On the Hitman Review and Feminist Frequency Reviews

A few days ago, we published my review of the new Hitman.

There have been a lot of positive responses to the review, which I greatly appreciate. There have also been a few questions, such as:

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I’ll come back to that in a second.

In addition to the Hitman review, we also posted a brief statement, written by me, about Feminist Frequency reviews. In that statement, I write:

What excites me most about reviewing games for Feminist Frequency is the fact that considerations about matters of representation don’t have to feel shoehorned into reviews that treat such issues as secondary. Rather, they can be given the importance that they deserve, and be discussed not as something that exists entirely separate from other aspects like graphics and gameplay, but as part of the interconnected whole that makes the game what it is.

One thing that I always hope people take away from Feminist Frequency’s work is an understanding that engaging thoughtfully and critically with media isn’t just important; it’s also enjoyable. Our experience of games is richer and more rewarding not when we “turn our brains off,” but when we stay engaged intellectually and emotionally in what a game is saying and doing.

So, to answer your question about whether the bit about toxic masculinity was necessary, the answer is, “Oh, fuck yes.”