Hitman Go is Surprisingly Enjoyable - Preview
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 13 April 2014 / 3,885 Views
When Square Enix announced that a new entry in the Hitman series was releasing on mobile platforms, it's fair to say they turned more than few heads. Hitman Go is a departure from the third person action of the main series where your goal is to execute contract killings with discreet precision. In this spin-off, Agent 47 returns as a tabletop figure, and you move him along a grid one space at a time. It's certainly an intriguing concept, and I got to play through the first 10 missions on an iPad at Square Enix’s PAX East Booth.
Aesthetically, the world of Hitman Go is constructed as if it were a tabletop board game similar to Monopoly. The clean, suburban environments remind me of EA’s The Sims series. The environments are a mix of indoor and outdoor, suburban settings, with public parks, pools, and tennis courts all providing places for you to execute your targets.
The first mission was a simple tutorial meant to explain the basics of movement within the game. I simply slid my finger twice in order to move Agent 47 two spaces to the goal at the other side of the level. Things got increasingly more complex as new gameplay elements were layered on. Other human figurines added to the game board represented security that you must avoid and navigate around. If Agent 47 moves into the same space inhabited by another person he forcefully pushes them off the board. There aren’t any violent animations or resulting gore but the quiet implications of violence are quite effective nonetheless. If, on the other hand, you happen to step in the line of fire of another character they quickly run up to you and dash you off the board, forcing you to restart the mission.
There are objects such as bushes and walls you can hide behind. These help you evade and get around pesky bodyguards that can derail your mission. Other tools you can use include rocks found on the ground. You can toss these to distract enemies and force them to move towards the location the sound came from. Sometimes there will be a briefcase on the ground that you need to recover before progressing to the goal point.
The later stages become noticeably tougher, forcing you to think a few moves ahead in order to get passed all the obstacles in your way. Each stage comes with additional objectives such as completing the level under a certain amount of moves or without eliminating any enemies, and the number of these objectives you accomplish determines how many stars you get per level.
Purists may balk at the new direction and console fans may decry the increasing stranglehold mobile platforms are gaining on gaming’s most beloved franchises, but neither point diminishes the unexpected enjoyment I got from Hitman Go. It was surprisingly fun and mentally taxing, which I think could make it appealing to both fans and newcomers. As an added bonus, Square Enix handed out red ties to people who tried the game at their booth, so gamers can look as sartorially excellent as their favorite contract killer.
Hitman Go releases on the App Store this Thursday, April 17.
