Hitman: World of Assassination is a complete joyride from start to finish with seemingly endless replayability and freedom. So often nowadays when a popular series releases a new game, we are often given a game with wide appeal while stripping away that which made previous iterations fun. With the new Hitman series, we get an iteration that stands alone (and above) every other Hitman game in the series, and it isn't particularly close.

What is captured so well in this game is player freedom. Player freedom isn't inherently good, especially if choices made do not actually lead to meaningful impacts on gameplay. Hitman is literally all about meaningful choices. Every path you take through a level, every tool you pick up, and every choice you make in how to proceed is meaningful.

I don't want this to turn into a diatribe about gaming as a whole, but to make things concise, Hitman captures the essence of what makes gaming fun that so many other games have forgotten. Let players make meaningful choices with a plethora of tools to accomplish tasks, and everything else becomes secondary.

Combine the impactful decision-making with tight level design, and a surprisingly decent story, and what is left is a very fun, and challenging game. The level design team has done a fantastic job with layouts and routes to take through each level adding loads of replayability. At first you might think that the amount of levels in the game is low, but you will soon come to learn that each of the levels are padded thick with options and tools.

If we just looked at the campaign mode alone, I would still be giving very high marks to Hitman: WOA, but there is more. Contracts mode is a fun way to increase replayability by offering you contracts on random targets on the levels you have come to know so well. There are escalation challenges that provide more challenges on top of the plethora already in the game, and they can be quite fun.

These mode pale in comparison to the new mode that was recently released, and what will probably be the mode that gives this game legs for the foreseeable future: Freelancer. Freelancer could have been released as a $20 DLC alone, but instead was added to Hitman: WOA for free. I have played quite a bit of Freelancer so far, and it is an extremely rewarding and frustrating game mode due to the challenge. It has certainly brought me back to Hitman, and it will keep me playing Hitman for a while to come.

While I am going to give this game the highest rating I can, it isn't without flaw. There are bugs when it comes to guards and their cone of vision. Sometimes it isn't clear why you got spotted (I shot a target while in tall brush and no one saw me, but apparently now I am in combat?), and that can lead to frustration. Freelancer can feel flat-out unfair at times with bad spawn points deep in enemy territory, and that can detract from an otherwise excellent game mode.

I give Hitman: WOA an A - it is truly sublime.