I'm a big fan of video game essays. Coincidentally, I'm also a big fan of video games. So, lucky for me, there's Writing on Games, a prolific YouTuber (named Seamus Black) with an eye for all things game design, themes, and writing.
In Seamus's latest upload, he goes to the trouble of analyzing every level of Hitman 2.
From the beginning mission's eerie prelude to violence that is so opposite to the first entry's, to Miami's now iconic symbol as everything a Hitman game can be. It's a great look at how Hitman 2's level design and subtle plotting within those levels can lay out various plans that can go very right or very wrong on a moment's notice.
Perhaps the most poignant analysis, for me at least, is the one Seamus does for the first level. He states how, compared to the first game's opening mission's use of crowds to show the player what the game will be like, the second game's opening uses emptiness to show how Agent 47 really is intruding in human space.
Check it out below.
