Game - Hitman Episode 1 Intro pack and prologue
Release Date - March 11th, 2016
Platforms - PC, PS4, Xbox One (reviewed)
Developer/Publisher - IO Interactive, Square Enix
Price - $14.99, $60 for all episodes
Hitman Episode 1 is the first in the series by Square Enix in their new, episodic format. Three maps are included consisting of a fashion show at a Parisian mansion, a military base hangar and a party boat. The first Hitman in this generation of consoles, Episode One excels on pretty much all levels with very limited, minor flaws.
This version of Hitman offers intense variety and an overwhelming sense of replayability from it's multiple options to solve missions. If you're a procrastinator, you may wish to pass on this one as you may give yourself a stroke. Not only do your decisions impact the level of stealth in your apprach, but also change how you approach the rest of the mission and solve the rest of the objectives.
Of the three locations, the Parisian mansion fashion show is by far the most impressive. If you're a passive killer (yes, I see the irony) then you may wish to poison your target. Simply poison their drink and you're in business. Of course, you'll need to get the plate of drinks first. Also of course, you'll need to take out the waiter and steal his costume before that. This is easier said than done in a mansion party full with a few hundred NPC's that can bust you at anytime. More aggressive killers may be rewarded by their patience in what I found was the most hysterical homicides of all time. At one point, if you play your cards right, you may find one of your targets on an upstairs balcony directly above your second target. Pushing your target off the balcony and have him land ragdoll-like on your other target resulted in both of their deaths for me in one of my playthroughs. Not only was it hysterical to see them flop around on the ground in the manner they did, but the serene sense of calmness portrayed by Agent 47 as he simply walks off of the balcony is incredibly prophetic.
You of course have the ability to simply start spraying the crowd of NPC's with bullets as well. As fun as it is at the time to unleash your inner Rambo on a helpless crowd of posh fashion show attendees, that feeling quickly fades and leaves a sense of hollowness inside. Hitman is a game which benefits the most from the player's sense of imagination. Sneaking up on a target to snap is neck is all well and good, but I had more fun dressing up as one of the fashion show models in order to rig an overhead lighting fixture. End result = lighting fixture meet target's head. To be honest, the ability of Agent 47 to dress up as an uppity fashion model really demonstrates the level of variety that Square Enix went to with this installment of Hitman.
Although the levels are of the sandbox variety, there is an insane amount of experimentation available to you. The levels are the most wide open, closed levels you'll ever see. Why that may sound oxy-moronish, it's really not. I mentioned the mansion level is the best one in my opinion. You can sneak among the crowd, walk in and out of the endless rooms and hallways, hit up the wine cellar or visit the gardens. There are a number of assist options available to you in all of these areas that can be turned on or off for a higher level of difficulty. Agent 47 can see through walls in order to locate targets, the UI can show which NPC's have the ability to bust you (reveal your true identity) and more. While turning these off add a MUCH higher level of immersion to Hitman, I suggest leaving them on. The reason being is, unless you're an actual hitman, you most likely won't get through all of the levels quite easily with no assist options. That being said, the assist options don't offer too much in the realm of easier gameplay (although it is slightly easier), but more along the lines of faster paced gameplay. Psychologically you'll find yourself moving slower than you need to without the assists out of the fear of getting caught or missing something. This can also lead to frustration due to longer gameplay. As a result, I suggest leaving the assists on for a better overall experience.
The NPC's aren't just background decoration in Hitman either. You can walk around and eavesdrop on pretty much all of their conversation. While some of the conversation surrounding their personal, posh lifestyle is amusing, it doesn't always offer any gameplay assistance. On the other hand, some of the conversation leads to important clues for target acquisition, so it's worth it to check around every once in a while on the juicy deets or the "my job sucks" conversations being talked about at the fashion show.
They are A.I. on the other hand. So, in essence, they are stupid. Some things are going to stand out if you are at a party with a couple hundred people. If I crouched down in the middle of a packed mansion entrance in real life, people would notice. In Hitman, as long as you're not close enough to pop the alarm trigger, you can do the worm on the floor and no one would be any the wiser. If I started firing off a full round of ammunition in the sitting room in real life, the guards at the next door would hear it. In Hitman, this isn't always the case and you may simply mosey right on out the door without so much as a sidewards glance. Of course, A.I. stupidity is to be expected in games, but I would have liked to see a slightly higher sense of realism. Adding an alert system like Metal Gear where the guards can hear gunshots for example and come running to their location would have been appreciated.
Once you beat all three of the episode's levels, new missions appear. These are called escalation missions and are dictated by fixed rules in order to complete. New objectives and targets must be taken out using specific costumes or certain objects or both. If that's not enough for you, then simply create your own missions. Your imagination is the only limit where you have control over all of the required aspects, targets, objectives etc. A sense of anxiety came over me when Square Enix first announced that Hitman would be episodic. I thought that it would not fair to well because of the game's setup and usual limited options. These qualms were quickly dashed once I played Episode 1. The addition of creation tools, escalation missions and plethora of assassination options at your disposal show why Hitman is the king of all stealth games.
The targets mode was not available prior to launch. It is an online mode where marked targets will appear randomly for a limited amount of time. Everyone who plays the game will have the same access to the target, and the target will only be available that one time. A target is gone forever if they are taken out, and only one Hitman player will be able to claim the victory over all others as the best Hitman out there.
Both the graphics and audio setup also impressed us. With such a high NPC count, I fully expected to see some sort of graphical glitch. Whether it be objects appearing in front of you as you move or backgrounds not rendered as much in favor for more detailed close-ups of NPC's, none of that happened. For as much as Hitman has in the game, it is one of the most graphically complete games I've seen in a while. Of course, there are games with better graphics in certain areas. Where Hitman succeeds, however, is the fact of how well the overall package is tied together. Objects in the far background are detailed just as well as up close objects, and the overall experience benefits from it. Audio was never a strong suit of Hitman as much of the focus is on creeping and stealth. It was always more or less "just there". There is a little bit of music, but for the most part I found myself forgetting to even listen to it as I focused on the game itself. This is neither good nor bad as it doesn't add or take away anything of substance to the game, but it's status quo for the franchise. It doesn't go overboard and the game benefits from it.
As we noted in our beta preview on the PS4, there were a lot of stutters in framerate, and we were going to watch closely on the Xbox One version during our review. Well, we did just that and you'll be happy to know that it doesn't drop too often. Only in places with extremely high NPC counts did we see a relative drop, and this was only due to each of the NPC's having their own, pre-programmed walking routes and dialogue. Putting all that on a console CPU is daunting enough, let alone if you try and keep the rate at 60 FPS. Although 60 is better than 30 overall yes, it's not necessarily needed in all games. Hitman is a stealth game, not a shooter with fast moving parts. It's slow, methodical and organized in its approach. 30 FPS is more than enough and although you could see the difference with the back and forth framerate, it was very slight and didn't impact the gameplay at all. We're glad for this as it seems like Square Enix made some adjustments post beta which greatly helped the game on full launch. I suggest using the option to lock the framerate at 30 for optimal performance.
The only minor issue we found is loading times. They weren't anything too crazy lasting about 45 seconds on average, but it was enough to give pause and notice it. Our times were substantially shorter since we use an external SSD, but those booting from consoles face much longer times at nearly double a minute and a half. I'm sure post launch a patch will help this, similar to Just Cause 3, but in the long run it's not too bad when you account for the profusion of beautiful detail included in the game.
Hitman has an extremely high replay valuable, which is rare for episodic games. The series was never about the story involved, but more of the mission options. The addition of the creation tools and escalation missions as mentioned remove any doubt you may have had for the series opting for an episodic release. The extremely open ended gameplay and variety of ways to satisfy your missions leave a benchmark for all future stealth games to follow as it demonstrates why it's the king of its genre.
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