HITMAN, the new episodic Hitman - GOTY Edition

[Vibalist]

yup

 

[sullynathan]

I've yet to complete a Hitman game but usually how many levels do they have in comparison to this one?
If this one is going for 3 seasons, will the new seasons be updated as DLC?

 

[Vibalist]

It varies. Most of the older Hitman games had lots of levels. For instance, Silent Assassin had 21, though some of them did take place in the same location if I remember correctly. And not all of them were brilliant by any stretch. They were mostly comparable in length or longer than the missions in Hitman 2016, but the comparison doesn't make that much sense since some of them were less sandboxy and more 'traditional' in their design, meaning you couldn't complete them in 2 or 3 minutes like you can in this game if you know what you're doing.

Blood Money, which is the Hitman game most similar to this one in its level design, had 11 or 12 levels I think, counting the training mission. This makes the new one substantially shorter, even if you include the prologue and bonus missions. OTOH, levels are larger this time around and have more stuff to do.

And yeah, seasons 2 and 3 will probably be DLC, so you wont have to buy an entirely new game to play those. But you'll probably still need to pay 40-60 bucks for each. That's around 18 missions for 150-180 dollars. Pretty fucking steep, but manageable enough if you pay it in small chunks.

I think I know now why they made this episodic.

 

[Trodat]

Once they release an episode, is it considered to be "finished" or are they still improving older missions, or fixing bugs if there are any?

Btw how is the performance? Good as something like MGSV: The Phantom Pain?

 

[Vibalist]

They're definitely still fixing bugs, as I've seen improvements on the first missions a few days ago. They're also adding new challenges and opportunities to older levels. Then there are the contracts and elusive targets, though I don't care too much about those.

They're not really changing the missions substantially, however, like adding new targets or altering the level design.

 

[HoboForEternity]

well, winter sale then. i hope it gets a good discount

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Siveon]

well, winter sale then. i hope it gets a good discount

Ha, weak. I'll buy all three seasons (if it happens) in 4 or so years for 5 bucks.

 

[Alienman]

well, winter sale then. i hope it gets a good discount

Ha, weak. I'll buy all three seasons (if it happens) in 4 or so years for 5 bucks.

If we survive world war 3.

 

[anvi]

People say Blood Money is better anyway...

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.pcgamer.com/io-interactive-confirms-second-season-for-hitman/

Io Interactive confirms second season for Hitman
Season two will include new locations and Elusive Targets, plus some familiar sights.

Hitman developer Io Interactive said in August that the game, which recently wrapped up its first six-episode season with a trip to Japan, could get two more seasons if all went well. And apparently it's gone well enough, because production director Hakan Abrak confirmed in a recent interview with Gamergenthat a second season is on the way.

The site is French and the Google translation is a bit bumpy, but the important part is clear enough. "Yes, there is a second season," Abrak said. The studio's goal is to "create a high-fidelity sandbox," he continued, where players can roam freely, interact with the AI, and come up with creative ways to achieve their goals.

The second season will introduce new cities, but some locations from the first season could be brought back as well, although not necessarily as they were: Abrak mentioned a trip to central Paris during the holidays as one possible variation on a season one location. Naturally, there will be new Elusive Targets as well.

Also interesting is that, "For the first time in the history of Hitman, we do not kill everyone [at the end]," he said. "Normally everyone dies except Diana, but not this time. So a base is built, a Hitman in which [we] created deep characters that we will develop for future seasons as well. A bit like a TV series, we can draw a parallel which depends on characters we have followed since and during the previous seasons. Some will come to their end, and we will follow other for a long time."

Hitman: The Complete First Season, a disc-based release of the game that includes all six episodes plus three bonus missions, the soundtrack, and other content, is set to come out in January.

I guess your new business model worked, PowerTorment?

 

[Vibalist]

Superbunnyhop review:

 

[DeepOcean]

Guess Square Enix will make all thewir games episodic always online now. Man, such dream coming true.

 

[Alienman]

Yeah, really fun waiting 1 year from the first episode to get the full experience. A real joy. Everyone know how much fun it is to wait for tv-series.

 

[Ivan]

Breaking Bad Season 5B was a great time.

 

[PowerTorment]

http://www.pcgamer.com/io-interactive-confirms-second-season-for-hitman/
I guess your new business model worked, PowerTorment?

Yup. I am very proud of this game. I think it is the best so far in my career,

But the episodic format definitely not for all games.

We are still working on the Season 1 disk release and some are working on Season 2. I am looking forward to showing off all the new stuff coming..

 

[Alienman]

http://www.pcgamer.com/io-interactive-confirms-second-season-for-hitman/
I guess your new business model worked, PowerTorment?

Yup. I am very proud of this game. I think it is the best so far in my career,

But the episodic format definitely not for all games.

We are still working on the Season 1 disk release and some are working on Season 2. I am looking forward to showing off all the new stuff coming..

Wish you released the game normally. I bought the game late, but still it feels like a disjointed experience - story and I guess gameplay wise since you forget what you can do and so on.

 

[Declinator]

http://www.pcgamer.com/io-interactive-confirms-second-season-for-hitman/
I guess your new business model worked, PowerTorment?

Yup. I am very proud of this game. I think it is the best so far in my career,

But the episodic format definitely not for all games.

We are still working on the Season 1 disk release and some are working on Season 2. I am looking forward to showing off all the new stuff coming..

Let's hope you guys didn't open Pandora's box with this.

 

[shihonage]

The online-only shtick is an atrocity, and if this game is financially successful, the atrocity will spread. I do not buy games with expiration dates. The episodic shtick was dumb, too. Artificially extending the game's relevance by forcing people to forget and remember the controls and gameplay every time new episode is released, kind of like a soft re-release.

Ugh.

I have great empathy toward hard work of developers, but when your publisher makes you fuck over the customer, you become the sacrificial lamb in the process.

 

[Alienman]

Just played the last episode and I'm stunned over how easy and short it was. Sure I killed some dudes, but it took maybe less than 10 minutes.

 

[Zombra]

I wonder if you can play offline with the disc in the fucking drive.

 

[LESS T_T]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ive-is-chasing-the-most-elusive-target-of-all

[...]

Despite these patches of resistance, however, Hitman is notable for managing to be both a new idea and precisely what the series' fans had been asking for. IO's previous game, Hitman: Absolution, attracted some criticism for departing from the series' unique identity; an attempt, perhaps, to appeal to a wider audience by aligning the game with more conventional third-person action titles. The new Hitman was a conscious return to the immaculately crafted sandboxes that defined Blood Money, widely regarded as the best game in the franchise. If anything, the digital distribution and episodic business model that so concerned its fanbase actually allowed IO to push that distinctive approach further than ever before.

Ultimately, the early missions were enough to assuage those fears. In his GDC talk, Seifert described a "mid-season sentiment change" following the launch of Sapienza - which, in the opinion of this journalist, is as good a mission as IO has ever made - and the introduction of new features that took full advantage of its connected audience. The studio worked on the missions in parallel to ensure that it could stick to its monthly release schedule, but Seifert saw Hitman's live features as "the pulse" of the experience; incentives to keep people playing even after each mission had been completed.

The most important of these are the Elusive Targets: specially created characters dropped into the game world for a limited period of time, which players must track and kill before they disappear. Sapienza was improved due to IO's ability to monitor and interact with its players, Seifert says, but it would still be a good experience offline. An idea like Elusive Targets, however, would be impossible to achieve without an internet connection. "You can only do it this way," he adds. "I'm somewhat proud that our team came up with something that... it's a new feeling when you play the game. In this day and age it's hard to come up with new feelings."

The live events also had a commercial impact. Elusive Targets energised the game's community, prompting enthusiastic discussion before during and after each one dropped. "The more people play [live events], the more people talk about it, and that translates to sales," Seifert says. "This is new to us. I can say that. We haven't seen this pattern before."

According to Seifert, more than 60% of the game's players either purchased the full season for $60 immediately, or upgraded to it after playing one or more of the missions. Square Enix has avoided discounts, too, and yet Hitman continues to attract new players every single day. "With disc releases, we have the tendency to discount - sometimes too early - just because it's on physical shelves and the space is needed. You don't really have control over you pricing. In digital that's different.

"Every single unit we sell is in the hand of the consumer. With discs you have this huge day one sell-in, but with digital you sell through on day one. I've sold more [on day one] in the past, but then you see a spike, and another spike - it's constant sell through. That's what amazes me the most."

"With a TV show, when a new episode comes out there might be some new people who watch the previous ones as they enter, but it won't be evenly distributed. What we've seen is that, people who come in, no matter how much content is out, it's almost equally distributed."

Hitman's entire first season will be eventually be released in a box, but Seifert is keen to puncture any notion that the physical release is what IO has been working towards. The collected version is likely to get better reviews than the discrete missions - a trend that Seifert claims is true of The Walking Dead, Life is Strange, and the majority of episodic games - but it exists principally for those who lack an online connection that can handle large downloads, and those who, well, really like boxes. Seifert has no desire to alienate any potential customer, but the simple fact is that discs and boxes are antithetical to IO's ambitions. "That's not what it's about," Seifert says. "It's about something that runs continuously and expands continuously."

With no microtransactions or in-game monetisation, Hitman must necessarily be sold in seasons for the economics to work, but Seifert is very clear that the game is a "multi-season proposition." It may not be as fast as a TV show, with a new season each year, but IO has reduced its development time drastically since the six year gap between Blood Money and Absolution, and the goal is to keep bringing that number down.

"When we say an ever expanding world of assassination, it means we don't have to take everything that's out there, throw it away and make a new game," Seifert says "We can actually build on that. Just imagine after two or three seasons, you enter at that point in time, the amount of content will just blow your mind. That's where we want to be."

 

[J_C]

Yeah, really fun waiting 1 year from the first episode to get the full experience. A real joy. Everyone know how much fun it is to wait for tv-series.

You have to wait 2-3 years for non-episodic games to get released.

 

[PowerTorment]

Yeah, really fun waiting 1 year from the first episode to get the full experience. A real joy. Everyone know how much fun it is to wait for tv-series.

You have to wait 2-3 years for non-episodic games to get released.

There is a long lead-in time for episodic games as well. We worked on HITMAN since 2013. And when the first episode was released we had already done most of the remaining episodes. It takes at least 12-18 months to make a map. And just to make it clear, the episodic model is not to save money or time. It was a hell to produce. If we could make it as single release it would have been so much easier.

 

[DeepOcean]

Man, I'm really curious to play this game, it seems massive incline from Absolution but always online... why companies, why? Can't you just stop being evil and be reasonable once for a change? I don't to play on your schedule but on my schedule.