Hitman

Hit Man isn’t the most visually stirring film, it’s a story that will stay with you, just as much as its kinetic lead performance.

Fizzy, funny, heightened – Hit Man is a damn good time at the movies that will leave you buzzing. It won’t win awards, but it will increase thirst for Powell.

Hitman looks very promising so far even as an episodic release title, but the always-online DRM hampers it and may prove a serious black mark if it remains this unstable.

Hit and run

(Ed’s note: score updated on May 10, 2016 to reflect additional impressions of the game in progress.)

If the next episode has a stronger architectural design, it might well erase many of my criticisms. I'd thought the piecemeal model might work to IO's advantage, allowing them to refine and reflect between releases, but we won't know for sure until we can see the whole picture.

All in all, Hitman is a very promising start to the reboot series. The visuals are good, the voice acting is excellent, and with the longevity promised in Contracts mode it should be a series that runs and runs. The issues with the AI can be addressed in future episodes, we hope, and if that happens then the game will certainly hit a higher score than we can give it this time. With five further ep...