Take a Deep Breath and Squeeze: ‘Hitman: Sniper’ Reviewed

Jeff McAleer

Jun 15, 2015

Game Name: Hitman:Sniper

Publisher: Square Enix

Platforms: Android and iOS

Year: 2015

Players: Solo

Rating: M because of graphic violence and mature themes

Retail Price: $4.99

Category: First person, set position sniper game

One of the game demos we got our hands on at last year’s San Diego Comic Con was Hitman: Sniper and this was a title I was itching to grab and play on my iPad. Thankfully Square Enix recently released the latest mobile game in the Hitman series and this time out you’ll take on the role of Agent 47 as he perches in a snipers nest. Agent 47 is about to lay the smackdown on a compound filled with drug dealers, human traffickers, and other assorted terrorist baddies. You’ll have quite a few options as far as dispatching your enemies, either by using the environment against them or taking a more direct approach and blowing them away.

Graphically Hitman: Sniper looks very good on the iPad and plays quite smoothly. While the graphics won’t blow you away as a current gen console game will you’ll still find yourself immersed in the location and the goings on in the compound. The game is packed with 150 levels and each requires you to complete various objectives in order to succeed.

Agent 47 begins the game with a standard sniper rifle and as you complete more missions and gain cash and randomly dropped parts you can upgrade your rifle or complete the blueprints for additional rifles. Each of the four weapons carries special abilities you unlock as you progress. You’ll be able to fire explosive rounds, use x-ray vision, load high penetration rounds, and more depending on the rifle you choose; the objectives of each mission will lead you to choose the best weapon for the tasks at hand.

It’s important to point out the entirety of Hitman: Sniper takes place in a single location. After a good fifty missions or so you’ll tire a bit of looking at the same areas and rooms. The AI of your enemies stays the same as well, except when they react to your actions, so you’ll continue to see your enemies go about the compound like clockwork. This is helpful when you might have an objective of obtaining three quick kills within 10 seconds but, for the most part, you can sit back and see the same goings on over and over again.

Where Hitman: Sniper really shines is with the interactions with the environment and how you can use it to your advantage. Shooting a guard and having them fall into the jacuzzi will hide the body; taking out a guard on the edge of a rooftop will cause him to fall out of sight; firing at an outdoor heater will cause it to explode and send nearby enemies flying. Agent 47 needs to stay undetected or the main target will attempt to flee, as well as possibly getting 47 killed, so being as crafty as you can with disposing of your enemies takes top priority.

Biding your time and stringing together successful and undetected kills will gain more points to add to your score. You’ll find yourself trying to maximize your points every mission and this leads to experimenting with creative ways to take out as many enemies as possible each time out.

I will point out the violence is graphic (although not as gruesome as many console games fork over) and some of the targets are women. The backstory points out these women are horrific criminals but some gamers might feel a bit squeamish having to dispatch members of the fairer sex. This is probably not the sort of app game you’ll want to break out on a cross country flight as you’ll be sure to get some odd looks from folks around you.

I found Hitman: Sniper to be addictive even with the issues of only sitting in one location and watching the targets keep repeating the same actions every mission. While the app is a bit pricier than the usual fare you run across, you’ll still find a lot of gameplay since you can take up to ten minutes to complete each of the missions. This might not be everyone’s cup of tea but Hitman: Sniper does provide some a lot of quick action and interesting ways to take down the baddies.

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Jeff McAleer

Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...