If you’re even vaguely aware of stealth games, shooters, or even video games in general, you probably know of the Hitman series. For almost 20 years, Hitman has borderline dominated the stealth (some would say stealth-lite) genre, with only a few real competitors. Hitman introduced itself to smartphones not by shrinking one of their games down to mobile size, but by reimagining the series as a board game in the form of Hitman GO. Hitman’s second mobile offering, Hitman Sniper, also succeeds by acknowledging its limitations. Sure, it came out two years ago, but it is still a must-play if you haven’t gotten around to it yet.
As the name suggests, Hitman Sniper limits you to sniping. By that I mean you literally cannot move from your sniper’s nest, and instead you are restricted to moving your scope. While this is the primary limitation of Hitman Sniper, it’s also its strength, as cutting out character movement and the need to render views from multiple angles in real-time allows the game to flourish on a smartphone.
This is because your sights are trained on a side view of a sprawling mansion in Montenegro, filled with your target, their security detail, and innocents. Each level gives you a target and some other objectives. One mission might ask you to rack up 100,000 points before eliminating your target, and another might ask you to get three moving headshots before eliminating your target. Once you’ve killed your target, you’re extracted within 10 seconds, so it’s crucial to hit all you objectives before eliminating your target.
As you eliminate targets and climb up the ladder level, you can also upgrade your sniper rifle. Aside from upgrading, you can also get new sniper rifles by putting together blueprints from parts you acquire by completing missions. I have to mention that all these levels take place in the exact same setting. It’s disappointing, because it would be nice to explore more settings, but this is another restriction that allows the game to focus on the actual sniping.
For example, on one level you can wait for a guard to stop moving, then shoot him in the head. On the next level, you can shoot a car to trigger its alarm and lure the guard over before shooting him. On the next, you can wait for the guard to lean up against a glass panel which you can shoot, causing him to fall and die. This variety, coupled with the mansion’s size, makes the single setting much less annoying than it sounds. It also looks so good and plays so well that you let it slide more than you might think you would.
While the Montenegro mansion is the main arena in Hitman Sniper, there is also Death Valley. Death Valley is a zombie sniping mode where you have to protect your friend from zombies while he fixes his car. He only has a limited amount of health, and wave-after-wave of zombies come after him for you to test your skills on. While the Montenegro missions are fun and more varied than they seem at first, the addition of Death Valley adds a ton of replay value (remember how much you used to play Nazi Zombies back in the day?).
If you can forgive the fact that you can’t move and the fact that there are only two settings to snipe in, Hitman Sniper is a must-play. It usually runs $4.99, but it’s on sale at Google Play for 99 cents right now. If you like sniping and want a top-notch sniping game with all sorts of customization and progression, give Hitman Sniper a try at either price. If you’re like me, you’ll soon find yourself up at 3 AM, trying to play just one more game.
Download Hitman Sniper for iPhone or Android
