How does Hitman World of Assassination really run on Nintendo Switch 2?

Hitman World of Assassination continues to go strong and was released on Nintendo Switch 2 as one of the handful of titles available at the console's launch.

Hitman World of Assassination might be a little confusing to newcomers. To clear things up, the game first launched in 2021 and was called Hitman 3. But IO Interactive rebranded it to Hitman World of Assassination in 2023.

That's because the game features all content from the recent Hitman trilogy. In other words, when Hitman 3 first released, it already had all the content from 2016's Hitman and 2018's Hitman 2 in it as well as the new game.

IO Interactive later rebranded the game to Hitman World of Assassination to avoid confusion and so the game is viewed as one big bumper title, which was the developer's original intention anyway. The game continues to be updated with new targets, contracts and challenges.

It was re-released on Nintendo Switch 2 as a day one launch title as Hitman World of Assassination - Signature Edition but how does it really perform on the new console? Let's find out.

Hitman's iconic Agent 47 is playable on the Nintendo Switch 2 in Hitman World of Assassination / Screenshot, IO Interactive

To be clear, this is not a full review of Hitman World of Assassination as it is not a new game. It's an existing game releasing on a new console. This article analyses how the game performs specifically when running on the Switch 2.

Hitman World of Assassination - Signature Edition has all of the game's original content which makes for more than 100 hours of gameplay on its own.

It also features the Hitman 2 Expansion Pack, Hitman 3 Deluxe Pack and the Seven Deadly Sins Pack along with all of the future content updates going forward. Some additional DLC requires purchase.

Each stage is an open-world sandbox which takes players as Agent 47 across the world where they eliminate targets, achieve objectives and find collectibles in a variety of different ways.

The game itself is incredibly fun and it's great working out different ways to eliminate a target. There's a lot of replay value across each mode and the game encourages trial and error. This is the Hitman players know and love and it's a joy to play.

The game is incredibly popular with 25 million copies of the game sold across all platforms and 80 million registered users.

With the Switch 2 version, Hitman World of Assassination seems to run at 1080p in docked and 720p in handheld, both at an uncapped 60fps.

From indy100's experience, while the resolution never noticeably dropped its intended target, it's a different story with the frame rate.

As it's uncapped, that means 60fps is targeted but it can be lower if required. This goes against Hitman World of Assassination particularly in docked mode when VRR (variable refresh rate) is unavailable. VRR helps games to run more smoothly.

Without VRR in docked, performance can vary quite significantly. There are moments where the game looks smooth when there's not a lot going on but in more dense and detailed areas, the frame rate can plummet. indy100 frequently found the game running in the 30s docked in dense sections.

It's much smoother in handheld because the Switch 2 screen has VRR but is still noticeable. This helps to keep it more stable in dense areas but the 720p resolution, when the screen can push up to 1080p, really lacks the sharpness that could be reached.

The most noticeable aspect of this across both docked and handheld is when trying to move the camera slowly. After pushing up the camera sensitivity slightly, this caused really bad stuttering when trying to peek around corners, to the point where it felt like it almost wasn't a feasible option to slowly rotate the camera and it would be better to crank the sensitivity up even higher and do more harsh movement.

And the worst part of this? There are no graphics options. So players are stuck with these issues unless a fix or the options are implemented going forward.

But perhaps the biggest gripe with Hitman World of Assassination on Switch 2 specifically is the online requirement.

Hitman World of Assassination is a great game - but it's best enjoyed on other platforms than the Switch 2 / Screenshot, IO Interactive

Hitman World of Assassination needs an online connection for progress to be carried over. To note, if all players want to do is play through the campaigns themselves, then this largely is not an issue.

But if players want to carry on playing through other parts of the game on the go, without an internet connection, it seems they can't. Saves are split into online and offline.

It's something that completely goes against what the Switch 2 is all about in being able to carry on games seamlessly on the go. This feature has been in Hitman since the series rebooted in 2016 but massively hits the plausibility in meaningfully playing handheld on Switch 2 unless at home.

Controls are traditional too - there are no gyro controls or mouse functionality, the game basically plays the same way it does on all other consoles. There is no cross progression support either despite the option to link accounts.

Hitman World of Assassination is still a top quality game. For people that haven't played it, are interested in it and the Switch 2 is the only way the game can be played, hours and hours of fun will be had for those who want to play as Agent 47.

While it's good to see the game be released on another platform, and to more people on Nintendo Switch 2, it's better experienced on other platforms. Especially when handheld mode, which should be the unique selling point for the game on this console, requires an online connection to continue progress in key modes and the game can be very hit and miss in terms of performance.

Elsewhere from indy100, if The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2 Editionupgrades are worth their prices too and how does Cyberpunk 2077 really run on Nintendo Switch 2?

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