As Hitman’s first season draws to a close, it’s a little funny to reflect on the skepticism that met the game’s original announcement. You can call it cautious optimism if you want to be diplomatic, but I recall being one of many shaking my head and wondering how exactly IO Interactive and Square Enix could possibly pull off an episodic Hitman game.

It seemed improbable at the time, but they succeeded. And they did more than just succeed; they succeeded with fireworks and fanfare. They made one of the most surprising and fascinating games of 2016, and in it one of the best examples in recent memory of how to make an episodic format work--really, really work--because it does something that most other episodic titles completely neglect...

Specifically, Hitman gives players a reason to keep playing.

If you think about it, it’s a little weird that games imitating a TV show-esque episode structure really started to take root in the age of binge-watching. Not only is it easier than ever to bury yourself in entire seasons of a TV show at once, but some are even released in binge-ready batches, rather than being meted out episode by episode over the course of a few months. You can swap from screen to screen without losing your place, curling up in bed or cooking dinner at the same time. It used to take a hundred dollars, a 12 DVD box set, and a living room set up like a fallout shelter to burn a weekend as thoroughly as you can with just an internet connection and a device of your choosing now. And it’s not just easy, but common to do so. Binge-watching has woven itself into the fabric of contemporary life, as evidenced by the number of companies clamouring to cater to the just-douse-my-weekend-in-gasoline-and-light-it lifestyle.

Games have almost always been binge-friendly, typically released as whole products that are ready to be played start to finish at the player’s discretion. There have been exceptions and variations on this over the years, from games whose “true” endings were delivered through later-released DLC to games released almost as prologues or initial chapters in a planned (but not always completed) franchise. And then there have been the episodic games, some of which were similar to the format we recognize now, albeit not as common. Telltale Games didn’t invent this model, but they did breathe new life into it, heavily influencing the way it’s come to be used and understood.

The thing is--and I can only really speak for myself here--I could not be less interested in most episodic games at this point, and that’s part of why I was skeptical that IO would be able to make Hitman work. I say this as someone who respects the quality of Telltale’s storytelling, who has enjoyed their work in the past, who thinks games like Life Is Strange, which were inspired by the Telltale renaissance, are invaluable additions to the landscape. I’m just done, and I didn’t fully understand why that was until I started playing Hitman and realized that the episodic format can do narrative games a serious disservice.

Consider the things that make Hitman so good. The episodes themselves each comprise a sprawling map, a handful of different opportunities to assist in completing it, and copious unlockables (which often circumvent potentially repetitive areas), which are drip-fed to players as they gain experience in replaying that map.

Players aren’t left to just repeat the same mission ad nauseam, though. Escalations provide an excuse to dip in and out of levels in shorter sessions, exploring corners of the map and mechanics couched therein that they may not have come across during the original missions. Then there are the elusive targets, high-stakes one-off missions that have made revisiting and replaying maps into a real-world event for the community.

Season one of Hitman demonstrated that its developers were undeniably invested in keeping its players engaged between episodes, and that kind of momentum is crucial for any kind of game, action or otherwise. But there’s seldom any incentive to replay a chapter of a Telltale game unless a player made a mistake they feel compelled to correct. So momentum dwindles, excitement wanes, and some players may even end up flaking on a game they were initially enjoying rather than returning to it after a month or two when the next chapter comes out. (I can’t be the only person whose mind is guiltily wandering to Kentucky Route Zero right now, right?)

Games aren’t TV shows. It’s not feasible to put out an installment every week or even every other week, and the longer that gap is the harder it can be to come back. I would love to know how many people who start an episodic game before it’s complete manage to finish it compared to those who start after every episode is already available. It’s just so damn easy to lose the plot, the controls, and the interest when there’s a forced break between each session. Consequently the best time to get in on a Telltale (or Telltale-style) game that interests you might be right after the final episode comes out, not engaging with the format at all and instead treating it like a whole. The exact opposite is true of Hitman. With every chapter available, it’s always going to be tempting to hop from one to the next without taking the time to savour its massively detailed maps and the buffet of goals and objectives provided within them. Spaced out, Hitman feels like a vastly larger, more substantial game; it expands like an accordion where other episodic games only break apart.

There are huge advantages to employing an episodic format and release schedule; sales can help fund continued development, developers can more easily respond to player feedback going forward, and a drip-fed release schedule can extend publicity and press coverage dramatically just to name a few. But there are also some massive disadvantages, too, and the difficulty of maintaining player interest and momentum is at the very top of that list.

Hitman’s foray into episodic action was a big risk, but the end result teaches us a lot about what it takes to keep games delivered in this manner fresh and exciting for players, from start to finish. One issue that remains, however, is just how much of that freshness and excitement should be preserved for those playing through it in the future. Those of us playing now likely have many more elusive targets to look forward to, but will people coming back to the first season a year or two from now have the same option? The problem with live content (as is specifically the case with the elusive targets) is that it inevitably has to dry up. Eventually the people creating, dispatching and supporting that content get assigned elsewhere, and just like that a big piece of what makes this game unique will vanish. Collecting the targets as DLC or repeating them on a calendar schedule could undermine the urgency of past (and upcoming) elusive target events. Yet if it means preserving the experience in some way for future players—or encouraging them to explore and savour each of the maps just as those who played concurrent with the releases could—then walking that exclusivity back would be worth the heat.

Janine Hawkins is a games critic based in sunny Canada who enjoys Style Savvy and third-person shooters with equal gusto. You can find her on Twitter @bleatingheart, or catch her on video at streamfriends.tv.

Great read! I know for a fact had Hitman released all at once, I probably would have played through each level once, if I even lasted that long, before being distracted and pulled away by the next big release. But now, I've sunk dozens of hours into the game, am constantly checking back for new content and elusive targets, and have enjoyed the game so, so much. Changing Hitman to an episodic release format was a brilliant move

Good write up. The thing is, I still don't think that Hitman nescisarrily is setting a great example for how episodic games should be handled. I feel like when anyone talks about this Hitman, the episodic release is always first and foremost what is addressed, but there is one point that I don't really feel gets enough attention: this game is freaking AWESOME! If it wasn't fun to play, the episodic nature would have killed the game and kicked its corpse. I like the TellTale games a lot, but don't ever play them until the full season is out, namely because they aren't very fun to actually play. The stories are good and I love seeing my decisions spiraling out in ways that I never predicted, but none of them have been what I would refer to as "fun." If anything, I feel like Hitman's episodic schedule served IO best by allowing them to put out a game with as limited number of levels as this one had. Don't get me wrong, this game is by no means lacking in content, from escalations to elusive targets to all of the challenges. But if this game had come out all at one time, people would surely have criticized the game for featuring a fraction of the levels that are normally present in a Hitman game. All in all, I'm not entirely sure that other games really have very much to learn from the success of Hitman, other than its possible to make it work. But you better make damn sure your game is engaging, silly, fun to play and heart pounding first, before you start worrying about how to handle an episodic release. Wow, that is some disjointed rambling right there sorry yall, I'm not nearly as good a writer as Janine!

Great article. I may be in the minority here, but I hope the elusive are kept.....ya know......elusive. The limited time frame for these targets boosts the immersion so much! Getting the target notification on my phone, looking at the countdown timer, confirming the 'no retry' warning before the mission......that's the window dressing that matters. Because yes, the targets can be unique models and situations, but the only tangible gain from the missions are unlocks and those (as far as I know) are not tied to the specific targets and so aren't missed by later players.

In a weird way that I can't explain, starting and successfully killing an elusive target gives me the same dopamine rush as winning an ebay auction for some rare item.

I'm not sure what the main image has to do with the article but I too enjoyed the episodic rollout.

I haven't read the article yet, but that title is really good.

Smoke targets every day!

Super great article! I especially appreciated the shoutout to complex feelings about Kentucky Route Zero. I finally got around to playing Act 4 of that game last weekend and oh boy - while I loved Cardboard Computer's imagery and storytelling, I kind of couldn't remember anything about the characters I was playing as or any of the choices they made... two and a half years ago, when Act 3 came out. I totally feel for that dev team and really, really like their work, but I don't know if I can handle the implicit obligation to play through that whole game again every time a new piece of it comes out to keep up.

The title brought a nostalgia filled smile to my face, you're an alright person.

@cornfed40: Hitman was awesome before; there's a reason everyone references Blood Money when discussing this game. The problem was that Hitman was awesome for a limited crowd: gamers who replay a game over and over. Those who finish games once, then put them away, thought it was good but nothing special.

Hitman's episodic content works because it forced players towards a playstyle the series was geared for.

I think there's still room for improvement with the release structure. In particular, I'm a little bothered (though not surprised) that despite it being a piecemeal release with the option to buy episodes one at a time as they come out, you're still encouraged to buy the whole season upfront. But I agree, most of what they've done with the episodic release is pretty admirable. I don't think it works for every type of game, but Hitman was a perfect fit for it.

Also, I never really thought of comparing games to shows in terms of binge watching/playing, but that actually makes perfect sense. With that in mind, it's fun to see some reversal going on right now, where games are being released episodically, and seasons of shows on Netflix being released in their entirety at once.

I totally agree, I've loved every single hitman game ive played (never played Absolution). But I was always absolute rubbish at them. As much as I loved Blood Money, 2016 Hitman to me is far and away the best playing game of the series. Its the quality of life improvements that do it for me. I know Hitman purists and experts probably hate them, but the tractable opportunities actually made it possible for me to do all of the crazy and awesome stuff that I had always heard or read about, without fumbling around and ending up using the silenced silverballers to execute everyone on the entire level every time. I think the ease of access for this game was as much a part of its success with a wider crowd than anything really. If it wasn't for that I don't know if I myself at least would have sunk nearly as much time into the game after I got the swing of how everything in each of the levels worked.

I didn't get in until Hokkaido already dropped, and even with all the maps in front of me I'm still going back to it to do Elusives and escalations.

I'm a little annoyed at the distribution of escalations and how little they count towards progress, but hopefully we'll see more escalations in places other than Paris an Sapienza.

It's a picture of the author....which has been included with many of the previous guest columns

Ive only purchased the starter pack (training & Paris) and Ive had a lot of fun but i dont know if the other maps are worth the investment.

I wonder how many others were like me.

There are a ton of people like you. And I assure you if you enjoyed the starter pack, its WELL worth the investment. Sapienza is the most beautiful map ever in a Hitman (in my opinion) and Hokkiado is probably my personal favorite Hitman map ever (awesome opportunities for kills, great unlocks, the clothing as keys mechanic is great). Ive probably put close to 35 hours into those two maps alone. Even if I only barely liked any of the other maps, ide say that has made the total package more than worth $60 to me

Interesting article - as the article suggests the on-going episodic release schedule is part of the appeal of the game, counter-intuitive to other episodic content which you get once all episodes are out. Personally, by the time GB were showcasing Sapienza/elusive targets and having so much fun - i jumped on-board, as I felt I was missing out, the equivalence of must-see TV, I guess.

It'll be interesting to see how Hitman deals with on-going content; restricting content to each season would even the playing field for new players and ease balancing issues, but disenfranchise players who have worked on mastery across all levels.

My personal GOTY. It was always fun coming back to a new location and new opportunities. The elusive targets were also a great incentive to come back and try to unlock new suits.

I like this, very insightful.

I can't say I agree about enjoying Telltale games, but it wasn't only because of the episodic format, I just found all of them boring story-wise (even though walking dead and Game of Thrones are my favorite franchises currently on TV, I couldn't make it through the Telltale versions despite really wanting to), and the terrible animation (and graphics) also really drove me away... neither do so well as a cartoon with Disney style art (and the comic books for Walking Dead were hand drawn but not cartoonish like the games - big difference to me).

But Hitman has showed me that episodic can work! I do have serious concerns that someone else (or even IO, for the 2nd season) could pull it off though... we'll have to see!

This is a tremendous article! It really had the perspective to show what Hitman overcame to be stellar game.

Also, kudos for the title. This is the best title. This is the "Best Title for an Article in 2016".

The early word on the development of this game sounded like this game would be a damn mess. But somehow they pulled it off and made one of my favorite games of the year. I just loved how I could play and focus on unlocking stuff for a single map. Then I would wait and when a new episode gets released, and repeat it over again. It kept me engaged throughout the entire year which a lot of games just don't do for me anymore.

Yo that title

Great article on one of the surprises of the year. I could sing the praises of Hitman's successful approach to episodic gaming and scheduled rolling content for hours.

Also mirror Janine's perspective on narrative episodic games after the novelty of The Walking Dead wore off. It's like reading a few chapters of a book at a time, then taking extended breaks and expecting it to have the same impact throughout. Hard to stay invested, especially if the quality wavers. Self contained, highly replayable sandboxes are just a better fit for the format, and as a poster mentioned below, it helps to keep players engaged when the game they're working on is pretty damn awesome no matter how it's served up.

The episodic part is all great but I think a core thing that needs to be said more is that the game itself is very good. I think Absolution sucked but there were a few interesting additions in it and they expanded on that while enhancing in some other ways to give you a ton of feedback. So much that things can get demanding yet can always feel fair.

I am a huge fan of Blood Money and recently went back to it, and though it has great levels and design, the feedback of the new game goes such a long way. In Blood Money for example, you just have a Suspicion meter which doesn't tell you why you might be suspicious or who thinks so. In the first real level of Blood Money, I used a mine to drop barrels on a targets head unseen (though a guard was killed in the blast as well). I got out clean but when I killed the second target and went back through that area, some random guard would just see me and suddenly my meter (which was about middle of the road or so) would spike and guards would start shooting. I could reload and just go a different way, but this was a moment that made me really think about how much the player feedback in the new Hitman changes the game. In that game you can be completely compromised in certain areas but know where and still pull of a disguise elsewhere for example.

In the new Hitman I can do one off missions and lose and feel like I know exactly why and like I blew it. That goes a long way for me. I think this game and MGSV really nail modern stealth in different ways in the last couple years and that's been exciting to see.

The rest has been great. I've sung the game's praises on here before and it's probably my GOTY (that or Stardew Valley). It's not as long as Hitman games usually are but there is a lot of scenarios in it of different varieties and the gameplay itself is certainly the best it's ever been.

I noticed that the link for "didn’t invent this model," goes to a 404 for me. I'm on Android using Dolphin, so I don't know if it's a mobile thing.

Love Janine's work. One of my favorite people on Twitter. She talks about games I never even heard of and she does it intelligently. Hope her work keeps showing up on Giant Bomb!

FYI - The hyperlink on the 5th paragraph isn't working. "Telltale Games didn’t invent this model,"

Article raises some super salient points. I think there's a lot to be said for a 'gameplay-focused' game like Hitman having an episodic structure as opposed to a narrative game. I am an absolute stickler for waiting until an episodic game is completed before I dive in, if only because my time to play is limited and interest will probably lapse in the interim. While Hitman doesn't float my boat, it seems to be able to focus attention more than narrative-focused games so.

That said, I wonder if that's because the Bombcast/Twitter are my main ways of interacting with games culture (bar chatting with my friends) and extreme caginess around narrative spoilers is an endemic feature of the landscape (beyond the vague hints that "this story goes somewhere"), which might just mean those games are less well-equipped to keep focus anyway?

It is driving me nuts, I know the article title is related to something, but I can't place it. For some reason I have it as a song lyric in my head.

Although I laughed along with the rest of ya'll watching Dan teach Brad in the ways of Hitman several times this year, I waited until the complete season was on sale a few weeks ago. I dove in yesterday, and have completed the first three missions. After Paris, I'm kind of lost - and this feels really weird to say, but it plays into what Janine's talking about - as to how I should play it going forward.

I want to play without much guidance, but I'm not experienced in the way Dan is. I don't know that I'd know what to do with notifications turned off. Also, with every level available to me, how long am I supposed to spend in each one? The one a month structure encourages replaying, but in my situation I have tons of challenges and escalations (still unsure of what these even are) that I can pick from.

Does anybody who has been playing for a while have any advice on how I should carry on?

@ferros: HOLD UP!

HeeeeEeEey-ayyy.

@whiitewalls: I'd say go through the main story missions. You'll get a feel for the structure and systems and then you can go back and play through some of the side content for each level.

I'd find myself learning something new in a later level then going back to Paris just to try it out. You'll also probably level up a location or two and that'll open up some options as you go along.

Honestly, just play what feels fun.

I'm playing through the main missions now and I feel this game lends itself more to improvisation than the older titles. It's a lot less trial and error. At least in the sense that you've got a plan B to fall back on before reloading.

I finished Sapienza with the whole place on high alert after I just decided to pop a target from short-ish range. I probably wouldn't have been able to scarper out of that place in Blood Money or Contracts.

I enjoyed myself by playing each level a couple of times with the notifications turned on until I got a good feel for the various areas/disguises/item locations, then tried to complete the rest with the notifications turned off. But now that all the levels are there, jump around a bit, go back to the ones you really enjoyed or that have opportunities that you think would be cool.

The escalations are great, basically a set of missions where you try to top yourself each time. for example: part 1: kill this guard. part 2: kill this guard with this disguise. part 3: kill this guard with this weapon and in this way. part 4: kill this guard and this waiter. part 5: kill this guard and this waiter in these exact ways. You can still unlock level mastery by doing the escalations, and I highly recommend mixing them in from here to there to keep the maps feeling fresh

@ferros: Nuthin but a G Thang (dre and snoop)

I'm pretty sure 47 is trespassing in the first image, those surgury guys don't let the regular doctors into the operating area.

@whiitewalls: Cosigning what others have said, though I'll add that one of the great things about escalations is that they're generally much smaller undertakings than the main missions, especially once you develop a path/plan. That makes them a really nice way to squeeze in a little bit of Hitman here and there, i.e. as a reward for doing some work or whatever, without totally consuming the rest of your day/night.

@billymaysrip: Should be fixed, ty!

@qlanth: Thank you! And the link should be fixed now. :)

It really is bizarre and surprising that Hitman, of all games, makes for such a great episodic series. What's particularly exciting is that it'll hopefully allow them to turn around season 2 pretty quickly; after just wrapping up Hokkaido this week, I'm already itching for a new map and I'd much rather wait 6 months for another episode than three years or so for a sequel.

I never expected in my wildest dreams that Hitman would be my GOTY.

And yet, here we are...

Hitman is great. Didn't get into it until the Black Friday Sale, but I wholly enjoyed it. You'd think that modern stealth games would be all about "Stealthing until you are discovered and then just kill everyone" and that Hitman wouldn't work, but the real solution to that conundrum is just to save scum. The game actively encourages you to do so, after all.

An episodic game I really liked a lot was Resident Evil: Revelations 2. It was just a perfect setup with a new episode every week, fun Raid mode gameplay to grind away in, in between episodes and minor branching paths. What I loved the most about it, was how you could take part in the zeitgeist. It's become increasingly difficult to talk about story-driven games online, because someone will just spoil the story, but when it rolls out like this, you can really get down to the fun of speculating on what's going to happen next. Seeing how popular TV show discussion is in modern culture, I think it was the right choice.

The concept of the Hitman series fits very well with an episodic content model. If IO can keep the episodes interesting and topical, I think the Hitman franchise will last a long time from now.

and if I read them I'd have thought the same thing. :D

God, I need to buy Hitman.

People do praise the game for doing episodic content right but I don't see much criticism to the fact that if you bought the first episode you ended up paying more for the rest of the episodes than people who bought everything upfront.

I really liked the game so I didn't mind too much but that was pricing problem that was never really explained.

@kookoo: I don't know how much more explained pricing can get than raw numbers right on the store page.

Great article. Greatest title.

@kookoo: buy it all now for less than it would cost to buy it seppeartly over a period of time? Not really sure how that's a pricing problem. Its economics. Have you ever had a credit card? Its the same thing. And why buying a season pass costs less than buying a game and each piece of DLC separately.

Nice article. Good job Janine. Hitman is my goty by miles. It's gonna get the GB award as well right?

I'm glad to read someone else's take that is similar to my own, back when I wrote about Hitman last month. It's the first episodic game in a while to make that delivery format work for me, and I think we concur that it's because Hitman doesn't have a whole of narrative threads to follow and subsequently forget about as they stay suspended in the months-long interims.

I'm starting to feel the same way about some open-ended games that see a gigantic patch of two several months after release, like Terraria or Stardew Valley. Folk play those games until they either get burned out on them or they run out of content to discover, and the injection of free content those patches provide (which makes them more like complimentary DLC, really) give both parties an excuse to return after some time away to recharge their interest level. I suppose the MMOs were the ones to start that practice, given how vital it was to their longevity and subscription model, but it appears to work for a surprising number of game types.

Hitman is the best game of the year and the best episodic game of all time. This is a fact.

Hire janine, I think she would be the perfect counter balance to dan, by that I mean she wont be completely bat shit crazy and she knows how the real world works.