Hitman 3 (2021): The Review

Overview

Rich, rewarding, and endlessly replayable, Hitman 3 stands as a fantastic entry in IO’s distinctive and much-loved stealth series. The core formula hasn’t shifted much since 2016, but its lineup of exceptional locations turns it into a polished, dependable, and confident finale for the current Hitman trilogy. Six maps might sound light on paper, yet each one is massive and built for repeated runs, and even after several playthroughs, you’re unlikely to have seen every clever or unexpected way to pull off a hit. There isn’t a single dud among them. Agent 47 has been around for decades, but Hitman 3 ranks comfortably among his finest outings.

Score: 9 out of 10

The Positives ✅

Agent 47’s slow, methodical stealth, played out across dense, dangerous murder playgrounds, hits its peak here. It doesn’t reinvent the formula laid down in 2016 and refined in Hitman 2, but it doesn’t need to. This is a team that knows its tools inside out, and it shows in every deliberate step, every perfectly timed accident, every dumb guard falling for the same trick again.

The real stars are the maps, and they’re absurdly good. All six are visually striking, packed with detail, and confidently designed in a way that makes it genuinely hard to pick a favourite. From parachuting onto a luxury skyscraper in Dubai to prowling a rain-soaked, neon-drenched Chongqing, each location feels handcrafted to encourage experimentation, curiosity, and extremely bad ideas that somehow work. 

What really impressed me is how imaginative these spaces get without breaking the Hitman feel. A British manor turns into a murder mystery straight out of Contracts, a German rave pulses with atmosphere and chaos, and an Argentinian vineyard channels Blood Money nostalgia, only bigger, denser, and more lethal. And the finale? Completely different, genuinely surprising, and best left unspoiled. Trust me.

The assassination opportunities are where Hitman 3 really flexes. Some kills remix familiar ideas, sure, but they’re layered with enough buildup and misdirection to keep them fresh. There’s at least one kill here that’s both the funniest and most complex I’ve ever pulled off in the series, and another that’s so nasty it made me laugh out loud. Planning, patience, and hiding in plain sight still rule, and when everything clicks, the payoff is unmatched.

I also appreciate how unapologetically single-player this remains. Whether you like carefully following mission stories for clean, surgical hits or prefer improvising your way through mountains of unconscious guards in their underwear, the game accommodates both. The AI is still gloriously dumb, but that’s part of the charm. Hitman has always lived in this sweet spot between grim murder fantasy and pitch-black comedy, and Hitman 3 fully embraces that balance.

The Negatives ⚠️

For all its polish, Hitman 3 is also extremely safe. If you bounced off Hitman in the last five years, this won’t magically change your mind. There’s no bold reinvention here, no radical shake-up of controls, interface, or core mechanics. Everything feels familiar, sometimes too familiar, and the stiffness in movement and interaction is still very much present.

The one notable new addition, the camera, is… fine. You can hack switches, scan clues, and poke at the environment a bit more, but it never feels like a genuine game-changer. It’s useful, occasionally clever, and then immediately forgettable. It doesn’t meaningfully expand what you can do, it just gives you another thing to hold while trespassing.

The story, meanwhile, remains the weakest thread holding everything together. This shadowy conspiracy nonsense that’s been dragging on since 2016 finally wraps up here, and while it’s nice to see it end, it’s never been particularly compelling. The plot does its job, pushing you from location to location, but it’s completely inessential to why Hitman works. No one is booting this up for the lore.

There are also some technical and platform-specific headaches that dampen the experience. Progression carry-over and content imports, while conceptually great, feel messy depending on where you’re playing. PC players have to deal with the Epic Games Store shift, PlayStation users face odd download requirements, and nothing feels quite as seamless as it should for a trilogy that prides itself on cohesion.

And then there’s VR. It’s a novelty, not a revelation. The controls sit awkwardly between traditional and motion-based systems, shooting feels clumsy, and the whole thing can be disorienting in the worst way. It’s fun for a laugh, sure, but it’s absolutely not how Hitman 3 should be played if you value precision, or comfort.

The Experience 🎮

Personally, Hitman 3 had me grinning almost immediately. Just thinking about the sheer amount of chaos, comedy, and cruelty each map enables made me genuinely excited to replay them over and over. I’d wander into an area, overhear a conversation, spot a disguise opportunity, and suddenly lose an hour chasing a completely unnecessary but deeply satisfying plan.

What I loved most was that feeling of discovery. These maps constantly reveal new routes, hidden areas, and “oh wow, I didn’t know that was there” moments. I found myself deliberately moving slowly, not because the game forced me to, but because I wanted to soak it all in. The verticality, the lighting, the tiny environmental details, they reward curiosity in a way few stealth games manage anymore.

Pulling off a perfect assassination still delivers that unmatched slow-burn thrill. Listening carefully, timing movements, slipping through crowds unnoticed, and escaping without a trace made me feel clever in a way games rarely do. And when things went wrong? Improvising my way out of disaster was just as fun, especially knowing the game would happily let me clean up my mess, or make it infinitely worse.

I also found myself weirdly fond of the AI’s stupidity. Yes, it breaks immersion. Yes, it’s ridiculous. But it’s Hitman ridiculous. I’ve grown to love these oblivious guards and civilians over the years, and tricking them never stops being funny. The game understands this and leans into its own absurdity without shame.

By the end, Hitman 3 felt like the cleanest, most confident version of IO’s modern Hitman vision, and while it doesn’t push the series somewhere new, it perfects what’s already there. For me, that was more than enough.