Hitman’s Freelancer mode makes it one of the best roguelikes ever

The modern Hitman trilogy — or rather, Hitman World of Assassination, as it’s now known — has always flirted with the roguelike genre. As the blank slate Agent 47, you drop into clockwork missions in far-flung locales, exploiting targets’ routines and generally wreaking havoc as creatively as you can. One run sees you poison target, then take them to the bathroom and let them drown in the toilet. After unlocking a new disguise and infiltration point, the second run sees you exchange a golf club for an explosive one, while watching from the yard as your target drives a nine iron to his untimely demise.

For over 22 years developer IO Interactive honed his ability to extract joy from repetition. The new release mode is almost perfect.

As free DLC goes, Freelancer mode is less “additional content” and more “sweeping reimagining.” Whereas the base trilogy encourages replaying the same mission over and over — the better to execute the most ingenious and hilarious kills — Freelancer prohibits repeats. The mission is planned with the information available to you, but you can also improvise and then move on.

You will be able to take down four syndicates in a series of longer missions. To capture the leader of the first syndicate you must complete 2 missions. At that point, you drop into the last location, identify the leader by patiently watching for “tells,” and eliminate them. To complete a run, or “campaign,” you need to kill all four syndicate leaders without dying. In total, you’re looking at 18 locations. (If it sounds complicated, don’t worry: IO made a pre-brief tutorial video, which you can watch here.)

Image by IO Interactive

Of course, this being a roguelike, you’re probably going to die — a lot. You perish and start a new campaign. This involves shifting the targets and locations along with random events and modifiers. Any lock picks and sedatives as well as explosives collected during your previous run are gone. Only one constant is? The safest place.

As the obsession with video game “hub worlds” only continues to grow, IO has crafted a fortress of solitude to rival the best of them. Agent 47’s bunker-beneath-a-house is sleek, utilitarian, and, for the world’s foremost assassin, surprisingly cozy. I’m reminded of the house in Ex Machina. As you climb the Mastery ranks of Freelancer, new rooms will be unlocked, more decorations can be earned, and gaps in weapon walls will be filled. The safehouse, unlike your tools, missions, or targets, does not reset between runs, and improving it is nearly as satisfying as fleshing out Zagreus’ house in Hades. This corner of the underground is full of family and friends. Hitman’s Freelancer mode, Agent 47 is more alone than usual.

In Freelancer, a sense of isolation is key, both in tone and in function. Whereas Agent 47 had the backing of the International Contract Agency in the vast majority of the trilogy’s missions, the reticent assassin has since gone… well… freelance. Hence the need to build the safehouse and arsenal from scratch — but also the need to sift through intel on your own. Diana Burnwood (mainstay of the series) is still there, and still voiced in her amazing role by Jane Perry to provide guidance, praise success missions, or just be a good-hearted person. But as far as choosing which four syndicates to pursue on any given run — that’s on you.

Image by IO Interactive

This is the genius fulcrum for Freelancer mode. Each of the eight random syndicates, represented as neat dossiers, has randomized objectives to suit different play styles. Complete these optional objectives, and you’ll earn a currency called “merces,” which you can spend at disguised suppliers scattered throughout each mission.

These optional objectives can be a blessing as well as a way to get you out of your comfort zones. My third campaign saw me hunt down a human trafficker. His optional objectives mostly focused on stealth. This was my favorite play style within the base trilogy. I could easily remove the lower-rung members of the syndicate with just my hands. They were then hidden in freezers and vanished without trace. By the time I arrived at the Isle of Sgàil to erase the leader, I had built up a helpful assortment of lock picks, wrenches, and nonlethal poisons, and completed the job without much ado.

By chance, I also added some guns to my weapon system, so I decided to join a second group: an arms dealer syndicate. The optional objectives for these missions required going loud, as they say — killing three guards with a shotgun, eliminating a target with a sniper rifle, and so forth. While these didn’t conform to my usual methods, this syndicate would bring me to some of my favorite locations (Whittleton Creek, New York, Berlin, and the Maldives).

Image by IO Interactive

It went well, Bob! Bob, not great! The higher-ups at subsequent locations were frightened by my guns-blazing behavior in the first two locations. These missions gained the “On Alert” status, making it far more difficult to sneak through them unnoticed, regardless of my disguise. In New York’s parking lot, I was spawned, failed a strangle attempt and crashed to the ground under a cloud of lead.

There’s an array of other modifiers and randomized events that can pop up in each campaign, but frankly, I don’t want to spoil them here. Freelancer mode has half the fun in slogging through one or two syndicates only to find out that your greed for money is ruining your chances of success. But you drop into the next location anyway, because improvising is half the fun — and half the comedy — of this excellent series.

Hitman’s Freelancer mode is something rare: an intoxicating blend of challenge and approachability. This mode plays on the pride of the long-standing players but guides newcomers to thematic goals and an overall structure. Although it may not be able to allow micro-repetition, this system is still a great way to make the base trilogy work. It does however maintain an ebb and flow from its beginning to its end, which is bitterly comical. This trilogy is so much fun to play. You can spend hours combing through each location looking for the perfect thing. Everything I missed, I did not think it possible for IO to surprise me anymore — but here we are.

Hitman World of Assassination’s Freelancer mode On January 26, the DLC was available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (Windows PC), Xbox One (Xbox One), and Xbox Series X. Xbox.com reviewed the DLC. Vox Media also has affiliate relationships. Although these partnerships do not impact editorial content, Vox Media could earn commissions for products bought via affiliate links. Here are some links to help you find. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.