Hitman: World of Assassination Review

IO Interactive stopped selling three games and started selling one. World of Assassination gathers every location from Hitman, Hitman 2 and Hitman 3 under a single launcher, and the result is the deepest stealth sandbox in the medium. Each map is a clockwork machine: a fashion show in Paris, a coastal villa in Sapienza, a skyscraper in Dubai, a murder mystery in a Dartmoor manor.

Guards keep schedules, disguises open doors, and a dozen scripted opportunities sit beside the hundred improvised ones a patient player finds alone. Mastery is the point. Replaying a level with new starting points, challenges and escalations turns memorisation into a craft, and the Freelancer mode added in 2023 bolts a roguelike campaign on top, with no saving mid-mission and a safehouse to build up between contracts.

The Glacier engine draws dense crowds and handsome light, though the oldest maps show their age beside Hitman 3's best work. The story that carries Agent 47 from the first game to the last is serviceable spy fiction told between missions, and it matters far less than the playground. Too much of the progression still depends on an online connection. Few games reward curiosity this generously.