One of the most interesting additions to 2021’s Hitman 3 is the clear focus on narrative storytelling. The first two games certainly provided a spine to follow, but the third entry doubles down, delving into Agent 47’s backstory and providing a meaningful resolution to the plot IO Interactive has been setting up for the last four years.
The Hitman world has a few major characters and organisations that players should be familiar with before diving in. Of course, there’s Agent 47, our quiet but effective protagonist, a genetically-modified clone built to be the perfect assassin. Then there’s Diana Burwood, 47’s handler who provides him with information about his contracts and assists during missions. They both worked for the International Contract Agency, a for-hire assassination conglomerate that specialises in whacking influential and usually inaccessible people. This is the basic premise that runs through all of the Hitman games — 47’s day job involves carrying out extravagant hits for the ICA and on occasion, some other organisations.
Hitman 3: The Story So Far
Hitman 3 is the last entry in IO Interactive’s World of Assassination trilogy, which kicked off in 2016 with Hitman. In this game, 47 and Diana collaborate to take on a series of seemingly disconnected contracts. They kill many high-value targets, but it is slowly revealed that the missions have all been coordinated by someone known as the Shadow Client, who is using 47 and the ICA as a smokescreen to dispatch of particular members of an evil organisation known as Providence, which is basically Hitman’s version of The Illuminati.
At the end of Hitman, Diana is approached by a member of Providence, who enlists their help in taking down the Shadow Client, in exchange for information about 47’s shadowy past. In Hitman 2, 47 and Diana hunt the Shadow Client for Providence, and find out his identity — Lucas Grey, or Subject 6. Grey is a clone created in the same lab as 47, and they were friends during childhood. At the time, they vowed to take revenge on their creators, but it didn’t pan out and 47 had his memories wiped. It turns out that the evil scientist who created Grey and 47 was a member of Providence, which is why Grey has been using 47 to take down the organisation all these years later, using the Shadow Client alias.
Grey notes that Providence is controlled by three influential leaders known as the Partners, but they need to capture a character known as the Constant, who is pretty much the mastermind behind it all, who knows where the Partners are. They capture The Constant and he spills the beans, but reveals to Diana that 47 killed her parents way back when, which jeopardises their cushy relationship.
Hitman 3 Ending Explained
So! With all that in mind, Hitman 3 opens with 47 taking down the Partners with the help of Lucas Grey and Diana Burwood. Once that’s done, it’s revealed that The Constant Arthur Edwards set up their deaths in a pesky power sweep. Grey is captured just after, but before he commits suicide, he tells 47 that Diana has been compromised by Providence (because The Constant of Providence showed her that 47 killed her parents) and that he needs to replace Burwood with Grey’s handler, a hacker called Olivia Hall.
47 and Hall are then hunted by ICA assassins — the organisation that used to employ 47 and the now-compromised Burwood. 47 makes short work of the assassins and then heads to China to infiltrate the ICA headquarters. 47 exposes the ICA to the public and wipes all of the data they have on him and Diana from the servers. This was a smart move because Burwood hasn’t actually betrayed 47 — she’s just working with The Constant as a double agent. She’s playing ball in order to become the new leader of Providence so she can dismantle it from the inside, or so we’re led to believe.
In Mendoza, 47 takes out a target so Diana can become the new Constant and execute her plan, but in a big twist, she incapacitates 47 at the end of the mission and hands him to the current Constant Edwards, who wants to wipe his memory and turn him into his own personal assassin. In a dreamlike sequence, 47 successfully fights the effects of the neurotoxin with the help of Grey and Burwood, regaining consciousness on a train occupied by Edwards and his Providence goons in the Carpathian Mountains.
This was all part of Burwood’s plan — 47 still has his memories and is now in a position to take out Edwards and defeat Providence for good. So, In one final assassination mission, he kills Edwards (or injects him with the amnesiac serum that was meant for 47) and escapes, leaving everything behind. With Edwards dead, Burwood destroys Providence and comes to terms with 47 killing her parents. In the final scene, 47 and Burwood speak over the phone, noting that while they have left the ICA and Providence behind, there will always be a need for the dynamic duo so long as there are evil elites to keep in check.
There we have it! The ending suggests that 47 and Burwood will continue to work together without the backing of the ICA or any other shadowy, dangerous organisation. They’re now a freelance, highly effective assassination duo ready to rid the world of corrupt elites.
