Hitman 3

Posted:  Jun 17, 2022
SDHQ BUILD SCORE: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarNo Star
Stable
Slight Graphical Issues

Review

Hitman 3 is the newest game in the rebooted hitman franchise. Taking the role of Agent 47, a man with a barcode slapped on the back of his bald head, you head to exotic places to assassinate elusive targets however you can. Feel like shooting them? Go ahead. Poison them? Be my guest. Throw a can of spaghetti? Oh you’ll be making Chef Boyardee proud. Using their new engine, each location is beaming with beautiful vistas and creative gameplay. And if you own Hitman 1 and 2, you can import the missions and campaigns into Hitman 3 for no extra charge! With all 3 games in 1 package, this is an incredibly fun game to screw around in.

Reviewing Hitman 3 was tough. This game actually runs really well on the deck out of the box, but there are a few caveats like high temps and battery usage. Through my testing, I found two efficient ways to play the game, a focus on temp/battery and one on quality. The main difference for these ways is the in-game FSR settings. Turning FSR on ultra quality blurs the resolution a little, but saves on battery a LOT while turning it off keeps everything sharp at the cost of battery.

The game can run 40 FPS pretty consistently at medium settings, 30 FPS lock actually kept temps and battery life down a chunk. This was most apparent when there are crowds of people. At 40, crowds could bring temps up to 80c and battery to 22W, while 30 would spike it to 70c and 17W generally. Medium in-game settings felt like a good balance of quality while still keeping temps and battery in check. I also found limiting TDP can mitigate some spikes, but it comes in most handy when shooting for higher framerates.

I didn’t experience any audio issues, but there were a few glitches I encountered. The mildest one would be some random black boxes appear when turning the camera too quickly, but they also disappear near immediately. When the in-game FSR is turned on, there is sometimes a visible halo around Agent 47 and there’s some ghost trails when walking.

I also have been noticing some framerate lag, but it isn’t picked up in the system so I believe it is the game’s engine and not the frames it brings out. I see this much more when FSR is turned off as well. I also noticed that, even though the game is verified, some steam deck button icons don’t show up in game.

There is a launcher for this game as well. You have to either use the touchscreen or set one of the trackpads to control the mouse. Though all of the settings from the launcher can be changed in-game, so I would just hit play and change settings after the game is launched.

Hitman 3 - Conclusion

Overall, the game runs surprisingly well. This is a new-ish release that still takes a lot to run, but the Steam Deck handles it like a champ. Being able to play Hitman 3 in a stable environment on the go, albeit with some compromises, still astounds me. This was a game I never imagined I could play on a portable device, yet here we are.

Need some help understanding how we got to our score? Check out our Guide to Steam Deck HQ.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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SDHQ's Build Score Breakdown

A small decrease in visuals and light performance spikes won't hold you back from becoming the world's greatest assassin.

Build Score

Performance: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarNo Star
VISUALS: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarNo StarNo Star
Stability: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarNo Star
Controls: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarNo Star
Battery: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star
Noah Kupetsky
A lover of gaming since 4, Noah has grown up with a love and passion for the industry. From there, he started to travel a lot and develop a joy for handheld and PC gaming. When the Steam Deck released, it just all clicked.
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Steam Deck Compatibility
Current Price: 
$27.99
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Proton DB Rating

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Other Builds & Information

Recommended Battery Settings

SteamOS:

30 FPS Cap with 60 Refresh Rate

Half Rate Shading OFF

TDP Limit OFF

Linear Upscaling

Proton Version:

Proton GE 7-20

Game Settings:

Resolution at 1280x800

Adaptive Supersampling Tech FSR 1.0 with Ultra Quality

Texture, Level of Detail, SSAO, Shadow, and Reflection Quality MEDIUM

Texture Filter Anisotropic 2X

Mirrors Reflection Quality LOW

Projected Battery Life/Temps:

11W - 13W varies by level. Some spikes to 15W

Around 65c temps for CPU and GPU with some spikes to 70c

Around 3-3.5 hours of gameplay

Recommended Quality Settings

SteamOS:

30 FPS Cap with 60 Refresh Rate

Half Rate Shading OFF

TDP Limit OFF

Linear Upscaling

Proton Version:

Proton GE 7-20

Game Settings:

Resolution at 1280x800

Adaptive Supersampling Tech OFF
Resolution Scale 1.0

Texture, Level of Detail, SSAO, Shadow, and Reflection Quality MEDIUM

Texture Filter Anisotropic 2X

Mirrors Reflection Quality LOW

Projected Battery Life/Temps:

12W - 15W varies by level. Some spikes to 17W

Around 65c - 70c temps for CPU and GPU with some spikes to 73-74c

Around 2.5-3 hours of gameplay

40 FPS Settings

SteamOS:

40 FPS Cap with 40 Refresh Rate

Half Rate Shading OFF

TDP Limit 9-10 (If framerate fluctuates too much, increase TDP limit)

Linear Upscaling

Proton Version:

Proton GE 7-20

Game Settings:

Resolution at 1280x800

Adaptive Supersampling Tech OFFResolution Scale 1.0

Texture, Level of Detail, SSAO, Shadow, and Reflection Quality MEDIUM

Texture Filter Anisotropic 2X

Mirrors Reflection Quality LOW

Projected Battery Life/Temps:

13W - 15W varies by level. Some spikes to 17W - 22W.

Around 70c - 75c temps for CPU and GPU with some spikes to 80c

Around 2 hours of gameplay

Optional Mods

None used!

related Settings

7 comments on “Hitman 3”

  1. It would be great if someone could figure out a guide to getting peacock to run for offline hitman, I sure couldnt

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