“Hitman: Codename 47” wowed gamers in 2000 with its open level design and stealth gameplay, and the series has been continuing to impress ever since. There are nearly a dozen different “Hitman” games today, and over the years the series has refined its approach and created some of the best stealth sandboxes that gamers have ever seen. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as learning the way a “Hitman” level ticks in order to carry out a perfectly-timed assassination plan, nor nothing quite as fun as making a panicked, explosive response when that careful plan blows up in your face.
There are rules that every “Hitman” game has to follow, and the series puts a focus on replayability, encouraging players to trek through levels over and over again to try out different approaches and explore alternative storylines. The games also don’t take themselves too seriously, even when the stakes of Agent 47’s assassination game get high. We love “Hitman,” but there’s only so many times you can replay the games. Luckily, when you’ve exhausted every level in the series, there’s a lineup of other titles waiting to fill that same niche.
Sniper Elite 5
Agent 47 is a Swiss army knife of murder in “Hitman,” but the critically acclaimed “Sniper Elite 5,” not to mention the rest of the series, proves that a more focused approach to stealth assassination can be just as fun to play. The 2022 game casts players as American sniper Karl Fairburne, a rifleman who’s tearing through Nazis in 1944 like a one-man army. The game’s story isn’t worth writing home about, but that hardly matters because its assassination sandbox is so excellent.
The levels that players move through in “Sniper Elite 5” are massive, multilayered, and running on a clock. Events are taking place all around the player as they’re trying to complete their assassination plan, so the game rewards replaying and memorizing levels just like in “Hitman.”
Instead of donning disguises, players have to almost entirely rely on their stealth kills while laying traps for their targets or finding the perfect place for a sniper shot. Long-range kills are obviously the main draw here, and the rifles in “Sniper Elite” feel great to use. There’s a special satisfaction that comes from watching the slo-mo, X-ray shot replays that the series has become known for. If you’ve run your course with “Hitman,” then “Sniper Elite” is arguably the best way to keep that same momentum going.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
“Hitman” fans coming to “Metal Gear Solid 5” will have to be prepared for some pretty drastic differences. “MGS5” is a narrative-heavy game with an intense, sci-fi story that will likely be confusing for anyone not familiar with the entire “Metal Gear” timeline. The 2015 game also features a large open world instead of discrete levels, and an entire base building and upgrade system that’s entirely foreign to the “Hitman” series. If players are willing to engage with those differences, though, they’ll find out that “MGS5” has one of the most substantial stealth gameplay loops ever created.
The “Metal Gear Solid” series is one of the most popular stealth game series of all time, and “MGS5” is in some respects the peak of the series. Sneaking through enemy bases in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan is incredibly tense, and using a combination of silenced weapons, high-tech gadgets, and cardboard box hiding places to bring down dozens of enemies is beyond exhilirating.
In addition to quietly taking down enemy encampments, players can also knock out and essentially kidnap NPCs, sending them back to base to work on upgrades for the player. “MGS5” takes itself seriously, but seeing an enemy soldier balloon-lifted out of the map is a certain kind of silly that “Hitman” fans are sure to appreciate. While “MGS5” doesn’t have the timed events component of the “Hitman” stealth formula, it’s all but guaranteed that a fan of Agent 47’s exploits will deeply enjoy playing in the shoes of Solid Snake.
Dishonored
Fantastic stealth games like “Metal Gear Solid” are naturally going to appeal to fans of the “Hitman” series, but not every stealth game plays into the secret assassin fantasy. “Dishonored,” a 2012 title developed by Arkane Studios, absolutely does. The game is set in a fictional city called Dunwall, which definitely seems to have taken some inspiration from Victorian-era London. Players take on the role of Corvo Attano, a royal bodyguard who’s framed for murder and must become an assassin to get revenge and clear his name.
“Dishonored” gives players a true assassin fantasy experience, but the game plays completely differently than “Hitman” does. “Dishonored” is a first-person stealth game, so players will feel like they’re inches away from all the action. Players also won’t be limited to the weapons they have on hand but will gain access to different powers, passive upgrades, and skill-boosting charms. The “Dishonored” sandbox relies on those powers, letting players teleport to get a better angle on a kill, for example, or opt to summon a horde of rats to devour their unsuspecting target.
The powers make a whole range of playstyles” is begging players to replay levels and try out different plans of attack. Luckily, the gameplay and the story are so engaging that most players will feel compelled to go through the game more than once
Deathloop
Created by Arkane Studios, 2021’s “Deathloop” might exist in the “Dishonored” timeline, but it tells a fascinating story all its own. “Deathloop” isn’t a stealth game, but it feels more like a “Hitman” entry than the uninitiated might expect. One of the most innovative aspects of the “Hitman” series is the level design. Levels are filled with events playing out in real time, and as players replay the level, they slowly learn when and how to capitalize on those events. “Deathloop” takes that real-time event idea and blows it up into a semi-open world experience that’s one part action game and one part temporal puzzle.
“Deathloop” is set on an island that’s stuck reliving a single day in time. Players control a man named Colt, who’s trying to kill the 8 Visionaries who run the island in order to end the time loop and set themselves free. The island’s inhabitants, however, have no desire for the loop to end, so every step is a fight for survival. The multileveled locations scattered across the island allow for countless approaches to every fight, and the first-person combat is fueled by a warchest of guns, melee weapons, and grenades that all feel satisfying to use.
Each time you die, the day resets, allowing you to try a new set of tactics. Memorizing how the island changes throughout the day and the different loops that NPCs follow scratches a similar brain itch as replaying “Hitman” levels ad infinitum, but in “Deathloop” eventually throwing stealth to the wind and bringing out the big guns is part of the plan from the beginning.
Untitled Goose Game
How is an international assassination like a domesticated goose? “Untitled Goose Game” provides a delightful answer to that question. From a top-down perspective, players explore a small English village as a goose, with the goal of causing as much chaos as possible. Players can honk, flap their wings, and grab items with their bills as a means of disrupting the lives of ordinary citizens. The 2019 game presents players with a checklist of chaotic goals and tosses them into four different areas, with live events occurring within them in real time.
Nailing headshots and poisoning businessmen is the surface-level appeal of a “Hitman” game, but repeatedly digging through levels to solve temporal puzzles and discover new secrets is the real hook. “Untitled Goose Game” has exactly that same appeal, but it’s wrapped in a family-friendly package. Re-exploring the village’s different areas and memorizing the habits of NPCs is an integral part of the experience, but “Untitled Goose Game” also adds a new dimension to the puzzle-solving. The game has a multiplayer mode allowing two geese to wreak havoc together, and that kind of collaborative chaos-making is something that the “Hitman” games don’t offer.
