So I noticed some people have managed to snag the game early, and of course the entire thing can be found on youtube. I just so happened to be one of the lucky ones, and while I haven't completed it yet, I've gotten up to the part in the library with all of the cops from that debut gameplay demo way back when.

Now I'm not very far, but I've played enough to establish some thoughts and overall, I'm kinda mixed. I'll do up a list of pros and cons as of now, after playing through what are essentially the first 4-5 chapters:

Pros:

• Game looks great, especially the facial animations, and it has some effectively moody atmosphere. Agent 47 is one impressive character model overall; almost disturbingly bright blue eyes, though.

• A lot of customisation at your fingertips; you can play as strict as you wish by essentially turning off everything and relying on your own instincts and patience. Sure, playing this as a shooter is now more accessible than ever, but at the same time the stealth stuff has been expanded about as much.

• Solid amount of incidental dialogue to listen to throughout the environments.

• Streamlined controls and interface, so you won't be accidentally pulling out your gun in the middle of a crowd or something. Plus the game has done a good job in hinting at what you will clearly grab the attention of the guards.

• Weird, wacky and at times downright terrifying rag-doll physics in full effect!

• Much more versatility when it comes to how you want to sleuth, not the least of which of course is the cover system and the ability to move around whilst crouched.

• Having a scoring meter up top, and not to mention all of the challenges and item/costume checklists and what have you, make for some incentives to perhaps play through levels multiple times even if there hasn't been a whole lot of variety as of yet.

Cons:

• As you may have already gathered, this is a much more cinematic game than prior Hitman titles and there are a lot more cutscenes and an actual driving narrative behind it all. What this then means, as of now where I'm at, is that there's been a noticeably distinct lack of any actual Hitman'ing. Plenty of stealth gameplay, but nothing like setting up traps or anything like that. There was the Chinatown mission of course, which is also segued rather haphazardly into the story, but that's all so far. Just a preference of mine, but I liked the all-business nature of previous games were you just had a selection of missions that dump you into an environment to go wild with little context besides ''you're an assassin, now go assassinate''. Plus I've just come from going through a set-piece where 47 has to escape from a burning building; very straightforward, and I'm now starting to see what they meant when they said this was going to be a much more linear game.

• Most of the game so far has mostly been separated across a selection of disappointingly small environments. Nothing to match the sandboxes of prior games as of yet.

• 47 sounds weird; it's the same voice actor, but he sounds like he's actually from Chicago at times and doesn't have the same soft spoken English accent of the original games. Total nitpicking, though, since for the much larger amount of dialogue Bateson has to work with to build upon the character, he's done an alright job so far.

• Disguises aren't nearly as reliable as they used to be as people can very quickly see right through them if you're not using your 'Instinct' ability to hide. Also simply turning your face to the ground is kind of a silly way for Agent 47 to 'blend in' and if anything only makes him look even more suspicious.

• When you die, there's no slo-mo where you get to pop off a few guards to potentially save you, or at the very least to watch 47 hilariously stumble to the floor.

• I haven't got there yet, but that cage match QTE video that's doing the rounds lately is.... man, that's just wrong.

• EDIT: Oh, and you can't look through keyholes. Your minimap's there, but it doesn't distinguish civilians and guards, so you have no idea what to expect when you open a door and are to simply trial and error it. Really can't fathom why they would remove such a feature.

Overall I'm having fun, but I'm not finding it to be quite as engaging as previous games and I'm not nearly as curious to head into chapters to do things differently; it all feels so surprisingly enclosed and claustrophobic. After around 3 hours now I think, I'm getting the feeling that I'm not going to encounter any such levels as expansive and that offer up so much diversity as the Hotel level from Contracts. I have to imagine a lot of Hitman diehard fans are probably going to be feeling pretty sour about the game at that.

Of course I can't stress enough that as far as I know, I could only just be scratching the surface, and I would love to return after another 3 hours to say how the game's completely turned around. The gameplay and the options they give you is impressive and a massive step up from previous games. It's just that so far, they haven't given me much need to really utilise them besides cutting around a lot corners in cover. Hopefully this is just all the fault of a slow start.

So how's everyone else been finding it? And for the folks who are further on, can you confirm if the game gets better as it goes on?

@Yummylee said:

After around 3 hours now I think, I'm getting the feeling that I'm not going to encounter any such levels as expansive and that offer up so much diversity as the Hotel level from Contracts.

Worst feeling in the [gaming] world when you're expecting the game to open up and expand into your expectations hour after hour yet you just.. keep waiting, as the levels pass by.

@MikeGosot: On Normal mode, even with the batman vision turned off (though I can still use instinct for hints such as pointing out key items), not really no.

Is it possible to just replay missions without the cinematics? Or is that something you can only do in contracts mode?

@MikeGosot: On Normal mode, even with the batman vision turned off (though I can still use instinct for hints such as pointing out key items), not really no.

So I noticed some people have managed to snag the game early, and of course the entire thing can be found on youtube. I just so happened to be one of the lucky ones, and while I haven't completed it yet, I've gotten up to the part in the library with all of the cops from that debut gameplay demo way back when.

Now I'm not very far, but I've played enough to establish some thoughts and overall, I'm kinda mixed. I'll do up a list of pros and cons as of now, after playing through what are essentially the first 4-5 chapters:

Pros:

• Game looks great, especially the facial animations, and it has some effectively moody atmosphere. Agent 47 is one impressive character model overall; almost disturbingly bright blue eyes, though.

• A lot of customisation at your fingertips; you can play as strict as you wish by essentially turning off everything and relying on your own instincts and patience. Sure, playing this as a shooter is now more accessible than ever, but at the same time the stealth stuff has been expanded about as much.

• Solid amount of incidental dialogue to listen to throughout the environments.

• Streamlined controls and interface, so you won't be accidentally pulling out your gun in the middle of a crowd or something. Plus the game has done a good job in hinting at what you will clearly grab the attention of the guards.

• Weird, wacky and at times downright terrifying rag-doll physics in full effect!

• Much more versatility when it comes to how you want to sleuth, not the least of which of course is the cover system and the ability to move around whilst crouched.

• Having a scoring meter up top, and not to mention all of the challenges and item/costume checklists and what have you, make for some incentives to perhaps play through levels multiple times even if there hasn't been a whole lot of variety as of yet.

Cons:

• As you may have already gathered, this is a much more cinematic game than prior Hitman titles and there are a lot more cutscenes and an actual driving narrative behind it all. What this then means, as of now where I'm at, is that there's been a noticeably distinct lack of any actual Hitman'ing. Plenty of stealth gameplay, but nothing like setting up traps or anything like that. There was the Chinatown mission of course, which is also segued rather haphazardly into the story, but that's all so far. Just a preference of mine, but I liked the all-business nature of previous games were you just had a selection of missions that dump you into an environment to go wild with little context besides ''you're an assassin, now go assassinate''. Plus I've just come from going through a set-piece where 47 has to escape from a burning building; very straightforward, and I'm now starting to see what they meant when they said this was going to be a much more linear game.

• Most of the game so far has mostly been separated across a selection of disappointingly small environments. Nothing to match the sandboxes of prior games as of yet.

• 47 sounds weird; it's the same voice actor, but he sounds like he's actually from Chicago at times and doesn't have the same soft spoken English accent of the original games. Total nitpicking, though, since for the much larger amount of dialogue Bateson has to work with to build upon the character, he's done an alright job so far.

• Disguises aren't nearly as reliable as they used to be as people can very quickly see right through them if you're not using your 'Instinct' ability to hide. Also simply turning your face to the ground is kind of a silly way for Agent 47 to 'blend in' and if anything only makes him look even more suspicious.

• When you die, there's no slo-mo where you get to pop off a few guards to potentially save you, or at the very least to watch 47 hilariously stumble to the floor.

• I haven't got there yet, but that cage match QTE video that's doing the rounds lately is.... man, that's just wrong.

• EDIT: Oh, and you can't look through keyholes. Your minimap's there, but it doesn't distinguish civilians and guards, so you have no idea what to expect when you open a door and are to simply trial and error it. Really can't fathom why they would remove such a feature.

Overall I'm having fun, but I'm not finding it to be quite as engaging as previous games and I'm not nearly as curious to head into chapters to do things differently; it all feels so surprisingly enclosed and claustrophobic. After around 3 hours now I think, I'm getting the feeling that I'm not going to encounter any such levels as expansive and that offer up so much diversity as the Hotel level from Contracts. I have to imagine a lot of Hitman diehard fans are probably going to be feeling pretty sour about the game at that.

Of course I can't stress enough that as far as I know, I could only just be scratching the surface, and I would love to return after another 3 hours to say how the game's completely turned around. The gameplay and the options they give you is impressive and a massive step up from previous games. It's just that so far, they haven't given me much need to really utilise them besides cutting around a lot corners in cover. Hopefully this is just all the fault of a slow start.

So how's everyone else been finding it? And for the folks who are further on, can you confirm if the game gets better as it goes on?

I played some of the sniper challenge last night good looking game. About the only insight I can give.

Oh man, I fucking hope that Absolution will turn out fine for my tastes. I enjoyed the Hitman series so much over the last four games it would be heartbreaking to see it go to shit. Then again, I am cool with a change of pace and understand IO might just not want to do another conventional Hitman game like 2-4. It's just that a lot of linearity, shooter gameplay and cutscene-driven story focus doesn't sound like a change of pace I'll care for very much. So far I'm real timid about wanting to purchase it. We'll see. I'd like to hear more impressions as you guys continue to progress further into the game since I'll definitely be holding out for reviews and maybe even an episode or two of a Let's Play.

My impressions are purely based on a few select gameplay videos and are best summarized by skeptical but hopeful.

Please keep this coming. I want to hear more from you on the game before it comes out on tuesday. I hope you can get farther into it by then.

It seems like the game is aiming to feature more variety in its design; it tends to bounce between scripted set-pieces (like the burning building and escaping the helicopter) where your assassin score is completely omitted, stealth segments that require you to find the exit, and then classic Hitman sandbox gameplay. Problem is it's all at the price of each gameplay element being on a smaller scale; the general stealth is definitely what looks to have been given the larger focus overall. Though a section where you have to use the crowds all AC-like to make your way through a train station was alright.

Anywhoo I've reached the second assassination sandbox, based in a strip club, and I killed my target by... actually I'll spoiler this since it's proven to be a completely valid way to kill him:

Again, though, the environment itself is pretty small, but I guess that's at the expense of keeping the game moving. I should also note that the game hasn't forced me into a gunfight or anything radical like that; I've been going pure stealth all the way.

@Sackmanjones: PS3 version. And for what it's worth the framerate is perfectly fine. But of course given how slow-paced the game is, and how small (and separated) the environments are, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Still given how far into this generation we are, it's refreshing all the same to have a great looking multi-platform console game to not dip into like 18fps.

Thanks for posting this. Out of grim morbid curiosity I might pick it up if it goes ridiculously cheap in some steam sale further down the line.

What's this QTE I keep hearing about?

@adam1808 said:

What's this QTE I keep hearing about?

=I

EDIT: fack, embed link didn't work. OK, here we are.

I feel like I Need to make 47 in WWE13 now.

Stripper nuns and absurd QTE wrestling matches... I wonder if I'm eventually going to be saving Victoria (the girl Diane entrusted you to keep safe) while Bonnie Tyler's I Need a Hero is playing in the background. @_@

@Yummylee: not gonna lie that QTE made me throw up in my mouth a little. Have there been many of those in the game so far?

@Yummylee said:

Stripper nuns and absurd QTE wrestling matches... I wonder if I'm eventually going to be saving Victoria (the girl Diane entrusted you to keep safe) while Bonnie Tyler's I Need a Hero is playing in the background. @_@

That sounds alright to me. But based on what you've written I do wish there was more Hitman in this Hitman. I still intend to give it a shot (no pun intended) as long as they don't force you into gunfights (I'm directly looking at you Splinter Cell: Conviction, you hot piece of garbage).

How do you look through keyholes in the previous game? Key bindings screen isn't especially informative

@Yummylee: Man, you're getting all the games early these days.

That wrestler QTE didn't seem so bad until I saw the embedded video above and realized... that's not what I come to this series for. Nor do I care for the sharp change of focus on the overall narrative. Blood Money was *brilliant* for tying a story into the format of "all business" assassinating. There were between-missions cutscenes and cues to something larger that played out during the actual missions, but the focus was always on isolated, fun assassination scenarios. Only the last two missions were entirely story related. I've seen at least 4 missions from Absolution and only one of them seemed like the old Hitman formula.

Unless you tell me there's a sharp turnaround at some point, I'm not sure I'll bother. I'm already passing up a $30 pre order.

@Yummylee said:

@adam1808 said:

What's this QTE I keep hearing about?

=I

EDIT: fack, embed link didn't work. OK, here we are.

alright now....I'm sure there's another way to eliminate Sanchez right?....right? Oh god!

@Vinny_Says:

That was hilarious, but at the same time it doesn't look like what you would expect from a Hitman game. I do hope there's more than one option to kill that guy.

I'm going to start pretending that this is an unrelated game just called "Absolution", and it just happens to borrow characters from Hitman. Might make it far more enjoyable so that I don't hate all of the changes as intensely.

@gaminghooligan said:

@Yummylee: not gonna lie that QTE made me throw up in my mouth a little. Have there been many of those in the game so far?

No, nothing as ridiculous as that. You can do a quick QTE to incapacitate a guard if he's facing you and you're close enough, but that's the closest comparison. It's all been relatively low key so far; much more linear and even constrictive at times with only one primary path to take, but still within the same pacing and tone as you'd expect from a Hitman game for all that's worth.

@Fredchuckdave said:

How do you look through keyholes in the previous game? Key bindings screen isn't especially informative

I think you just had to crouch next to a door and, if I remember correctly, you press whatever button you use to open the door and keep a hold it, so it could then give the option of choosing between opening the door or looking through the keyhole ect.

@AndrewB said:

@Yummylee: Man, you're getting all the games early these days.

That wrestler QTE didn't seem so bad until I saw the embedded video above and realized... that's not what I come to this series for. Nor do I care for the sharp change of focus on the overall narrative. Blood Money was *brilliant* for tying a story into the format of "all business" assassinating. There were between-missions cutscenes and cues to something larger that played out during the actual missions, but the focus was always on isolated, fun assassination scenarios. Only the last two missions were entirely story related. I've seen at least 4 missions from Absolution and only one of them seemed like the old Hitman formula.

Unless you tell me there's a sharp turnaround at some point, I'm not sure I'll bother. I'm already passing up a $30 pre order.

It's followed the same abbreviated pattern I described thus far; you're more often than not just trying to stealth your way through the environment to reach the exit. This still requires you to use disguises, distract guards and even strangle a mutha if need be (though I'm going no-kills; also even knocking people unconscious will give you a penalty to your rank now), and there's usually more than one route to reach your destination at least.

I've just reached the third Hitman sandbox now where I've got three targets, so it's picked up a bit. Though this game sure does just love showing off its crowd-tech; all three so far have literally opened up with you walking through the entrance to a musical cue and the rustle of the crowds in front of you. OK, I get it, your crowds are cool but to stretch it along for three sandboxes? =/

And yeah nothing has reached the complexity or breadth of a Blood Money mission yet. Like I said earlier, it's all sort of like Hitman-lite; each section is pretty short and self-contained, but of course this is no doubt to keep the game moving at a steady pace to introduce new environments, new story beats and so forth. It's certainly not ideal, but I'm enjoying myself at least. Make no mistake, this is not another RE6 style disaster :P. But the truly hardest of the core Hitman fans like yourself are no doubt going to find Absolution to be pretty disappointing.

@Yummylee: I wouldn't even call myself a Hitman hardcore fan, since I came into the series on Blood Money and thought the first game was pretty meh (second one really picked up, though).

The crowds thing was definitely something they tried to do with Blood Money, but the tech wasn't entirely there yet (though it was still one of the most praised things about Blood Money, so I could see why they'd be pushing it).

It's good to hear there's more sandbox gameplay. That's all I really want. When you say smaller environments, though, are you talking about maybe first *real* mission (after tutorial) Blood Money/wedding mission sized? Because those were still okay for being such small environments.

And is there a "New Life"-like neighborhood level? Because if so I'm instantly sold again.

@Yummylee: What in the name of all that is holy did I just watch?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I can't wait to see the idiots who try to defend this.

@adam1808 said:

@Yummylee: What in the name of all that is holy did I just watch?

The Next Great Sequel in The Hitman Franchise.

@AndrewB said:

@Yummylee: I wouldn't even call myself a Hitman hardcore fan, since I came into the series on Blood Money and thought the first game was pretty meh (second one really picked up, though).

The crowds thing was definitely something they tried to do with Blood Money, but the tech wasn't entirely there yet (though it was still one of the most praised things about Blood Money, so I could see why they'd be pushing it).

It's good to hear there's more sandbox gameplay. That's all I really want. When you say smaller environments, though, are you talking about maybe first *real* mission (after tutorial) Blood Money/wedding mission sized? Because those were still okay for being such small environments.

And is there a "New Life"-like neighborhood level? Because if so I'm instantly sold again.

You mean the mission with the drug lords? No, they're not quite as expansive even as that I'm afraid. Least speaking for the first two; currently got the third paused at the moment. And no, nothing like the New Life mission unfortunately. That's definitely an issue I have, though. Because of the story they've set up for themselves, they couldn't send Hitman to all kinds of weird and wonderful locations... In fact the first and third sandboxes are both in Chinatown, though different sections at least. The entire game has been situated within a dreary, rain-soaked Chicago thus far. Though I do remember them releasing a trailer showcasing a mission that almost looked like it was set in the 50s... Haven't reached whatever that's about in any case, but I'm looking forward to it. Bit more colour will do this game some good.

@Yummylee said:

• As you may have already gathered, this is a much more cinematic game than prior Hitman titles and there are a lot more cutscenes and an actual driving narrative behind it all. What this then means, as of now where I'm at, is that there's been a noticeably distinct lack of any actual Hitman'ing. Plenty of stealth gameplay, but nothing like setting up traps or anything like that. There was the Chinatown mission of course, which is also segued rather haphazardly into the story, but that's all so far. Just a preference of mine, but I liked the all-business nature of previous games were you just had a selection of missions that dump you into an environment to go wild with little context besides ''you're an assassin, now go assassinate''. Plus I've just come from going through a set-piece where 47 has to escape from a burning building; very straightforward, and I'm now starting to see what they meant when they said this was going to be a much more linear game.

Very VERY disappointed to hear that. I loved the Blood Money because no games do that type of structure anymore.

When watching the preview of Chinatown I was immediately reminded of how every mission in BM purposely had two objectives; that means you can't just sprint your way to the exit after killing a target. The Chinatown demo had ONE target. That worried me. Is the full game any different?

@themangalist: The majority of the game primarily focusses on you trying to stealth your way through an environment to reach the exit; lots of scripted obstacles in the way, though of course. Remember the opening gameplay demo with all of the cops in the library? So far like 70% of my time has been spent going through stuff like that.

There's been three sandboxes so far; the first two only had the one target, though the second one also required me to infiltrate the second floor of the building to collect an item. The third one, which I haven't dug into yet, has you scoping three targets this time so it's definitely picking up some; just too bad there's so much regular stealth stuff in between the very reasons why people flock to the Hitman franchise.

@Yummylee said:

You mean the mission with the drug lords? No, they're not quite as expansive even as that I'm afraid. Least speaking for the first two; currently got the third paused at the moment. And no, nothing like the New Life mission unfortunately. That's definitely an issue I have, though. Because of the story they've set up for themselves, they couldn't send Hitman to all kinds of weird and wonderful locations... In fact the first and third sandboxes are both in Chinatown, though different sections at least. The entire game has been situated within a dreary, rain-soaked Chicago thus far. Though I do remember them releasing a trailer showcasing a mission that almost looked like it was set in the 50s... Haven't reached whatever that's about in any case, but I'm looking forward to it. Bit more colour will do this game some good.

I guess Blood Money spoiled me, because there's precedent in the series for sticking to a couple of locations (the first and second games had huge chunks of same-ish environments). Doesn't change the fact that it's a step back if it stays that way, though.

Yeah, that 50s mission looked like classic Hitman. Looked more open, multiple targets, plethora of ways to take them out. Let me know how that goes.

@Yummylee said:

@themangalist: The majority of the game primarily focusses on you trying to stealth your way through an environment to reach the exit; lots of scripted obstacles in the way, though of course. Remember the opening gameplay demo with all of the cops in the library? So far like 70% of my time has been spent going through stuff like that.

There's been three sandboxes so far; the first two only had the one target, though the second one also required me to infiltrate the second floor of the building to collect an item. The third one, which I haven't dug into yet, has you scoping three targets this time so it's definitely picking up some; just too bad there's so much regular stealth stuff in between the very reasons why people flock to the Hitman franchise.

If all i wanted to do is duck behind cover and watch guards on their routes then i guess i'd be playing more traditional stealth games. My least favourite missions in BM was the tutorial and the last mission and it seems like Absolution would be 70% of those then. Siiighhhhhhhhh. Still would like to hear your thoughts after you beat it though, so please do tell me if it's worth the purchase! (if the 30% of the sandboxes are mindblowing, i'm always ready for more "contracts")

@familyphotoshoot said:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I can't wait to see the idiots who try to defend this.

Will you Vader Bomb them?

@Yummylee: Some good, balanced insight into the game in this thread. It seems that there may be more than a few redeeming qualities. But I also get a bad Splinter Cell vibe, which is a stealth game I really never could get into. In discussions I always brought that up as stealth being handled poorly before. Just my opinion, but I absolutely don't want Hitman to become that style of game personally.

Another question I have is: how do you feel about 47's attitude, the presentation of the character? That's another core pillar of the series for me. I'm thinking BM-style "What's your name whitebread? - Names are for friends so I don't need one." type stuff.

@AndrewB: BTW I was wrong, this third sandbox mission is totally in the exact same environment as the first one was =/ And it appears that each of the three targets all have their own ally way where they gravitate towards... Meaning that from first appearances, what you're to do is just sneak into each ally way (each one conveniently has a cop guarding the most accessible entrance) and then strangle them or something. There's also a cop who wanders off to take a piss (there should be a concept for convenient urination in stealth games) and you can take his uniform, but that will only help in gaining you access to the ally way and doesn't exactly mix up your options much.

Maybe there's more to it, but that's definitely the path the game is pointing you towards.

@Baal_Sagoth said:

@Yummylee: Some good, balanced insight into the game in this thread. It seems that there may be more than a few redeeming qualities. But I also get a bad Splinter Cell vibe, which is a stealth game I really never could get into. In discussions I always brought that up as stealth being handled poorly before. Just my opinion, but I absolutely don't want Hitman to become that style of game personally.

Another question I have is: how do you feel about 47's attitude, the presentation of the character? That's another core pillar of the series for me. I'm thinking BM-style "What's your name whitebread? - Names are for friends so I don't need one." type stuff.

I haven't played any of the Splinter Cell games so I'm not in any position to compare directly, but Absolution is definitely a much more traditional stealth game than series past. It has the same set of tools, but the situations and the context with which you're to use them is a lot more skewed than prior games unfortunately. Plus the sandbox missions themselves are kinda generic by Hitman standards as well.

As for 47, they're definitely trying to humanise him a little and he undoubtedly has more dialogue in here than there is across the entirety of the previous games; he even narrates his own mission briefings. Fortunately David Bateson is proving to still fit the role very well. 47 is also still plenty cold and aloof, but with Diana and the girl she asks him to safeguard, Victoria, he's clearly being given a bit of a soft spot. Plus, while I won't go into exact specifics, 47's motives appear to be rather personal and are the reason why he has agreed to save Victoria.

Completed the third sandbox mission. Yet another easy Silent Assassin rank... Unfortunately the design was about as shallow as I predicted; besides just shooting them in the face, there's pretty much the one way to finish each guy and the way to sneaking past the cops at each station is literally like right there in your face. The way two of them are killed is somewhat creative enough, but yeah, the King of China Town gameplay trailer was a ruse as that's so far the only that even compares to the amount of choice you'd expect from a Hitman game.

I'm starting to get just a wee bit annoyed that you can't save manually, either. You can only continue from predetermined checkpoints the game places (furthering the lack of choice and following the one specific path the game wants you on), and since I'm trying to go as stealthily as possible, it's lead to a bit of listening to scripted conversations again and again. That's what really bugs me; everything is so scripted, like to an alarming degree. Like how certain NPC's won't initiate their conversation unless you get close enough to trigger it otherwise they'll just stand there staring at one another.

EDIT: Also it just occurred to me that there's no FP view in here, nor are there any sort of binoculars. Maybe when you replay a mission you can customise your loadout, but as of now anything I scavenge I then lose in the next mission. It's all beginning to pile up now... Oh, and there's no overall map you can search through to see where all of the guards are - you're strictly limited to what your minimap can convey.

That sounds dissapointing. Blood Money was a really special experience, I was hoping for more of the same :(

Playing Deus Ex HR and Dishonored back to back kind of burned me out on stealth games for now though, so I'm not too concerned about it.

@familyphotoshoot said:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I can't wait to see the idiots who try to defend this.

Yes because one person's opinion on the game = we should all instantly hate it.

Thanks for this post. Between this and all the other rumblings I have heard over the last few days, I feel fairly confident that I have absolutely no interest in ever playing this game. Very sad, because I was really hoping for a Hitman game that felt like a Hitman game.

it's definitely on my "wait for the price drop" list, that is after being on my pre order list. ive been actually wondering why I ever thought it would be a proper hitman game in the first place.

I've only seen bits and pieces, but from what I've seen (and heard/read), its sounds like it could actually be a good game. Just not a game that I'd go out of my way to buy when it drops.

Putting the gameplay aside, what are your thoughts on the characters? One of the other things about this "gritty" reboot bothering me is that the npcs all seem to be grotesque caricatures and/or stereotypes (some of which border on being racist) and all everyone fucking does is fucking swear all the fucking time.

I guess it is official then, I am bummed about how this game turned out. It sounds like it is a solid, well made game. It just isn't what I want. It isn't Hitman. It isn't the same special, very unique experience that it use to be. First RE6 and now this. Really disappointing couple of months in the world of video games.

The linear stuff made me cancel my pre-order. Well, that and the QTE. This looks like absolute shit, will wait for reviews for sure..

I am a huge fan of all the previous Hitman games (hell, I got the Silent Assassin rank on every mission in 2 and Contracts), and some of these things does worry me. But then I realize that it doesn't really matter that much. Sure, it seems the main story of the game has become more cinematic, more set-piece like, telling a more personal story of Mr. 47. That makes perfect sense, and I think I am going to like that. While it would be a bummer if that was all there was to the game, we still got the Contracts mode. That is where the old style of "enter map, kill 1-3 targets, get out" will come to play every time. And seeing how these Contracts are made by players, I bet you can get a lot of crazy missions to do.

But hey, I haven't played it yet, so I might be totally wrong. I am hopeful though.

And regarding the wrestling match (which you can beat in other ways according to IO), in the Blood Money Mission Curtains Down (the opera) you can dress up like a WW1 Executioner and shoot one of your hits on stage with a real gun instead of the prop. In front of several people. The disguise you wear is a military suit and a hat. You can then walk calmly out and make sure to detonate explosives, having a chandelier fall on your second hit. So acting as a wrestler in an illegal cage fight, killing your opponent... not that outlandish really.

@Yummylee: What about this game's appeal towards non-Hitman fans? I tried to play Blood Money, but I was not really drawn into it. The controls were a bit sluggish and there was a lot of trial and error gameplay, which I am not super fond of. I've been cancelling my pre-order and re-ordering for past few days now. Is this game worth 55 bucks (I am buying a PC copy with an art book)?

@Yummylee: Thanks! Good to hear these early impressions, it's much appreciated. I'm thinking I will inevitably get this at some point but remaining calm and getting a good idea of the myriad changes seems like the best tactic for me so far.

I'm beginning to be slightly happy that I cancelled my pre-order, because most of what you have said, does not sound what I would like out of a Hitman game. I'm definitely going to get it, but it really has to get cheaper first.

What I've seen, and played, so far seems alright to me. 
Of course there are some changes that strike me as a little odd but the game itself is fine and opens up with bigger levels later on(I don't remember a non-linear mission in any Hitman game, actually. Start here, go there, kill guy, leave)  
I had to take down a target at one point, 13 different ways to do it, that's more than Blood Money ever had for the first 4 contracts combined and I'm fine with that. 
 
Different strokes and all that. 

For PC bombers there is a thread floating around that you can get the game at GMG for $29.95. I was ready to pay full price for a hitman experience, but half off is good for a hitman lite experience.