For all of the elaborate assassinations that have permeated the Hitman series --fashionista mishaps, explosive motorsport podiums, malfunctioning armed robots-- the most fascinating contract of Hitman 3 remains the one that developer Io strikes with its players.

There is a certain understanding that when you step into the shoes of the follically-challenged Agent 47, you will embrace the blackly-comic murder sandboxes in the spirit in which they are built. Sure, you could just try and wander in with a pistol, charge up to your target, pop them in the head before running away again. But where is the fun in that? Where is the theatre?

Much better to step into the role, blend in, observe and wait for the right moment to strike. There is little more satisfying in video games than a perfectly-executed Silent Assassin run. In return, Io have offered up some career-best stuff in Hitman 3. Its selection of six missions boast a splendid variety both between and within themselves. The Dubai opening has you skydiving onto the world’s tallest skyscraper and sneaking into a grotesquely opulent penthouse soiree, mingling with the guests before perhaps knocking out a waiter and blending into the workforce. Invisible to the wealthy as you seek to isolate your two targets. Dartmoor has you infiltrating a remote country pile. Berlin drops you into a heaving, pulsating nightclub. More on these shortly.

The gag is that Agent 47 stands out like a sore thumb in almost any given situation: an imposing, exquisitely bald stranger with piercing blue eyes and a barcode stamped on the back of his head. But the other agreement between player and developer is that suspension of disbelief that makes him the ultimate shape-shifter. Much of the fun in deciphering 47’s contracts gives you an amount of knowingly ‘video gamey’ leeway. Being able to take over as a VIP but knocking him out in the toilets and wandering back out in his clothes, no questions asked -- even though you look kind of like that cook who just served up a dodgy plate of dumplings.

Indeed, it is Hitman’s economy here that allows Io to be so flexible within its levels. The Dartmoor mission is a particularly potent example of this. Io have always provided a selection of ‘Mission Stories’ that you can discover within each map, narrative threads that guide you to 47’s more elaborate executions. Dartmoor allows you to disguise yourself as a private Detective summoned to the house to solve a mysterious death. Pick up the thread and the level provides a full-blown locked-door murder mystery, having you interrogate suspects, rifle through rooms and scan evidence using you newly added smart-camera.

It is relatively prescribed but superbly done, and partway into your investigation you may well forget that your mission is to off the matriarch of the family rather than play Poirot. The Detective disguise gives 47 almost free reign across the level, but pursue a different path and it becomes a more imposing area teeming with private guards, serving staff and gardeners.

Hitman 3 follows closely in its recent predecessors footsteps --a trip to a lavish Argentinian winery is a defined nod to a vintage Hitman: Blood Money mission-- but that it can flip focus so readily is what impresses the most. The mission in a raucous Berlin nightclub is both peak Hitman and a shuddering change of pace. Within a cavernous, multi-levelled nightspot, 47 must dispatch five of 10 agents silly enough to try taking him down.

There are no mission threads here and targets are hidden until you uncover them, with you mingling with the throng of club-goers (I’m not sure a video game has ever captured the throbbing disorientation of a nightclub with such discomfiting elan) and picking them off one-by-one. It is pure exhilaration to play predator under laser lights, isolating goons and snapping their neck or, oops, shoving one off a balcony onto the writhing dancefloor below.

It is something of a shame that, having showed such brilliance and consistency across the game’s opening five missions that the grand finale is a bit of a bust. Hitman 3 wraps up this new trilogy’s World of Assassination yarn, a pot-boiling thriller involving 47 and long-time handler Diana travelling the world in order to dismantle a nefarious secret society.

Io clearly felt the need to end the series on a cinematic high, with a final mission that takes the gloves off and allows 47 to blast his way towards his final target. But rather than the catharsis that suggests, it becomes a so-so trek down a corridor that rather misjudges the excellence of what has come before. Hitman’s storytelling is sharpest within levels -- small character moments in overheard snippets of conversation or subtle world-building-- rather than the take it or leave it overarching plot.

Still, this is hardly a dealbreaker. Once you have murdered your way through the game for the first time, you will immediately want to jump back into missions to try things a different way. New starting points and equipment drops open up with every completion, trimming any excess and allowing you to push and pull at the very edges of each level. You can make your own fun, or Io provide a selection of challenges requiring specific weapons or disguises in which to perform your wetwork. The six levels here do seem a fairly slim offering on the surface, but they become more intoxicating the more you explore.

And so 47 slinks into the shadows for a well-earned break. Next, Io will move onto another famous agent in the form of James Bond; a more perfect match I’m not sure you could find. But do so with a fine and fitting send-off for gaming’s slickest, most inventive thriller.