I fiddled with the PS2/Xbox era ones and they were fun if a little primitive. Reading reviews for Hitman III, which are great, and wondering if it's the gaming press that I shouldn't trust or if they're actually good. Should I bother picking up I & II before picking up III? Should I pick up III?
Edit - thanks for all the honest replies. I trust you fuckers way more than I do the gaming shills in the press.
I'd never played one until I got Absolution for free on Xbox 360 a few years ago. Pleasantly surprised with it.
Fast forward a couple years later, I got the new Hitman 1 and loved it. I even went for a ton of the challenges. It's a game I enjoy replaying to figure out all the weird different ways to get the kill. There's pre-set scenarios that are sort of guided and more difficult figure it out yourself challenges too. For example the last one I remember doing in Hitman 1 was to get all the kills in a ninja suit without being spotted or having any collateral damage kills.
I'm just now getting into Hitman 2, but I will 100% be buying 3 when it comes time to play it. I'll probably even replay the old levels in the new game, which is an option if you own the previous installments.
If you're just going to play through it once and follow the little scenarios then it will be meh at best, the fun is in going back and figuring out all the extras and that's what it's geared towards.