Agent 47 has been around the world and back again a few times over. Throughout the eight core games of the Hitman franchise (and two additional spin-offs), the bald, barcode-laden assassin has taken on work from China to New York and everywhere in between. Throughout those games, we've seen some clever takedowns, particularly in the most recent World of Assassination trilogy, brought to use by IO Interactive from 2016 and onward.
Anyone can shoot to kill, but it takes someone impeccably skilled at their craft to make a spectacle of eliminating their marks. In honor of Hitman 3’s recent debut, here are 10 of the coolest assassination moments from Agent 47’s three-game run with IO Interactive. Here’s to seeing the greatest assassin of all time returning in the near future once IO is ready to bring him back for another adventure.
Note: If you haven’t played through all three Hitman games just yet, beware of spoilers.
Hitman 2 - Mumbai, “A Close Shave”
When Agent 47 lands in Mumbai, he's tasked with taking down a target known only as the Maelstrom. There's no information on what he looks like, but you can find him when he visits the barbershop. He seems to spend a lot of time there. Aside from the hustle and bustle of Mumbai, which gives the city an exciting, organic feel, there are plenty of NPCs going about their daily schedules.
It feels as close to a "normal," everyday interaction as Agent 47 has with others, at least until the killing begins. One particularly entertaining way to start your assassinations is to steal a barber's outfit by killing off a few unsuspecting ne'er-do-wells. Then, it's time to engage in a slick kill that the Maelstrom will never see coming. Agent 47 offers him a shave once the target has been identified, and then proceeds to take Maelstrom's life. He never saw it coming, and 47 can slip out unnoticed if he plays his cards right.
Hitman - Sapienza, "World of Tomorrow"
Agent 47 travels to Sapienza, Italy on assignment for the ICA to destroy the prototype of a virus capable of infecting and killing anyone without a trace and then take down its creator and his assistant. Sapienza is a picturesque, gorgeous locale riddled with ways to eliminate both Silvio Caruso and Francesca De Santis but one of the most entertaining (and hilarious, if you can call it that) methods is pretending to be a ghost.
You just need to find out that Caruso has been traumatized then re-enact some of the ghostly events to make him freak out and think an actual ghost is haunting him and the rest of his family. Pull off one of the weirdest kills Agent 47 has ever accomplished as you take advantage of this scaredy cat's greatest fears, then take out his assistant shortly afterward. How you do that is up to you. There are a variety of different ways to accomplish your goal in Sapienza, but this might be the coolest and the most ludicrous.
Hitman 3, Chongqing: “Certainty Principle”
Agent 47 takes a trip to the picturesque megacity of Chongqing in China, where he strolls along the Yuzhong District. He infiltrates the high-tech ICA facility in "Certainty Principle," where he impersonates a new member of the organization in search of the nefarious Imogen Royce. Getting into the facility means 47 must steal a dumpling chef's clothes and sneak his way into a high-security ICA building with powerful security tech.
Once inside, 47 must complete a convoluted set of tasks that ultimately result in firing the correct employees from the organization in the right order. It’s all to have technicians fire up a machine that can evaporate all biological matter in the same room. It's a death trap Imogen has set of her own making, and hilariously so. As 47, you end up trapping Imogen in the same room after setting her up with an elaborate employee cherry-picking plot. After that, it’s toast for Imogen, as she’s burnt to a crisp, and you can move on.
Hitman 3, Dartmoor: "Death in the Family”
If you've ever seen the movie Knives Out or similar detective-centric flicks, you'll know huge family manors are the stage for some interesting and convoluted murder mysteries. Hitman 3's Thornbridge Manor is set in the rainy, overcast Dartmoor, England. Agent 47 must take out the matriarch of the family, Alexa Carlisle, but not before figuring out what happened to her brother Zachary, who was apparently murdered the night before. Agent 47 steals the disguise from a real detective assigned to unraveling the truth, and engages in an honest-to-goodness murder mystery that involves a number of Clue-like deductions to figure out which family member could be responsible.
That means chatting up the butler and potentially leaking information about him, or keeping your mouth shut about another guilty party and getting details from them to suss out the real killer. Once you have your evidence and find the killer, you can go after Alexa. After all that work, if you choose to, you can just push Alexa off of the balcony to her death. Brutal.
Hitman 2, Isle of Sgail: "The Ark Society"
When Agent 47 is tasked with visiting The Ark Society on the Isle of Sgail, he's met with a strange, cult-like group that's taken up residence on a massive island. Secret underground relics, treasure hunts, and a variety of different disguises combine to make for some of the most dramatic sets of kills 47 has ever completed. This is the final mission for Hitman 2, and all eyes are always on 47.
One involves him dressing up as the Master of Ceremony, which lets him pretend he's moving the cult's plans as well as its leader, no less. Using a series of distractions, 47 can eventually pick off the guards around him, sabotage a giant mechanism central to the ritual being performed, and then pretend everything is going as planned. As you watch everything burn before taking a swift exit, you can’t help but feel like you’ve accomplished something big...and hilariously foiled an underground cult’s plans.
Hitman 2, Hawke's Bay: "Nightcall"
Sometimes, you have to go back to where it all began. The very first mission of Hitman 2 takes place in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, at a massive, modern beachside house that belongs to one of the Shadow Client's top lieutenants. Nestled between dunes of sand, it's a gorgeous sight sitting plainly in the dark of the night, a massive dwelling that you need to infiltrate to take out your target, Alma Reynard. The way you take out this unsuspecting target is pretty simplistic, but the setting and the stormy-looking sunset outside juxtaposed with this modern house really sets the tone for Hitman 2.
Agent 47 can put rat poison in the sugar or honey, or regular, lethal poison in one of the containers. when Alma asks a guard to make some tea for her, you'll either find her throwing up in the bathroom or having died immediately. Either way, she's out of your hair, and all you have to do is escape. You get to spend much of your time during this mission marveling over how the other half lives, and how beautiful the environment is as well.
Hitman 3, Berlin: "Apex Predator"
As Agent 47 descends upon Berlin, you realize this is one Hitman 3 mission that's very much unlike the rest. For one, you don't have an assigned target. You do, however, get to wander through a nightclub after being prompted by some random man looking for his "allergy medicine." Club Hölle is a massive dance club in a forest outside of Berlin, erected in the remains of a nuclear facility. It's packed with undulating bodies and thumping techno floats all around you in an oppressive cloud.
Agent 47 is tasked with finding a series of agents he needs to take out, but they aren't highlighted in the crowd. Instead, it's your job to see if any of them give themselves away as "security" before they hunt you. You need to assassinate five of them and you can do this in a number of ways, including dragging them to an empty, shadowy corner of the club and knocking them out, stealing their uniform, and assuming their identities. How you progress through this mission is completely up to you, as it's bereft of any of the typical markers you'd be getting from other levels. It truly lets you "become" 47 in a variety of ways, so that by the end of your quest, you feel even more accomplished, having neutralized the agents on your trail with very little direction from the game itself.
Hitman, Paris: "The Showstopper"
The third mission of the original Hitman game (of the remakes) certainly doesn't disappoint, as it takes players to Paris at a lavish fashion show led by the brand Sanguine, a major couture brand in Europe. You'll need to take out Viktor Novikov, a high-fashion muckety-muck, and his partner Dalia Margolis, a retired supermodel. This power couple also happens to be extremely dangerous. That means you have to take care of them swiftly, but not before taking in all the Paris map has to offer.
It's a glamorous sight, with couture models, gorgeous runways, and the upper crust hanging out together in one place. So naturally, you're going to take out Viktor in the most humiliating way possible: drowning him in a toilet. It starts by making 47 dress up as a bartender and mixing Viktor's favorite drink, with poison added. Viktor will eventually stop by the bar and knock the drink you've prepared back, which will send him running for the bathroom. All you need to do is follow him in there, get past his bodyguard, and wait for him to start hurling. From there, push him into the swirling waters of the toilet. It isn't very fashionable, but it gets the job done. What a way to go.
Hitman 2, Miami: "The Finish Line"
If you've ever wanted to see 47 take some hilarious routes when it comes to knocking off his targets, this Hitman 2 classic is the way to go. Our favorite cueball travels to Miami to take out Robert Knox, the head of tech company Kronstadt Industries, as well as his daughter Sierra Knox. There also happens to be the annual Global Innovation race going on in sunny Miami.
What does that mean? Agent 47 gets to dress up as a mascot: a massive pink flamingo. After knocking a man out and stealing the costume, Agent 47 needs only to find Sierra and meet with her when she heads to somewhere relatively quiet, which she'll eventually do. From there, you just need to push her into a hole. That's what's called "racing to a conclusion," if you'll forgive the pun.
Hitman 3, Dubai: "On Top of the World"
There are few more opulent areas throughout the Hitman universe than setting foot in Dubai and the top floor of the massive Burj Al-Ghazali skyscraper. It's huge, and Agent 47 has a full run of the top floors as well as the outside to scale it above Dubai's impressive skyline. You've never quite seen a Hitman mission like this one.
There's plenty of deception and scurrying involved, including deactivating servers and even enacting a room lockdown, which eventually prevents others from entering the room where your target, Marcus Stuyvesant, a very vanilla mark, is located. But the real draw for Dubai is how absolutely gorgeous the level is. It's expansive, while remaining vertical, and a full-on thrill ride from start to finish. It's your first real look at exactly what Hitman 3 is capable of, and tackling it first is a reminder that next-gen Hitman has accomplished so much that its predecessors couldn’t. And that, fellow Hitman fans, is perhaps the coolest part of all.
