Hitman 2 PC Performance Review

Graphical Comparison – Low to Ultra

At low settings, Hitman 2 doesn’t look bad, with especially in areas where the game lacks large amounts of grass and other foliage, as it is the game’s prime candidate for pop-in outside of dynamic shadows.   

Between Low and Medium, we found that texture resolution changed are difficult to spot outside of select sequences, where players are either taking a close look at some environmental details of the resolution of the clothing of NPCs. Things will look sharper with higher resolution textures, but the game doesn’t look irredeemably awful without them.  

In the image below the main differences that are visible is an increased level of detail on the distant castle and the addition of ambient shadows. Medium is where we think players should aim for as a baseline for Hitman 2, though users of 2GB graphics cards will be limited to Low Texture settings unless you override the game’s VRAM options. 

(Low VS Medium (Click to see larger version))
  

Cranking things up to high, we see that more details are added in the distance, from increased geometry for the castle itself, especially in the far distance as well as increased amounts of foliage and additional shadow complexity. 

To the left of Agent 47 (it might be hard to tell it’s him with the mask on), you can see that the stone house has a small light above its door, which is not fully visible at medium settings. The Archway that can be seen at the right of Agent 47 is where we see some of the most notable boosts in image quality, especially if you look at the images below at their native 1440p resolution.   

(Medium VS High (Click to see larger version))
  

 
At Ultra settings we can see that further graphical enhancements, with further increases to the scene’s geometric complexity, especially around the castles corbels where higher polygon geometry and increased shadow complexity is evident. 

None of the extra details here is vital for the scene, though they are worthwhile if your PC has the umph to handle it.  

(High VS Ultra (Click to see larger version))