Hitman arrives in 2016 as a game built for patience. Players who take their time with it find one of the richest stealth games in years. Those who rush through it may miss the point entirely. The game rewards observation, planning and the willingness to wait for the right moment. It is a slow burn in an era that often favors speed.
Paris and the Fashion Show
The first full mission takes place at a fashion show in a grand house in France. Agent 47 walks into a crowded space full of guests, guards and staff, each with a routine to learn. The level rewards close attention. Watch long enough, and a path to the target reveals itself.
This is not a small map with one trick. It is a dense space packed with side stories, disguises and chances to act. A player can spend hours here and still find new ways to finish the job. The house itself becomes a character, with its own rhythm and logic.
Few games this year build a space this carefully. The house feels alive, with people who move, talk and react to what the player does around them. A dropped item draws a stare. A wrong uniform draws suspicion. Every action has a consequence, and the game tracks all of it without ever showing the strings.
The Italian Town
The second stop may be the best level Hitman offers. It takes place in a small town on the coast of Italy, with a church, a market, a private house with hidden rooms below it, and streets that all connect in ways that reward walking around and looking closely. The mission design gives players many paths to the same end, and almost all of them feel rewarding.
Here is what makes this level work so well:
- The map rewards curiosity, not repeated study of a fixed pattern.
- Many approaches lead to the same target without one feeling like the correct answer.
- Small details, such as words overheard between two guards, point toward new chances to act.
The town is large enough to get lost in, yet every corner has a purpose. A player who spends real time here will find things missed on a first pass. The level also makes clever use of vertical space, with rooftops and balconies offering alternate routes that change the feel of the approach entirely.
The Desert City
The third main level places Agent 47 in a busy walled city, moving between a large official building and a school close by. The level is smaller in size than the Italian town, and the pace feels tighter as a result. The setting shifts from the relaxed coastal streets to a more tense, guarded environment where every corner feels watched.
It still works, though it lacks the scale and openness that make the second level so memorable. Guards move in tighter patterns here, and disguises matter just as much, but there is less room to roam and plan. The mission also introduces a stronger sense of urgency, with targets that move on schedules and windows of opportunity that close quickly. This change of pace keeps the game from feeling repetitive, even if the level itself does not reach the heights of its predecessor.
The Hotel, the Compound, and the Hospital
The remaining levels close out the season with mixed results. One takes place in a large hotel and leans on strong writing for its characters, though the space itself is smaller than earlier levels. Another is set at a walled compound in the American farmland, and it leans more toward open conflict, with fewer disguises and more direct action, a shift that feels out of step with the rest of the game. The last level returns to stronger form, set inside a hospital that hides a strong twist near its end.
None of these levels reach the heights of the Italian town or the fashion show, but each still offers reason to return and try again. The hotel level, in particular, stands out for its memorable cast of characters, each with their own stories and secrets to uncover. The compound level, while less stealth-oriented, still gives players room to experiment with different loadouts and tactics. The hospital level brings the season to a close with a satisfying puzzle that ties together threads from earlier missions.
Timed Missions
Hitman was released across 2016 in parts rather than all at once, a choice that drew complaints when the game launched. Waiting between releases tested patience, and splitting one game into pieces felt, at times, like a choice that did not fully pay off. The episodic structure was a gamble, and not everyone was willing to wait months for the full picture.
But this same choice let the studio behind the game, IO Interactive, add new content between releases. Among these were timed target missions that could only be attempted once. Miss the shot, and it is gone for good. These missions were not simply re-skinned versions of existing levels; they introduced new characters, new story beats and new challenges that could not be found anywhere else in the game.
That single detail changes how a player approaches every choice. The knowledge that a mission will never return forces a different kind of focus. It is not about getting a perfect score or finding the most elegant solution. It is about making the most of a single chance.
This gave the whole game a rare sense of weight. A missed shot in these missions is not simply a chance to try the level again from the start. It stays missed, and the player must live with that result. That permanence is rare in games, and it makes every decision feel more significant than it otherwise would.
The Disguise System
The disguise system remains at the center of the whole experience. Put on the wrong outfit and walk into the wrong room, and guards take notice right away. Put on the right one, and doors open that would otherwise stay shut. The game asks players to think before they act, and it punishes carelessness in ways that feel earned rather than cheap. The system is simple on its surface, but it creates a constant tension that drives the entire game.
A feature called Opportunities guides players toward specific ways to reach a target, and this helps those still learning the game without taking away the freedom that longtime players want. Turn this feature off, and the game turns into a much harder puzzle, one where every clue must be found by watching and listening. Turn it on, and the same mission becomes a smoother, if less demanding, walk through the same space. The choice is always there, and the game respects both styles of play.
Both ways of playing feel valid. That balance is one of the game’s strongest achievements. It allows newcomers to ease into the mechanics while giving veterans the challenge they crave, all within the same framework.
Agent 47
The story connecting these missions stays thin throughout. Agent 47 works for a hidden group of hired killers, chasing targets tied to private companies, government figures and one shadowy figure pulling strings from behind the scenes. Between missions, short scenes explain just enough to move things forward, but they are brief and plain rather than memorable. The narrative never gets in the way of the gameplay, which is likely the right call.
That is fine. The missions carry the game, not the story wrapped around them. Agent 47 himself remains a quiet, blank figure, more a tool for the player than a character with his own voice, and the game seems to know this and does not try to force more on him than the part requires. His silence is not a flaw but a feature, allowing players to project their own intentions onto him.
Hitman is, in the end, one of the strongest entries in its own series. Its levels, especially the Italian town and the opening mission in France, offer a level of design rarely matched elsewhere in 2016. The choice to release the game in parts may have tested patience at launch, but the finished game, taken as a whole, rewards the wait it asked of players. Each level builds on the last, and the season as a whole forms a cohesive and satisfying whole.
