In a follow-up to it’s acclaimed predecessor HITMAN™, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and IO Interactive have announced that HITMAN™ 2 will be released on 13 November 2018, for PS4 and Xbox One.
As we’ve come to expect from the HITMAN™ franchise, players will be taken on a global adventure across a mix of bustling international locations, including a vibrant Miami setting with the colorful ambiance of an in-progress motor-sport race bringing a new backdrop to the series. From sun-drenched streets to dark and dangerous rainforests, each intricate location provides multiple paths to discover and unparalleled game depth. I don’t know whether got Singapore or not lah but maybe there’s an assignment to snuff some weapons dealer on a yacht docked at Sentosa cove. Ok, let’s not be greedy. Geylang back-alley also can.
What’s new?
HITMAN™ 2 will feature entirely new hyper-detailed sandboxes. These living, breathing environments will offer players the freedom to plan the ultimate assassination by utilising an assortment of tools, weapons, disguises and a variety of stealth techniques to creatively trigger their own unique chain of events.
One aspect of HITMAN™ 2 that’s getting a lot of hype, is the Sniper Assassin mode where you can solo as Agent 47, or Co-Op with a friend. Sniper Assassin is a standalone feature that is currently available as an early access bonus for pre-orders of HITMAN™ 2 Standard, Gold or Collector’s Edition. Now you can jio your friend to go shoot people.
HITMAN™ 2 – Sniper Assassin Mode
The premise is simple but seebei addictive. You pick your mission (at the time of this writing there’s only “The Last Yardbird”), and the kind of weapon and equipment you want to use. You have 3 types of rounds to switch around in-game depending on the situation. After that you get a nice little brief from your handler about what to do.
So now you’re perched out there like a hawk with your sniper rifle and can begin to start taking out your targets one by one in this wedding setting. If you’re anything like me, you’ll realise damn quickly that shooting people anyhow isn’t going to get you very far in this game. Although I must admit, I had fun shooting the gardener, chauffeur, random chef at the helipad and some dude that looked like a bodyguard but was actually a butler. Even though it resulted in me racking up a -12,000 point penalty.
Successful completion of the mission actually requires quite a bit of planning in advance. You have to keep your kills tactical or your targets will be alarmed. The possibilities are quite varied, like shooting near a window to lure your target over, and then putting a round in him such that he falls into the window, putting his body out of plain sight.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy…. NOT.
Sniping moving targets is quite a challenge as there is a delay from the time you squeeze the trigger to having the shot land. I’m pretty sure it’s possible to anticipate the timing with practice, but it’s really quite difficult the first few times playing in this mode. I copped out using the Shockwave Round. Just agar-agar aim around the target then squeeze off the trigger.
You get points for each target killed and at the end of the successful mission, you get a score. Bonus points for consecutive kills within a certain time-frame. Out of curiosity, I check out the leaderboards to see how I stacked against the competition. Good grief, the top scores were all in the millions.
Sniper Assassin Mode is simple but the mechanics make replaying very enjoyable. I had a tough time stopping.
Check out my HITMAN™ 2 – Sniper Assassin gameplay video below and witness the spectacle of how I missed Dorian Lang, and shot his daughter instead who’s getting married in like 5 seconds. Jialat max.
Also checkout our playthrough for HITMAN™, the glorious predecessor that started it all!
Learn more about HITMAN™ 2, here.
