The mobile edition of Hitman GO was a complete and total success in my opinion. The challenging and creative puzzles plus absolutely ridiculous amounts of content makes for a brilliant mobile experience. But it’s not all that often that a mobile game makes the shift over to a console. What looks great on a high definition 8 inch screen doesn’t necessarily look great with the same resolution stretched across your relatively large screen of choice. There’s a few things about Hitman GO that actually make it a pretty good candidate for a non-mobile platform.
Mechanically speaking Hitman GO doesn’t rely much on a touchscreen interface. In his GO incarnation Agent 47 is restricted to moving around a fixed grid displayed on the floor. It’s using this grid that allows for the difficult puzzles although this is a turn based game and every time you take a move so do the guards. There’s no chance to stay still and wait for a guard to finish his patrol, which would really destroy 90% of the full Hitman games. If you want a guard to move or if you need to position yourself behind him you will have to move in the correct way in the correct order.
It’s a simple core mechanic to base the game on but that’s the way with all great puzzle games. With the addition of some different guard types and a few environmental objects there’s a positively chess like level of strategy that emerges in Hitman GO. There’s also a strange analogy to those sliding puzzle games that have a single tile missing. If you cross those puzzles with chess and add a shaving of Agent 47 this is exactly what it looks like. Definitely an odd combination but the end product is one of my favourite puzzle games.
Visually there is no translation issue at all. Hitman GO is made to look like a board game with models that look a bit like Subbuteo players. The environments are overly smooth and cartoonish representations of the fictional cardboard cut-out version of the game. On a mobile device Hitman GO looks stunning and it looks just as stunning on a full screen. The artistic representation moves over smoothly with no problems at all. There’s a nice variation in the environments as you work your way through the adventure and travel around the world. There are more than enough to keep things fresh and progressive through to the end of the game.
Controls are simple to use too and despite the fact the touchscreen controls were excellent the grid movement is even easier given a d-pad or keyboard. Thankfully the most challenging experience you will have when playing Hitman GO is solving the puzzles. I’d be surprised, and more than a little impressed, if you don’t get stuck for a while on more than one occasion. GO is a satisfyingly difficult game which makes success feel like a real achievement most of the time.
On the down side there can be situations where the solution is so many steps ahead that you can’t realistically figure it out and resort to some constructive trial and error. At times it can feel a little too challenging because of this and almost all of the satisfaction is gone when you didn’t actually solve the puzzle using the grey cells.
Removing the convenience of the mobile platform hasn’t hindered Hitman GO. It’s more than capable of supporting itself on a console thanks to the thoughtful and challenging puzzles. At times they can be a bit too difficult or the solutions are too long winded which leads to trial and error gameplay that doesn’t feel right. But for the most part Hitman GO is a great puzzler.
The looks also move over nicely. Hitman GO has so much style and flair that it still looks gorgeous. I absolutely love the crisp smooth designs and board game appearance. It’s beautiful looking and confident enough to show off. A great looking and mechanically sound puzzler that works just as much on a console as it does on your mobile device. GO Hitman GO.
