HITMAN, the new episodic Hitman - GOTY Edition

[Metro]

You could see this coming a mile away with the episodic thing. Unless you're Zombra who put me on ignore because he/she/it can't handle the truth.

 

[Daedalos]

Do you even own/play this, Intinium? Honest question. Took a quick peek at the last few pages and, while you claim that you indeed played this new Hitman, you never wrote anything concrete about it. 'Tis either a simple comment about it being AWESOME without any further elaboration, or lines upon lines of you whining about everyone who dares write even the slightest of criticisms.

Yes, I've played it extensively. Why?

Just because I don't take my precious and valueable time off my busy life to write some shitter review for a bunch of dramafags, suddenly voids me of making simple yet truthful facts about a game?..

Sure bro, sure.

 

[Cadmus]

loal these retardo web magazines always write shit like "RUSSIA JUST LAUNCHED 30 NUCLEAR WARHEAD MISSILES TO THE USA BUT IT'S NOT NECESSARILY A BAD THING AND HERE IS WHY"

 

[Zombra]

Zombra put me on ignore because he/she/it can't handle the truth.

I prefer "s/he/it", it's funnier.

 

[MercenarySnake]

Not sure who would want and support this episodic bullshit but if it catches on every game will be sold in bite sized pieces at a time. Well maybe this will end with this game.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I haven't followed the news since release, but just out of curiosity I checked steamspy today, and was pretty surprised to see only 160-170 thousand copies owned on steam five weeks after launch.

I certainly expected it would be selling better, shouldn't it? I don't know how much of the causes for this can be attributed to the episodic model and people shying away from the game until there are more episodes and more comments on them, and whether these sales aren't partially due actually to the lack of a cracked version, paradoxically. From anecdotal evidence, a cracked game supposedly contributes to sales of the game through word of mouth and people who extensively played game for free before they decided to buy it. What do you think?

 

[Vibalist]

I think the Hitman franchise has always been less well known/more niche oriented than other similar franchises such as Splinter Cell and Assassins Creed, and that Absolution was an attempt to remedy this. That game turned out the way it did because IO were well aware that a Blood Money sequel wouldn't sell nearly as much as a semi-open cover shooter. And judging by Hitman 2016's sales, they were probably right. Now, when you combine this with the other factors you mentioned (episodic content, bad word of mouth, refunds due to the shitty DRM, etc.), you get poor sales.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I was left with the feeling that IO were making a marketing campaign for a AAA game when they marketed the new hitman, there was a steam client background image, the price was set at the 60 dollars/euro that makes people think of AAA, it was somewhat timed with the new hitman movie... Also the fact that they chose not to go with a scheme in the lines of - give the first episode at a discount, to attract buyers and counterweight the fact they are not releasing all, and there are technical complaints (performance/drm)

Ironically, they were trying to generate hype, but by the time the game will merit a lot more interest - which is when there is more actual content - the hype will have passed and steam will still be showing "mixed" for reviews, which is like having someone take a dump in front of you restaurant door after you've redone the place's menu.

Speaking for myself, I don't like the idea of paying a full AAA price for one episode + five cats in a bag. It's in no way fair. Even if I could try this one episode in a cracked game and liked it, I'd still hold off until all or most episodes are out, and I've heard opinions on them. Especially when I'm sure that the whole game will be discounted at least around black friday and Christmas, and probably again when all the episodes are out. They take their time giving me content, I take my time giving them money, or both of us can fuck off.

Conclusion: an episodic release without a cliffhanger and with technical issues to boot is a sure way to mess up your game's launch.

 

[Vibalist]

You're probably right that it's more down to bad marketing, episodic content and general incompetence than anything else.

However, you do know that you can buy the one episode for like 12 euros, right? I mean, I get what you're saying, but IO aren't trying to charge you full price for an unreleased game unless you're dumb enough to pay for it.

 

[AwesomeButton]

However, you do know that you can buy the one episode for like 12 euros, right?

You're right, I just noticed that actually. Still, I'll probably wait for patches, which I expect will arrive with new episodes. Even the good reviews I saw on metacritic mention stuff like getting a "body found" message while the reviewer was alone in a room with the only dead body. Maybe for me it's just that they've failed to get me hyped and therefore I'll do the rational thing and wait for them to release more of the game.

From what I've seen in IO's demos, it's a good Hitman game, level design is improved and allows more experimentation, so I'm not worried it's another Absolution. But this is just another argument to wait for the full good thing, instead of getting it on one spoon per two months basis.

 

[Vibalist]

Definitely. I'll probably wait for the finished product too. If we're lucky we'll have a worthy sequel to Blood Money in maybe a year.

 

[Immortal]

You could see this coming a mile away with the episodic thing. Unless you're Zombra who put me on ignore because he/she/it can't handle the truth.

I used to really enjoy Zombra posts and even used to squeeze the occasional brofist from him.

Then he went all butthurt faggot and started ignoring anyone who doesn't think Hitman Episode 1a will be a masterpiece. Sad.

 

[Zombra]

I haven't followed the news since release, but just out of curiosity I checked steamspy today, and was pretty surprised to see only 160-170 thousand copies owned on steam five weeks after launch.

Is that the full game, or just the first episode? Or are they one and the same on steamspy?

I certainly expected it would be selling better, shouldn't it? What do you think?

I'm not an expert, but the hurky-jerky way they're handling this release can't be helping them. Pay full price now, get a full game in two years probably isn't exactly inspiring. Personally, I don't want to buy the first episode since it's more cost-effective to buy the full game, but I don't want to buy the full game either because it mostly doesn't exist yet (and it may be cheaper by the time it does exist). Not to mention that they changed the schedule once or twice after taking people's money, right? At first glance it all seems rather incoherent, and that's not even drilling down to alienating details like the always online requirement. It's just a mess.

 

[Vibalist]

The new patch breaks the game. I can't fucking believe this. Even worse frame rate drops, AI that suddenly sees you through walls... How do you fuck up so badly?

 

[Metro]

Delayed multiple times. Released episodically. Can't even optimize the game.

 

[Infinitron]

Hands On: Hitman Hits Its Stride In Sapienza And Marrakesh

After the flashbulbs and pulsing techno of Paris, Hitman [official site] Episode 2’s Sapienza level feels like a holiday – the kind of holiday John Le Carre writes about, in which lingering over your espresso is tantamount to painting a target on your back. Set on the Italian coast, the chapter opens with Agent 47 idling on a bench opposite a fortified mansion belonging to your target, a bioweapons scientist whose latest creation must be nipped in the bud. Under an archway to your left, two sheepish flower delivery drivers are tending to an unconscious cyclist. Somewhere behind you, a couple of heavyset gentlemen chat quietly about a secret laboratory. Off to the right, a woman in the street bellows up at her partner, a sous-chef who is late for work in the mansion’s kitchen.

It’s a world of threads begging to be yanked on, the better to hoist somebody by the neck, but what’s your hurry? You’ve got your paper and the sun is out. With its postcard locales and indulgent pacing, Hitman has always been something of a tourism simulator, and in Sapienza, IO has conjured up the perfect ambience – bottomless blue skies, dusky cobblestones and guidebook hotspots roamed by sweaty foreigners in ridiculous shorts.

Thus far Sapienza and Episode 3’s Marrakesh are a confident advance on the new game’s promising first map. They’re more varied and organic than Paris, slopped across districts and population centres rather than confining themselves to a single base or building. There’s the same excess of dialogue to sit through while tailing mission-critical NPCs, the same slightly obnoxious proximity-based event scripting, but you’re more at liberty to rove about and tinker. It’s a question of premise. The Showstopper was a tightly managed theatre production broken up into easily comprehended zones and levels, a clear-cut introduction to Hitman’s core principles, whereas Sapienza and Marrakesh are simply places. They feel a bit less artificial, less dependent on player participation.

Things to do while ambling through Sapienza include breaking into a lawyer’s office to sabotage the CCTV, eavesdropping on a barbershop conversation about a private investigator, going to (and possibly receiving) confession, and attempting to throttle a street performer in broad daylight. You can also punch a priest inside out, though I’m not sure that particular gambit will survive QA. In keeping with Hitman tradition, outfits you can borrow run the gamut from the boringly effective, such as guard uniforms or lab coats, to the comic and/or suicidal. I’ve yet to find a use for the stoner get-up in the attic, for instance, but I’m sure an idea will present itself. Give me time.

As before, the Opportunities waypoint system is there to walk you through certain methods of nobbling the quarry, though why you’d buy into a sandbox as highly wrought as this only to reduce it to a breadcrumb trail is another question. Opportunities remain as obtrusive as desired – you can limit the system to giving you objectives without any further guidance, or turn it off completely. It’s one of the more intelligently scaled tutorial elements out there, but I think the problem with Opportunities, most of which are dialogue-heavy, isn’t what they do but what they’re symptomatic of – scenario design that too often tells a tale at the expense of what the world can offer. There’s a hunger to provide context or strike a tone that occasionally stops me taking pleasure in the stories you can weave around items and NPC behaviours.

It’s never a deal-breaker, but I think IO is still learning to walk the line between its ambitions for Hitman as a drama and its ambitions for the sandbox. An example of not quite nailing this balance from Sapienza would be the gambit that involves placing or triggering domestic objects in sequence to prompt a hysterical fit, causing your victim to seclude himself from his guards. It’s a nice conceit, but I felt like I was following a script rather than putting my own cunning to work (not least because there are precedents in older games). Those who prefer to keep their distance might want to check out the ruined fort that overlooks the mansion’s infinity pool. I’m told there’s a cannon or two left on the battlements.

Where Sapienza takes the pressure off, Marrakesh returns you to the heart of the storm. Going by a hands-off fly-through demo, it could be Hitman’s largest and busiest map to date. Your targets this time are a banker convicted of fraud who has taken refuge in an embassy, and a general who is on the verge of launching a coup d’etat. There is, it must be said, a sense that Io is leafing through the annals of espionage cinema at this point: if Paris was a Bond movie and Sapienza is The American, Marrakesh puts me in mind of Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana.

The most striking things about this map are its politically charged blend of styles and scales, and its probably illusory atmosphere of imminent crisis. The city itself is another nod to the daytripper in every player, thick with details plucked from the pages of the National Geographic – winding alleys hung with arabesques, stalls packed with gaudy faux-brand electronics and even the odd snake charmer. The initial spawn drops you by a crowd staring at live TV footage of the protest rally outside the embassy’s main entrance, a clever scene-setting device that makes the map feel even larger by placing one corner at a journalistic remove.

Inside the subdued and spacious embassy building, there’s an air of panic as staff peer through the turnstiles at screaming citizens waving megaphones and placards. The rogue general, meanwhile, lurks with his troops in an abandoned secondary school that lends itself to a classic base infiltration, with regularly spaced windows and long corridors. Other points of interest include a mysteriously well-protected shoe shop, rooftop gardens and an underground carpark.

The aspect of Marrakesh that intrigues me most is the protest rally, which looks like a riot waiting to be elbowed into action. If that’s allowed for in the mission design, it could be either a brilliantly callous way of invading the embassy – swept through the checkpoint by a tide of agitators – or a sad reminder that many of the new Hitman’s bystanders are just furniture, however responsive they may seem at a glance. Let us not forget the spectacle of the Parisian jet set pondering the dregs of their cocktail glasses while the party’s host bleeds out on the catwalk.

Assuming IO’s designers and programmers can do the idea of an NPC insurrection justice, however, Marrakesh could be a gripping departure. Most Hitman levels are clockwork dioramas waiting to be interfered with, whereas this map feels like it might transform under its own steam. Imagine having to backtrack across a city reduced to one giant pub brawl after collecting your bounties, or closing in on the general after he’s dispatched his guards to quell the rioters.

Marrakesh is also a chance to take a more searching look at street-level political dissent than is permitted by, for example, Tom Clancy’s The Division, which launched in the same week as Hitman Episode 1. Unwieldy though it is, the comparison fascinates me because both games are basically about dress code. The Division poses an authoritarian fantasy in which society’s discontents are marked for extermination by their hoodies, masks and baseball caps, to say nothing of an in-world HUD that has no patience for fine distinctions.

In Hitman that readiness to judge by appearances is liberating – if you are what you wear, the social hierarchy is what you make of it. Marrakesh could be an especially fascinating exploration of this, as it dumps you right into the breach between the haves and have-nots. If there’s anything about the unfolding Hitman saga I’d be genuinely happy to see explored in mission dialogue or even, whisper it, a cutscene, it’s how the premise allows you to float above class distinctions where most games tacitly ask you to take sides.

Failing that, maps that boil off some of the rigidity and staginess we saw in Paris are reason enough to keep plugging away. Sapienza is perhaps a shade too familiar – I’m not allowed to talk about the secret laboratory in detail, but suffice to say that it changes the tempo and theme in ways a fan of the series would expect. Marrakesh, however, looks like IO pushing out of its own comfort zone. It should be, at the very least, an exciting and complicated failure.

Hitman’s Sapienza episode is out April 26th.

 

[Infinitron]

Hitman thing at PAX East, at around 4:41:00: https://www.twitch.tv/pax2/v/62351733

 

[SwiftCrack]

If you can run the game it's actually pretty fucking fun. Still ain't no Blood Money but it's so much better than Absolution.

Escalations are pretty dope too, they actually have me coming back.

The release model is fucking stupid though.

And if you figure out the mechanics it's pretty easy to cheese the AI flaws.


Edit: And PS4 exclusive content is fucking retarded too. The franchise is a PC backbone for fuck's sake.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Ep 2 out. Will have to wait two days to play myself sadly.

 

[Vibalist]

I don't think you lose anything by waiting, as the episode doesn't work right now.

 

[Vibalist]

Okay, so it appears that it works. People were just too impatient to wait for it to unlock.

 

[Vibalist]

Getting decent reviews:

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/hitman---episode-2-sapienza

This is for Playstation, though.

 

[Daedalos]

Loving this new episode.

Aquired the sniper rifle, and I'm sittin' here waiting for the targets to appear. 1 shot - 1 kill.

Perfect.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Any new interesting unlocks?

I kinda miss not being able to collect weapons ala classic hitmans.

 

[bonescraper]

Paris was good but this new episode is amazing. It's definitely one of the best Hitman leves in history, if they keep it up i'll be in heavans.