Picked up the new Hitman game over the weekend after being impressed by the beta. For those who don't know, the game at release comes with the 2 training missions from the beta as well as a proper mission set in Paris, but that's it. The rest of the levels are going to be episodic, released for free throughout the rest of the year. I don't think that format can or should apply to other games from other developers, but I think for Hitman it's a good fit, as each mission has always been it's own self contained level with a minimal story thread connecting through it all anyway. The game could do with some updates from the developer as well (more on that below), so that gives them the opportunity to address those in later releases too.
And honestly, I can be prepared to wait considering that the Paris level is one of the best in the series. Absolutely huge, brimming with detail and rife with unique opportunities to assassinate your targets. It's begging to be replayed over and over again to see it all and I'm happy to do that. Unique kills are labelled as Opportunities in the game, where you can overhear a conversation which then allows you to track how to go about getting to and killing your target by displaying mission objectives and icons on the map. As something of a Hitman purist, I initially turned that off so I could discover things for myself but actually found it pretty difficult to figure out what to do. The minimal setting seems like a decent step, as objectives are highlighted on the UI still, but it's up to the player to go and find the disguises, objects etc on their own without it being explicitly pointed out in the game. Aside from that, the game increases it's replayability through Contract mode, where other players create their own missions to share with other people by tagging an NPC and setting requirements on how to kill them. On top of that there is an Escalation mission, where there are 5 stages to a mission where you may initially have to take out a target one way, then have to play that again taking them out the same way, but with an additional caveat like breaking into a safe. Then the third stage is all of the above plus taking out another target in a different way and so it keeps building and building up to the 5th level. I think it's a really cool feature and hope they continue to provide those with each update. They also have Elusive Targets which seems like a real time limited mission to take someone out and receive in game rewards for doing so.
So while one level at launch for a full retail price game sounds pretty bad, there's plenty there to keep busy with already with the promise of more missions throughout the year in new environments which will encourage you to keep coming back. The biggest complaint I have right now is that the online servers to connect to are a little dodgy at launch and there have been at least 2 instances where their server goes offline and it kicks you out of the game session. Not only that, but you can't load the save file at all whilst it's down, making the game unplayable. There's an option to take the game and play it offline which is something I'll have to consider doing. But that's hopefully something that can be addressed with later updates. If they can clean that up and deliver on the promise of that fantastic Paris level in the new missions then I can easily see this being the best game in the series.
Topic: The Gaming Postwhoring Thread (Read 1164376 times)