There’s been a pleasing resurgence in Christmas-themed parts to games. GTA Online has a now yearly tradition of snow in Los Santos, Minecraft has holiday skins, and even Overwatch got in on the act recently. IO Interactive’s Hitman has dabbled with the festive period before (in a rather splendid Blood Money chapter), but the latest title ends a successful year with a Christmas return to Paris, and gives you a couple of strangely familiar targets.
Holiday Hoarders is a free (though IO have connected with a charity and suggest donations as payment) bonus episode set in Hitman’s opening level (the fashion show in Paris). The level’s design has been tweaked to feature plenty of Christmas decorations and similar yuletide cheer. There’s even new music (though it’s a bit strange), but otherwise, the same fashion show setup and characters are there from before. So it’s not as radical a change as the Sapienza bonus mission, but more so than the one for Marrakesh.
The effect is enough to give the place a different atmosphere, and there are some festive opportunities for death-dealing. Problem is, it just doesn’t quite feel quite up to the standard of the core missions, and rather, more of a fun diversion. In fairness, that’s what it sets out to be, a slightly daft experiment that the setup of Hitman allows for.
The true delight of this mission comes in its targets. Taking cues from the Elusive Target mission that featured Gray’s Busey and Cole, Holiday Hoarders dips into the surreal by having you assassinate the bumbling burglars from the Christmas movie favorite, Home Alone. While not exact representations of the duo, they are distinguishable enough for the joke to work (also it’s a splendid meta joke to have them show up in France). Following them around is especially fascinating, as they throw out reference after reference to their origins. Sadly you can’t torture them to the extent little Kevin McAllister did, but there’s a sly nod here and there.
There’s still little else to it. Beyond the joke of the hit, and the festive trimmings, there is little doubt this is a b-tier effort for IO Interactive. Just as well then, that IO Interactive’s b-tier is pretty damn good too. It’s another (albeit smaller) feather in the cap of season one, and that cap is starting to look like an Indian headdress at this stage.
The important things to remember with Holiday Hoarders is that it’s a) a bonus spinoff b) free, and c) partly for charity. With that in mind, the episode comes out quite favorably as another nice slice of Christmas-themed gaming to get you prepared for spending time with the relatives.