Is there a functional difference between KO'd enemies and dead ones in the new game? Because it was sort of silly, IMHO, that Absolution decided to strip out that distinction for no apparent reason, making it kind of trivial on some levels to just put everyone to sleep by chaining chokeholds and/or human shield + gun bonk.
And the logic surrounding it was Goddamn stupid. Yeah, sure, some fellow employees might notice that you're a stranger. But I think people might also probably notice that something is up when the fat Italian chef with the enormous beard is suddenly replaced by a scary looking bald guy with a barcode tattoo on the back of his head. Maybe. And yet they don't give a flying fuck about the latter in Absolution, while absolutely everyone is somehow paranoid about new employees even when they've been given zero reason to worry. Sure, the paramilitary guys might... but the fucking NYPD?
Yeah, or like how you didn't have to worry about being spotted with a unique outfit, like the judge's, because apparently no one in a small town courthouse recognizes that their 60 year old judge has been replaced by a tall, grim nightclub bouncer.
The dealbreaker for me, though, is the ability to choose loadouts & collect guns / weapons from level to level. Is that back in or not? If not, fuck it, Hitman is basically dead to me, replaced by what is essentially Gears of War: Black Tie Edition.
Come on Ender, let's be reasonable here.
The running and gunning, not to mention the cover shooting, in Gears of War are way better than Hitman.
Though now I'm mildly surprised a chainsaw never made it into the series as a usable weapon.
Though now I'm mildly surprised a chainsaw never made it into the series as a usable weapon.
For the love of God, don't give them any ideas.
I was thinking more the environmental, context-sensitive objects like the lifting weights from Blood Money, but I see your point.
0
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
edited March 2016
I know Blood Money had nailguns, at least. If somebody was trimming the hedges or whatever, a chainsaw sitting around would be pretty normal. Dunno why it would be an issue.
Though that is in the context of Blood Money, which had gameplay that spanned the spectrum from "kill everything with boolets" to "how many different ways can you kill this guy" to "which is the slickest most-badass way to make this look like an accident with zero culpability or evidence while I stand at the exit and wait for the death to play out". Absolution, on the other hand, seemed to have this idiotic obsession with wanting you to just kill shitloads of people in gruesome ways with whatever is sitting around, like it was a semi-stealthy Dead Rising with no zombies.
Fuck it, I'm just gonna reinstall Blood Money. I hate the KBAM controls and it doesn't support gamepads on PC, but I have a Steam Controller so I don't have to care!
They haven't been great about how the pricing structure for this game is going to work, and haven't updated everything (such as the FAQ on their Steam forum) with the latest information.
As far as I can tell, here's how it works now:
Next Friday the game officially releases and will include the Prologue (2 Missions) and Paris (? Missions). Contracts Mode will also be available to add a bunch of replayability to those missions. Then each month after that they will release a new Episode set in: Italy, Morocco, Thailand, USA, and finally Japan (though it mentions six future episodes but only lists 5 locations so I'm not sure what's up with that).
You can either buy the Full Experience for $60 which is basically a season pass that will get you all of that as it releases, or you can buy the Intro Pack for $15 which will just get you what releases next week (Prologue & Paris) and then if you want them you'll have to buy the other episodes later (I've seen both $10 a piece or $50 for all of them listed, not sure if both are still accurate, but either way it's $5 more than just buying the Full Experience).
Additionally, preordering the Full Experience OR the Intro Pack will give you the Requiem Pack (the white suit from the end of Blood Money, a chrome silenced pistol, and a white rubber ducky explosive).
0
HardtargetThere Are Four LightsVancouverRegistered Userregular
I was actually about to ask if Blood Money ever got gamepad support on PC but I guess not
That's a shame
I know Blood Money had nailguns, at least. If somebody was trimming the hedges or whatever, a chainsaw sitting around would be pretty normal. Dunno why it would be an issue.
Though that is in the context of Blood Money, which had gameplay that spanned the spectrum from "kill everything with boolets" to "how many different ways can you kill this guy" to "which is the slickest most-badass way to make this look like an accident with zero culpability or evidence while I stand at the exit and wait for the death to play out". Absolution, on the other hand, seemed to have this idiotic obsession with wanting you to just kill shitloads of people in gruesome ways with whatever is sitting around, like it was a semi-stealthy Dead Rising with no zombies.
Fuck it, I'm just gonna reinstall Blood Money. I hate the KBAM controls and it doesn't support gamepads on PC, but I have a Steam Controller so I don't have to care!
Absolution has just made me irrationally afraid of anything that sounds cool being added to the Hitman franchise just for the cool factor.
I'm sure chainsaws could work just fine in the appropriate context... but I'm scared, man.
Like, if you had asked me in a pre-Absolution world, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if a katana got added in some part of a future Hitman game?" I'd have been like, "Oh yeah. In the right level, in the right circumstances, I could totally see how that would work,"
And now if you asked me that question in real life I'd probably start to spontaneously bleed from my eyes and just shake my head violently.
They gotta earn that trust back before they can put chainsaws or nunchuks or [insert cool trope thing] into the game.
They haven't been great about how the pricing structure for this game is going to work, and haven't updated everything (such as the FAQ on their Steam forum) with the latest information.
As far as I can tell, here's how it works now:
Next Friday the game officially releases and will include the Prologue (2 Missions) and Paris (? Missions). Contracts Mode will also be available to add a bunch of replayability to those missions. Then each month after that they will release a new Episode set in: Italy, Morocco, Thailand, USA, and finally Japan (though it mentions six future episodes but only lists 5 locations so I'm not sure what's up with that).
You can either buy the Full Experience for $60 which is basically a season pass that will get you all of that as it releases, or you can buy the Intro Pack for $15 which will just get you what releases next week (Prologue & Paris) and then if you want them you'll have to buy the other episodes later (I've seen both $10 a piece or $50 for all of them listed, not sure if both are still accurate, but either way it's $5 more than just buying the Full Experience).
Additionally, preordering the Full Experience OR the Intro Pack will give you the Requiem Pack (the white suit from the end of Blood Money, a chrome silenced pistol, and a white rubber ducky explosive).
It's episodic?
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
I detest episodic content as a general rule, and the Hitman series is definitely not a good match for that approach.
Yeah, they haven't been getting the word out very well, and I wanted to make sure people in the thread at least knew what they may be getting into.
From what I understand, it was kind of a situation of "Do it this way, or not at all" as their attempt for mass appeal with Absolution kind of blew up in their faces.
Also, it's digital-only right now, but later in the year after all the episodes have been released they're going to have disc versions.
0
Olivawgood name, isn't it?the foot of mt fujiRegistered Userregular
They haven't been great about how the pricing structure for this game is going to work, and haven't updated everything (such as the FAQ on their Steam forum) with the latest information.
As far as I can tell, here's how it works now:
Next Friday the game officially releases and will include the Prologue (2 Missions) and Paris (? Missions). Contracts Mode will also be available to add a bunch of replayability to those missions. Then each month after that they will release a new Episode set in: Italy, Morocco, Thailand, USA, and finally Japan (though it mentions six future episodes but only lists 5 locations so I'm not sure what's up with that).
You can either buy the Full Experience for $60 which is basically a season pass that will get you all of that as it releases, or you can buy the Intro Pack for $15 which will just get you what releases next week (Prologue & Paris) and then if you want them you'll have to buy the other episodes later (I've seen both $10 a piece or $50 for all of them listed, not sure if both are still accurate, but either way it's $5 more than just buying the Full Experience).
Additionally, preordering the Full Experience OR the Intro Pack will give you the Requiem Pack (the white suit from the end of Blood Money, a chrome silenced pistol, and a white rubber ducky explosive).
It's episodic?
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
I detest episodic content as a general rule, and the Hitman series is definitely not a good match for that approach.
...ugh.
It's... it's Hitman
Like, the best one, Blood Money, had pretty much zero connective tissue between the levels, and the levels themselves were immensely replayable
I don't really understand how Hitman doesn't work for an episodic format
as far as episodic ideas go the new Hitman seems pretty good.
Pay for the environments you care about, and then get a ton of replay ability on the the ones you do.
If people really love the game they can also easily expand to more locations.
I dunno, maybe it's just me but I've never played the Hitman games for any sort of story. I just want some cool places with tons of routes and options for assassinations.
Linespider5ALL HAIL KING KILLMONGERRegistered Userregular
The premise of referring to a game as a platform unto itself is intriguing. Whether this is a legitimate attempt to pivot on the development of big-budget games, or ends up being a way to sell stuff piecemeal that doesn't feel whole, it's hard to say, but this does feel like something that developers would end up attempting sooner or later.
0
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
They haven't been great about how the pricing structure for this game is going to work, and haven't updated everything (such as the FAQ on their Steam forum) with the latest information.
As far as I can tell, here's how it works now:
Next Friday the game officially releases and will include the Prologue (2 Missions) and Paris (? Missions). Contracts Mode will also be available to add a bunch of replayability to those missions. Then each month after that they will release a new Episode set in: Italy, Morocco, Thailand, USA, and finally Japan (though it mentions six future episodes but only lists 5 locations so I'm not sure what's up with that).
You can either buy the Full Experience for $60 which is basically a season pass that will get you all of that as it releases, or you can buy the Intro Pack for $15 which will just get you what releases next week (Prologue & Paris) and then if you want them you'll have to buy the other episodes later (I've seen both $10 a piece or $50 for all of them listed, not sure if both are still accurate, but either way it's $5 more than just buying the Full Experience).
Additionally, preordering the Full Experience OR the Intro Pack will give you the Requiem Pack (the white suit from the end of Blood Money, a chrome silenced pistol, and a white rubber ducky explosive).
It's episodic?
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
I detest episodic content as a general rule, and the Hitman series is definitely not a good match for that approach.
...ugh.
It's... it's Hitman
Like, the best one, Blood Money, had pretty much zero connective tissue between the levels, and the levels themselves were immensely replayable
I don't really understand how Hitman doesn't work for an episodic format
The individual levels were unconnected, it was all part of the same narrative, and it's wretched having one story drawn out over several episodes. And that story narrative for Blood Money is what makes the end stuff so rad, because it supplies the whole buildup and background.
Blood Money is great because of the whole package, not because it was a bunch of levels where you kill people. So I guess I should rephrase that to "making a Hitman game as good as Blood Money is a wretched fit for episodic content".
Low-budget/mid-budget studios doing episodic stuff because it's less risky than doing a whole project at once? Not my thing, but understandable. But if it's a full-retail game, going episodic is... absurd. Make the whole damn game, don't fuck around and drag things out.
Ninja Snarl P on
0
Olivawgood name, isn't it?the foot of mt fujiRegistered Userregular
They haven't been great about how the pricing structure for this game is going to work, and haven't updated everything (such as the FAQ on their Steam forum) with the latest information.
As far as I can tell, here's how it works now:
Next Friday the game officially releases and will include the Prologue (2 Missions) and Paris (? Missions). Contracts Mode will also be available to add a bunch of replayability to those missions. Then each month after that they will release a new Episode set in: Italy, Morocco, Thailand, USA, and finally Japan (though it mentions six future episodes but only lists 5 locations so I'm not sure what's up with that).
You can either buy the Full Experience for $60 which is basically a season pass that will get you all of that as it releases, or you can buy the Intro Pack for $15 which will just get you what releases next week (Prologue & Paris) and then if you want them you'll have to buy the other episodes later (I've seen both $10 a piece or $50 for all of them listed, not sure if both are still accurate, but either way it's $5 more than just buying the Full Experience).
Additionally, preordering the Full Experience OR the Intro Pack will give you the Requiem Pack (the white suit from the end of Blood Money, a chrome silenced pistol, and a white rubber ducky explosive).
It's episodic?
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
I detest episodic content as a general rule, and the Hitman series is definitely not a good match for that approach.
...ugh.
It's... it's Hitman
Like, the best one, Blood Money, had pretty much zero connective tissue between the levels, and the levels themselves were immensely replayable
I don't really understand how Hitman doesn't work for an episodic format
The individual levels were unconnected, it was all part of the same narrative, and it's wretched having one story drawn out over several episodes. And that story narrative for Blood Money is what makes the end stuff so rad, because it supplies the whole buildup and background.
Blood Money is great because of the whole package, not because it was a bunch of levels where you kill people. So I guess I should rephrase that to "making a Hitman game as good as Blood Money is a wretched fit for episodic content".
Low-budget/mid-budget studios doing episodic stuff because it's less risky than doing a whole project at once? Not my thing, but understandable. But if it's a full-retail game, going episodic is... absurd. Make the whole damn game, don't fuck around and drag things out.
I guess I just completely disagree
The story of Blood Money is a handful of thirty second long cutscenes, a main menu screen, and a final level that lasts a couple minutes where you just gun everyone down. It's not even that great a story, which I actually prefer in a weird way, because a Hitman game shouldn't have a focus on telling a complex, layered story with things like "characters." It should have a focus on being a fucking baller-ass capital-H Hitman and what that job entails
With no connective tissue between the levels and your targets themselves, there is nothing about that that requires you playing it all at once, or that you lose by releasing it episodically
So as much as I enjoyed that final bit of Blood Money, I don't really care about it. As opposed to the meat of the game, at least
I've only played Absolution, which I loved and hated depending on the level, and which had a broken difficulty curve that made the entire back third so frustrating I'm amazed I finished it.
This Beta plays like ass compared to Absolution. Just moving around and interacting with things feels janky as fuck, and the UI is total garbage (why does load save default to auto saves and not manual).
I did fine the first time but got exposed after killing the dude by...??? I have no fucking idea. Possibly the other dude in the room even though he never looked in my direction. That bit seemed glitchy.
Generally silent takedowns seemed to be not silent and people with their backs to me would still notice and the game didn't really do a good job telling me why.
But the dealbreaker was when I poisoned a glass of wine on the bar and the fucker goes and drinks from a second fucking glass of wine and walks away. Why the fuck are there two glasses? The design where you have to memorize their behavior patterns and then replay is just garbage.
The Hitman level as a giant toybox to explore and play with and see what all you can do only works if the AI isn't specifically designed to make that a joyless slog.
Episodic content is fine by me so long as it's priced accordingly.
The whole package should come to the same $60~ that the thing would've been as a stand alone piece of software. So, 3 episodes for $20, 10 episodes for $10, whatever.
If it's some bullshit like, "Buy this $60 game 3 times over, or you don't get the full experience (Hello, StarCraft!)," then they can just get fucked. AAA is already a bloated & overpriced market as it is; I'm not interested in it becoming even more unwieldy / expensive.
Blood Money had a good, well told plot. It wasn't shakespeare, but it was fun schlock. It was told by reading between the lines on mission briefings, reading the newspapers and listening to the radio. It was there if you wanted it and ignorable if you didn't. The first game did the same thing: all the killings were unconnected on the surface unless you decided to read in between the lines.
Blood Money had a good, well told plot. It wasn't shakespeare, but it was fun schlock. It was told by reading between the lines on mission briefings, reading the newspapers and listening to the radio. It was there if you wanted it and ignorable if you didn't. The first game did the same thing: all the killings were unconnected on the surface unless you decided to read in between the lines.
Totally! I think all that's easy to translate to an episodic format, or at least easier than most games
So it looks like when the game unlocks in a few days with the Prologue and Paris missions, it will basically just be all the levels in the Beta (aka The Prologue) plus the single Paris map.
However, it's important to note that the Paris map is HUGE and that things work a little differently this time (also that image is over 6 months old, and reportedly even more stuff has been added to it).
In addition to having the story mission set on this map, there are also 6 "Elusive Targets" which from what I understand are basically alternate (harder) missions reusing the same map. Kind of a suped-up version of what can be created in Contracts mode. The PS4 version apparently has an extra one of these (along with another extra one for every upcoming city...fuck console-exclusive gameplay content by the way).
Then people will also be able to make a bazillion smaller variations using Contracts mode.
Reportedly, Paris isn't even the biggest map in the game, and at least some of the future episodes will be even bigger.
+2
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Blood Money had a good, well told plot. It wasn't shakespeare, but it was fun schlock. It was told by reading between the lines on mission briefings, reading the newspapers and listening to the radio. It was there if you wanted it and ignorable if you didn't. The first game did the same thing: all the killings were unconnected on the surface unless you decided to read in between the lines.
Totally! I think all that's easy to translate to an episodic format, or at least easier than most games
Look, you can have your well-reasoned argument, I'll just be over here with my prejudice against episodic obnoxiousness, hiring somebody to make it look like you accidentally beat yourself to death with a shovel.
Blood Money had a good, well told plot. It wasn't shakespeare, but it was fun schlock. It was told by reading between the lines on mission briefings, reading the newspapers and listening to the radio. It was there if you wanted it and ignorable if you didn't. The first game did the same thing: all the killings were unconnected on the surface unless you decided to read in between the lines.
Totally! I think all that's easy to translate to an episodic format, or at least easier than most games
Look, you can have your well-reasoned argument, I'll just be over here with my prejudice against episodic obnoxiousness, hiring somebody to make it look like you accidentally beat yourself to death with a shovel.
It's hard to argue with Camp Go-Fuck-Yourself. Have you seen their jackets?
0
mastertheheroProfessional Video Editor & Book AuthorRegistered Userregular
edited March 2016
Did you guys get to see this awesome real life Hitman video? I'm jealous of the participants. The behind the scenes was pretty cool too.
Giantbomb did a quicklook of this and it looks pretty fun. I'm curious, if I get one episode now, will the whole package be discounted if I decide I like it later?
Giantbomb did a quicklook of this and it looks pretty fun. I'm curious, if I get one episode now, will the whole package be discounted if I decide I like it later?
There's an article up on Eurogamer about this but I will summarize:
If you pay the fifteen for the first episode and then decide you want the whole thing, the rest costs fifty bucks all at once
If you decide to buy them piecemeal as they come out, it's ten bucks a pop and there'll be six of them, totaling $75
If you pay sixty bucks up front, you get everything forever
So if you don't mind paying an extra five bucks, you can buy the fifteen and then upgrade if you like it, but if you don't like it... well, you only paid fifteen bucks
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Kinda torn on that price model.
On the one hand, it's gouge-y by charging people more if they don't buy everything up-front. On the other hand, $15 bucks to find out if they've wrecked another Hitman game is a lot better than spending $60.
If only someone had invented a way to play part of a game before paying for it, in some sort of free demonstration mode.
I went ahead for the 15 dollar option to see if I can get my fill that way. Comes out today! Anyone else have impressions?
been watching streamers play, I really really liked the hitman games (barring absolution for certain things) and I have mixed feelings about this one. I'll probably grab the 12 euro option and give it a chance, though!
there's a better one, but i think only the Brits here will appreciate it. ladies and gentlemen i give you The Chuckle Brothers!
Io-Interactive and Realm Pictures recently invited a select group of people to become Agent 47’s handler as he goes on a mission to eliminate a Serbian arms dealer in a real life Hitman experience unlike anything created before. We picked two of the most dangerous men in the UK to take part: Paul and Barry Chuckle.
Can you save at all in level on the old hitman games? I want to play them, but I don't think I could stand trying to do a level perfectly with no saves with my limited time anymore.
0
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
The older games tend to limit saves based on difficulty; Blood Money has zero saves on Pro, 3 on hard, and something like 6-7 on the "normal" setting. And it's manual saves, so you decide when a good save point is when you've got something tough to do.
I think the first game is the only one that has no in-game save system whatsoever.
The older games tend to limit saves based on difficulty; Blood Money has zero saves on Pro, 3 on hard, and something like 6-7 on the "normal" setting. And it's manual saves, so you decide when a good save point is when you've got something tough to do.
I think the first game is the only one that has no in-game save system whatsoever.
Ok, thanks. I might skip the first one than, I just don't have time to spend 10 minutes waiting to line up a sniper shot, to miss, and have to do that all over again. I loved that when I was younger, but now with my limited play time, I save skum all the time anymore.
0
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
edited March 2016
Absolution is ass in general, and the Hitman Which Shall Not Be Named is pretty terrible. Unfortunately, I can't remember which one it is, because I never played it. Just make sure you don't play that one.
I played blood money to completion on xbox. I have always wanted to try the older ones, and have them on steam now. But I can't do an entire level with no save. I just don't have time for that.
Posts
Is there a functional difference between KO'd enemies and dead ones in the new game? Because it was sort of silly, IMHO, that Absolution decided to strip out that distinction for no apparent reason, making it kind of trivial on some levels to just put everyone to sleep by chaining chokeholds and/or human shield + gun bonk.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Yeah, or like how you didn't have to worry about being spotted with a unique outfit, like the judge's, because apparently no one in a small town courthouse recognizes that their 60 year old judge has been replaced by a tall, grim nightclub bouncer.
Come on Ender, let's be reasonable here.
The running and gunning, not to mention the cover shooting, in Gears of War are way better than Hitman.
Though now I'm mildly surprised a chainsaw never made it into the series as a usable weapon.
For the love of God, don't give them any ideas.
I was thinking more the environmental, context-sensitive objects like the lifting weights from Blood Money, but I see your point.
Though that is in the context of Blood Money, which had gameplay that spanned the spectrum from "kill everything with boolets" to "how many different ways can you kill this guy" to "which is the slickest most-badass way to make this look like an accident with zero culpability or evidence while I stand at the exit and wait for the death to play out". Absolution, on the other hand, seemed to have this idiotic obsession with wanting you to just kill shitloads of people in gruesome ways with whatever is sitting around, like it was a semi-stealthy Dead Rising with no zombies.
Fuck it, I'm just gonna reinstall Blood Money. I hate the KBAM controls and it doesn't support gamepads on PC, but I have a Steam Controller so I don't have to care!
As far as I can tell, here's how it works now:
Next Friday the game officially releases and will include the Prologue (2 Missions) and Paris (? Missions). Contracts Mode will also be available to add a bunch of replayability to those missions. Then each month after that they will release a new Episode set in: Italy, Morocco, Thailand, USA, and finally Japan (though it mentions six future episodes but only lists 5 locations so I'm not sure what's up with that).
You can either buy the Full Experience for $60 which is basically a season pass that will get you all of that as it releases, or you can buy the Intro Pack for $15 which will just get you what releases next week (Prologue & Paris) and then if you want them you'll have to buy the other episodes later (I've seen both $10 a piece or $50 for all of them listed, not sure if both are still accurate, but either way it's $5 more than just buying the Full Experience).
Additionally, preordering the Full Experience OR the Intro Pack will give you the Requiem Pack (the white suit from the end of Blood Money, a chrome silenced pistol, and a white rubber ducky explosive).
That's a shame
It's not like we're talking about mod support or the like.
Absolution has just made me irrationally afraid of anything that sounds cool being added to the Hitman franchise just for the cool factor.
I'm sure chainsaws could work just fine in the appropriate context... but I'm scared, man.
Like, if you had asked me in a pre-Absolution world, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if a katana got added in some part of a future Hitman game?" I'd have been like, "Oh yeah. In the right level, in the right circumstances, I could totally see how that would work,"
And now if you asked me that question in real life I'd probably start to spontaneously bleed from my eyes and just shake my head violently.
They gotta earn that trust back before they can put chainsaws or nunchuks or [insert cool trope thing] into the game.
It's episodic?
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
I detest episodic content as a general rule, and the Hitman series is definitely not a good match for that approach.
...ugh.
From what I understand, it was kind of a situation of "Do it this way, or not at all" as their attempt for mass appeal with Absolution kind of blew up in their faces.
Also, it's digital-only right now, but later in the year after all the episodes have been released they're going to have disc versions.
It's... it's Hitman
Like, the best one, Blood Money, had pretty much zero connective tissue between the levels, and the levels themselves were immensely replayable
I don't really understand how Hitman doesn't work for an episodic format
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Pay for the environments you care about, and then get a ton of replay ability on the the ones you do.
If people really love the game they can also easily expand to more locations.
I dunno, maybe it's just me but I've never played the Hitman games for any sort of story. I just want some cool places with tons of routes and options for assassinations.
The individual levels were unconnected, it was all part of the same narrative, and it's wretched having one story drawn out over several episodes. And that story narrative for Blood Money is what makes the end stuff so rad, because it supplies the whole buildup and background.
Blood Money is great because of the whole package, not because it was a bunch of levels where you kill people. So I guess I should rephrase that to "making a Hitman game as good as Blood Money is a wretched fit for episodic content".
Low-budget/mid-budget studios doing episodic stuff because it's less risky than doing a whole project at once? Not my thing, but understandable. But if it's a full-retail game, going episodic is... absurd. Make the whole damn game, don't fuck around and drag things out.
I guess I just completely disagree
The story of Blood Money is a handful of thirty second long cutscenes, a main menu screen, and a final level that lasts a couple minutes where you just gun everyone down. It's not even that great a story, which I actually prefer in a weird way, because a Hitman game shouldn't have a focus on telling a complex, layered story with things like "characters." It should have a focus on being a fucking baller-ass capital-H Hitman and what that job entails
With no connective tissue between the levels and your targets themselves, there is nothing about that that requires you playing it all at once, or that you lose by releasing it episodically
So as much as I enjoyed that final bit of Blood Money, I don't really care about it. As opposed to the meat of the game, at least
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
This Beta plays like ass compared to Absolution. Just moving around and interacting with things feels janky as fuck, and the UI is total garbage (why does load save default to auto saves and not manual).
I did fine the first time but got exposed after killing the dude by...??? I have no fucking idea. Possibly the other dude in the room even though he never looked in my direction. That bit seemed glitchy.
Generally silent takedowns seemed to be not silent and people with their backs to me would still notice and the game didn't really do a good job telling me why.
But the dealbreaker was when I poisoned a glass of wine on the bar and the fucker goes and drinks from a second fucking glass of wine and walks away. Why the fuck are there two glasses? The design where you have to memorize their behavior patterns and then replay is just garbage.
The Hitman level as a giant toybox to explore and play with and see what all you can do only works if the AI isn't specifically designed to make that a joyless slog.
The whole package should come to the same $60~ that the thing would've been as a stand alone piece of software. So, 3 episodes for $20, 10 episodes for $10, whatever.
If it's some bullshit like, "Buy this $60 game 3 times over, or you don't get the full experience (Hello, StarCraft!)," then they can just get fucked. AAA is already a bloated & overpriced market as it is; I'm not interested in it becoming even more unwieldy / expensive.
That one mission in Hitman 2 was just amazing to me.
I died so many times, got frustrated, and when I finally figured out what was happening my mind was just blown.
Totally! I think all that's easy to translate to an episodic format, or at least easier than most games
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
However, it's important to note that the Paris map is HUGE and that things work a little differently this time (also that image is over 6 months old, and reportedly even more stuff has been added to it).
In addition to having the story mission set on this map, there are also 6 "Elusive Targets" which from what I understand are basically alternate (harder) missions reusing the same map. Kind of a suped-up version of what can be created in Contracts mode. The PS4 version apparently has an extra one of these (along with another extra one for every upcoming city...fuck console-exclusive gameplay content by the way).
Then people will also be able to make a bazillion smaller variations using Contracts mode.
Reportedly, Paris isn't even the biggest map in the game, and at least some of the future episodes will be even bigger.
Look, you can have your well-reasoned argument, I'll just be over here with my prejudice against episodic obnoxiousness, hiring somebody to make it look like you accidentally beat yourself to death with a shovel.
It's hard to argue with Camp Go-Fuck-Yourself. Have you seen their jackets?
SniperGuyGaming on PSN / SniperGuy710 on Xbone Live
There's an article up on Eurogamer about this but I will summarize:
If you pay the fifteen for the first episode and then decide you want the whole thing, the rest costs fifty bucks all at once
If you decide to buy them piecemeal as they come out, it's ten bucks a pop and there'll be six of them, totaling $75
If you pay sixty bucks up front, you get everything forever
So if you don't mind paying an extra five bucks, you can buy the fifteen and then upgrade if you like it, but if you don't like it... well, you only paid fifteen bucks
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
On the one hand, it's gouge-y by charging people more if they don't buy everything up-front. On the other hand, $15 bucks to find out if they've wrecked another Hitman game is a lot better than spending $60.
If only someone had invented a way to play part of a game before paying for it, in some sort of free demonstration mode.
SniperGuyGaming on PSN / SniperGuy710 on Xbone Live
been watching streamers play, I really really liked the hitman games (barring absolution for certain things) and I have mixed feelings about this one. I'll probably grab the 12 euro option and give it a chance, though!
there's a better one, but i think only the Brits here will appreciate it. ladies and gentlemen i give you The Chuckle Brothers!
Io-Interactive and Realm Pictures recently invited a select group of people to become Agent 47’s handler as he goes on a mission to eliminate a Serbian arms dealer in a real life Hitman experience unlike anything created before. We picked two of the most dangerous men in the UK to take part: Paul and Barry Chuckle.
I think the first game is the only one that has no in-game save system whatsoever.
Ok, thanks. I might skip the first one than, I just don't have time to spend 10 minutes waiting to line up a sniper shot, to miss, and have to do that all over again. I loved that when I was younger, but now with my limited play time, I save skum all the time anymore.
Anyone know how it compares to Hitman 2? I still play that every once in a while, great game. Or how H2 compares to Blood Money?