Hitman’s episodic format has truly bought in some unexpected results for the series. No one expected that releasing the next big Hitman in an episodic format would work but IO Interactive and Square Enix have proven all the disbelievers wrong. Hitman is easily one of the best games of 2016 and takes the series into brand new directions. It’s been several months that we took a look at Hitman on the PS4 and Xbox One so it’s rather intriguing to visit this title on the PlayStation 4 Pro especially now that all the episodes are out.
The base PS4 version of Hitman was already a pretty optimized 1080p/30fps title with high resolution textures, fantastic lighting and a decent texture filtering solution. As we have previously noted in our original Hitman analysis, the game is a fantastic benchmark for PS4 and Xbox One’s performance so this puts the Pro version in a rather interesting situation. To begin with Hitman on the PS4 Pro runs at 2560 X 1440 resolution which is a substantial boost compared to the base version but yet again proves that the Pro’s GPU isn’t really powerful to run games in native 4K.
However that is not all, Pro users also benefit from quicker loading of higher resolution textures due to the consoles improved memory bandwidth along with improvements in reflection quality. Performance also sees big improvements but unfortunately the game does not run at a locked 60 frames per second while running the game on a 4K TV. Loading times are improved but they remain terribly long, regardless.
1080p TV set owners see additional benefits such higher quality shading and less flickering highlights and overall better image quality due to super sampling. However we also witnessed better frame rates while running in unlocked frame rate mode. So overall, there are some decent levels of frame rate improvements but the game’s core visuals remains largely the same. We were really expecting a native 4K resolution and a locked 60fps experience on the Pro due to the game’s closed level design. However the game’s use of high end physical based renderer and advanced lighting tech all become a bit too taxing on PS4 Pro’s limited bandwidth.
In the end Hitman on the Pro is a decent update and is worth a look due to its improved pixel count and slightly better performance.