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It’s time to track new targets.
The new Colombia map from Warner Bros. Interactive’s upcoming Hitman 2 was showcased for a small group of journalists and gaming insiders last week, offering a whole new setting for Agent 47 to track his marks.
Like the Miami map demoed at this year’s E3, the new tableau is an incredibly large, richly detailed environment that acts as a deadly sandbox for the playable assassin to plan his hits. Tasked with taking out three high-ranking members of the Cartel as they converge for a rare meeting together in a remote village in South America, Agent 47 has a myriad of options for making his kills.
The map is made up of a number of distinct areas, from the narrow streets of the village’s main drag, to the lavish manse of the young, hard-partying Cartel official, to the sprawling coca fields and laboratories used for the production of the underground criminal network’s primary narcotic export.
As fans have come to expect from the series, Agent 47 can blend into crowds by donning different disguises in his efforts to eradicate his targets and the number of tactics in which he can do so are varied and inventive. From poisoning guards, to booby-trapping electrical wires to pushing a statue off a precipice, the map has a satisfyingly deep roster of options for the world’s deadliest assassin to dispatch his foes.
If the Miami map was impressive in terms of its scale (it features thousands of NPCs and a similarly impressive menu of lethal possibilities) then the Colombia setting is even more so. Tracking three targets, each with their own security details and interlocking, dominos-style execution varietals, makes the already massive map feel even larger. The time provided for the demo of the level (around an hour) was not nearly long enough to explore all the possibilities the map presented, and many sections remained unexplored.
Whereas the Miami level centered on a Formula One race and had Agent 47 blending into throngs of spectators and vendors, the Colombia map is a bit of a slower burn with truly diverse approaches to each target. The jungle environments are beautifully rendered, as are the luxurious palace compounds that house the Cartel members. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of possible routes and tactics to approach the mission’s goal, but at no point does it feel tedious or insurmountable. Rather, the fun comes from the freedom to pursue Agent 47’s targets with limited direction from the game itself, making the player feel as if they are in total control of the deadly mercenary.
A follow-up to 2016’s Hitman, the sequel does away with the episodic rollout of its predecessor, and Miami and Colombia are only two of a number of other locations fans can expect to explore when the full game is released on Nov. 13 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
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