While Hitman 3 stole all the headlines this week, we’ve got a handful of out-of-the-box indie games that include an endless runner, an arena mech battler, and the physical release of bullet-hell like no other. If you’ve had your fill of artful assassinations with Agent 47, check out the rest of the other titles reviewed on TheGamer this week.
Hitman 3
The one and only Agent 47 is back and better than ever in this final installment in the World of Assassination trilogy from IO Interactive. In his review, Kirk McKeand call Hitman 3 the most diverse game in the series so far and praises its ability to simultaneously be the most approachable and most complex Hitman has ever been.
Opportunities, the story-based kill methods, have been reduced significantly in Hitman 3, limiting the amount of boxes to check off in each mission. In exchange, IO Interactive opens up the variety and experimentation in Hitman 3 with some of the best Escalation mission in the entire series.
Kirk makes special mention of Berlin in his review, a mission he calls “peak Hitman.” Berlin offers no pre-mission briefing or Opportunities to follow. Instead, you must rely solely on the clues you find, your ability to conceal yourself in a crowd, and the game knowledge you’ve developed to identify and hunt down ten different targets. Hitman 3 is, in Kirk’s words, “an outstanding refinement of that unique 21-year-old recipe.”
The only miss Kirk cites for Hitman 3 is its final mission, which takes place on a train and is a sort of on-rails shooting experience and very much unlike the rest of the missions in the series.
Kirk gave Hitman 3 a score of 4/5. Check out Kirk McKeand’s full review for Hitman 3
Tadpole Treble Encore
Switching gears considerably, our own Jamie Latour took a look at the Nintendo Switch title Tadpole Treble Encore, and endless runner with storybook-like charm. Latour describes Tadpole Treble Encore as “a cute little game that has plenty of charm.” Unfortunately, the charm runs out too soon, as the both simple and repetitive as well as light on content
In Tadpole Treble Encore, you play as a newly hatched tadpole that must find its way back its pond after being snatched up by a hungry pelican. The gameplay mixes endless runner-style action with rhythm game elements that help give each stage some personality. The music left something to be desired though, an ultimately Jamie found Tadpole Treble Encore to be a very shallow experience, no pun intended.
Jamie gave Tadpole Treble Encore a score of 3/5. Check out Jamie’s full review of Tadpole Treble Encore right here.
ITTA Physical Edition
First released on the Nintendo Switch in 2020, ITTA is a bullet-hell, boss rush game from developer Glass Revolver. Sam Watanuki reviewed the physical re-release of ITTA, published by Super Rare Games.
ITTA is about a girl, a gun, and her cat, on a journey through a mysterious forest to find her mother. The titular Itta must defeat 18 bosses before she can find her way out of the forest. Sam praised the bullet-hell-style boss fights in ITTA, saying that unlike similar games, he didn’t find the boss fights in ITTA to be frustratingly hard.
Sam also praised the game’s accessibility features, which can be used to increase Itta’s damage or reduce the amount of damage she takes. You can also make Itta outright invincible if you just can’t get through the fight otherwise. Sam says that ITTA “ITTA should be applauded for its accessibility features, and all games (regardless of genre) should follow its example.”
Ultimately, Sam thinks ITTA’s accessibility feature are what make it a must-play for fans of bullet-hell and boss-rush style games. The physical release of ITTA is limited to only 2,000 copies (available now on Super Rare Games’ website) but ITTA is also available on the Nintendo Eshop.
Sam gave ITTA a score of 4.5/5. You can read Sam’s full review of the game right here.
Our final review of the week belongs to Override 2: Super Mech League. Sam Watanuki played Override 2 on PS5, and says that while fans of kaiju and large-scale mech battles will enjoy the game, the unresponsive controls and cheap fighting game mechanics prevent Override 2 from reaching its full potential.
Override 2 is a 3D arena brawler where giant mechs duke it out for the entertainment of their adoring fans. Sam notes that while there are a good variety of game modes, including 1v1, 2v2, 4v4, Free For All, and King of the Hill, controlling the mechs is so wonky and inconsistent that it’s difficult to enjoy playing the game at all. Further, Sam discovered how easy it is to stun-lock opponents to cheese fights and score easy wins, and believes these simple techniques are a real detriment to competitive online play. Sam also notes that one of the coolest fighters, Ultraman, is unfortunately locked behind paid DLC.
Sam gave Override 2: Super Mech League a score of 2.5/5. Check out his full review of the game here.
