I've played 2, contracts, blood money on loop. Absolutely nothing beats these games for pure sandbox level fun. Its all iconic and i know the perfect silent assassin route through every level organically through my own discovery with no guides.
I played these games hundreds of times over. Fuck absolution. Also i love splinter cell it peaked at chaos theory the absolute best shader model 3.0 game ever to exist
Contracts is basically a remake of Codename 47 but dark. Yeah, and it's the only Original Hitman game without first-person view. It doesn't even have a suspecion system and some missions force you to just go around shooting people.
I think hitman 2 was the most bullshit in my experience some of the later levels are just absurd. Fuckin roof beam ninjas wtf? Although nothing beats the forced stealth level in 007 nightfire in the office building shittest level ever made