Hitman is one of the stealth genre's most iconic games, putting us in the shoes of the elusive Agent 47. He's instantly recognisable from his bald head to his barcode, and that wasn't an accident. In the upcoming book The History of the Stealth Game, it's revealed that IO Interactive wanted to "create a brand that could stand the test of time, like Coca-Cola."
This book is penned by Kirk McKeand (Disclosure: Kirk McKeand is a former Editor-in-Chief of TheGamer) and it goes into detail about how IO Interactive got its beloved series off the ground, fighting to retain the rights while building an engaging frontman. Part of doing that was branding—Coca-Cola has instantly recognisable signifiers such as the red C, so much so that you'd recognise a broken bottle is Coca-Cola. IO applied this approach to designing Agent 47.
Art director Rasmus Guldberg-Kjær led the team in this design, starting with a bald man. Then came the black suit, red tie, white shirt, and black gloves. But as McKeand said, "That could be any bald man." So the team added a barcode to the back of his head and introduced his signature weapons, the fibre wire and dual silverballer pistols. Agent 47 was born. Even in a new outfit pillaged from a security guard, you know it's him.
The series hit the ground running and eventually built up to the release of Absolution, a narrower entry in the series that had more linear levels with a focus on escaping rather than assassinating. Agent 47 was on the run. And that came with a whole new tone.
"Much of its vibe was down to art director Tore Blystad's influence," McKeand wrote. "Heavily inspired by Quentin Tarantino movies, the tone shifted to lean more on the dark humour aspect of the series, with Chicago being chosen as a setting due to its urban variety, desert badlands, sleepy suburbs, captivating art deco architecture, and exciting cityscapes."
You can pre-order The History of the Stealth Game: From Metal Gear to Splinter Cell and Everything in Between on Amazon right now before its release on October 30.
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