating, I choose to do SOSA run and exploring the level without relying on guided mission stories. It enhanced the experience and opened up the level so much more then my initial experience. Yet it was also the level with the most bugs, with teleportation guards. Knocked out guards being found, that I hadn’t touched.
It was a beautiful mission, not just because of the setting. But also the dance with Diana capped off the experience and the beauty of the overall setup.
Carpathian Mountains - Untouchable
This level is clearly an epilogue and doesn’t really live up the rest of the episodes, I found it rather dull and limiting. Yet the pay off with the Constant made it worth it, having two choices and one hidden. That said I also come to realise with some help that my approach to the level might have been wrong. Instead of trying to play it as a traditional level, which can still be done. I should have treated it like the ‘Mile High Club’ mission from Call of Duty MW. Used it as an excuse to rain bullets upon everyone in the train. Just like trying to play Blood Money’s ‘Requiem’ stealthily wouldn’t be as rewarding then letting lose, killing everyone. Everyone was a witness and I should have treated them as such.
The Narrative
I actually believe that H3 elevated the plot from the previous two games, I really enjoyed the story and development of 47 character. That said there was elements that I didn’t pay off for me, like Lucas Grey’s death, it felt two soon and didn’t have the impact I hoped for, yet I might feel different when replaying the hole trilogy as one experience. I loved the way the integrated more linear story sections into many of the missions, I felt it was a great balance between Absolution at times overly forced narrative and Blood Money’s here a level do something approach. It felt like IO finally found a middle ground worked for the series and still keeping it’s identity.
Diana’s “betrayal” was also very obvious, well of course it was. They directly told us she would through her cut scenes with the Constant, yet there was a point where I was unsure if she actually had left 47 to die. Doing what she couldn’t do in Blood Money, I didn’t see it as a ripoff of either Blood Money or Absolution, but rather a homage that paid off for me. Overall the story is at best second rate Bond spy conspiracy nonsense, yet I felt it was believable inside the world of Hitman. A world where we started out with an evil scientist and a Nazi’s wet dream.
My overall score is at the moment a 9. I might change with time, might go up and might go down. But this was the Hitman game I wanted from the start and I’m glad that the trilogy ended on this note.
Gameplay
Not much have changed, other then a new gadget that played into level design. However it felt more tight, more responsive and “fresh”. Small changes like being able to walk slow, on PC was a nice addition.
Sound design
It’s easy to hear that they expanded on their sound stage. Small changes that I hadn’t even thought off as important, but the fact that when dragging a body over a plastic sheet on a floor it made a different sound and it stopped when body came in contact with the floor beneath the plastic. The Ambience of gun shoots reacting to the environment was also an improvement over the previous titles.
Soundtrack
It was there, to me it wasn’t memorable. Sorry Niels Bye Nielsen. it’s not bad, but it never managed to set itself apart, it never got going for me. It felt to generic and could have been used in thousand Hollywood action blockbusters.
I’d play that