Hitman 2 Review

The first thing Hitman 2 does is let you carry the 2016 levels forward into it if you own them, which sets the terms. This is less a sequel than an expansion of one enormous machine, and the six new maps are the strongest set the series has produced. Miami stacks a motor race on top of a technology company's rot and gives you a grandstand of noise to disappear into.

Mumbai is a vertical maze of tenements, a film set in an unfinished tower, and a rail shed, with one target you have to identify before you can touch. Whittleton Creek turns a suburban cul de sac into a murder mystery where the neighbors gossip you toward the answer. Crowd blending finally makes dense spaces usable, and the picture in picture alert camera fixes the oldest frustration in the series, which is not knowing who has clocked you.

Where it stays flat is presentation. The engine is visibly older than its 2018 competition, and the Shadow Client plot is scaffolding for the levels rather than a reason to finish the game. Nobody plays these for the cutscenes. They play them because a single map holds a hundred small conspiracies and a first run finds maybe a dozen. As pure level design this is the high point of the trilogy.