Hitman 3’s latest event, out today, is the Dartmoor Garden Show. Doesn’t it just look serene.
While it’s not a whole new map — it takes place on the Dartmoor manor stage from the base game — it does have some pretty major modifications, with the house’s gardens replaced by this big fancy flower show that has four separate garden areas, a stage and some poisonous frogs you can no doubt use to murder dudes in agonisingly hilarious ways.
If you own Hitman 3, this is a permanent and free addition to the game, while anyone playing the free version will have access to this until August 17.
It’s hard to believe, what with time having no meaning anymore, but Hitman 3 actually only came out this year. If you missed our review of it, the short story is, it’s very good. The slightly longer story is:
Hitman 3‘s absurdity and humour stand out sharply as a welcome contrast. While Hitman 3 is darker than previous games, there’s still a lot of quirky characterization and fourth wall-breaking moments. In one level, a character told another that the code to a door was a historically significant year, adding “shame on you” if they had to look it up, which paused me in real life mid-reach for my phone. In an action-heavy late-game mission, a soldier I passed while disguised asked me if I’d bring him a soda on my way back, which felt surreal and hilarious given the absolute carnage I’d left just out of his view. While blending in in China, a woman standing next to 47 asked him for advice about a personal situation, and they had an adorable conversation before 47 got back to murdering. Berlin’s loneliness was alleviated by a dorky raver who showed me around the level, making heavy-handed references to “vitamins” and “allergy pills” until I wished I had the option to slap him.
Even when I was on familiar ground — ”safe” in my disguise, surrounded by pretentious and gullible targets, armed with all my secret gadgets and intel — I felt aware of who 47 actually is: lonely and out of place, with few friends and little control over his life. Whatever humanity he might have is twisted up in the machinations of power and capital that he’s both part of and fights against. “Who will you be without a score to settle?” Lucas Grey asks him early in the game, and it’s a question I often turned over as Hitman 3 played out. Essentially, he’d be no one — but then he’s always been that, really; all the rest of his identity is just make believe. Narratively and structurally, Hitman 3 strips its own make believe away, leaving the series’ core darkness on display.
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