The Hitman World of Assassination is a collection of three games from IO Interactive’s famed Hitman series, initially releasing back in 2016 over the course of six years. However, in an absolutely brilliant move, all the content from the previous games was rolled into a single collection featuring one of the most densely packed games of the past generation. I was always curious as to how the Switch 2 would handle this, and the results are relatively mixed, but still surprising. 

You play as Agent 47, a professional assassin for the ICA sent on missions around the globe to take out key targets before they become a threat. However, you uncover a deeper conspiracy from within the ICA.  The story of Hitman is mostly just an excuse to get Agent 47 from location to location and is very much an afterthought, with weak characters and non-surprising twists throughout.  It’s not bad, just not anything worth investing in. 

Oftentimes, your goal is simple: kill a target and get out of the crime scene. You can do this stealthily without as much as touching anyone else, loudly, or a combination of the two. Taking out guards in your path, stealing their disguises to get into restricted zones, or finding a window to go through. The choice is yours, and if you want to go loud, you can. With plenty of weapons and some decent shooting mechanics that make pretty much all playstyles viable. Since the reboot trilogy, the Hitman games have been a go-to. 

Levels are meticulously designed with dozens of ways to complete a single objective. To help with this overwhelming approach, you also have the option to follow a more guided path. But they aren’t necessary, and Hitman rewards creative gameplay, encouraging you to try new things on repeated playthroughs.  

As I’ve said previously. This collection features all the content of three full Hitman games. So that’s around 30 totally unique destinations with missions that can take an hour to two to complete, with substantial replay value for just about all of them. There are many challenges, unique paths and guided storylines within the main missions. That’s not to go into the side missions that further make use of the environment. To say that Hitman: World of Assassination is a complete package is an understatement. It’s straight-up one of the best deals in gaming right now. 

On top of this, the fantastic Freelancer mode is also available on Switch 2, adding a roguelike spin, where you deal with an increasingly tricky series of missions. You takeking out procedurally generated targets with modifiers and challenges to make it more interesting, building up your arsenal with weapons, gadgets, and more to help you on different runs. It’s arguably the best thing to ever happen to the game, adding an insane amount of replay value to a game that already had an insane amount of replay value. It’s easily my favourite way to play now, though newcomers should still follow the story missions at least once.

As a whole, it’s difficult not to recommend Hitman World of Assassination to anyone. I was never really a fan of the franchise before this reboot series, and I’m glad that I got into it. The open-ended level design encourages creativity, and the many ways to play mean there’s always something to experience and playing it on the Switch 2 has been a surreal experience, even if it’s not perfect and that’s something I’ll get into now. 

Switch 2 Version

Right off the bat, I noticed some really odd decisions in bringing Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy to the Switch 2, and that’s not taking advantage of the features Nintendo loved to brag about leading up to launch with the second-gen Joy-Cons. There’s no gyro aiming to get precise shots neatly with typically imprecise controllers, and more damningly, there is no support for mouse input. These two features pretty much define what makes the new Joy-Cons unique, yet there’s no implementation here, and I hope it comes soon. 

Much of my playtime was spent in some of my favourite locations, which highlight the variety that Hitman offers: Hokkaido, Berlin, Miami, Chongqing and Paris. This casts a wide net of smaller-scale, intimate missions with larger, grander locales with hundreds of NPCs scattering the area and different lighting. From the rain-soaked streets of Chongqing, showcasing stronger reflections, whilst the Berlin nightclub and race day rush of Miami crams as many NPCs in as feasibly possible. These are an impressive showcase of IOI’s technical and artistic prowess.

The presentation on Switch 2 is surprising, with just about every location looking better than I expected, running natively on a tiny handheld. It features the same NPC density we’ve come to love, just on much better hardware. Reflections and details are all clear, and whilst the resolution is obviously lower, it is still looking sharp enough not to become an eyesore. It obviously doesn’t come close to higher-end systems, but I have few complaints. 

The main issue is performance and bugs, and it’s clear the Switch 2 is struggling with IO’s heavy Glacier engine, with rampantly inconsistent frame rates that can easily go into the 30s, all the way up to 60fps in lighter moments. Mix this in with rough frame pacing, and you’ve got an experience that feels inconsistent and rough. A few visual sacrifices might go a long way to improving the experience here, but there are basically no options for us to adjust. There’s also Hitman‘s weird relationship with online play. 

As for the bugs, I’ve previously had a good experience with Hitman with very few bugs. Playing on Switch 2, however, this is way worse. On multiple occasions, I’ve managed to just walk through locked doors, firearm hit registration stops working and NPCs struggling to react to the world going on around them. Not only this I did encounter a few crashes to the Switch homepage.  In it’s current state it’s a little messy but when it does work it’s a fun experience.

The Hitman: World of Assassination has always been a great collection. It combines IOI’s newest Hitman trilogy into one cohesive experience. With over a dozen unique locations, each with dozens of ways to complete them, it’s a complete package and an incredibly easy game to recommend. However, in its current launch state, I’d suggest waiting for a few patches. It is an impressive showcase for a new portable, don’t get me wrong, but it still needs some extra tinkering to truly become a must-have.

Graphics: 7.0 Despite some performance issues, I’m wildly impressed by the visuals on display. Managing to keep some of the most demanding features in a handheld platform. Framerate is an issue, however.	Gameplay: 8.0 Creative freedom pushed to the limit with great level design and top tier stealth gameplay. However, the current Switch 2 version is compromised.
Sound: 8.0 Not much to say on the sound here. Good voice acting, great soundtrack, all ported decently to new hardware, without any noticeable harsh compression that has always been synonymous with Switch ports.	Fun Factor: 6.0 A flawed version of an excellent franchise, with frequent bugs and inconsistent performance. That being said, it’s still a lot of bang or your back.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Hitman: World of Assassination is available now on Nintendo Switch 2. Previously available on all other modern systems, including Switch 1 as a Cloud game. 

Reviewed on Switch 2.

A copy of Hitman: World of Assassination was provided by the publisher.