HITMAN, the new episodic Hitman - GOTY Edition

[Vibalist]

Yes. Only thing missing is a small bonus episode.

 

[bonescraper]

Content-wise? Yes. Story-wise? No.

 

[Zombra]

Content-wise? Yes. Story-wise? No.

Correct. This has way too much story for a Hitman game.

 

[Vibalist]

Eh, the story is about the same for this game as for all the others, Absolution excepted. It's there and it only really plays a role in cutscenes that half the players probably skip. Nothing to get excited about, but nothing to get worked up over either. The introduction videos for each of the missions are really nice, though.

 

[Zombra]

I was just teasing bonescraper for implying it doesn't have a substantial enough story for a full game.

← Joined the ranks of those who grabbed HITMAN™ at half price and tried out tutorial-1 last night. The game plays beautifully and the design of the first level is cool for a tiny cramped tutorial. I'm looking forward to the real game. It feels really good to have total control over HUD elements. (I use a few handpicked ones.) My only gripe is that already certain events feel a bit static - specifically, it's weird that I can poison a random wine glass sitting on a table at a crowded party - with 100% certainty that my target and only my target will drink it. Evidently 47 is precognitive. But I guess that's how Blood Money and the other games worked too so I'll roll with it.

Oh, also, how hard would it be to let me use the mouse wheel to scroll through items? Tiresome to have to go into the inventory screen every time I want to grab a coin out of my pocket.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I definitely think poisoning something should trigger at least a 'suspicious' flag. You should be able to pick up the glass and do it some other way.

Glad you picked up the game, it's pretty great.

 

[Zombra]

I definitely think poisoning something should trigger at least a 'suspicious' flag. You should be able to pick up the glass and do it some other way.

Wellllllll, it would be nice if the animation wasn't so blatant, but I can use my imagination a little there.

Actually I think it's great that a bartender can tamper with drinks and no one says boo. When a waiter comes and tops off my coffee I scarcely notice, they could be pouring something from a green bottle marked

and I wouldn't blink. 47 can do it smooth too even if it doesn't look like it.

 

[bonescraper]

I was just teasing bonescraper for implying it doesn't have a substantial enough story for a full game.

I'm not saying it doesn't have a substantial enough story, all i'm saying is it ends in a cliffhanger.

And i disagree that previous games had pretty much no story. I actually fondly remember the first game and 47's journey to find out about his past. The second one had a really satisfying revenge plot. Even though Contracts didn't have much of a story to follow, cause it was mostly a remake consisting of "best of" from the first two games, i enjoyed its tiny little story and how it leads to the final mission. Absolution is the most story driven game in the series, yet also the worst story-wise IMO.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

So is this "Season 1" basically a full game at this point? In line with the other Hitmans?

Eh, like maybe half a Hitman game - both content and story-wise. I finished it in around 10 hours - and I probably could have done it much faster if I didn't save scum to try and get things perfect so many times.

The levels are on the complex side, but there are only six of them - and they are big, but we aren't talking truly massive levels either. Maybe 2 or 3 times the size of Blood Money levels? That's not to say that that isn't a large level, but don't think we are talking about giant, mini-GTA-style levels either.

Replaying the missions can be fun (especially when it comes to completing the challenges and unlocking new weapons/starting locations within each level), but if you are just in it for the story and play it straight through, you're going to be disappointed - especially since the main story mostly takes place in video cutscenes between the missions and ends in kind of a weak cliffhanger.

Also, it doesn't feel as challenging as previous games. You can save/load scum all you like and still get a silent assassin rating. Playing the 6th episode in Ninja mode and clearing it as a Silent Assassin, was disappointingly easy.

All that said, I did like it and even had fun replaying the levels to unlock stuff/complete challenges/see different methods of assassination. In addition to the 10 hours I spent on my first run, I spent another 39 replaying the different levels - though I feel a little bored with playing the same levels again at this point.

Basically, if you like the Hitman series and can get it on sale, it's a decent buy, if not, I think $60 is a bit much to charge for 6 levels and an unfinished story.

it's weird that I can poison a random wine glass sitting on a table at a crowded party - with 100% certainty that my target and only my target will drink it.

This.

Oh, also, how hard would it be to let me use the mouse wheel to scroll through items? Tiresome to have to go into the inventory screen every time I want to grab a coin out of my pocket.

And this.

Also, no map other than the minimap. Beyond that, you rely on "instict" - which is like ESP vision that enables you to see outlines of people through walls and floors.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Not very diverse crew there IO...

Yeah, that blurb at the beginning of the game about how they are "diverse" and multicultural or whatever annoyed me.

 

[Vibalist]

Lambchop19 There's a proper map in the pause menu.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

There's a proper map in the pause menu.

Reeeeeeeeeeee. Yeah, you're right.

I guess I just looked through the keybinds, saw no map and assumed it wasn't there.

Again, the game is a little too easy if someone like me - who doesn't even use the map - can get suit only silent asssassin with barely any effort.

 

[Zombra]

Again, the game is a little too easy if someone like me - who doesn't even use the map - can get suit only silent asssassin with barely any effort.

A design that encourages save scumming will do that. I can't believe I'm saying this, but even Absolution did it better.

In other news, I was amused that a security guard holding a small electronic device (OK, it's a detonator) was immediately suspicious to an entire crowd of people:

 

[Vibalist]

Yup. It's not exactly Dark Souls. OTOH, Blood Money was easy too. It was all about playing around and just sort of enjoying yourself. Lack of save games did increase the difficulty level, tho. Maybe a self imposed challenge is in order?

 

[Cadmus]

The limited saves were basically the most important part of the difficulty and influenced the playstyle heavily. Does this shit game not have them?

 

[Sentinel]

The limited saves were basically the most important part of the difficulty and influenced the playstyle heavily. Does this shit game not have them?

There are limited save slots but you can just replace saves so it's basically unlimited.
You can just not save if you want the challenge though.

 

[Cadmus]

The limited saves were basically the most important part of the difficulty and influenced the playstyle heavily. Does this shit game not have them?

There are limited save slots but you can just replace saves so it's basically unlimited.
You can just not save if you want the challenge though.

Yeah, fuck that. I don't like playing pretend in front of a PC in which I'm already playing pretend.

I suppose because of the fucking "constantly evolving awesome live(TM) x-perience always online asshole DRM" there won't be any mods? Any info about that?

 

[Sentinel]

The limited saves were basically the most important part of the difficulty and influenced the playstyle heavily. Does this shit game not have them?

There are limited save slots but you can just replace saves so it's basically unlimited.
You can just not save if you want the challenge though.

Yeah, fuck that. I don't like playing pretend in front of a PC in which I'm already playing pretend.

I suppose because of the fucking "constantly evolving awesome live(TM) x-perience always online asshole DRM" there won't be any mods? Any info about that?

You prefer having the dev force you to play pretend instead?
And yeah there will be no mods with Denuvo since Io doesn't particularly give a shit about mods.

 

[Vibalist]

The limited saves were basically the most important part of the difficulty and influenced the playstyle heavily. Does this shit game not have them?

There are limited save slots but you can just replace saves so it's basically unlimited.
You can just not save if you want the challenge though.

Yeah, fuck that. I don't like playing pretend in front of a PC in which I'm already playing pretend.

I suppose because of the fucking "constantly evolving awesome live(TM) x-perience always online asshole DRM" there won't be any mods? Any info about that?

I'd love a mod where someone added Jesper Kyd's older Hitman scores to this game.

 

[TheChickenKing]

I don't know how to make the article show up all fancy-like on the Codex itself, but according to the patch notes, Hitman just got an update that improves offline mode functionality (link). Apparently you can't directly unlock new things in offline mode, but unlocks made in online made transfer over. It's... a start? There are a bunch of other changes, but that's the big one.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Yup. It's not exactly Dark Souls. OTOH, Blood Money was easy too. It was all about playing around and just sort of enjoying yourself. Lack of save games did increase the difficulty level, tho. Maybe a self imposed challenge is in order?

Even without saves, it's still pretty easy. Blood money was more difficult, as was Hitman 2.

We live in the age of marketing to the lowest common denominator though, so I guess I should be grateful the game has anything resembling a challenge?

Also, there are no difficulty levels in the game. Vanilla is your only option - though you can manually disable certain tips/elements to make it harder.

Again, though: not without challenge, if you are a mediocre player like me, but if you were an expert at getting silent assassin ratings in previous games, this will probably be a cakewalk to you.

 

[Mr. Pink]

the hitman games have always been about learning the script rather than relying on intelligent behavior so this game doesn't bother me. one thing I feel that really hurts this game is how easy it is to non leathally incap people. blood money and earlier games forced you to rely on pure stealth more because you were only given two knock out syringes. I have SA'd several levels leaving a trail of unconscious bodies behind me.

I hope that in season two, there will be less body closets in the level and that unconscious people will wake up after 10 minutes or so.

one thing I found stupid was that non target npcs killed by "accidents" count as a non target kill. for example the neurochip doctor in hokkaido will kill himself if you don't re activate his chip and ruin your SA. that's not even my fault!

otherwise, I think this is an excellent hitman game and I really enjoyed the amount of attention to detail the devs of into the levels.

 

[Mr. Pink]

Yup. It's not exactly Dark Souls. OTOH, Blood Money was easy too. It was all about playing around and just sort of enjoying yourself. Lack of save games did increase the difficulty level, tho. Maybe a self imposed challenge is in order?

Even without saves, it's still pretty easy. Blood money was more difficult, as was Hitman 2.

We live in the age of marketing to the lowest common denominator though, so I guess I should be grateful the game has anything resembling a challenge?

Also, there are no difficulty levels in the game. Vanilla is your only option - though you can manually disable certain tips/elements to make it harder.

Again, though: not without challenge, if you are a mediocre player like me, but if you were an expert at getting silent assassin ratings in previous games, this will probably be a cakewalk to you.

I found the Montana level to be extremely difficult going in blind with tips off but casual-vision on. blood money wasn't particularly hard and the earlier games tended to be hard because of the janky AI.

when you have tips on, hitman becomes really easy because of how open the levels are and how it's packed with scripted opportunities. pre blood money games just expected you to bait the target into a bathroom and strangle him instead of making convoluted elaborate death traps.

the best kill I got was the one in my third playthrough in sapienza when I was sniping from the church tower and I tried shooting the dinner bell next to the kitchen which lured the target of out of his mansion to the outdoors dining table right in my crosshairs.

the level where you kill the superhero was really funny. death by being eaten by giant animatronic prop robot never gets old.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

pre blood money games just expected you to bait the target into a bathroom and strangle him instead of making convoluted elaborate death traps.

What? Totally untrue.

Even the first Hitman (2000) had premade deathtraps - poison, carbombs etc. They weren't as numerous as in the 2016 or Blood Money versions, but they were there. They were also in Hitman 2 and the others.

It's one of the series' gimmicks.

the best kill I got was the one in my third playthrough in sapienza when I was sniping from the church tower and I tried shooting the dinner bell next to the kitchen which lured the target of out of his mansion to the outdoors dining table right in my crosshairs.

Cool. Good find. You can also shoot the power box on the observatory, this will open it and attract him to look through the telescope. Then when you see his eye in the telescope, you can shoot him through it.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I hope that in season two, there will be less body closets in the level and that unconscious people will wake up after 10 minutes or so.

About body closets:

Does anyone know if people can be found in them?

In Blood Money, killing people in a messy way (eg, knife or gunshot instead of fiberwire) and dragging them anywhere would leave a trail of blood NPCs could follow and discover the body, but I think I recall the help stating that bodies stashed in closets etc would NEVER be found.

I usually only kill my targets, so I don't know if this is true or not, but if it is, it's a major .