So! In case you sold your soul to the Devil and pre-ordered Hitman 2's Gold Edition, you're getting the game early, as seems to be the trend these days. If you also bribed the mailman, you got your physical copy already today, like yours truly did. This was kinda just a nice bonus for me, I mainly wanted to support IOI.

• Eurogamer
• Gamespot
• IGN
• PC-Gamer
• Rock Paper Shotgun

Anyway, very brief impressions. I somehow managed to pretend that RDR2 doesn't exist for a while and fired up Hitman 2 (another game with somewhat clunky controls!) to get past the first level. It certainly feels like a season 2 based on that and not a fully-fleshed out sequel, as someone could maybe imagine if they hadn't really looked at any gameplay trailers and had just heard the title. I'm personally fine with more Hitman (2016) and felt at home with it right away.

Few disappointing things. The first map felt kinda like the ICA training missions in scope and offered a pretty limited playground. It did have it's share of fun things and the place looks pretty neat visually, but it's a bit of a bummer when it's one of the otherwise (assumedly) pretty big main maps. Can't really see it featuring any elusive targets either, unless they'll change it up like they did with those bonus episodes.

The other thing isn't that important and I'm not sure if you'd call it disappointing either, but the cinematics have changed from cgi ones to motion-comics (or at least the first one was like that, I'd assume the same goes for rest). My guess for this would be lack of time/Square Enix budget/something of such. Otherwise the game looks gorgeous (playing on X), so it's not a biggie.

That's it for now. Gonna try and juggle between this and RDR2 over the weekend, can't imagine I'll confuse the control schemes even once!

I feel kind of bad that I am mostly excited about this game only so I can watch GB play it and not actually buy it.

I hope they don't get burned by releasing so close to rdr2. I absolutely wanna play this, but I also wanna take my time finishing rdr2. Maybe it would've been worth considering to realease this even just a week or two later...

That's mostly okay! I'm going to riot if there won't be a Hitsmas this year, especially since I imagine they'll be doing just a one Quick Look and maybe Elusive Targets during UPFs.

I'm also a bit worried for this. There's also Spyro Reignited coming out next week, which maybe isn't as big of a threat as RDR 2, but will very likely still be a massive success and it also has a lower retail price.

Don't mind at all if the cutscenes are motion comics. Nobody cared and nobody remembered the story from that first game. It's just a thin line connected these playgrounds. It can literally not be there for all I care, but it's nice there's that little bit of context. Motion comics are fine for story delivery for this series.

I have an important question though for those who got it on the same platform as hitman 1- how does it integrate the season 1 stuff? Did you have to redownload new versions of all those maps entirely or is it just a small update? How does that work

Ah man, the CG cutscenes were fantastic.

I was kind of hoping that initial map you are talking about was just a tutorial map, and not one of the main six. I mean, we're getting 2 more maps anyway as part of the Gold Edition DLC so I can't be too mad if it does count towards the 6 but everything I saw of it in the Digital Foundry video made it look really self contained.

Ah, the change to cutscenes is unfortunate, but not a big deal (at all). I enjoyed the story in... well, in Blood Money only, really, so whatever, not really where I'm putting all my excitement.

3 hours 47 minutes left!

Yeah. IGN review hammered it on the story.

Other than "Helmut Kruger" is a character, and there was some weird other sniper thing at the end of one of the missions, I honestly couldn't tell you the story from Hitman (2016), and it was my favourite game that year.

Just need to find time amongst Red Dead, Diablo 3 Switch and getting back to AC: Odyssey to actually buy and play this

There's a Legacy Pack thing you buy for free through the first game, but it won't be available 'till Hitman 2 officially launches in your country, so seemingly "early access" won't matter much in this case, aka, haven't tested it yet.

https://www.ioi.dk/hitman-legacy-faq/

I wasn't sure if these would actually end up just being re-tweaked maps of existing ones, but fortunately according to the Q&A they did on reddit recently, there will be two completely new locations and also different versions of the existing ones. Hopefully both of those end up being beefy in size.

Some good ol' Hitman so far! The recap at the beginning is pretty great at straddling the line between self-serious and silly. First mission is similar to the fairgrounds level at the start of Blood Money. Not quite as small as the ICA training levels, but not really a "proper" level either. Miami was great; getting up to hijinks as the Pale Rider was fun lol.

I was just having a look at my installed "DLC" for Hitman 2 on Steam, and it seems to list 7 locations. So I do think that beginning mission might not count as a main map (could still be wrong - haven't played it yet!) That's good to hear about the actual DLC maps though.

@bollard: The last map on the list of Destinations was the Sniper Assassin mansion(?) thing, that you can play solo/online. Sadly that doesn’t involve any regular 47ing, you’re just sniping targets, unless I’ve really misunderstood it. It sure *would* be cool to have one player play it normally and have a buddy act as sniper.

@glots: Oh that makes sense! Dang.

Aiming to finish RDR 2's story this weekend, so I only did the Miami mission for now, but it definitely makes the first map feel even smaller. Place is almost overwhelming and looks pretty as hell all-around. I killed Robert by following a fairly easy opportunity, but Sierra I followed about and went through a handful of disguises, before just shooting her.

Also the Legacy pack was available now and it's making me download a Leagy Version of each map again, so ought to keep that in mind when you do it.

Thank God this game is out because I was getting fed up with playing RDR2. Played the first two levels and this is a breath of fresh air. It's more and better Hitman which is exactly what I wanted.

I like that the crowd stealth is back. My only two minor complaints are that I left the guided mode on by accident and it was just super hand holdy, that coulda been toned down a bit but I'm gonna turn that stuff off from now on. I also do not like the cutscenes. The motion comic style looks so much worse that the cool CGI cutscenes the last game had. It's a very minor thing that doesn't actually matter and it's understandable considering what IO has been through but it's still disappointing. Other than that the game has been fantastic.

So do I understand this correctly? If I own the first season of Hitman and want to redeem my Legacy Pack, I have to first redownload the complete first game, then redeem the Legacy Pack from there so that I can then download the Legacy Pack DLC for the second game and then I'm good to go (unless I still want to purchase the GOTY Legacy Upgrade for 10 €)? Wow, that's a lot of free space on my Xbox that I currently don't have. Am I right in assuming that after having done all of the above, I can then at least delete the first Hitman again (because I only needed it to redeem the Legacy Pack in the first place)?

I'm generally pretty excited to dig into it. At the moment I'm still having a ton of fun with RDR2 but I'm pretty sure I'll be done with the story by the time Hitman 2 officially rolls around, which will be a nice change of pace. Hitman will always have a special place in my heart because I bought the very first game on a whim out of a bargain bin or something in Comp USA when those stores still existed. Had heard nothing about it, no reviews, no buzz, but the idea of being a hitman sounded cool so despite the incredibly lame looking logo (love the series but that stylized H thing has always been bad) I decided to give it a go. Man it was a rough game both technically and gameplay wise, but it was also incredibly original and you could see they had a vision and they kept improving it with every single release.. up until Absolution. Looking back I would have never imagined that scrappy, buggy, weird ass game about a man with a barcode on his neck seamlessly blending in as a cook in a triad restaurant would be this incredibly feature rich and polished product it is today. Good for them.

I'm really digging that it's more Hitman.

The new levels are huge and amazing and it still has that goofy charm from playing a straight faced killer who can seemingly blend in anywhere and nobody notices how oddly creepy you are.

I do wish the Legacy pack gave me the weapons and challenges I did before. Some of those SASO challenges were tough.

I do almost miss the replayability that the episodic layout of Season 1 gave you. I haven't revisited a map yet and probably won't until I beat the game.

I've been thorough, so I haven't played past Miami yet. So far it's just what I wanted. Kind of a bummer that season 1 progress doesn't carry over, but I get it. Excited to play more.

Quick question for anyone owning season one. Does my progress from season one, not transfer to Hitman 2? I was hoping to carry my items and outfits over to hitman 2. (Especially the White yukata outfit). If not then do i have to play season one missions all over again?

@dudeglove: The stuff I unlocked from Season 1 was the superior performance coin, a Sapienza themed briefcase, and 1 suit which might be(or at least looks similar) to the winter jacket with gloves suit you unlock for getting SASO on 5 elusive targets. The bonus mission suits do come over too, though I don't know if they start with their own unique weapons like they did in the first game. Weirdly the only thing that doesn't seem to come over besides your progress is the Xmas version of the Paris map, which is a shame if it doesn't get patched back in at some point.

Personally i'm going to give each level a once through before going back to do challenges, so far i've just finished Colombia. I've really liked all the maps so far, while New Zealand is pretty basic it's got a great atmosphere too it and almost has more of an old splinter cell feel to it. I don't have to much to say about Miami, it's good but this one was never the big selling point too me. I was surprised about how much I liked Colombia, it's got a really good variety of areas going for it.

Can you play the summer bonus episodes or the sarajevo six or patient zero missions?

All the summer bonus missions and patient zero are available, along with what looks like a couple escalation contracts for each old map. Dunno about Sarajevo Six since it was never released on PC. The Holiday Hoarders mission is missing for some reason though unfortunately.

Is the game as online dependent as the first game in regards to rewards, elusive targets, etc?

@shorap: unfortunately yes.

@pompouspizza: ugh welp there goes my purchase, data cap fucking me again.

They've really improved 47's trusty briefcase for this game.

I'll counter this hot take with another hot take: the Spyro crowd and Hitman crowd probably don't overlap that much.

As for me, personally? Sounds like people who love these games are going to love this one, and I hope Giant Bomb finds as many outlets for it as they did two years ago. I don't enjoy playing Hitman but I love watching goofballs splash their way through it.

@dudeglove: do you know what happens if you get disconnected mid mission? Do you just have to save the game and quit until you can reconnect so that you keep the challenges? I’m constantly terrified when I’ve been in a mission for 2 hours that my internet will go out and I’ll have to just stop playing.

Played through Miami a couple of times, having a blast so far. It really is more Hitman 2016, but that's exactly what I wanted.

CPY > DENUVO. Hitman hasn't been the same since blood money. Less quality of a game each time around. Save your money.

Is anyone else experiencing really frequent saving? I feel like every time I pick up an object the game hitches to save for a short while, it's strange.

Finally finished RDR2’s story, so played through Colombia. Plenty of dumb ways to off people once again and amazing disguises too. I also continue to appreciate the effort IO puts into clothing/fabrics. That raincoatthingy looks neat.

Had a few bugs so far and the game crashed during Miami, but nothing worse than that.

I’ve been enjoying a lot so far, it’s a great respite from how linear RDR2’s mission design is. Here I can do anything.

I’m at the Colombia map now, with one target to go. I’ve had two uncontrollable laughter moments with just how dumb things where going, I’m playing using only auto-saves and it forces me to improvise in silly ways. Savescumming can suck the fun out of the game.

It’s been surprisingly buggy for me so far, which has been the biggest bummer about the game for me, but I hope that’ll get worked on so it’s better when I try to master the maps.

@dudeglove: Yeah I think I noticed that the challenges save immediately now that I think about it. That makes a really nice change from the first game because at least in the beginning, challenges only saved once you completed a mission if I’m not mistaken so if you loaded a save because you messed something up, you would have to do the challenges again.

Do you know if IO has ever explained why the unlocks are tied to an online connection? It's really silly.

Anyone listen to Florida Man's phone call on Miami? I delivered him some of the "real" stuff (sugar) that I found nearby, but only a very hilarious thing happened. I'm curious what happens if you deliver him that fake stuff (cocaine) that's mentioned in the challenges. Planning to try that out tomorrow.

Edit: My sides are hurting. Giving Florida Man the "powdered sugar" is so much better. The fucking song he does is so good

Their insane decision to not include a platinum trophy is the second most disappointing thing in gaming this year.

Did Mumbai yesterday, game continues to be a lot of fun. Also accidentally stumbled into a way to kill one of the targets, which was maybe the most overkill thing to do since dropping those lights in Paris.

I'm enjoying it so far. I was never able to commit enough time to Season 1, so being able to replay those maps is a huge plus for me. As for the new stuff, I've only been through Miami a few times, but I really like the size and complexity of the level. Does it also seem like there's more ambient banter with 47 in this one? I killed the female target in Miami as both the doctor and mascot and both of them had some pretty good black-humor conversations in them.

One thing that is weirding me out a little bit is in the original missions. They recorded some new Diana dialogue, at least for the ICA tutorial missions, but clearly used a different voice actress. Which makes no sense given that I'm pretty sure it's the same person voicing her for the new missions so it isn't like they went with someone new for the entire game. I can't tell if they wanted to try to make her sound "younger" during the flashback sequences or what, but it's jarring when you hear the new lines immediately followed by some of the old lines as well.

Its interesting that the old maps have been changed in weird ways. Aside from the obvious layout change in the ICA facility, the crewman cooking in the kitchen that you have to knock out now has a bandage around his head, probably from being knocked out so much.

I'll have to really pay attention to if they changed anything else.

That's amazing, i didn't notice that. I'll have to keep my eyes open for small changes!

I am trying to complete all challenges on that first Nightfall map, I love the simplicity of the space.

The game could use a MGSV cigar thing to pass the time, I have a save waiting for Alma to stick her head out on the balcony so I can get the sniper assassin, IT TAKES FOREVER. Thank god for GB content to watch while I wait.

Got a few weird audio glitches in Mumbai. I think the game doesn't handle very well changing audio settings, I went from headphones to speakers mid mission and changed the settings accordingly and I was missing a bunch of audio all of a sudden, even in the main menu. Dialogue lines were not triggering and I wasn't able to trigger the barbershop assassination since 47 would not say his line when welcoming the target into the shop and the game would freeze there. I was able to restart the game entirely and it worked again, but it was very frustrating since loading mid-mission would lead to the same result every time.

Good thing about Hitman is that once you know what you need to do, actually doing it is a looooot faster.