Hitman: Sniper is a 2014 mobile shooting gallery video game set in the Hitman series, made by Square Enix Montreal. As the series' mainstay protagonist, Agent 47, you must use only a sniper rifle to assassinate several powerful figures who have assembled at a snowy lakeside compound without alerting their associates. The player uses the environment to find creative ways to kill these targets, sometimes prompted by secondary objectives. Through mission progression, the player unlocks more powerful weapons, as well as new weapon abilities.
The game went Free to Play in 2017, where prior to that point it required spending ~50p on app stores.
A sequel to this game; Hitman Sniper: The Shadows, was set to release in late 2021, and was even given an early access release in Brazil and Canada in October 2021. However, full rollout was later delayed following issues with crashes and The dev team citing that they needed more time to complete the game
. It prominently features Agents Knight and Stone, the characters seen in the Co-Op portion of Sniper Assassin mode in Hitman 2.
Hitman: Sniper provides examples of the following tropes:
- Achievement System: Five of them, all relating to being a specific rank on the in-game leader boards.
- A.K.A.-47: No sniper rifle in this game uses their real life name or moniker, instead being references. Some are nods to Mythology or History (The "Brutus" rifle is named after Roman senator Marcus Junius Brutus), puns (the "Jaeger" rifle means "huntsman" in German) or simply past Hitman games via cryptic references (The Aria Sniper Rifles are a reference to a type of solo voice work done in an opera, which refers to Alvaro D'alvade from Hitman: Blood Money, who was doing this exact thing when he was killed by 47 in "Curtains Down". A method of killing him was timing the gunshot shown onstage with a W2000 sniper shot from up in the viewing box; the W2000 being the same rifle shown here).
- Ascended Extra: Of the "Sniper Challenge" Preorder Bonus from Hitman: Absolution. They both have a single level, and both existed more as a way to kill time than anything else. Not only does this game have multiple sniper rifles to unlock, but multiple targets too.
- Boom, Headshot!: Headshots always kill, so it's best to control 47's breathing to aim for the head.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- Diana is voiced by Jane Perry, who would later play Diana starting from Hitman (2016).
- The "Jaeger" sniper rifle and the "Dragun" sniper rifles are the only two rifles to return in later hitman games, the former beginning from Hitman (2016) (being based on the Barrett MRAD, only purple-grey), and the latter appears as part of the Hitman 3 Deluxe Edition, called "The Golden Dragon", which retains the style of rifle, as well as the inclusion of the shiny dragon head on the snout.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: A kill condition can be to kill a guard by tricking a guard into falling.
- Gold-Colored Superiority: The Aria Gold is a golden version of the regular Aria rifle, only you get better perks and bonuses from it (see below).
- Holiday Mode: Most calendar holidays have a rifle associated with them you can purchase; Christmas (rifle with a bauble on the end), Halloween (Crossbow) and Chinese New Year (Dragon).
- Hyperspace Arsenal: Downplayed. You can only equip one sniper rifle for a mission, but you are able to do choose from 18 sniper rifles, some of which require assembling by finding parts in lootboxes:
- Izanami (Your starting rifle)
- Erebus (Free, but requires finding blueprints by killing targets)
- Narcissus (Free, unlocked at Rank 3)
- Largo (Paid Item, approx £4.99)
- Baroque (Free, unlocks at Rank 7)
- Furia (Free, unlocks at Rank 11)
- Mantis (Free, unlocks at Rank 16)
- Brutus (Paid, approx £9.99)
- Cipher (Free, unlocks at Rank 21)
- Jackal (Free, unlocked by getting to Leaderboard Tier Silver 3)
- Aria (Paid, approx £14.99)
- Griffin (Free, unlocked by getting to Leaderboard Tier Gold 3)
- The Final Argument (Free, obtained by watching 3 adverts, adding 1 friend to your friends list, and then by reaching Rank 3. Released as a cross-promotional item with Just Cause 3 of all things.)
- Aria - Gold (Paid, unlocks all targets and is also fully upgraded, approx £28.99)
- Volante (Free, unlocked by getting to Leaderboard Tier Platinum 3)
- Jaeger (Paid, 50% off all Death Valley upgrades, approx £23.99)
- The Judicator CO-78 (400 tokens)
- Adiago (Free, unlocked by getting to Leaderboard Tier Assassin)
- Immune to Bullets:
- Averted, as the game encourages finding destructible "accident kills" to kill your targets, and nobody is bulletproof in this game.
- Literally the case should an evacuation start, as guards can't kill you due to how far away you are.
- Level Grinding: The game is primarily based around this, getting to certain leaderboard ranks nets you better rifles and perks. Account Ranks also award you with free rifles, but require Blood Money to purchase.
- Limited Loadout: You can only choose one sniper rifle for the mission. There are, however, multiple sniper rifles to unlock or purchase.
- Lootbox: These can only be gotten from missions, and not purchased, unlike other contemporary examples. They often include gun parts, Blood Money, tokens, and rank tiers to aid in levelling up, but are, of course, randomised.
- Meaningful Name: The sniper rifles are mostly named after puns, hitman references, gods or goddesses, mythology or history. For a few examples, the "Izanami" rifle is named after the goddess of creation and death from Japanese mythology, the "Narcissus" rifle is named after the hunter of the same name from Greek mythology, while Furia is likely named after the high-ranking ancient Roman gens Furia family. There are loads more, but that gives you a taste of the mythology references in the game.
- Moon Logic Puzzle: Some of the kill requirements often have you forcibly killing someone in a specific way. Mission 4 of Chapter 2 has you kill Baltasar Cabasso in a way that is worth 55,000XP, but with one bullet. This requires a lot of patience to do if you want to invoke Make It Look Like an Accident, but it can be done even quicker by sniping the cue ball on the pool table and have the optional target nearby take him out for you (The initial shot is 13,000XP, but the kill itself raises the total to 59,300XP).
- Moe Greene Special: You can invoke this by aiming at a targets eye. That's assuming you can account for the scope sway.
- Moving Target Bonus: A kill shot on a moving target scores extra points (some missions enforce this as a kill condition for the guards). A moving target that gets shot in the head is worth even more.
- Only a Flesh Wound. Without the Deadeye perk, no rifle can kill guards instantly, and the guards do not die from you shooting anywhere on their body, unlike the later-released Hitman 2 Sniper Assassin levels. Instead, they will enter a panicked state and will attempt to find the culprit. Usually a second hit kills, and headshots always kill immediately.
- Pink Mist: Blood and cartilage shoots out a wound should you kill someone.
- Self-Plagiarism: The "X-Ray" ability on the Izanami rifle is just the Instinct ability from Hitman: Absolution, highlighting enemies for a limited time, but also behaves more like a proto-version of the Instinct system later used in Hitman (2016) and beyond, by highlighting potential parts of the building (like railings and potential traps). It also adds on a specific perk that lets you shoot through walls while it's active, something the main games never offered.
- Sniper Rifle: Duh. As you play more of a sniper assassin level, you get new perks for that sniper rifle, such as more bullets that can pierce walls, holding your breath for longer, reduced wind compensation, and more.
- Sniper Scope Sway: Played with. When you aim normally, this happens. However, using "focus" mode will slow down the scope sway.
- When All You Have Is A Sniper Rifle...: You can use your sniper shots to set up traps around the map, as well as to bait the targets to secluded locations.
