Hitman’s new hotel hit is well worth checking out.
Hotels are perfect locations for Hitman games. Squeezing a large number of living spaces, entertainment areas, and utilitarian facilities like kitchens and basements and such into a single building results in an environment brimming with gameplay potential. Hitman Episode 4: Bangkok is no exception to this rule, taking 47 to Southeast Asia for a fun, two-target hit at a luxury riverside Thai resort dubbed the Himmapan.
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Hotels are perfect locations for Hitman games.
I’d actually expected something a little more densely-packed, with narrow, branching halls and lower ceilings (something that better emulated the slightly more cramped and intimate feel of a real hotel). A place more along the lines of the Hungarian hotel featured in the memorable Hitman: Codename 47/Hitman Contracts mission ‘Traditions of the Trade’, for instance. As it stands there really doesn’t feel like there are even close to enough rooms in this Thai hotel to support the multiple bars and lounges, as well as its large restaurant. (To be honest it feels like there’s more armed security in the Himmapan than there are actual suites.)
I’m nonetheless happy with Episode 4, though, and this level is definitely a step up from Episode 3’s undercooked Marrakesh. It’s smaller and more self-contained than the sprawling Sapienza, which remains the pick of the bunch, but Episode 4’s sumptuous Himmapan is still very interesting to explore, from the verdant lobby where vines climb the walls to the well-appointed penthouse, and the several levels in between.
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The targets are probably the most rewarding victims to date.
It also helps that the targets are probably the most rewarding victims to date: a spoilt singer who recently got away with murder, and the slimy family lawyer who made that happen. As per usual, each of them can be offed in a lengthy list of varyingly-hideous ways. At this stage in Hitman’s polarising release cadence some of these methods are becoming rather played-out (I’ve definitely lost track of how many people I’ve drowned in toilets) but there are still enough unique opportunities here in Himmapan for plenty of playthroughs. Be sure to stop by singer Jordan Cross’ birthday party; he’s turning 27, which is a notoriously dangerous age to be a rock star.
I encountered more sound bugs related to dialogue delivery in Episode 4 than I have previously, with the odd word skipping like a trashed CD and, on one occasion, a previously-played conversation between 47 and the concierge repeating for no reason when I returned later to pass within a few metres of the front desk.
The incongruous accents also remain an unwelcome fart released into Hitman’s otherwise satisfying atmosphere, but at least here a large portion of the NPCs are either tourists or part of a travelling US rock band’s entourage, recording team, or private security. The high prevalence of American and English accents deep in the heart of Thailand is far less grating when justified by a small nugget of context.
The Verdict
Hitman Episode 4: Bangkok gets proceedings back on track after the somewhat bland Marrakesh malarkey of Episode 3. The Himmapan resort may lack the size and scope of Sapienza, and it isn’t quite the classic Hitman hotel level I was after, but it still boasts plenty of problem solving and murderous mayhem within its walls.
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