It must be a right pain in the ass for developers when celebrities they’ve made content with get cancelled. In the case of IO Interactive, ripping down alleged abuser Conor McGregor’s Hitman Elusive Target fully out of their enormously successful World of Assassination live service clearly wasn’t enough. Instead, they’ve brought the entire level back but this time, replaced McGregor with rapper Wiz Khalifa, and, well, changing very little else. It’s a neat way to get the content back on the servers for players to play again, but does look a little baffling when it’s literally been a 1:1 change with very little to ‘review’.
As such, I’ll do what I can. If you’re familiar with any of the Hitman Elusive Targets you’ll know you’ve got a set amount of time to complete them before they disappear, and if you have a go and fail you can’t try again for twelve hours until the game allows you back in for another crack. In the case of The Wizard, because the level is basically the McGregor level with a dash of paint and a new central character, I was able to finish this one in around about eleven minutes by simply going in again the exact same way I did before.
You may scoff at this. Being a Hitman level the sheer number of opportunities available for me to complete this level would appear infinite, and perhaps I should have gone in and retried with a few different angles – which I did, for the sake of review -, but I knew what worked and I was curious to see if my tried and tested system would have worked the second time around. Lo and behold, it did. Swimmingly, granting me a five star Silent Assassin rating after the fact. Not something to be sniffed at in an Elusive Target, where at least for me, rules tend to go out the window and it’s just a case of getting the damn thing done by any means necessary.
Still, I went in full Hitman mode and it worked out. It’s terribly fun scaling the Isle of Sgail, and working your way through The Ark Society as if you’re one of them. Fortunately I wasn’t here to kill the Washington twins this time – no burning people alive this time around – instead the central area of the map was replaced with a full on MMA octagon, with billionaire Wiz Khalifa’s ‘The Wizard’ in the ring to face an opponent in a ‘fight to the death’.
As you might expect in a Hitman level, the crowds are dense with people, heavy on security, and in this levels case, all about them masks and robes. It’s fairly easy to get around once you get yourself a disguise that weaves you directly into the Ark Society’s hierarchy, and it’s always a treat exploring the level, overhearing the conversations of the rich and powerful pissing their money away because they have so little else to do with their time.
It’s certainly one of Hitman’s most alive levels, and I do enjoy tearing around it looking for murder opportunities. Location mastery allowed me to begin another go at the level in the coastal tower, which gave me a window to pop The Wizard in the skull within thirty seconds of the mission beginning. All I had to do then was get to an exit. It was blissfully simple.
But as ever, Hitman levels are what you make them and uncovering every rock of how to take care of your target is part of the joy, it’s just a shame that The Wizard is very little more than a quick redress of an old Elusive Target, and I certainly hope that isn’t the case for others moving forward. I’ve had plenty of fun taking out Sean Bean, Le Chiffre, Slim Shady and Milla Jovovich in unique levels that feel connected to either their films or public persona, and I hope that remains so. As far as I’m aware Wiz Khalifa has little to do with MMA. Why not throw another professional fighter in there?
Still, the World of Assassination remains as airtight as ever, and it’s good to see a genuinely fun Elusive Target return to the game. Perhaps I was just hoping for more unique take this time around.
Hitman: World of Assassination – The Wizard DLC is available now on PS5 (review platform), PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC
Developer: IO Interactive
Publisher: IO Interactive
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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