IO Interactive has done it again! Launched another celebrity Elusive Target in Hitman The World of Assassination.
This time it’s “The Splitter”, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme.
As always, everyone with the game gets a 30-day window to have a go for free. But, as is tradition, you get one shot at the target. Mess it up and you’re done. No more Jean-Claude.
I love the Elusive Targets and the whole premise that they’re a larger-than-life target that could go awry. Your personal Hitman canon means you might have failed a mission, potentially forever.
You can buy “The Splitter” pack for around a fiver, which gives you unlimited access to the mission and some bonus cosmetic goodies. Which I have, after accomplishing the mission, because it was such good fun.
The Splitter
I genuinely think that this might be the best Elusive Target mission, yet. Truly. It became a much bigger target just very quickly, which initially made me gasp.
But in true Hitman style, the map and the people on it provide ample opportunity for accidents, isolated strangulation and much more.
It’s still new so I don’t want to spoil The Splitter. So I’ll read carefully around plot points and actions.
Let’s just say that there is ample Jean Claude Van-Damme interaction and that the underground science facility is perfectly re-used to tell the story.
IO Interactive has done a great job of creating a new story inside the World of Assassination and raising the stakes. The Splitter himself is a great target, with some signature Jean Claude Van Damme motion/animation, and a character that truly believes he’s a perfect specimen of a human and an ICA Agent.
Exploding golf balls, a trash compactor, boiled alive. Agent 47 is spoiled for choice to create “accidental” kills. And it feels like IOI just flexing their mastery over the game and their deft hand at narrative and fun.
The Splitter is the best yet. Hopefully not the last Elusive Target, but if it is. They go out on a high!
Got him!
Suffice it to say. I got him the first time (the only time we get!). It took 39 minutes of fumbling around the map, remembering passages and potential places to hide bodies.
It gave me a chance to approach the level from a different perspective and move with some freedom and confidence.
The Splitter starts with a longer piece of exposition than say the Sean Bean of Connor McGregor targets. And it’s all the better for it, truth be told.
I took my time, took advantage of all that the game laid out for me, and had a great time!
Without going into detail, the benefits of disguises on this one, go beyond just access to areas. I can’t quite recall many other opportunities (apart from set-pieces or story missions) where you get to lean a little more into being a character just out in the open.
Elusive targets
If Elusive Targets are the long-term future of Hitman whilst IOI work on the 007 title and whatever else they’re cooking. I’m pretty excited at the prospect.
Sure, we’d love a new entry in the series, but it feels like there’s an opportunity for them to take it all back to square one and launch a new take on the World of Assassination. So in the meantime, fill my life up with these!
The Splitter feels like the height of these missions. Like IO Interactive understand the goal and how to execute it with precision. I have no clue if there are more to come, and if there aren’t let’s be happy we’ve had such a good batch post-launch of Hitman 3.
Fingers crossed we get some more surprises over the next year or so.
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