Hitman 3ās trophy list was released recently and before I go into spoilers later in this post Iāll give a TL;DR: one of the levels in Hitman 3 is going to be 5 mastery levels instead of the usual 20. If this is a deal breaker for you I would recommend not getting the game day one
The trophy list disappointed me for two big reasons. Number 1 is storyline nitpicking. The majority of targets mentioned in this trophy list are people that werenāt mentioned in previous games. This would be fine but my main concern is that unless the final level has both The Constant and Grey as targets itās very possible that they could be killed off in cutscenes. If this is the case itād be very antithetical to Hitmanās very nature. Almost every antagonist, even in Absolution with Dexter, was killed by you the player. Itās entirely possible that from the screenshots showing 47 waking up in hospital equipment that itās a homage to Blood Money where 47 kills the antagonist after waking at his funeral. But thatās me speculating, it could very well be that there are no targets in this level since thereās no trophy relating to it
My second problem is actually important for people who are more casual Hitman fans or looking to get into the series. A hardcore like me preordered the deluxe edition regardless, it could have been a mod for Simpsons Hit and Run labelled Hitman 3 and I wouldāve got it. But the trophy list revealed that the last level has only 5 mastery levels and that is a big deal for me when recommending this game to other people. Because not only is this game got less new content than Hitman 1 and the Hitman 2 gold edition, but itās also very sneaky of IO to have marketed the game without mentioning this, and theyāve done it twice
For non-fans who are eyeing up Hitman 3 mastery levels are an indication on if a mission in this new Hitman trilogy is a proper large scale sandbox or a more intimate puzzle box. 20 mastery means the level is going to be big and take an hour to beat the first time, 5 mastery it might take 20 minutes for example. This isnāt an inherently bad thing but these games package themselves in 6 level chunks now, and they market them as having an equal amount of content. Hitman 3ās gameplay trailer marketed the six locations as having ā20 mastery tiers per levelā
They did this with Hitman 2, even a year after release the game was advertised as having eight sandbox levels. I donāt mind them including the expansion locations, Hitman 1 was pretty much six episodes of DLC piecemeal anyway and I wouldnāt say that game only had one location. But it wasnāt eight levels, it was seven levels plus a prologue (or whatever the equivalent phrase would be for something that bridges the gap between the end of the first third of a story and the beginning of the second). Like how this game is five levels plus an epilogue. I donāt mind having five new levels if theyāre big and massively replayable, and these levels all look great even the final one. I just donāt like being lied to as a customer in the advertising, it shows a lack of faith in the product to me
So if youāre a new customer to this series I would still recommend Hitman 3, but only if you plan on getting the legacy DLC and playing everything in order. When you play these levels sort of staggered, in 5 level chunks every release, itās a little disappointing to get less overall content than the first game for the same price. So I would recommend trying to get the first two games as cheap as possible, and then buying the standard edition of Hitman 3. That way you can play a huge glut of good Hitman without worrying about judging your purchase on a level by level basis like the hardcore does. If youāre a fan of Hitman that owns the last two games and really liked them, but arenāt like obsessed with knowing whatās next, Iād recommend waiting for a sale since you already have a lot of Hitman to play through. You can transfer progress when you get Hitman 3 so just play more of 2 to get all the unlocks in the interim
Iām not going to go all butthurt ādonāt support IOā because Iām not someone who thinks a company or person wanting money is evil. I still think IOās level designers deserve a paycheck so Iāve already gotten this game months ago. I just want them to advertise their products honestly and canāt recommend a fellow customer that might be on the fence to pay full price for something that has less overall content than its now-cheaper predecessors