Hitman 3
Hitman 3 is a 2021 stealth game developed and published by IO Interactive. It is the eighth main installment in the Hitman video game series, the sequel to 2018's Hitman 2, and the third game in the World of Assassination trilogy. Concluding the story arc started in 2016's Hitman, the game follows genetically engineered assassin Agent 47 and his allies as they hunt down the leaders of the secretive organization Providence, which controls global affairs and was partially responsible for 47's creation and upbringing. Like its two predecessors, the game is structured around six levels, five of which are large sandbox locations that players can freely explore to find opportunities to eliminate their targets. Each location presents challenges and mastery progression that players can complete to unlock items.
The base game features six locations: Dubai, Dartmoor, Berlin, Chongqing, Mendoza, and the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. A post-launch update introduced a new fictional island location set in the Andaman Sea. Unlike its predecessors, IO Interactive wanted the game to be more story-driven. As a result, Hitman 3 has a more mature and serious tone. The team was more willing to experiment with its mission design, shaking up the existing gameplay loop and realizing ideas that they had been unable or afraid to implement in the past, such as framing assassination opportunities within a murder-mystery in the Dartmoor level. While gameplay is largely similar to its predecessor, developers were inspired by immersive sim games, adding many of the game's features.
Hitman 3, the first game to be self-published by IO Interactive after becoming an independent studio, was released worldwide for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Stadia, and Nintendo Switch on 20 January 2021. It received positive reviews, with praise for its level design and atmosphere, stealth mechanics, and 47's abilities. Some critics called it the best entry in the series; the game has been called one of the greatest stealth games of all time. Hitman 3 was the most commercially successful in the series, and was extensively supported by IO with several releases of downloadable content and free updates that added features, game modes, and a location. In January 2023, IO rebranded Hitman 3 as Hitman: World of Assassination, with the contents of the previous two Hitman games becoming available to Hitman 3 owners, free of charge. Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded, a standalone expanded version of the game's VR mode, was released for Meta Quest 3 by XR Games in September 2024.
Gameplay
Like its predecessors, Hitman 3 is a stealth game played from a third-person perspective, in which players once again assume control of assassin Agent 47. 47 travels to various locations and carries out contracted assassinations, continuing the story of the last two games. The base game features six new locations: Dubai, Dartmoor, Berlin, Chongqing, Mendoza, and the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. A seventh map, a fictional island in the Andaman Sea called Ambrose Island, was added for free on 26 July 2022. Owners of Hitman or Hitman 2 are able to import maps, levels, and their progress into Hitman 3. Maps from the older games incorporate the new gameplay changes featured in Hitman 3. PC and PlayStation players can play the game in first-person with a virtual reality headset.As with previous games in the series, each location, is a large, complex sandbox environment that the player can freely explore for infiltration and assassination opportunities. Players will gradually discover "persistent shortcuts", creating pathways that can be used in future playthroughs. With the exception of the Berlin level, players are assigned several assassination targets, which can be highlighted using 47's instinct vision. Instinct vision highlights all relevant items of interest. Using stealth tactics are key to 47's success. 47 can gain access to restricted areas of the game by obtaining a disguise either by incapacitating non-player characters or by finding it somewhere in the map. Eavesdropping on conversations between NPCs can open up new ways for assassinations. Players may encounter several "mission stories" in each level, which serve as a set of guided instructions that reveal opportunities for unconventional assassinations. To avoid detection, players should avoid performing actions that would be deemed as suspicious, such as crouching or running in the open. The player's disguise may affect what actions a player may perform. For instance, dressing as a guard allows 47 to wander around the map with guns and weapons without drawing attention from other characters. Some NPCs, called enforcers, can see through the player's disguise. Guards have several states of alert level. Some may be suspicious of 47, who must attempt to blend in and mingle with the crowd to avoid drawing further attention. If the player is spotted performing an illegal action, 47 may be compromised and guards will begin searching for him. To avoid this, he must incapacitate the witnesses or change his current outfit.
Each mission starts with a planning phase, allowing 47 to choose what weapons and items to bring with him. After the player completes a level once, they can choose their starting location in the map during this phase. Players can use a variety of methods to approach their target. 47 has a wide range of firearms and explosives that he can use to eliminate his targets. Items in the world can be picked up by 47 and used as makeshift weapons. He can use various items and gadgets to distract enemies, or assassinate targets. For instance, the ICA briefcase allows 47 to smuggle illegal weapons into an area, while the lockpick allows him to infiltrate locked areas. One addition in Hitman 3 is a camera, which can be used to scan items and relay information to 47's handler. As players complete various challenges and replay a level, approaching their targets in different ways, they earn experience points and unlock Mastery Levels, which come with unlocks of gear. Players are penalized for killing non-targets, or having crimes noticed by other NPCs or security cameras. Players are encouraged to stage their assassinations as accidental kills, which can significantly improve the mission ranking.
Gameplay modes
In addition to the game's single-player campaign, numerous game modes from previous games return in Hitman 3. Escalation contracts are multi-stage contracts that get harder with each stage. They task players with eliminating targets under specific conditions, such as wearing a particular disguise or using a specific weapon. Hitman 3 features "Elusive Targets", which are time-limited missions that may only be attempted once. Elusive Targets are introduced in the game as regular updates. Hitman 3 introduces "Elusive Target Arcade", which is a permanent feature in the game. In Elusive Target Arcade, players must take down several Elusive Targets consecutively as the difficulty increases from target to target. Failing requires the player to wait 12 hours before attempting again. The game features Contracts Mode, where a player can select several targets across all maps in the World of Assassination trilogy, add extra complications like specific kill methods, and share their contracts with other players.The roguelike mode "Freelancer" was introduced in 2023. In this mode, 47 must take down several crime syndicates as a freelancer, without the help of the Agency, and players cannot save the game during missions. Players must eliminate four Syndicate leaders to complete the mode, after first eliminating the lower members of each syndicate in separate contract missions before the leaders are lured out. The player's contract, the assassination conditions, and the player's starting location are randomly generated. When a leader is lured out, a "Showdown" mission becomes available, and 47's handler Diana informs the player of four physical and three behavioral characteristics of the leader. Players can use their "suspect camera" to identify the syndicate leader in a level. Each syndicate has a unique "syndicate type" which rewards a particular playstyle. Completing missions earns the player Merces, which can be used to purchase weapons and gear. In each map, players can earn extra Merces by eliminating Couriers and opening safes. They can find Suppliers who sell unique Freelancer weapons. Some weapons collected in a map may be brought back to the safehouse for use in future missions. As Mastery Levels increase, 47's safehouse, which serves as a hub space for the mode, gradually expands. If the player fails a mission, 47 loses all of the equipment that he brought with him and half of his Merces reserve. Future locations become more guarded, as the syndicate members become aware of 47's presence. If the player dies or fails a Showdown mission, the player's progress is reset.
A two-player cooperative multiplayer mode named "Stone & Knight" was announced in June 2025.
Plot
During the events of Hitman 2, Agent 47 and his handler, Diana Burnwood, defect from the International Contract Agency and join forces with rogue mercenary Lucas Grey to track down Providence, a secretive alliance of corporate executives, politicians, and industrialists collectively wielding political, military, and economic influence. In the game's final mission, the trio kidnap Arthur Edwards, Providence's intermediary known as the Constant, who identifies the three Partners controlling Providence: Carl Ingram, Marcus Stuyvesant, and Alexa Carlisle. Edwards, however, later escapes captivity and seized the Partners' corporate assets for himself. In Hitman 3, 47 and Grey seek revenge on Providence for turning them both into assassins through childhood conditioning and genetic experimentation, while Diana is motivated by the death of her parents—unaware that 47 carried out the killings while under Providence's control.Working together, 47 and Grey eliminate Ingram and Stuyvesant in Dubai during the inauguration of the Sceptre, the world's tallest skyscraper, and Carlisle at her ancestral manor in Dartmoor. Following the Partners' deaths, Edwards assumes control of Providence and deploys mercenaries to capture Grey. Disguised as a mercenary, 47 attempts to rescue Grey, but the latter commits suicide to prevent the former's cover from being blown.
47 arranges to meet hacker Olivia Hall, Grey's only other trusted ally, in Berlin. Discovering that the ICA is tailing them, 47 kills several ICA agents sent to eliminate him, before he and Hall decide to conclusively stop the ICA by exposing its crimes to the public. 47 eliminates Hush and Imogen Royce, the overseers of the ICA's data storage facility in Chongqing, allowing Hall to steal and publish all of the ICA's operational data, while deleting all records referencing 47 and Diana. The ICA is irrevocably compromised and dismantled, ending 47's career as a professional assassin.
Meanwhile, Edwards attempts to convert Diana to succeed him as Constant and seeks her betrayal of 47 by revealing that he killed her parents. Diana seemingly double-deals both sides, accepting Edwards's offer while inviting 47 to a gathering of Providence members in Mendoza, where he is instructed to eliminate the only people opposed to Diana's succession—Tamara Vidal and Don Archibald Yates—so that she can dismantle the organization upon assuming control. After he follows her instructions, 47's longtime trust in Diana is shaken when she incapacitates him with poison, seemingly as revenge for the murder of her parents.
In a dream, a vision of Grey persuades 47 that Diana has not betrayed him, but rather helped to put Edwards within his reach. 47 wakes up imprisoned on a Providence-controlled train travelling in Romania through the Carpathian Mountains. 47 learns that Edwards is on board the train. When 47 confronts Edwards, he reveals that he had intended to once more turn 47 into a Providence assassin by wiping his memory through an injection of serum. Edwards leaves 47 with a choice: kill Edwards or inject himself with the serum, though 47 has the opportunity to inject Edwards with the serum instead. With Edwards either dead or amnesiac by the end of the mission, 47 flees into the wild. Meanwhile, Diana assumes power as Constant and enacts a purge of Providence's members from leadership positions at major global corporations, dismantling the alliance's power structure. A year later, 47 reconnects with Diana and the pair return to their former roles as assassin and handler, respectively, to keep the global elites in check, albeit now working freelance.
In an alternate ending, if 47 injects himself with the serum while confronting Edwards, he passes out and later awakens in a padded room, greeted by Edwards's voice saying: "Wake up. Wake up, my friend. It's the dawn of a new day, and you have things to do", echoing the opening of Hitman: Codename 47.