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Hitman is getting a co-op mode? Yes, yes, yes. I love the new Hitman games, which manage to blend 2000s thriller vibes with bumbling, deadpan comedy and immersive challenge to a superb degree. Watching the stone-faced Agent 47 load up a sniper rifle while wearing a pink flamingo suit, or make clumsy, but ominous puns to an oblivious target before throwing a magical briefcase at their skull is delightful. It’s satisfying when it goes right, and hilarious when it goes wrong, so the opportunity to see two agents moving either in perfect harmony or bickering, inept misadventure is something I can’t wait for…
But it makes me wonder, is that really the best we can do? Because the best thriller-killer movies aren’t about two murderers working with each other, but against each other, playing cat and mouse from the shadows. For a long time now, Hitman games have had a pseudo-competitive element wherein players cleanly speedrun missions for the highest point total, but I think the concept has further to go…
Mr and Mrs 47
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The obvious idea would be to have two agents just trying to kill each other, but I don’t really think that’s the best way to encourage comedy or creativity. Hitman’s mechanics are too tied into the behaviour of NPCs and the skill needed to evade and manipulate them. Removing or downplaying that element risks compromising a large part of what makes Hitman so fun to play. If you don’t have to worry about stealth or disguises, or what the bots think about you, that’s about half the game’s systems out of the window.
Instead, I’d suggest something that’s more like a race, or treasure hunt – both players rushing to find and kill the same targets before the other can do so, trying to remain anonymous the whole time, and even attempting to pick off each other to send them back to a random spawn or temporarily put them out of action.
What I’m imagining is something like the early Assassin’s Creed multiplayer, operating in disguises early on as you try to suss out the target without making it obvious. And look, there’s another figure near them, moving suspiciously… another hunter, or just a drunk local? Will you risk your cover and your reputation to kill what might be just an innocent man?
Then, once you find the guy who needs his brains redistributed, it’s about trying to work out how to get the best possible kill before your competitor can find and do the same. Shove them off a balcony with a well-placed elbow? The old reliable food poisoning/toilet swirlie combo? Or just put a bullet in them and stuff the carcass into a picnic hamper before walking away with an innocent whistle? However you kill them, you get points according to the neatness of the kill and a new target is sent to both of you, beginning the cycle anew. Except wait, that’s not an NPC looking at me from down that corri–BLAM.
Of course, things may be more urgent overall. Maybe you’re lining up a sniper shot and see your enemy assassin creeping up on your kill with garrotte wire. Your hand forced, you blow the target’s head off, losing the chance to hide the corpse, but depriving your opponent of any points at all. A C+ for you is still better than a perfect score for them.
Obviously there’s a lot of things that would probably need tweaking from the core game, but ideally it should all be to preserve enough of the core Hitman experience and stop the whole thing from devolving into simple deathmatch shootouts. For one thing, there’s already enough games like that, and secondly, watching two killers trying to sabotage each other is going to be endlessly more entertaining and fit the dark comedy tone that Hitman has mastered than just blasting assault rifles at other professional murderers.
They’re favorites of mine, but did the recent Hitman games make it onto our list of the best Stealth games?