Hitman: Sniper
A mobile sniper puzzle game set in the Hitman universe.
Hitman: Sniper is a 2015 mobile shooting gallery video game in the Hitman series developed by Square Enix Montréal. Players control Agent 47 through a first-person sniper scope to assassinate targets at a lakeside compound without raising alarms. The game was announced at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo and released for Android and iOS on June 4, 2015.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Square Enix Montreal
- Publisher
- Square Enix
- Series
- Hitman
- Engine
- Unity
- Platforms
- Android, iOS
- Released
- 4 June 2015
- Genre
- Shooting gallery
- Modes
- Single-player
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The player, as Agent 47, must assassinate powerful figures at three lakefront houses in Montenegro without alerting them. The game is played through a first-person sniper scope, and failure occurs if targets notice the scheme and leave. Players isolate targets to prevent nearby individuals from raising alarms, and can use environmental traps such as shooting out glass to cause falls, setting off car alarms to distract guards, or turning on fans to knock enemies off cliffs. The touchscreen interface allows pinching to zoom and tapping to fire, with a reload button initiating a quick time event. Missions involve killing one of ten targets and completing a secondary objective, such as a stylized kill within a time limit or a headshot on a moving target. New weapons and abilities are unlocked through points, leaderboard rankings, and blueprint collectibles, with options to slow time or reveal enemies. Microtransactions allow skipping progress, and Facebook integration syncs progress between devices.
Development
Hitman: Sniper extends the Sniper Challenge promotional minigame from Hitman: Absolution. The team explored the benefits of not moving a character through a game world. Originally designed as a premium iPad game with an above-average price, it later shifted to a free-to-play concept with microtransactions, though Square Enix ultimately charged for the final product. Announced at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo with a demo, the title was planned for a 2014 release but underwent a long Canadian soft launch before its June 4, 2015 release on iOS and Android. Post-launch updates included a June 2016 zombies mode called Death Valley Challenge Mode, where players defend a human from zombies, with three difficulty levels and new upgrades. A Halloween update added a limited-edition crossbow that could turn a target's ghost into an ally.
Reception
The game received generally favorable reviews on Metacritic. Gamezebo named it among the best mobile games of June 2015. Reviewers praised the cleverness and minimalism of its puzzle design but desired more variety. TouchArcade noted that memorizing character routes and responses felt rewarding but led to repetitive mechanics, while Gamezebo found the setting remained fresh with new targets and complications. Pocket Gamer highlighted the traps and tricks as the most interesting element. Gamezebo praised the sound design for cluing players into puzzle solutions, and TouchArcade commended the sparse story revealed through target routines, though noted broken suspension of disbelief when characters returned to partying after gunshots. Pocket Gamer felt the game lacked the series' situational humor in stealth. Gamezebo criticized the core multiplier for breaking balance, and TouchArcade found the game better on iPad than iPhone, praising the sync feature. Hitman: Sniper was Square Enix Montréal's biggest revenue generator and funded the Go series.
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