Hitman Episode Two “World of Tomorrow” Review: It keeps getting better

In my review of the new Hitman’s starter pack and its first mission “Showstopper”, I praised it for its wonderful sandbox and replay value while acknowledging some of its technical issues. In doing so, I expected more of the same fun gameplay in the second episode, titled “World of Tomorrow” set in the picturesque Italian coastal town of Sapienza, while hoping that some of the technical problems would be fixed. What I ended up getting in the end was a pleasant surprise served with a side of mild disappointment. Fortunately, the positives outweighed the negatives.

Once again Agent 47 is tasked with the elimination of two targets; first, there’s Silvio Caruso, an eccentric bio-scientist working for the Ether Corporation. While his earlier work was of the “saving mankind” variety, he’s appeared to have developed psychological issues after starting work on developing a virus which can be used to eliminating specific individuals by targeting their DNA. Then there’s his second in command with a hidden agenda, Francesca De Santis, who is fully capable of carrying on Caruso’s research if he was to turn up dead. Complicating things further is the virus prototype itself, stored in a secure underground lab located beneath the sprawling mansion that houses both of 47’s targets. It needs to be destroyed. After all, who will employ the Agency or 47 if they had access to a magic kill-anyone bullet?

In addition to the mansion and the underground lab, a large portion of Sapienza can be explored—not simply to bask in its beauty, but to discover opportunities, individuals and items which could be leveraged to carry out 47’s task. From its narrow, uneven cobblestone streets to its beach, small luxury retail stores, piers, seaside church, al fresco cafes and numerous underground entrances, Sapienza is a great change of pace from the first episode’s Paris.  It’s the sort of setting 47 blends into without sticking out like a sore thumb in his starting disguise; an Italian suit which seems to lack the integral components of a suit, such as tie and jacket.

There are a variety of angles to explore and exploit in World of Tomorrow—more so than in Showstopper. There’s such a dramatic shift in scenery within the level itself, taking 47 from the streets of Sapienza, to small apartments, a church basement, luxurious living quarters, a golf course and a secret underground lab. Sapienza also does a better of job of portraying character traits of the main targets as well as other NPCs. For instance, Silvio is introverted, mentally unstable and extremely paranoid—he’s going to be suspicious of 47 even in most “correct” disguises. Francesca is clearly a confident woman who values her professional career over all else. She’s willing to sink to any length to get what she wants—will 47 be able to effectively pose as a potential love interest, or as a detective who is willing to do some dirty work for her?

Like its predecessor, the key to getting the most out of 47’s Italian adventure is to replay it several times. There’s a wide spectrum of difficulty settings—from the easy guided approach (a great starting point, nonetheless), to complex assassinations, such as triggering Silvio’s evacuation and shooting down his plane with an antique cannon. The new Hitman does a wonderful job of giving you a sneak peek into the various possibilities through the Challenge cards. For the full experience, players can turn off hints and tooltips altogether, creating room for unhindered exploration.

You could argue that Hitman forces its players to replay its missions for lack of content or story progression. For me, personally, my biggest regret in older Hitman games was the fact that I didn’t replay missions enough to explore all the opportunities. However, its episodic nature does adversely impact the pace of storytelling, and some players who want to blaze through its story and then replay missions might find its current format not ideal.

A few issues cropped up in Sapienza which didn’t seem to affect my experience with Paris, however. First, the always-online nature of Hitman meant that I did get a bit concerned when my internet had a little hiccup. Fortunately, my progress was not affected since this was so brief that the game was able to reconnect, but I can imagine that this is likely to cause wasted progress for anyone with an unstable connection. I don’t see how it is impossible in this age to not have a system of syncing offline and online progress unless the sole intention of the current system was to have some kind of DRM in place.

Second, there is an odd bug which causes incapacitated NPCs to die randomly. Since this affects your score at the end of a level, and assuming you’re not a savegame-spammer, this is terribly annoying. Finally, the PC version sports very inconsistent frame rates, particularly in outdoor locations. Granted, there is a lot of detail to render, but the drops seem ridiculous (sometimes from 60+ to below 30fps).

While the second episode is an improvement over the first in a lot of ways (contained storytelling, opportunities and exploration), some cracks are showing. IO Interactive should definitely be concerned and take steps to ensure that future episodes don’t have such technical issues.

RATING: 8.5

What’s Good

An even better sandbox than the first episode

Dramatic shifts in scenery

Great assassination opportunities

Improved storytelling

What’s Bad

Random NPC deaths

Performance problems persist