HITMAN Freelancer – It hit our gaming systems back on January 26th and gave us a little something extra to enjoy from the Hitman Franchise. Giving a slight GTA Online vibe with your own personal safe house, this addition doesn’t disappoint.
You are back in the role of Agent 47. Just as mentioned, you get your own safe house that you get to build and expand. Your mission is to take out Syndicate members across the different maps from all three recent Hitman games, which have been relabelled the ‘Hitman: The World of Assassination’ Trilogy.
The main crucial thing about these missions is that they are much harder than anything you’ve encountered. Like its famous Stealth genre brother, Metal Gear Solid, Hitman Freelancer has its own On-Site Procurement (OSP). However, unlike the other modes, you don’t start missions with weapons unless you grab them from your safehouse before you leave, and when you first start out, all you have is a very loud pistol.
There is another catch, anything you bring with you or acquire during a mission is lost if you die, as well as half your mercers (the in-game currency). So you have to be careful, because that favourite gun you took with you on the mission is gone upon your death.
You have up to eight choices of Syndicates to take out, each tailoring to a person’s different style of play. And with each mission comes other unique challenges that can earn you extra Mercers, but you can take out the targets any way you wish as you can play it your way.
If you fail a mission, it’s not the end of the campaign, which is good. The targets are on high alert. In saying that, Showdowns are different; you fail, and it’s campaign failure. You have to start from the beginning, and I don’t mean the beginning of that particular syndicate. You start from the very beginning.
You are playing a Rouge-like mode.
One of the things that lend to the difficulty of this mode is the RNG. When you start a mission, your starting point is random. You can end up in a safe location or in the middle of hostile territory. I found myself in the hostile territory from the get-go, which put a lot of pressure on me when I had zero items or weapons.
You can purchase weapons from suppliers marked on your map while on missions to make things easier, but only if you have the Mercers. If you want the hardware, you have to provide the coin. There are also couriers from which you can acquire mercers upon causing their untimely deaths. As well as safes that can hold valuable things; you just need to figure out how to crack them.
And speaking of cracking things, you earn Mastery as you crack and complete your missions. With great Mastery comes great safehouse upgrades.
As you gain mastery, areas such as your shooting range become available, as well as interior decorating and well, all know that’s what we are all really here for. Giving Agent 47 a perfect Feng Shui safehouse is just the right way to do things.
All in all, this new addition is a lot of fun and frustrating, much like any Rogue-like. It’s available to play on all platforms.
