Best Games Like Hitman

Throughout the Hitman series, we’ve witnessed Agent 47 wear many different disguises while carrying out assassinations and other spy shenanigans throughout intricate sandboxes.

However, he’s neither the first nor the last video game character to try and blend into a crowd, avoid suspicion, and stealthily slip past security to complete his mission.

In this list, we’ll highlight the best games like Hitman to play in 2023, including the best stealth games like Hitman and best PC games like Hitman.

We’ll be updating this list in the future with new titles, so make sure to check back and let us know if we missed any of your favorite Hitman-like games!

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Serving as the fifth and sixth installments in the Sniper series, Ghost Warrior Contracts and its sequel are two of the best tactical sandbox FPS games for some Hitman-like fun.

Players take on the role of a deadly assassin that specializes in long-range precision as they carry out covert missions for a top-secret agency.

Both games offer a more focused and polished stealth-driven experience compared to their predecessors while offering a host of optional and open-ended contracts to extend playtime.

To this point, there’s a good variety of objectives that can be completed in a seemingly infinite number of ways, boosting replayability to reach Hitman levels of satisfaction.

One of the biggest titles to come out of 2020 and among the best PlayStation exclusives to date, Ghost of Tsushima strikes the perfect balance between action and stealth.

You play as a samurai named Jin who’s forced to toe the line between sacred traditions and emerging strategies to defend his island home from Mongol invaders.

The game uses a combat system modeled after real-world samurai techniques and traditions as well as stealth mechanics that allow you to steal enemy disguises by equipping different outfits.

Like Hitman, foes can be eliminated in a variety of ways beyond brute force, including distraction tools and stealth assassinations.

A huge part of the Watch Dog series’ appeal is that each game takes place in a contemporary setting teeming with modern tech and sandbox environments ripe for exploration.

While Hitman fans will likely enjoy both the original and its sequel set in San Francisco, the latest entry, Watch Dogs: Legion, takes the franchise to new heights with a detailed recreation of modern-day London.

In it, you control a team of hackers, mercenaries, fixers, and criminals with diverse backgrounds that are willing to lend their unique skillsets to infiltrate a corrupt private military group.

Like Hitman, stealth is a central component of Watch Dogs’ gameplay as enemies typically have you outnumbered and outgunned, forcing you to get creative with gadgets and other hacking tools.

Aragami is another fantastic action-stealth hybrid that draws inspiration from the dearly beloved Tenchu games while incorporating supernatural elements.

In it, you take on the role of a spectral assassin with special powers that let him teleport between shadows, create hidden pathways, and summon shadow beasts to lend their hand in combat.

Like Hitman, each mission takes place in a sandbox environment filled with enemy patrols, collectible goodies, and viable options for reaching your target.

We recommend picking up the Shadow Edition, which includes the base game and its Nightfall DLC but feel free to skip past the more co-op-centric sequel Aragami 2.

For some 2D Hitman-style gameplay, we recommend picking up Mark of the Ninja: Remastered, which updates the action-stealth side-scroller with enhanced visuals, audio, and Special Edition content.

Similar to Ghost of Tsushima, the game casts you as a ninja struggling to pick between ancient traditions and modern technology as the world around them succumbs to corruption.

Reminiscent of Hitman’s labyrinth-like 3D sandboxes, Mark of the Ninja’s 2D side-scrolling levels are jam-packed with side routes in the form of hidden paths below grates and ventilation shafts.

Additionally, the game can be played as lethally or non-lethally as you desire, with the latter requiring you to stick to the shadows and utilize the environment to trap enemies before knocking them out. 

Released as a standalone prologue to 2014’s The Phantom Pain, Ground Zeroes delivers a short yet sweet stealth-driven experience that provides context for the overarching narrative.

However, if you spend enough time digging deeper, you’ll discover there’s a lot more to the game’s mission structure beyond providing some context for Phantom Pain’s main campaign.

Tucked away within Ground Zeroes is a series of Side Ops missions that revolve around complex environments with enemy patrols and objectives that demand a stealth-minded approach at every turn.

These play out similarly to revisiting earlier levels in a Hitman game with new tools and disguises that reveal new areas, opportunities, and challenges than initially perceived.

Next up, we have a rather unique stealth game titled Republique that’s likely slipped under the radar for many Hitman fans.

In it, you’re tasked with guiding a woman named Hope as she attempts to escape a maximum-security government facility conducting mysterious experiments on its prisoners.

The game is played from the perspective of hacked security cameras and other devices, making for a more immersive experience that takes the focus off the player and onto the on-screen action.

The result is an atmospheric stealth sandbox experience set in a dystopian future where every decision is a matter of life or death.

Many discussions have occurred concerning which games of the Assassin’s Creed series fall into the stealth category. However, some versions are better suited to supporting non-violent playing methods.

Among these notable entries is Assassin’s Creed Unity, which manages to set itself apart from its predecessors by including a dedicated stealth button.

Additionally, the game’s distinctly urban French setting is packed with crowds of NPCs that allow you to sneak past guards undetected similar to the Miami level in Hitman 2.

Now seven-plus years after Unity’s release, the game is still regarded as one of the more faithful stealth-driven experiences in the franchise as well as a visual masterpiece.

Sniper Elite 4 is another entry in a long-running franchise that makes several refinements to emphasize its stealth mechanics and tactical gameplay compared to other third-person shooters.

Set immediately after Sniper Elite 3, it casts you as a marksman assigned to infiltrate a remote island where Nazis are working on creating a cataclysmic weapon during WWII.

Similar to Hitman, missions are structured around stealthily picking off soldiers with an array of tools, namely sniper rifles, and other guns.

However, thoughtful players can opt to explore more creative approaches such as causing diversions, setting up “accidents,” and placing traps to eliminate targets without pulling a single trigger.

Of course, this list wouldn’t be complete without including at least one entry from arguably the most-influential stealth franchise of all time, Splinter Cell.

As of this writing, Splinter Cell: Blacklist is the final and most recent installment in Ubisoft’s beloved spy series and continues to hold up even in 2023.

This is in part due to a recent update meant to enhance the near-decade old title’s visuals to match today’s standards for graphical fidelity.

From a gameplay perspective, Blacklist keeps things simple while providing players with enough variety and tactical options throughout its missions to justify replaying them like you would in Hitman.

The Dishonored series takes its own approach to Hitman-like action-stealth gameplay while sprinkling in some supernatural story elements.

Both games drop players in steampunk-inspired cities patrolled by guards that can be dealt with either violently and non-violently with a host of supernatural abilities and mechanical gadgets at their disposal.

From mind-controlling enemies to freezing time, deploying traps, or even summoning a horde of rats, Dishonored keeps things exciting by giving you plenty of options to tackle the challenge at hand.

This has some obvious benefits from a gameplay perspective but also entices players to replay sections with different tactics in mind much like Hitman.

While we typically recommend the more recent Deus Ex: Mankind Divided to newcomers of the franchise, its predecessor does a much better job at focusing on Hitman-like stealth mechanics.

In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, you take on the role of a cyber-enhanced hero named Adam Jenson as he uses his abilities to bring down secret societies and corrupt corporations.

Things start simple enough, with new mechanics and complex techniques layered on the further you progress in the game until the world becomes your own cyberpunk playground.

From choosing which weapons to equip to carefully selecting the right augments for the task at hand, there’s a lot of flexibility in deciding how you want to take on the game’s world.

Like Deus Ex, Thief is a first-person stealth-action game made by Eidos Montreal that acts as a restart for the series.

The game takes place in a dark fantasy-inspired location dubbed The City and sees you controlling a talented thief named Garrett as he goes around robbing wealthy elites.

Like Hitman, Thief’s missions are designed to be tackled in a variety of ways and offer branching pathways that delineate from the main objective to reveal hidden secrets and loot.

Although not without its flaws, the game is a worthy recommendation for Hitman fans that enjoy sneaking up on guards and stealing shiny relics from rich snobs.

 The Styx series is comprised of two criminally underrated games: Master of Shadows and its follow-up Shards of Darkness, released in 2014 and 2017, respectively.

Much like IO Interactive’s Hitman trilogy, both games have players sneaking their way around sprawling sandboxes teeming with enemies, hidden shortcuts, and interactive objects.

Styx’s gameplay is best described as a mix of stealth and action with some environmental puzzle-solving that incorporates magical powers.

The titular goblin can knock out enemies or slip past them by creating clones of himself, turning momentarily invisible, or crafting deadly traps on the fly.