It's hard to believe that for almost twenty years, a franchise starring a generic-looking bald chap has endured, but that only goes to show that with strong writing and phenomenal talent on the coding side, even the most featureless of characters can become stars in their own right. Agent 47's design is itself evidence the franchise has grown with each instalment, but we've also got various characters fleshed out alongside, and developers IO Interactive experimenting and refining some now-exquisite stealth gameplay.

This series has adapted with the times to survive, with each one becoming that more self-aware and wacky - to the point that 47 in Hitman 2 will quip one-liners in the most monotone voice imaginable before murdering his targets in ridiculous ways.

Starting out life as a PC-only series and despite shifting publishers, numerous times Agent 47 has found a way to travel the globe taking out targets across multiple generations.

With the recent release of Hitman 2 and the HD Enhanced Collection (comprising Absolution and Blood Money), there isn't a better time to take a look back through the franchise, ranking them from worst to best with elements such as targets, how they're dispatched, locations and style being just a few things taken into account.