Picked this up in the recent Steam sale and, honestly, I'm kinda blown away. This game is better than it has any right to be.
It feels like they finally managed to make the game that Hitman was always trying to be. It's got the gameplay of Absolution, the scale of Silent Assassin and the design of Blood Money, all without the various things that hobbled each of those games. No cramped trash levels in between the good ones, minimal story instead of smothering things in plot that nobody cares about, no excessive exploitation cinema vibe, no clunky outdated controls and interface, normal saves instead of some weird checkpoint system.
The levels are massive, beautiful, intricate and fucking insanely detailed. Each one has like three subplots all going on at once and more incidental details than I can readily count.
The ambient dialogue, of which there is a staggering amount, is really good. It's both funny and almost believable while still having that mean-spirited touch that stops you from feeling bad about about ruining everyone's day. This might seem like an odd detail to praise, but I feel that, combined with how big and busy the levels are, it gives the game world a sense of life that few games can match. I'm probably forgetting something, but off the top of my head I can't think of a single other game that does it this well.
The assassination and exploration challenges give the levels a ton of replayability, especially when combined with how big and intricate the levels are. It's one of the only games I can remember where I'll complete a level then turn right back around and immediately play it again. Five times in a row. Not even exaggerating.
It still has that frustrating problem inherent to the level design where at the start you'll be a bit lost and it takes a fair bit of fumbling trial-and-error before you get a hang of where everything is and how all the moving pieces fit together (have I mentioned that the levels are big and intricate?). However they've found a way to alleviate that with waypoint-guided sub-objectives and that can be used to ease you into each level. (Yes Mr Hardcore, I see you shitting yourself in fury back there. Don't worry, they can be turned off.)
The combat is a bit basic. Enemy combat AI is very simple, aggressively chasing you down with no sense of self-preservation. I don't think they even use cover. 47 is rather fragile by video game protagonist standards, going down in a few seconds of sustained fire. Those two factors make combat essentially feel like a failure state. I don't mind that considering the nature of the game, but I would have preferred something a little more realistic. Have 47 go down to a single shot, but make enemy AI less accurate at range, slower to react, more concerned with self-preservation and not able to immediately locate you are when the shooting starts. Would have been a great deal more.... dare I say "immersive"? Perhaps not worth the effort though.
I do feel Square Enix might have shot themselves in the foot a bit with the episodic release thing . When I first heard of it I thought it was stupid, but having actually seen the levels I'm willing to admit they might have had reasons for doing it other than just profit. (Although I'm sure that was one reason, obviously.) At time of writing the game has six main missions along with two much smaller prologue/tutorial missions and I have no idea if more are planned. I wouldn't be surprised if they see decreasing sales of each level/episode as people lose interest over time. Presumably the trickle of content they've been releasing in between is to keep people engaged but I don't know how well it's working. If nothing else, I suppose it's an interesting experiment.
My big complaint is that it's got always-online functions. Kinda. You can play levels offline but it locks off all the progression elements. I can only assume they did this for DRM purposes. Bit of a piss off, wish I'd known about it before buying. I was going to make a joke about losing my always-online virginity to Square Enix but this is more like always-online second base.
Christ, I always blather on when writing these things. Bottom line is that if you're interested in Hitman and you can stomach the always-online bullshit then this is totally worth checking out.
It feels like they finally managed to make the game that Hitman was always trying to be. It's got the gameplay of Absolution, the scale of Silent Assassin and the design of Blood Money, all without the various things that hobbled each of those games. No cramped trash levels in between the good ones, minimal story instead of smothering things in plot that nobody cares about, no excessive exploitation cinema vibe, no clunky outdated controls and interface, normal saves instead of some weird checkpoint system.
The levels are massive, beautiful, intricate and fucking insanely detailed. Each one has like three subplots all going on at once and more incidental details than I can readily count.
The ambient dialogue, of which there is a staggering amount, is really good. It's both funny and almost believable while still having that mean-spirited touch that stops you from feeling bad about about ruining everyone's day. This might seem like an odd detail to praise, but I feel that, combined with how big and busy the levels are, it gives the game world a sense of life that few games can match. I'm probably forgetting something, but off the top of my head I can't think of a single other game that does it this well.
The assassination and exploration challenges give the levels a ton of replayability, especially when combined with how big and intricate the levels are. It's one of the only games I can remember where I'll complete a level then turn right back around and immediately play it again. Five times in a row. Not even exaggerating.
It still has that frustrating problem inherent to the level design where at the start you'll be a bit lost and it takes a fair bit of fumbling trial-and-error before you get a hang of where everything is and how all the moving pieces fit together (have I mentioned that the levels are big and intricate?). However they've found a way to alleviate that with waypoint-guided sub-objectives and that can be used to ease you into each level. (Yes Mr Hardcore, I see you shitting yourself in fury back there. Don't worry, they can be turned off.)
The combat is a bit basic. Enemy combat AI is very simple, aggressively chasing you down with no sense of self-preservation. I don't think they even use cover. 47 is rather fragile by video game protagonist standards, going down in a few seconds of sustained fire. Those two factors make combat essentially feel like a failure state. I don't mind that considering the nature of the game, but I would have preferred something a little more realistic. Have 47 go down to a single shot, but make enemy AI less accurate at range, slower to react, more concerned with self-preservation and not able to immediately locate you are when the shooting starts. Would have been a great deal more.... dare I say "immersive"? Perhaps not worth the effort though.
I do feel Square Enix might have shot themselves in the foot a bit with the episodic release thing . When I first heard of it I thought it was stupid, but having actually seen the levels I'm willing to admit they might have had reasons for doing it other than just profit. (Although I'm sure that was one reason, obviously.) At time of writing the game has six main missions along with two much smaller prologue/tutorial missions and I have no idea if more are planned. I wouldn't be surprised if they see decreasing sales of each level/episode as people lose interest over time. Presumably the trickle of content they've been releasing in between is to keep people engaged but I don't know how well it's working. If nothing else, I suppose it's an interesting experiment.
My big complaint is that it's got always-online functions. Kinda. You can play levels offline but it locks off all the progression elements. I can only assume they did this for DRM purposes. Bit of a piss off, wish I'd known about it before buying. I was going to make a joke about losing my always-online virginity to Square Enix but this is more like always-online second base.
Christ, I always blather on when writing these things. Bottom line is that if you're interested in Hitman and you can stomach the always-online bullshit then this is totally worth checking out.
