Hitman (2016) Season 1

[Art Blade]

[smg id=9409 type=preview align=center caption="HM Title"]

Hello guys and gals,

Today I purchased the game against all my concerns regarding the always online policy and the episodical type of adding missions as time goes by. The game was released in March 2016 and over the course of the year, new missions were added until they released the final Japan map for 2016. In between there are elusive target missions that appear for a set amount of time, like a week or so and then they're gone forever. You kill the elusive target and get a suit as a reward, mission disappears. You screw up (including losing connection to the internet or game servers going down) the mission is gone forever. Kind of silly but hey, I don't mind. The main missions are what interest me more.

Steam has got the whole season 1 as one packet on offer right now, 50% off, so I just got it  :-D

Going to post here asap. ^-^

[PZ]

Really looking forward to your impressions AB, as well as screenies.  :-X  I've always wanted to enjoy the Hitman series, but never found the graphics enticing enough.

[Art Blade]

Thanks, PZ :)

This time around the graphics are very likely to meet your expectations. I'll post loads of them as soon as I got loads of them to post.  :-()


Installation was smooth as silk. No hiccups. What I like is the option to set up your graphics before starting the actual game AND to check out those graphic settings with a benchmark test. Then you may keep or change them, as you see fit. Nice  :-X :)

With most options set to the highest ones available (except shadows which are always eating away at your performance, I tend to go for mid or low, mid in this case) the game runs smoothly, so very smoothly it's a joy playing the game. Excellent. :)

I completed my first training mission, it feels just as it should be. I played all hitman games except Absolution (that didn't appeal to me at all, way too linear and no contracts, no disguise fun and all that, so sod this) and I am pleased to say that this iteration feels as good as the so far best part of the series (in my book, at least) which was Blood Money. Oh boy, I'm already looking forward to playing this :) I know what to expect from this game because I watched complete playthroughs and thanks to the freedom of choice, I can play it differently. And many times over, differently every time. So many choices and challenges.. woo-hoo  :-D

[PZ]

 :-X ^-^

[Art Blade]

dang, I shouldn't have edited or you shouldn't have posted so soon :-() Read up, PZ, I added a whole lot of text to my previous post

[PZ]

 

Seems like we do that on a regular basis!

Sounds like a good game, and can't wait to see your experiences!

[Art Blade]

funniest screenshot: Game Credits. Take a close look and no, it's NOT faked :)
And funny trivia: this is my 23456th post here. :-()

[smg id=9410 type=preview align=center caption="HM credits"]

I am currently playing through the "tutorial" missions. There are two of them and they contain quite a couple of challenges (you could call those achievements as well) that cannot be completed in a single go. For example, kill the target with a garrotte, with an explosive, by accident, by drowning.. and the mission takes place in a simulation, basically a theatrical stage made of wood and the likes. So, the screenshots wouldn't be so pretty, unlike the real missions to follow.

[Art Blade]

Pics, anyone? OK, here you go.  :)

Something that should give you an idea how nice the graphics are. Some impressions from the Italian mission. Almost every building you see is accessible and the map is 8 levels high (as in storeys of a building) so you climb around a lot and use loads of staircases  :-D

This is how the game itself presents the map to you..
[smg id=9416 type=preview align=center caption="HM 001"]
[smg id=9417 type=preview align=center caption="HM 002"]
[smg id=9418 type=preview align=center caption="HM 003"]
[smg id=9419 type=preview align=center caption="HM 004"]
[smg id=9420 type=preview align=center caption="HM 005"]
[smg id=9421 type=preview align=center caption="HM 006"]
..and here you can see for yourself that it's exactly like that when playing it.
[smg id=9422 type=preview align=center caption="HM 007"]
[smg id=9423 type=preview align=center caption="HM 008"]
[smg id=9424 type=preview align=center caption="HM 009"]
[smg id=9425 type=preview align=center caption="HM 010"]
[smg id=9426 type=preview align=center caption="HM 011"]
[smg id=9427 type=preview align=center caption="HM 012"]
[smg id=9428 type=preview align=center caption="HM 013"]
[smg id=9429 type=preview align=center caption="HM 014"]

Here a map view, see how many levels there are  ??? :)
[smg id=9430 type=preview align=center caption="HM 015"]

[PZ]

Dang, AB, that looks fantastic.  Depending on how you report the game, I might need to put this on my game list as the graphics are stunning  :-X

As to the number of your posts - you need to post more else how are we to get to know you?  8-X 

[Art Blade]

I tend to withhold quite a bit, you know

The game is perfect. Open world would be an exaggeration but open map or open level is accurate. The Italian village is rather big and you can get lost in the maze of corridors and tunnels, alleys and paths, multi-storey houses that may have connecting tunnels or connecting passages to other buildings.. it is massive.

All you get is one or more targets to kill and sometimes an additional objective such as "destroy the virus" (in a lab) but the rest is entirely up to you. Classic hitman game style.

What is worth mentioning is the save game system. You've got eight free slots for manual saves and there are eight more the game saves in automatically. So even if you forgot to save, you can go back using one of the eight recent autosave games. :-X

Oh.. there is a creator. You can actually create your own missions and play them (publish them, too) so you can play other people's creations as well :-X :)

Most excellent so far :-X :)

Next year they're going to release a physical media edition of Season 1 so you definitely should try and get it.

[PZ]

Sounds excellent, and I especially like the part where people can create missions.  Makes for almost endless game play.  Physical media is a must for me due to my slooooooo Internet connection

[Art Blade]

there is even an offline mode available. :-D

However, some stuff that you can only unlock (by finishing a mission successfully) requires you to be "online" but it will be available for all missions and as far as I know, it will be available in offline mode, too. Like, you get a sniper rifle for mission 2, you can now play mission 1 and use said sniper rifle if you want. Whereas if you finish any mission offline, you won't unlock anything. Usually you don't need anything that you unlock. It is just giving you new opportunities. Like sniping. So.. looks as if you're going to need to be online to get the fun stuff. I don't know how intensive the data transfer actually is. Apparently you get booted from a mission if you lose your internet connection for whatever reason but you can reload from a previous savegame and continue from there. Apparently a stable connection is essentially what you need, I never heard of a "fast" connection needed, just stable.

[Binnatics]

Found a cool video with game play footage. This guy isn't exactly the best Hitman, but man is he having fun!!

! No longer available

[Art Blade]

He's really taking it to a new level of madness, I admit :-D I know that lemon guy but for some reason he's never been my favourite commentator -- way too over the top how he comments, at least for my taste. Usually he's making a massive show out of everything and he's also screaming a lot.

Here's a guy I came across who's doing it just right for my taste, actually he's the reason I wanted to get the game. Just take a look (best start at 2:00 because before that, he had a game braking bug preventing him from finishing an elusive target but instead, he shows off the two training missions but.. takes out everyone and his commentary in his Scottish accent, more precisely, Glaswegian [from Glasgow] accent, just cracks me up) and have fun. :)

! Kill everyone challenge ICA missions

And here's a British guy (with a genuinely cool accent yet it is some type of mongrel-English including bits and pieces from the Midlands and the South, also sometimes a bit of Cockney [from the London area] shining through) who's more serious and rather clever about approaching the game but still fun to listen to. He's the other reason why I wanted to get the game. Here he's showing off a really cool kill through an observatory's telescope playing the Italian map where I took my previous screenshots. :-D

! Observatory Trick Shot

[PZ]

hmmm... the online component has me worried

[Art Blade]

yep.

[Binnatics]

I'm totally not the type of guy watching playthroughs, that's probably because it is way to time consuming. I'd rather do my own. sometimes I like to watch a little to check out a game before buying it. But usually I skip quickly through the scenes in search for that first impression I need. If I watch the Gaming Lemon he is able to catch my attention for longer than a few minutes, because he's so fun. He doesn't show playthrough type of gameplay. He makes a compilation of events to show you the fun he has in the process. I like his humour, which is of course a matter of taste.  ^-^

[Art Blade]

actually, you should like the first vid then. :) It isn't a playthrough.

It is a compilation of him going through the level having fun killing everyone and there are some hilarious scenes. But then again, you don't have to watch it.

[Art Blade]

The Italian village, Sapienza, of which I posted the nice scenery pics, is a really lovely map and the rewards are cool, too. Yet only if you rack up enough XP to reach the maximum "mastery level" of 20, it takes several playthroughs of the mission, will you acquire those big rewards. It is impossible by design to get to level 20 in just one go. And I wanted to get that massive sniper rifle with 2x zoom and yes! OH YES! I made it, I unlocked the sniper :-D Now I've got a silenced sniper and the big one. The ducky is a proximity explosive duck, by the way.  :-()
[smg id=9432 type=preview align=center caption="Sapienza Mastery Level 20"]
[smg id=9433 type=preview align=center caption="Jaeger rifles"]

[PZ]

 :-X  ^-^

[Dweller_Benthos]

This game looked interesting, but 3rd person, soooooo.......

[Art Blade]

yes, sorry to say, it's 3rd person only.

However, how do you explore a map where there are lots of people who could kill you and the rest of them could potentially severely compromise your mission?

Spoiler

Well, you kill whatever comes running at you or is running away from you. I killed 'em all. :-D

Whatever it was..
[smg id=9434 type=preview align=center caption="..it's dead now."]

[PZ]

 :-X ^-^

[Art Blade]

It's been a while I posted here.

Not because I quit playing but because of the nature of the game. Screenshots which I thought I might end up posting by the dozens actually cannot convey properly what the game is about: Scouting, stealth, observing, trial and error, getting caught, getting a perfect opportunity and kill a target.. it is what is not in the pics that makes the game so cool.

It's the tension you feel when trespassing or sneaking around unnoticed -- the movement, the passing of time.. like, having poisoned a target's dinner, I had to wait for the target to sit down, the chef to bring the food, the target to eat some of it, then complain about the horrible taste and then starting to feel really sick and, holding their aching belly, slouching over to an area where they could throw up.

Which is where I was waiting for them to, say, puke their guts out into a toilet and me taking advantage of the situation by drowning them in their own vomit and whatever else was floating in the toilet bowl.

You can't really picture that in a way that the viewer understands what an amount of planning and timing went into all that.

However, I have been enjoying the game tremendously so far  :-X :)
[smg id=9438 type=preview align=center caption="bodies 01"]

Here I got the reward for mastering  this year's holiday special. :)
[smg id=9439 type=preview align=center caption="santa"]

[fragger]

Cool post Art. The game looks terrific :-X

Hehe, bad Santa. If you see HIM coming down the chimney, run for it!