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INTRODUCTION
Ok so this one is way harder for me to recommend than the first one. I was really close to checking "Not Recommended", but due to this game having some fantastic levels (even if a few), which are among the best in the whole classic Hitman, combined with the fact that this game barely costs anything, I couldn't bring myself to do that. Given that, if it were to come out today, or if it was priced any higher, I would definitely give it a thumbs down.
Sooo, let's start: the first glaring issue you'll see right after launching is the fact that unlike the first game, this one doesn't work out of the box. Thankfully, Widescreen Fix for this one is even better than the one for the first game: you just install it, set a 60 FPS limit in your video driver, and the game works as fine as it would on an older system, as well as looking quite pretty even at low res.
LEVELS
As I said, the main selling point of this game is levels. Unlike the previous game, this one has higher highs and lower lows. Levels like Anathema, Tracking Hayamoto, Shogun Showdown, Basement Killing, The Jacuzzi Job, Murder at the Bazaar, The Death of Hannelore, Terminal Hospitality, are all very memorable, have multiple Silent Assassin solutions, as well as look great. Also most of the negatives I'll list further don't apply strongly to these levels.
On the other hand, levels like Hidden Valley, Motorcade Interception, Temple City Ambush, are to be avoided at all costs, don't even bother getting SA on them. They are either a buggy mess or too RNG dependent. Everything else is in the middle.
GAMEPLAY
Let's start with the positives: Default control scheme is better. New mechanics are introduced, such as lockpicking, side stepping, crouching, sedating, knocking out, 1st person camera mode. You are now equipped with fiber wire, compass, and binoculars by default. Map system is redone and is better. Scoring system is introduced, it's way superior to what we had before, and adds another layer of replayability to the game. You now have a hideout, a hub of sorts, where you can start missions from. Saving the game mid-level is now a feature!
Now to the negatives... Disguising, enemy AI, enemy patrol patterns, various animations, average map size, average amount of floors per map, all of those and more, were revamped to be worse.
Disguises don't work the way they used to. You still arouse suspicion, even with the best disguise, and with most of them you will get spotted and shot on sight. This results in many levels being played as if they were Suit-Only, hiding out of sight, waiting for AI patrols. In and of itself I wouldn't say it's a bad feature, but combined with everything else, this becomes very annoying and doesn't work in the game's favour at all.
Enemy AI: Forget about running. Running in someone's sight will not only raise their suspicion, in many cases it will straight up make them open fire. Running is ILLEGAL in this game💀. When out of sight - running makes such a loud noise, that it makes some NPC go and check the area out, while for others, it breaks their pattern completely and makes them patrol a random direction. This is something you would actually utilize if you were going for Silent Assassin rating in some missions. Nethertheless, it's absurd. Some enemies like to follow you in this game, for no reason, they just do, sometimes they stop after a while, sometimes they don't, you eventually get a feel for it, but it's another frustration you have to deal with. Nearly every NPC has a no-no square around them, meaning if you get too close - they go berserk on you in seconds. That's a fine way to fix the cheesy "knife from behind" strat from the first game, but this game insists on putting NPC in tight walkways, meaning in many cases you have to walk past them and test your luck. This WILL kill you at least a few times. Some AI is downright broken: guards kill themselves in some levels, they see you through five layers of wall in some levels. Most, if not all stationary guards will permanently change their looking direction, based on sound. This may get you through an otherwise impassable spot, but it could also prevent you from completing a mission, if you happened to sprint OR EVEN WALK in a wrong part of the level.
OK, disguises suck, AI is awful, what else could go wrong? Well, a cherry on top is revamped patrols. Many guards now have very extensive patrol routes, that may take over 5 minutes/cycle. Some guards will take "breaks" in the middle, that last minutes. This, combined with the SuitOnly-esque gameplay results in you waiting around for minutes and minutes just staring at the map or a door, waiting for AI to move, at least on your first time through that is. This game LOVES wasting your time.
Speaking of wasting time, EVERY animation now takes longer than it did in the last game. Changing a disguise, pulling out a weapon, dragging a body, climbing a ladder, even sneaking feels slower. On top of that, the new lockpicking mechanic is not only slow as hell, it's also random: sometimes it's relatively quick, sometimes it takes ages.
Now normally, I'd praise a game for having big maps with a lot of floors. More stuff to explore! But due to everything mentioned above, the average map/floor size of this game, makes many levels even bigger timewasters than they already were. Also swapping between floors on the map is a chore in this game, and the game isn't even paused while you do that, so yeah, another "fun" feature.
All of this results in a tedious gameplay, and if you stick around, after a while you start to find glitches and abuse them heavily. For example: redirecting stationary guards with sound to never see you; canceling every concievable animation by spamming the map button; doing a "slide-run", by holding shift and spamming W, which allows you to walk at running speed. All these and more will become a part of your arsenal if you attempt higher difficulties. This game doesn't treat you fairly, and neither should you.
Ok, I'm through with the big ones, now let's go through some nitpicks: sedating takes too long and lasts too little. Knocking out is not only inferior to sedating, it actively prevents you from shooting if an enemy is too close. Default items don't include NightVision. You can't get any sort of armor anymore. New weapon system is neat on the first sight, but it makes no sense lore-wise, and after a while, replaying levels just to get a weapon becomes very frustrating. Good luck getting Custom Sniper... Difficulty levels cut your saves, and you only ever get 7 at the easiest one. Professional difficulty makes you lose your weapons if you don't have them on you when you exit, and the game makes no effort to communicate that. The scoring system is confusing: it's relatively clear how to get SA, but every other ranking feels random. Your hideout is not a permanent feature, it only happens after some levels, and it doesn't happen anymore once you beat the game.
VERDICT
Play this on Normal, don't bother doing SA on broken levels, you don't get any weapons or anything for it. If you're feeling ballsy and want to play Professional - do yourself a favour and learn the game on Normal or Expert first.
CONCLUSION
Unfortunately I just found out there is a hard limit to how long a Steam Review can be, so duh, I won't even get to stuff like Story or Music. I've cut a lot of fat already and kept the most important stuff, so I think this should be enough for you to decide whether you want to invest time in this game.
Usually I talk about techy stuff at the end so here we are: I've played through this game three times, once on each difficulty, once on each resolution: 640x480, 854x480, 1920x1080. Overall I'd say 854x480 is superior of the three, as it keeps the proper UI size, has no black borders, and doesn't look significantly worse than 1080. Just make sure to use Widescreen Fix.
As always, thanks for reading through this mess of a review😅