4. Leon: The Professional
The weakness of the Hitman series has always its schlocky sprinkles-of-sci-fi story and poorly written title character, Agent 47, a genetically engineered killer lacking a personality. The writers for the series tried to make him more interesting with the weird, off-putting grindhouse inspired story in Hitman: Absolution. I can appreciate the attempt to try and string together a context for brutally killing bad guys, but the half-hearted story cut down on the limited sandbox gameplay that Blood Money perfected by creating a series of hub levels designed to move the story along instead of just having one intricately designed level for each contract. The core gameplay of the series isnt bad (quite the contrary), but it deserves much better than the universe that IO Interactive has constructed for it. Solution? Jean Reno or, to be more specific, Jean Reno as Leon, the classiest assassin this side of Haytham Kenawy.
How to do it: Keep with the classic sandbox assassination gameplay made famous by the Hitman series. Start before the events of the first film with various contracts assigned to Leon by Tony, the Mafioso from the film; lead up to when Leon adopts Matilda. The game follows the films plotline from there. Now we have a likeable, badass assassin who eventually squares off against a memorable villain while developing a slightly creepy relationship with his would-be protégé. Hardly a masterpiece, but its better than the bogus Attack of the Clones origin story that IO refuses to scrap.