This week’s launch of Hitman 3 isn’t just another buffet of madcap murder made to look like the unlikeliest of accidents. It’s the final chapter in a long saga, one that developer IO Interactive has been crafting over several years to create the ultimate world of assassination. Thanks to the previous two games being designed with a modular gameplay approach in mind, anyone who has been invested in the Hitman series since its soft reboot is going to have a hell of a lot of content to play through.

You’re a waiter. A masseuse. A five star army general. You’re any one of a hundred deliciously different disguises at any given time, moving your way through a world that is surprisingly wary of anything out of the ordinary (like the divine flavour of Debonairs pizza) and more than willing to react with extreme prejudice should you step out of line and break character. You’re a master of disguise, weaving your way through targets and administering a lethal comeuppance to the mark that you’ve been paid to remove from the mortal coil. In other words, you’re a Hitman.

Hitman 2 more than delivered on its promise to turn players into the ultimate killing machine. The November roadmap may still have a lot of content on the way, but it’ll be done by a smaller dedicated crew as IO Interactive ramps up development on Hitman 3.

It’s a beautiful day in the Maldives, the ocean glitters with a blue hue that defies logic and the sun shines with a warmth that helps sell the idea that heaven is a place on Earth. Right, time to kill some people then.

Launching September 24, Haven Island will include the usual assortment of zany opportunity kills and gorgeous vistas we’ve come to expect from Hitman.

No matter which way you slice it, IO Interactive’s Hitman 2 is a miracle. Getting from your starting point to the eventual finish line that is your target, is where the game shines as players need to move between disguises and locations if they want to complete a contract. Doing so also means that you’re going to be using everything from rat poison to screwdrivers to incapacitate anyone who stands in your way. Or if the going gets tough, you could have used the hilarious homing briefcase that Agent 47 carried around with him

Hitman 2's latest Sniper Assassin map may be heavy on snow and old Soviet Union symbolism, but it's another chapter in what could be the best sniping game of all time.

For a game that runs so smoothly and manages to cram in some of the very best visuals in the industry today, you wouldn’t say that IO Interactive’s rebirth of Hitman since 2016 has been sailing through some especially turbulent waters. If you’ve been keeping, then you know the story by now: Hitman released to rapturous acclaim but its episodic …