Since its announcement at E3 a couple of months ago, all we’ve been hearing about Hitman 2 is tidbits about the fantastic looking Miami level and the ways we will be able to take down our targets. While fish-slapping and explosions are always good fun, it’s nice to learn that sunny Miami isn’t the only place we’re going to be worrying about.
IO interactive released a one minute teaser trailer for their new Columbia location, presumably taking inspiration from Codename 47, we’re heading to the jungles of Columbia to slink around the bushes and stealth take down our targets.
There’s a lot of things to be excited about in Columbia even though we don’t know the story reasons for heading there. It’s a nice change of pace from crowded streets and lively mansions, and seems to call back to levels from previous games based more in the wild. It’ll be nice to see 47 get some dirt under his nails for once.
Hitman 2 has added new stealth options in locations such as Columbia, in which you can hide among the bushes and tall grass. This foliage-based stealth will certainly be a game changer in life or death situations and will make 47 seem more like a hunter stalking his prey than ever.
Additional new items announced with the flashbang grenade which, when thrown, will temporarily blind your enemies within a certain radius and allow you to slip past them without any problems. There is also the concussion grenade, a tool presumably borrowed right from the belt of Bruce Wayne himself that causes the NPCS to take a bit of a lie-down. No word on how these will effect SA ratings.
Gameplay footage from Hitman 2‘s remastered levels of the first game reveal the new mechanics, such as security arriving on the spot if you are captured on camera doing something illegal (such as dragging a body, waving a weapon around, or just simply trespassing).
There are some features I’m personally doubtful will add to the game’s overall experience. Picture-in-picture mode not being optional turns me off from it. I personally never had a problem with a text based alert system and I can see this new feature becoming rather intrusive as you try to play through the levels.
Another new feature is changes to the menu from the first game, it seems like they’ve opted for a nostalgic return to a Blood Money-style menu. A small change, but a noticeable one. And though the new crowd blending feature looks fantastic and a step up from it’s debut in Hitman: Absolution, it seems a bit intrusive with the thick rimmed circle showing you which crowd is hiding you.
Hopefully Hitman 2 can prove me wrong about these features and end up being fantastic additions to the game and it’s experience, but only time will tell as we eagerly await its release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on November 13th.
