Hitman 2 review: Accessible stealth oozing with style

Enlarge / Agent 47 stalking his prey.
Agent 47, the star of the Hitman series, is a man whose entire being is dedicated to one task. Every skill he has, every quirk of his appearance and personality, all of him exists for this singular reason: to find and kill any target assigned to him. He's the ultimate assassin. And Hitman 2 is the ultimate assassin simulator. Built on the work done on earlier titles by Io Interactive, especially the rebooted Hitman published by Square Enix in 2016, Hitman 2 is a singular destination for all the goofy, sneaky, and violent energy this series carries with it at its best.
It begins unassumingly on a beach with Agent 47 creeping through the tall grass like in any other stealth game. Once you reach the opening mission’s seaside resort home, though, the options spiral wildly. Soon you're hiding in closets, waiting for a target to reach the right location, juggling ideas about chloroform and bad ventilation systems with possible plans involving disguising yourself as a guard, and the nagging idea that, hey, maybe I could just throw her into the ocean…
This opening level is, in microcosm, the entire Hitman 2 experience. More than any other stealth game series, Io Interactive's stealth murder simulator is an ode to options. It’s a vast array of silly and inspired possibilities for causing mayhem, creating distractions, and, finally, slitting a victim's throat. Or blowing them up in their experimental race car. Or getting them to take a swing at an exploding golf ball, as the case may be.
Target history
The creativity and sheer excellence of Hitman 2 comes out of what is, all told, a fairly storied recent history. After its immediate predecessor, published by Square Enix, failed to achieve the sales numbers it perhaps deserved, Square Enix divested itself from Io Interactive entirely, leaving the now-independent company to work on shipping a sequel by itself. It was both a unique opportunity and an onerous challenge for Io: to create something that did justice to the long-running series with fewer resources than it has perhaps ever had.
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