Hitman 3

Developer/publisher IO Interactive Format PC, PS4 (tested), PS5, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series (tested) Release Out now

- 

There’s this feeling that settles in quickly, playing Hitman 3. Perhaps it hits immediately, as you look out from the world’s tallest building, sunlight bouncing off its exterior, a hot-air balloon bobbing along at eye level. Or maybe while you’re elbowing your way through another of the densest crowds we’ve ever seen in a videogame. It might even take until the second or third time the game upends the rules of how a Hitman mission can operate. Once it does, though, it’s hard to ignore the sense that IO Interactive is showing off.

It’s earned the right to. Starting with 2016’s reboot, the studio took a series with as much life in it as one of Agent 47’s victims and made it viable once more. The ensuing trilogy has won a new audience for these games, survived two changes of publisher and the studio being sold by its parent company – and now Hitman 3 is IO’s first self-published title. But if that’s led to a tightening of belts, you wouldn’t know it from these maps.

The game opens with the opulence of Dubai’s aforementioned Burj Khalifa knockoff, which proves no less impressive once you make it inside, all gilded architecture and glossy surfaces. The art installation at its heart is a particular treat, especially once you figure out how to wield it as an oversized murder weapon. Later on, the neon-lit streets of Chongqing provide another visual showcase, with drones and mind-control experiments dialling up the science-fiction elements to match the city’s cyberpunk gleam.