Hitman World of Assassination review for Nintendo Switch 2
System: Switch 2
Release date: June 5, 2025
Developer: IO Interactive
Publisher: IO Interactive
The slick, noir-ish montage FMV that plays at the beginning of Hitman World of Assassination’s campaign is an incredibly confident thing. Like any decent introduction it sets out the tonal blueprint of the game you’re about to play – but in Hitman’s case, it does so much more besides. Originally released in 2016, the first entry in IO Interactive’s soft reboot of the franchise was a course correction of sorts, meant to put the developer back on track both creatively and financially. As the cinematic medley plays out, you’re taken on a whistle-stop tour of the past series’ most impactful missions and moments. It’s a definitive statement of intent from IO Interactive, and one that melts away past criticisms over the course of its 2 minute and 22 second runtime. As the artful collage builds to its apex, there’s a subtle – if slightly brazen – feeling that IO Interactive is in no small way hinting that the best is yet to come.
It’s that defiant confidence that characterizes Hitman World of Assassination on Nintendo Switch 2. Originally released as three separate games under the stewardship of three different publishers, this complete collection of IO Interactive’s crowning creative work is a dizzying feat of development. Taking up the mantle of the bald-headed and barcode-necked Agent 47, you hop-scotch across the globe to sandbox after sandbox, systematically “dealing” with individuals deemed too dangerous to live. Not only can each of your marks be approached from a huge variety of angles, but the seismic amount of content contained in World of Assassination can also be engaged with the same flexibility. For review purposes, this particular writer set out through each of Hitman’s 3 campaigns sequentially – before then digging into the game’s many extra modes. Jump into the game yourself, and you’re free to tackle any and all of Agent 47’s violent escapades right from the get go. There’s a risk that such a laissez-faire approach to progression could alienate series newcomers by immobilizing them with choice paralysis. World of Assassination’s frontend avoids this pitfall by ensuring you’re always aware of the next logical step to take through the game’s mountain of content.
IO Interactive’s guiding hand isn’t just present in the game’s menu, either – the subtle art of recommendation is a key element of Hitman’s core gameplay too. Primarily a third-person sandbox, almost all of the 21 core missions included in World of Assassination are open-ended playgrounds stuffed with creative ways to kill. At the outset of each assignment you’re given a target (or targets, as the case may be), a brief rundown of why you’re doing away with them, and that’s basically it. You’re let off the leash with little guidance, which does wonders in allowing each of the game’s stunningly beautiful locations to present themselves to you naturally.
As you take in the vistas and get a feel for the opposition sitting between you and your target, the game deviously tempts your curiosity with curated threads for you to pull on. Overhearing a conversation between two disgruntled florists might clue you in to a gap in security. Discovering that a freshly hired kitchen hand has slept in gives you the chance to don a disguise and put that rat poison you found to good use. The game clues you into these openings through 47’s Instinct ability. By hitting LB, the world is stripped of color, and key people, objects and locations are highlighted for your delectation. Once you happen on one of these opportunities, World of Assassination unlocks it as a trackable in-game mission that you can retry anytime you hit up that location. Older Hitman titles relied on you making a note of these openings yourself and then haphazardly executing on them by the skin of your teeth. For those of you that prefer this kind of agency, IO Interactive allows you to emulate it by turning off in-game suggestions, guides, and even Instinct entirely – but given the scale and depth of the game’s myriad venues, the guidance is a welcome addition.
As you work your way through more of these sordid opportunities, you’re rewarded with XP that boosts your place in the overarching online leaderboards and unlocks location specific rewards. For example, while undertaking a mission set during a powder-keg protest in Marrakech, I disguised myself as a masseuse so that I could get up close and personal with one of the location’s targets. After doing the deed (by vigorously relieving a knot in the man’s neck, if you’re curious), I unlocked a variety of new starting locations for that assignment – one of which begins with you pre-disguised and managing a samosa stand. Another early mission set in the midst of Paris fashion week presented me with the opportunity to dispose of a leading male model and take his place on the catwalk. After wowwing the fashion elite with timeless style (bald head) and modern sensibilities (barcode tattoo), I was given an intimate audience with one of my targets. Triggering all of these happy little accidents rewarded me with a hefty chunk of XP for that location, and a range of concealable gadgets I could take into the mission with me next time.
Other unlockable extras include stashes that contain high powered weapons, concealable gadgets like rubber duck explosives, and a whole suite of increasingly lethal “devices”. With every new reward, challenges and missions that may have seemed totally esoteric and unachievable grow closer to Agent 47’s cold and calculating reach. Having originally released episodically prior to its appearance on Nintendo Switch 2, this heavy emphasis on replayability is a throughline that glues the entire World of Assassination package together.
But what of Agent 47’s motivation? What exactly is it that gets the man out of bed in the morning? As a member of the ICA – The International Contracts Agency – 47’s past is a canonical hodge podge of secret Romanian cloning experiments, evil scientists, and clandestine secret societies. World of Assassination’s big narrative triumph is in the way it ties together twenty years of storytelling without aggressively binning off swathes of it. The main thrust of the new trilogy’s plot is that Agent 47 and his handler Diana Burnwood have to parlay with Providence – a secret illuminati-esque group dictating the flow of world events on a mammoth scale. The conspiratorial “what-if” nature of the Hitman’s world is – of course – forever growing in similarity to our own, and it would appear IO Interactive were well aware of how this could weigh heavy on more world-weary players. To avoid turning inquisitive buyers into tinfoil hat enthusiasts, IO places strong emphasis on Agent 47’s place in the wider power structure of the game’s myriad fictional groups. Over the course of three campaigns, a clearer image of 47’s own tragic history and his survivalist nature fades into view. Story beats from older Hitman games are elaborated on in ways that separate them from the kooky early 2000s sci-fi disposition of those earlier titles, humanizing a very inhuman character in the process. Strong writing coupled with an excellent voice cast bring a lot of the game’s layered and fickle relationships to life – the cutscenes in particular are a real highlight.
Considering the rather bleak nature of Agent 47’s universe, IO has made strides to ensure that your moment to moment experience with World of Assassination is rigorously laced with levity. Hitman is an outrageously funny game, not least thanks to the many comical ways you can off your target. A huge majority of the assassination missions you uncover while on-location, culminate in circumstances that you can’t help but laugh at. The aforementioned stint I had as a masseuse for instance – as part of the setup for that gig, I found myself awkwardly standing next to the real masseuse as he repeatedly dialed a friend looking for a way out of doing the job – it’s coming buddy, don’t worry. As I stood there stoically, already pre-disguised as a security guard and ineptly gripping a brick, the game’s sandbox kept belt-feeding janitorial staff into the room. Desperately I waited for the golden opportunity, and all the while I couldn’t help but marvel at how no other game commits to the bit quite like this one. As soon as a quiet moment presented itself, Mr. Massage was given the ol’ bricklayer’s 1-2, and his limp unconscious body was disposed of in a nearby trunk all in one smooth motion. Job well done, I thought to myself, until it dawned on me that I’d have to fish his body back out in order to steal his clothes – oops.
World of Assassination is teeming with these moments, big and small. Not only do they give you the motivation to scour the game’s many sandbox locations for similar opportunities, but they also reinforce the game’s ability to poke back at you, the player. Hitman’s robust AI systems are the secret sauce in delivering an emergent and player driven experience. The near-limitless scale of Hitman’s masochistic playgrounds also distracts from some of the game’s more contentious elements – particularly on Nintendo Switch 2. While Hitman: World of Assasination is a beautiful game – its international vistas vividly recreated through IO’s inhouse game engine – its performance on Nintendo’s console leaves a little to be desired. The game runs with an uncapped framerate, and routinely slingshots itself between sub-30fps refresh rates and a near perfect 60 FPS. Compounding these performance woes is the controversial save system, which by default carries an always-online requirement. You can opt for an offline save file, however this file’s progression will be reset and split off from its online counterpart. If you do commit to the online experience, you better hope that your connection is spotless – as even brief disconnections will boot you out of your current game and back to the main menu. The stern requirements around online connection feel particularly antithetical to a handheld experience – especially a single-player title. If this was any other game I’ve played in the last year, then its shortcomings would be more than enough to significantly impact its final score.
On balance however, the amount of content you get for this tradeoff justifies the inconvenience. Outside of the core campaign, there’s a motley of additional online modes that drastically increase the amount of replayability World of Assassination has to offer. The rogue-like Freelancer mode tasks you with increasingly difficult contracts that put all of your previously obtained weapons and gear on the line – it’s terrifyingly easy to plunge hours into this mode, so do be warned. Freelancer is joined in competition for your time by Elusive Target, a separate online mode presenting a rotating drum of assassination targets that you only get to attempt a single time – no save-scumming allowed. These online offerings are rounded out by Escalations – repeatable targets with an ever growing list of additional weapon and disguise requirements – and Contracts mode, where you trot through a level and single out an NPC of your choosing, which then becomes a target you can share with friends. The fact that IO has managed to present this deluge of content to you without it feeling fatiguing or overbearing is once again worthy of praise. The variety and worthwhile nature of all this extra stuff also goes a long way toward making up for performance faux pas and online save file shenanigans mentioned earlier in the review.
As the credits rolled on the last of Hitman’s three campaigns, I once again recalled the game’s opening cutscene. The promise that video made – that you hadn’t seen the best of Hitman yet – felt nigh-on unachievable at the time. After all, regardless of how high quality your newest entry is, nostalgia is a formidable foe. Nevertheless through sheer will, determination and talent, IO Interactive has done the impossible, and defined a beloved franchise with its newest entry. Minor grievances are the only thing standing between you and a pitch-perfect assassin’s playground – so get going, Agent.
Hitman World of Assassination copy provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.
