The Good
- Deceptively pretty and large, to the extent that it inspires awe to begin with
The Bad
- Poor release design
- A single map doesn't justify the AAA price-tag
- Replay value is ridiculously overestimated
- Load times are disheartening
- Story is boring and/or not worth following
- I said "deceptively"
Let Me Set The Tone
From what I've seen from roaming around the internet, Hitman: Absolution wasn't a popular game among fans of the franchise, but because I had never played a Hitman game previous to it, I met Absolution without expectations, and it's safe to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. Despite its linear nature (something long-time Hitman patrons seemed to very much dislike) I found that it had lots to offer. Of course, Hitman games have never been known for their storylines and Absolution was no different. The gameplay, however, was right up my alley. Levels took effort the first time over (particularly on the higher difficulty settings) as hints were few and far between and opportunities for assassination required a keen eye and a planned approach, but because the levels were always dense with atmosphere and opportunity, particularly the more crowded ones, the hours I whittled away always felt well spent. Whether it was skulking around the back door of a shop waiting for a greaser to walk into a trap involving a leaking gas-pipe, lacing a cocaine-dealer's drugs with tetrodotoxin and waiting for him to get the sniffles, or quietly dispatching a judge and donning his wig in order to exact unexpected justice, I always felt deeply rewarded for my exploration and my patience. The macabre joy was palpable, as troubling as that may be to read in print.
So when Hitman was announced for the PS4 I almost wet my little serial-killer pants, because as much as Absolution is very, very far from being my favourite game on PS3, it is very close to being the one I consider most under-rated by the wider gaming community. I pre-ordered Hitman as soon as I heard it was coming, and even with the knowledge of its episodic release structure, I was looking forward to it, because as I remember, Absolution levels were humongous, and so if I got two or three of those every month, along with contracts mode, and at the end of the release periods had a complete story either as lengthy as Absolution's or lengthier, I was going to be a very happy guy.
When Hitman was announced for the PS4, I almost wet my little serial-killer pants.
Cue beta-day
The beta consisted of two short levels, the first on a boat, having to take down a target on the top deck, guarded by security, and the second at an old military base, having to find a way to dispatch a spy under Russian military protection. On my first playthrough of the beta I found the gaming mechanics to be much the same as Absolution's, but that's where the similarities ended and the complaints begun. The first thing I noticed was the hints system: it guided me through each level like mommy through a supermarket, offering me "opportunities", which are essentially potential routes for assassination, spelled out step-by-step. This immediately made the whole process of discovery much less rewarding than in previous game(s) -- drawing with crayons isn't half as fun when mommy tells you exactly what to draw -- and even though the levels were less linear than Absolution's were in terms of map design, this helicoptering approach made them feel more linear, more limited. But I said to myself "it's a beta, it's not a finished product. I'll send some feedback, and I'll wait for the whole shabang on day one". I thought "the full release will be better than the beta. After all, Square Enix did put this game back several months in order to make sure it was fit and ready for release. I expect it to be good, because for forty-five pounds for a Hitman game on PS4, it's gotta be".
I thought "The full release will be better than the beta. After all, Square Enix did put this game back several months to make sure it was fit and ready for release.
Day-one: Paris
From the main menu I put the first level on, then waited eight years for the game to load, in which time I grew a beard and learned French (which none of the characters in the first level actually speak), then I had a bit of an exploration in the level for twenty minutes, went ahead with assassinating my two targets, which all in all took around forty-five minutes, after which I was kicked back to the main menu, where I searched for the next level, before realizing there wasn't one. Forty-five pounds for a level that lasted forty-five minutes. Rather annoyed, I went back into the Paris level to try out some other assassination methods and see if indeed this map is indeed so exceptional that it warranted being the only one indeed released on release day ...... well, it isn't. Indeed. The replay value is lesser than that of any of the levels in absolution. Yes, this map is bigger than any in Absolution, but because the walks are longer, the opportunities are sparser, and the atmosphere is lesser, the entire experience is diminished because of it. And so as beautiful as Hitman's one lonely map looks (the graphics really are quite good), no one single player story mode level in any game, ever, is beautiful enough to make me want to spend an entire month doing Groundhog Day in it, yet that's how long Square Enix expect fans to wait until the next part of the story. Couple that with the insanely long load times (nearly a full minute for a quick restart) and it is impossible for me to get excited enough to play this game.
As beautiful as Hitman's one lonely map looks, no one single player story-mode level in any game, ever, is beautiful enough to make me want to spend an entire month doing Groundhog Day in it.
To give you a better sense of comparison, these two targets in Paris, if you go at a direct pace, can be taken out in under fifteen minutes, in a map that doesn't feel anywhere near as big as some of the Absolution maps (although Square Enix say it is technically bigger than any one of them). Now, Absolution's story lasted anywhere between ten hours, for very quick players, to thirty hours for those like me who wanted to go back and replay the levels, and with that you might say "well surely the new Hitman has similar replayability value?", but actually, it doesn't, because all of the things that made Absolution so replayable -- the need for exploration, the sense of reward, the environments dense with opportunity -- are missing in Hitman.
Those aren't even the end of the problems, because: you will be kicked from your story mode level if your connection to the Hitman server breaks (which happens quite frequently, meaning you'll have to restart again and again. Get your beard trimmers ready); you can't review your score at the end of levels; you don't have the ability to tag targets and execute; the AI during scripted assassinations is horrendously temperamental; the score is dull and uninspiring; the shockingly long load times for restarts completely kill any desire to replay; and perhaps most disappointingly, the assassinations themselves seem devoid of any impact when they do not contribute to any meaningful or coherent narrative.
In short: it's f*#&!^g terrible.