Hitman Episode 4 – Bangkok Review

Agent 47 has been lying low for most of the summer, only poking his head out for the odd Elusive Target and a few Summer Bonus Episodes. But IO Interactive have rounded up their errant assassin and sent him back to the day job in Episode 4- Bangkok. The new contract, “Club 27” tasks Agent 47 with infiltrating the luxurious Himmapen Hotel and murdering young rock star Jordan Cross, and his shady lawyer Ken Morgan.

Although I am a self confessed fan of the new episodic release of the new Hitman, Episode 3,Marrakesh, left a sour taste in my mouth. As if struggling to release the episode in the promised monthly time frame, Marrakesh lacked the some of the depth, variety and polish of the previous instalments. I was worried that after an almost two month break, the episodic format would be beginning to take its toll on Hitman, and that what wowed me in Episode 1 might now be becoming stale. Luckily, a trip to Thailand seems to have done the world of good for our favourite cue-ball contract killer.

“The rubbish strewn hallways and wrecked bedrooms where the sound crew hang out really highlight the attention to detail IO Interactive have taken”

The Himmapan Hotel is a magnificently opulent structure, several floors of gold and marble decadence, nestled on the sandy beaches of the Chao Phraya river. The sun hangs in a dim yellow haze above the city. shining down on the luscious botanical gardens that surround the building. As first impressions go, it’s a good one, evoking the same brightly coloured beauty that Sapienza did, but was severely lacking in Marrakesh. A fancy hotel is not a new setting for Hitman, the series having dabbled with them inBlood Money and Contracts, and the Himmapan is a great addition. It’s a multi-levelled, expansive building, with all the kind of details I was hoping for from the location. There are key card-locked staff entrances, bars with unattended drinks, lounges, and of course, traversable balconies. Rich patrons mill aimlessly around the fancy restaurant and tropical gardens,letting Agent 47 blend in perfectly as just another guest. However, the top floors of the hotel have been taken over by Jordan Cross’s entourage and set up as a state-of-the art recording studio. It’s heavily guarded, and a difficult location to gain access to. The rubbish strewn hallways and wrecked bedrooms where the sound crew hang out really highlight the attention to detail IO Interactive have taken designing the environment. In stark contrast to Marrakesh with its huge (almost too dense) crowds, the hotel has a good variety of populated and unpopulated areas, and it’s always clear which areas are a no go for certain disguises. Whilst the Himmapan isn’t as huge or as complex as Sapienza (still the best episode to date) its more intimate nature plays to the games strengths.

Challenges have been the backbone of the new Hitman, and Bangkok offers a superb variety of  unique killing methods that are both complex, exciting and darkly humorous. Whether you choose a birthday cake smothering, or to exploit the deadly power of an exploding tuk-tuk, there’s a lot of variety to be found here. Each hit is appropriately multilevelled, and challenges often funnel into each other. As a result, it requires a great deal of forethought and planning to successfully pull off a hit, and are satisfying in a way that Marrakesh often wasn’t. The opportunities of a luxury hotel setting are put to excellent use, from disguising yourself as a member of staff and offering up some stabby room service, to playing the innocent guest with a sniper rifle smuggled in his suite. Whilst some of the challenges offered in Marrakesh were beginning to feel rote and a hint too serious (drown in toilet, poison drink, poison food, snap neck etc.), Bangkok brings back the creativity and reignites that vein of black comedy that the series is known for. I mean, can you really not crack a smile as you kill a man with a falling coconut? There’s a lot of new content on offer as well, with multiple new item unlocks (the exploding phone is a joy), and doubtlessly more user created Contracts, and Escalation Contracts, to come in the future.

“I noticed the dialogue and music stutter and skip several times, breaking the immersion of the game world.”

Whilst Bangkok is a greatly enjoyable episode, and a welcome return to form, some cracks are beginning to show in the series. Some of the basic mechanics which wowed me back in Episode One are beginning to lose their sheen. For example, I loved the fact that blunt weapons could be used as tools to set traps, (a screwdriver to strip wires, a wrench to loosen light fittings etc.) as well as being thrown with lethal force or as distractions. But now that those same options have appeared time and time again, I find myself wishing for more options. As great as those scripted unique kills are, it now feels like there is less room to just simply shoot or strangle your target, and that the only way to get a clean kill is to follow the paths laid out for you. It’s a minor gripe, but since Hitman has always offered freedom of approach, it’s a shame that to get the best score, you often need to play it like a linear puzzle game.

The controversy caused by the always online nature of Hitman 2016 has now largely been patched out. For the most part, my connection is always stable, even on my terribly slow rural internet. Even though the game offers a reconnect option if you’re booted, I have had yet to experience one disconnect in my five hours of play with the new episode. However, loading times still remain lengthy, a problem for a game that often relies on quick saves to rescue a hit gone wrong. Whilst the voice acting, sound effects and ambient music remain top notch, audio glitches are common. I noticed the dialogue and music stutter and skip several times, breaking the immersion of the game world.  And speaking of immersion,IO Interactive has continued to use the same voice actors across all episodes.  Whilst the cultural melting pot of a luxury hotel seems a more likely place to be full of Americans, it’s still jarring for the staff (clearly Taiwanese) to be speaking fluently with an upper crust English accent. At least the next episode will be set in North America, so the voices won’t seem out of place, although I worry what’s going to happen the final Japan set instalment. Only time will tell.