Hitman: Sniper Challenge is a standalone pre-order ‘experience’ -see: demo- for those who’ve pre-ordered Hitman: Absolution. As Agent 47, you’re tasked with sitting slightly awkwardly on a rooftop and dispatching of around 20 bodyguards and massive arms-toting bastard Richard Strong Jr., as covertly and creatively as possible.

The challenge has already been available to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners for some time, with some rather intimidating high scores heading the rankings, so now it’s time for PC gamers to show what they can do.

Jon Brook, Brand Director of the Hitman games said, “IO is fully committed to delivering a PC version of Hitman: Absolution that lives up to the high standards of our PC community. Hitman: Sniper Challenge will give them a first taste of what’s to come.”

Hitman: Absolultion will be rigorously showcases at this year’s Gamescom, at which GamingBolt will also be attending, providing you with news, interviews and worst-dressed cosplayer competitions.

In fact, the challenge was all about the visuals and checking out how fun it is to snipe people, and also somewhat showcasing IO Interactive’s crowd technology. There’s been a lot of talk about how Hitman: Absolution can generate a lot of crowds without taxing the system.

With this DLC you can unlock items for Absolution, and there are some hidden challenges that involve shooting items like rubber ducks and so on. The main objective here is to kill a target who comes out of the helicopter and also kill all the guards without alerting anyone. It’s pretty simple, however, the guards can escape making you lose those vital points. There are leaderboards to compare points and so on. Replaying this Chicago rooftop level can be highly addictive so I can’t wait to see what type of levels we get in the full game.

The level contains a bunch of challenges like: Leap of the Ninja, No Pigeons Were Harmed, Ohh Mine Got!. It’s a Trap, Rapid Execution, Crack all Eggs, WOW! and so on. They aren’t that easy though, and require you to have a good eye to spot these things. Speaking of spotting, the draw distance is spectacular here on the PC, and when you max it out, all the lighting combine together along with the crisp textures to give you an unique experience.

I spent a bunch of hours on this challenge, so there’s plenty of replaybility ahere and it remains to be seen if Hitman: Absolution can offer a similar amount of replay value. Based on the previous Hitman games, that should be a resounding yes.

This game was reviewed on the PC.