HITMAN World of Assassination feels as inevitable as death and taxes, but mostly death. The episodic first release of HITMAN in 2016 birthed a living, breathing trilogy of games, where DLC, live updates, new maps, and new modes intermingled across all the games, and which World of Assassination finally resolves into a single big hit. 

Developers IO Interactive always wanted the three games to become one game, a destination where you’ll find everything they’ve built over the past seven years. To that end, HITMAN and HITMAN 2 are no longer available to buy (though if you own them, you still own them), and HITMAN 3 is now HITMAN World of Assassination, which includes all the content from the three previous games. That streamlining creates a gargantuan new game with 21 intricately crafted maps, multiple campaigns, game modes, and collectibles. Most importantly, it adds a whole new way to play: Freelancer mode. 

Even if you’ve played every map and tagged every target, Freelancer will give you a challenge unlike anything the series has asked of you before. What Freelancer does is remove all certainty from the game, crafting a roguelike from the levels, characters, and NPCs. 

Until now, Agent 47 almost never went into a typical level blind. He knew his targets; he could scout levels and follow distinct characters as they went about their day. Every level had an optimal route. 47 could set up a family portrait, ensuring the camera flash’s power socket is sitting in a puddle of water and touching a metal chair. Planning and execution in a very literal sense. 

Freelancer removes certainty from HITMAN. In your new safe house (we’ll get to that later), you’re asked to select a Syndicate to wipe out. Each Syndicate has 18 contracts to work through, with Showdown levels at certain intervals to gate your progress and to force the four Syndicate leaders out of hiding and into your sights. 

The levels are the same, and the story events of the main game that take place across them all play out, but the targets are now randomized. Guards, gardeners, cooks, or anyone else could be a potential hit. And like the previous, very demonstrative marks that each level was built around, they have schedules and preferred places. But you’re unlikely to see your target wander below a dangling piano. Instead, they might simply spend their time wandering in a courtyard cafe, never drifting far from a group of guards or the people enjoying their time there over lunch. 

How do you take that person down without alerting anyone? There are ways you can improve your chances. There are safes and couriers to steal from and suppliers to buy weapons from. But, sometimes, even that won’t help. That’s the point. Freelancer mode is about ad hoc assassinations that make sense, not spectacles. That particular target could be strangled there in the courtyard, but escaping would be impossible. However, the courtyard had an overlooking building. The only way for 47 to make this hit was to get to the roof, beat up a guard, and fire a pistol (not even a slick sniper rifle to hand). There was simply no other way. 

It was a freeing moment. HITMAN has always set up clockwork kills, the sort of perfect plays that take hours of intricate detail gathering. They’re meant to be replayed. But not here. Freelancer’s risky kills have more at stake. If you fail a mission, you’ll lose all the weapons and gear you’ve brought or found and half your Mercers, the new mode-specific currency. In these levels, failure doesn’t stop you from progressing through the contracts, though. It just moves the later levels into a higher alert state. 

Showdowns add another twist to the structure. Each Showdown still has that same freewheeling backdrop. Each level has four targets, and you need to weed out the real target from the fake ones. You’re provided some details, like they could be a Foodie, or they have red hair, and you can use the Suspect Camera to snap shots and inspect potential prey. However, these are still randomly chosen. They also have a lookout shadowing them, hoping to spot you before you strike. Failing a showdown, whiffing a hit so badly that the target flees, and you fail to take them out before they escape will reset all your current progress. HITMAN has become a roguelike. 

Between each mission, 47 now has a safe house where some preparation can be made. Escape a level with a gun, and you can store it here. You also get a treat from Diana between every mission, a piece of gear that you can use, including the infamous exploding rubber ducks. Should you feel the urge, and as your mastery levels grow, you can start to redecorate the spare lair into a delightful den of death. 

HITMAN Freelancer is a skillful reimagining of the series, remixing the challenges and changing the rules, ironically breathing new life into the deadly game. You can play the new mode in HITMAN World of Assassination, out now on the Epic Games Store.