Professional Difficulty Level, arrives on Jan 31st!

This is pretty cool because it might completely change how people play/perceived the new Hitman. I've enjoyed a lot how "dumb" and unperceptive the AI can be, it makes some very risky tactics exciting and also humorous when the NPCs don't realise what's going on, that's what makes the Hitman QL great. That being said, giving a professional/more serious way of playing the game is a good way of bringing even more life into the old maps, I just hope that the enhanced AI isn't overly observant.

Looks really good, I always played Blood Money on the hardest difficulty (which had no saves) so I'll def play this. Hopefully the AI is decent and just not more quickly aggressive.

As an aside, I hate how the guards have aimbots in this game. it makes it much less fun to try and kill everyone on the map when the guard can snipe you with a pistol.

I'm definitely looking forward to giving this a try, but at the same time it makes me appreciate how much leeway they give you that much more. I could totally envision a world in which this game had come out with some of those restrictions by default, and the game never gaining much traction as a result. Blood Money, for instance, had a 7 save limit per mission (meaning you could save 7 times, not that you had 7 save slots). It would have been completely understandable if they'd made guards check obvious hiding places like closets. The fact that as things are, getting caught on camera does absolutely nothing but lower your score (which doesn't even mean anything) is honestly kind of silly.

But then game would not have been the freewheeling Sheik-disrobing, fireaxe-flinging, toilet-drowning, Busey-slaying, circumscientific adventure we all know and love.

7 Game save option was at "normal" difficulty, as I recall in BM. The Professional level didn't allow any saves. Also in BM, if playing in Professional difficulty, you *had* to leave with the suit if you wanted a SA rating.

Bring it! I've unlocked every item in HITMAN as of two days ago, so this is welcome news.

Also, just as an FYI, they're supposedly releasing the soundtrack as a free digital download when the disc version drops as well.

Whens the next Breaking Brad?

This is interesting. Upping cameras a lot will be a quite different feel. I wonder how much everything will change in the map as a result.

This seems great!

This is a cool addition for fans and if it works out it'll change the nature of how the game is played at this level, which is cool. I would be interested to see Giant Bomb try this out.

I'm glad they found better ways to make the game more difficult than just disabling hitman vision and the minimap. That would've been lame. This sounds great

@artisanbreads: Not much, you will learn the cameraplacements and sigh when you forgot yourself and walk into one.

Im very sceptic about this. I love that the game is what it is and the difficulty is in how you play it.

It remains to be seen if enhanced ai actually means something other than shorter discoverytimes and better aim. I doubt it.

WOW! This is fucking RAD

They are supporting the shit out of this game!

The game that keeps on giving. I only bought the game recently as it was on sale but most of the time I've put into it has been Paris and Colorado (due to the last elusive target I had to familiarise myself with the map).

Looking forward to fucking up in completely different ways.

This is fantastic. At least one of the games I've been playing seems to be getting their Season 2 update right. I hope noticing bloodstains is a new AI feature.

@ivdamke: YESSS me too (re bloodstains)!!

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-01-25-hitman-is-getting-an-ultra-hard-professional-difficulty-level-next-week

"Unlockable only for main missions where you've already hit the Mastery Level 20 cap for that locale"

Yeah, fuck this. I'm not going to pedantically replay missions over and over just to check off all the Mastery Level boxes. A shame, because the Professional mode itself sounds really awesome.

@icemael: But getting to mastery 20 is how you unlock more weapons, better starting locations etc. As long as you go after the different escalation missions or challenges, it's really not difficult or time consuming to hit 20 on those levels.

But getting to level 20 mastery is really, really fast and it really ensures that players know the levels before tackling professional mode. Which I think is very fair.

Very curious about the AI improvements, I think those should be added to all difficulties if it's a fundamental improvement.

@icemael: If you aint interested in rerunning the levels i doubt this mode is for you anyway.

@wynnduffy: Yeh thats the thing. If its any meaningfull improvement it should be added to the basegame and if it isnt well then it isnt...

@icemael: ya I'm with you man. I played a lot of Hitman 2 and Blood Money on hard and loved getting Silent Assassin. I have no interest in having to replay those missions over and over again unlocking shit just so I can play the game in the mode that I want. I want to do those missions once, get the best rating on it and never touch it again. I don't particularly want to unlock new weapons or locations, I just want a start point, set gear and an objective.

@rethla: Rerunning a level for fun or for a Silent Assassin challenge is very different from rerunning a level to check off x number of boxes (many of which are inane or uninteresting stuff like "use this starting location" or "kill a target with a headshot"), and playing through an old level on a new setting with a wealth of changes and new features is very different from rerunning a level that's the same as when you've previously played it.

@atwa: You don't need to complete x number of challenges to have a decent grasp on a level (in fact, by the first time you succeed in a mission you will likely already know about most of the different opportunities, and completing them will mainly be a matter of having the patience to go through the motions on consecutive playthroughs), and that shouldn't be a requirement in the first place. If Professional mode had been available back when the missions were first released I would've immediately played all of them on that setting, and ideally I'd like to go immediately to Professional for the season 2 maps when they come out (but presumably that won't be an option). Learning the layout of the map, what disguises you need in order to enter certain areas, where the targets are etc. is part of the fun, and it would be even more fun if you could go through that process of exploration while simultaneously having cool features like damageable disguises etc. Splitting up the process so that you are forced to run through the level multiple times checking off stupid little boxes before you get to play it in the coolest way possible (which is made decidedly less cool by the fact of your already knowing most of what there is to know about the level, and having played and replayed it to the point of almost being sick of it) is a terrible design decision.

@jesus_phish: I was never interested in the additional starting locations and weapons. Give me a lockpick and some coins and let me go procure anything else I need, including disguises, in the level itself. Starting in a great location with a great disguise and great weapons takes away half the point of the game for me.

I also didn't love the escalation missions I've tried. The main missions are so much cooler and grander in scale, with the targets being unique characters with unique dialogue and personalities, and in addition to that you have all of the cool unique interactions, the elaborate assassination options etc. I don't have much interest in replaying a level to kill generic NPCs in what mostly end up being pretty boring and generic ways, even if the escalating conditions do make it a little bit more interesting.

That's not true. I'm not really interested in this Hitman because it seems way too goofy. I liked Hitman a lot before, but I'm not interested in rerunning levels just to unlock a mode I want to play it in to begin with.

It's less goofy than basically every other Hitman. Not sure what you mean.

Getting to level 20 mastery is not a big deal.

The problem with your thinking here is this isn't just "hard mode" on every other Hitman game. It's different entirely.

@icemael: If you play with all notifications and hints turned off, it can be quite time-consuming and challenging to figure out all the different options in the map (even if you do still read the challenges menu just to get some idea of what's possible). I've got 20 mastery in Paris and still have no idea how anything about Sato or Helmut works (among other things), I've got 20 mastery in Sapeniza and I've no idea how large chunks of the map operate, I've got 14 mastery so far in Marrakesh and I've never been underground or have any idea how to get either target down there, and I've only run Bangkok once so far and don't have any clues yet (as usual, my first run was headshotting both targets). Haven't touched the last two maps yet.

Right now, I'm not too interested in going back to Paris or Sapeniza to figure out what's left to do because I've already got 20 mastery. But if there's new rewards to go back, and new rules to add some twists, that's plenty incentive for me.

@zevvion: Yes, this Hitman is too goofy.

EDIT: Those who take issue with the Mastery 20 thing let them know because they've changed a lot of things based on feedback on the Hitman reddit and their forums.

Yep, now I know I will never get to engage with any of this. Sweet.

Except it is. I have time to watch the Giant Bomb guys play each level, and then play it myself once. I don't have time to grind it 5+ more times to get to some meaningless XP bar up. I would still like to have the option to play with more intelligent AI, because the game is incredibly easy as it is.

@bollard: Playing with more intelligent AI would be even more timeconsuming, could you handle that?

I'm looking forward to Professional Mode just so I have another set of "Kill everyone in the map" missions I do.

@bollard: I dunno at some point you're saying you don't have time to play the game. Hitman specifically is built around replaying levels this time around and there is no way getting around that. Although you can definitely cheese it and simply kill your target, reload an earlier save to kill them a different way and get the experience for both - rinse and repeat to squeeze as much do from a single run as you can. But at the end of the day if you simply don't have time to play the game then a harder mode isn't going to change that.

Oh God; this progression prerequisite is going to be the new lame-ass reason for people to give this game a negative steam review, isn't it?

I find it interesting that people are apparently wanting to play this game in the hardest possible way without mastery on the levels. Half of the skill in this game is knowing what triggers what, how to get this guy to go to some spot, who patrols where, etc. These are things learned from experience, and mastery of the mechanics/levels (which is really only completing about 75% of the challenges) seems like a pretty reasonable expectation.

It's not an "easy" game, either. It can be played that way if you have all the hints on or just kill the target publicly and bolt, but suit-only SA runs, carrying non-concealable weapons across a map, et al. are typically quite difficult. It's as tough as one makes it, so I'm having a hard time buying that the people who have apparently chosen to play it in the quickest/easiest way and think they're just too fucking awesome at the game to waste time playing more of it are actually interested in spending the effort/time that appears to be inherent to playing this Professional difficulty.

That's complete nonsense, I don't play any single player game more than once but that doesn't mean "I don't have time to play the game". I don't restart my Elder Scrolls character just because he didn't use magic, and yet I still put in hundreds of hours. That's my choice and the experience I had with the game.

It's completely valid for me want to increase the difficulty because I have more than a basic grasp of the mechanics after playing the first few levels, or because I found it easy.

If I have time to experience each level once, I'd rather it be on my terms than arbitrarily decided by how many times I've grinded content I've already played. The difference between playing a 1 hour long level five times and that 1 hour level taking 2 hours instead is significant.

@bollard: I can tell you now, that if you're not playing these maps multiple times you're missing out on some of the best stuff in the game. I'm not saying you're playing it wrong, play your games how you like, but some of the very best stuff comes from replaying it over and over and trying different things out.

Also if you're struggling to find time to play a map on an easy setting, I don't see how making the game longer - which would require more time - is ever going to help your situation.

Also if you do want to make the game harder, without access to this new difficultly, turn every single assist off and play that way.

Don't lock content I paid for behind a completion wall.

@artisanbreads: You didn't pay for it. It's free. See the bottom of the image.

@bollard: it's a fair point but it's really no different than any other game that locks away the hardest difficulty mode until you beat it once. Hitman is a "run based game" and maybe they don't communicate the fact as clearly as they should, although I kind of think they do, but I wouldn't say it's completely ridiculous or absurd for them to lock away the difficulty behind mastery as almost everything else is similarly locked, that's just the structure of the game.

I'm sure that is true, but its unlikely I'll get round to playing them again unfortunately.

I can see your argument about locking the hardest difficulty until you beat it once, but just cause other games do it doesn't mean its necessarily a good idea! I don't think its an absurd choice, but it is disappointing they wouldn't let the player choose how they want to experience the game as it seems to promise a lot of things I would find interesting. I'm the kind of guy who plays Call of Duty games on Veteran on my first playthrough, just to give a bit of context. I also really like games with more "simulation" aspects, like ArmA and so on, so more "realistic" AI reactions is very appealing.

@bollard: Just do a suit only run with a fireaxe then. It will be the hardest and the AI will react with great realism to a lunatic running around with an axe.

@artisanbreads: I never said that I thought this was hard mode, I said it was the mode that I would like to play this game on. I have no interest in grinding hitman levels to get my mastery up. I don't want to replay the same scenario in lots of different ways. I want to kill the guy once in the best way that I can and leave it at that. Professional mode sounds like the best and most interesting way for me to play this game as I have a lot of experience playing previous Hitman games.

The fact that they introduced a heavy hints system in place in this game was something that put me off the game and yes I know it can be turned off. My concern was that the game would be designed with the idea that that system was in there. The fact that they built the game for people to constantly replay in slightly different ways was a big turn off for me. The news that this update was coming got me interested in getting the game but I've been put off buy the idea that I need to complete a check list and redo the same levels so that I can play the game in the manner that I'd like. If they just let me play it on Professional then I'd buy the thing.

I was being sarcastic there, mainly because I just wanted to say "completion wall". This is just the same as many games that lock difficulty options at first.

@arabes: The game still is designed for people to constantly replay in slightly different ways, one is the professional mode. Buying the game purely for professional mode when you dont seem to know what the game is about and noone knows what proffesional mode is yet seem like a huge stretch.

Though vocal, the type of people who get mad at a game for not being hard enough is a staggering minority. Its a mode they are adding, for free, to a product that, by and large, they've already got their money out of. Maybe its something they just make as a difficulty option for Season 2 and beyond, who knows. I know this is getting released around the same time as the disc version, but I would be shocked if the sales of that version come close to what the episodic release did, if I cared about this mode I would just be happy something this substantial was being added in at all. To complain about limited/locked content, in January of 2017, in a game like Hitman of all games, seems a bit like just complaining that the game wasn't made exclusively for you and how you want to play (time, budget and mass appeal be damned).

Anyone saying "this is for me" without knowing how the cameras impact things, improved AI, and all new deployment of security and everything is making a lot of assumptions. I have played every Hitman game and I don't know what to expect with this mode.

@arabes: The Hitman games have always been built for people to replay in different ways, this one just has a larger choice of options. Io took the aspect that people loved, the choice and freedom to kill how you want, and made it into a built-in achievement system that rewards you for experimenting multiple times. It's not even a grindy system as it's still very fun to kill in this game and some of the challenges are more puzzles than anything else (i.e. figuring out how to get the Observatory kill). The hint system and opportunities were just there to let new players and old that there are a couple of different scenarios that you can figure out (although there are some that are almost required for you to do in order to get some challenges, again like a puzzle you need to solve).

You also miss out on a lot of content you paid for if you want to "One and done" every level. As minor as the story elements are, there exists a lot of threads that tie every hit together, sprinkled around in NPC conversations, and you even learn more about the targets through different assassination opportunities. Also why wouldn't you want to kill a man in different ways? I'd hate myself if I found out I could kill a target by dropping a moose on him and didn't go back to the level to replay it. I always try to squeeze out as much content in a game that I can get, which is why I dumped over 200 hours each in Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2, so I think I view games differently than you do.

@bollard: I think you're absolutely in the right and more choice is better than less choice. I'm of two minds on this one: on one hand typically much like yourself I don't play through games more than once; on the other hand I do enjoy unlocking stuff and having a goal to work towards. It's also cool that they're trying to come up with things to tide people over until Season 2.

So I'm with you that typically games should present all difficulties from the get go - it's not really something that seems like a thing one should "earn" or whatnot. In the case of THIS game specifically though I do get why they did it and it sort of fits the theme.