I said in my First Impressions article that I suck at puzzle games. The great thing about Hitman GO, is that it feels challenging, but fair. It’s a smooth criminal (sorry, MJ fan here), that slithers its way into your cold, cold heart.
How do you take a stealth action franchise and turn it into a board game? I’m not really sure, but Square Enix Montreal have somehow pulled it off: Hitman GO is a great mixture of chess and the lore of the Hitman franchise.
Gameplay starts very basic and remains so through the end: you are Agent 47, and you have a target. It may be to reach the end of the board, or kill a mark, but you reach these primary objectives (and the secondary ones, such as picking up briefcases), by moving through the board and avoiding the hand of death.
Enemies start simple enough: Just a dude pointing in a certain direction that you have to avoid. But Hitman GO’s antagonists aren’t one trick ponies: you then have the ones that turn around on every turn, and yet another ones that patrol a certain area. The enemy variety is just enough to keep you guessing, and it never feels forced.
You’re not completely gadget-less, though: from throwing cans to point enemies away from you, to trapdoors and even jackets to simulate being in the same “team” as a type of foe, the game is well sorted in terms of strategic aids to reach nefarious ends.
The music is barely there, except in very important stages (usually where there’s a “mark”), and sound effects are used sparingly. This is a board game after all, though, so rather than creating a void, it allow for concentration.
From a technical point of view, the game runs great. There are no framedrops that I can see (something I’ve complained about before regarding games that should not have this issue), and load times are lightning fast.
There are a trillion levels (not really, but quite a lot), divided into different boards, each one “themed”. Some boards are behind a “star system” wall, which is something I usually hate (I’m looking at you, Super Mario 3D Land). However, in Hitman Go, the requirements are not too high, and achieving them is not unreasonable.
All in all, I’m impressed by how much I liked Hitman GO. And I’m super happy to see that it has broken the stigma of games ported from mobile: I’m not the only one liking the game (it has a 5-star rating by users on the PSN store).
Now, we have to keep our fingers and toes crossed so that Lara Croft GO makes the jump to Vita as well.
Excuse me, I have a red tie to put on.
- Title: Hitman GO: Definitive Edition
- Publisher: Square Enix
- Developer: Square Enix Montreal
- Format: PSN Download
- Memory Card Space Needed: 1GB
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