Hitman (2016) - Baldy killing evil people. Hopefully no sexy nuns

And I’m being generous calling “sexy” to the nuns.

CG trailer

“gameplay” trailer (mind the quotes)

Impressions from reddit

1) How large are the levels?
Huge - The level we played was a massive, three story building, which had 3 completely different events going on in it at once. I can’t say much plot wise (at all), but I can count at least 4 unique ‘tiers’ of disguises I went through while trying to reach the top of the house.

2) Is the detection system the same as absolution?(If you wear a disguise, you would have to press a button to hide your face)
Not at all. It definitely was more blood money esque. The only hint of Absolution left was that certain guards were classified as ‘observant’ - sometimes these were random people of the same type as your current disguise, sometimes they were people who would make sense to know the staff a bit more than your average grunt. They were sparsely placed around the map, but provided a challenge in the right places.
For example, one of the targets in the level we played had a bodyguard who would follow him around, and knew everyone on staff. Inherently, getting close to the target was an absolute pain, but in a challenging, fun way.

3) Does it remind you of Blood Money at all ? Does it give the same vibes as Blood money !?
Yes and yes. Playing this game felt, in many ways, like playing a modern Blood Money. Which is all I wanted.
It was frustrating at times, it was deep, at the end of it I felt like I had only just scratched the surface of the possibilities of the map. I felt like I could have replayed it for a 4th or 5th time and still be doing a completely different line of events to get a more satsifying outcome.
By the end of our time with the game I had just started to get to the really satisfying part of a Blood Money level, when you know the board, know the big pieces, and can start to abuse that foreknowledge to do amazing things.

By tiers, do you mean disguises with more authority, like some of the disguises in blood money, where some could only enter certain places and there would be one that would be allowed everywhere?
Yes. The minimap actually showed where disguises were and were not allowed in what areas, which saved a lot of quicksave quickload time for figuring the level out. There was also a metal detector checkpoint that was just as big a chore as in blood money - which warmed my heart.

(technically 1.5). Do the ‘observers’ see through all disguises or certain ones?
There was some of both. Like I said, the bodyguard knew - everyone, I never found a disguise that he didn’t see through. In other cases, I did find cops that only seemed to become curious if I lingered around them as another cop, and not as other disguises. I just want to make it clear that those are marked on the minimap - it’s not a ‘I wonder if this cop is going to ruin my operation’ thing.

Does the accident system seem as good as Blood Money?
Yes. I’m not supposed to make any declarations on how I finished levels, but I did find ‘accidents’ for both targets, and both were very satisfying, I would compare it to a flawless run on the opera house in Blood Money.

Is the Map back? Does it have points of interest on it?
Both a minimap and large map were present. They showed POIs where helpful things would happen or be.

Are the maps littered with trash bins like absolution?
There were trash bins, as part of the removal of magic pockets they were to hide weapons in.

If you mess up, is it like Blood Money where everyone comes after you, or more like absolution where it’s contained to the area.
So this was actually really neat, when you would mess up, often an area would go into lockdown, where everyone would leave the area for the surroundings, and security would sweep it. After which things would return to normal. You could actually strategically trigger this via fire alarms, which was neat.

Silent Assassin criteria? :D
I don’t know. A lot of that and the difficulty is the kind of stuff that wasn’t present in our build.

Does HP regenerate?
You know, honestly I do not know, maybe some of my other community members will refresh me. I’m one of those types who, if I take damage I’m rebooting the mission, so it didn’t stand out to me.

Sounds great! I was pleasantly surprised to see this pop up during the show.

Yeah looking forward to this one. Love the franchise, but Absolution stunk. Having the new game closer to Blood Money is the right direction.

Hopefully no sexy nuns? Are you made of stone, sir?

Hooray, they appear to be going back toward a sandbox style of game. A release December this year as well. I think it’s strange that opinions on Absolution have become so binary in the Hitman community, “it stunk”, “please tell me this game is not like absolution in any way”, etc… It was still a fun game to me, but a step back.

They showed a little more in the pc gaming show. The graphics are great, the levels are 6-7 time bigger than in previous Hitman games (or so they said), and they confirmed a more Early Access-ish model for the game, with participation of the community to tweak it out during 2016.

Here’s the Reddit thread if you want to read up on it yourself.

I’m one of the few people who liked Absolution, not-sexy nuns and all. This looks really good but I miss the grindhouse vibe. It really felt right when one of the previous games went down that road (Contracts? The one with the Meat King level). The whole concept of the series feels like something that would be in a 70s or 80s B movie and those games had that kind of grimy feel.

But whatever, I’m looking forward to hearing more about this one.

Heh, they put a little joke. It seems in BM there was a text entry left clearly incomplete…

So in the trailer…

Free DLC.

IO Interactive has clarified how it intends to roll out additional content for Hitman, confirming that while the game will only ship with a limited amount of content on day one, all additional content and locations released throughout 2016 will be available to download at no additional cost.

There will be “no DLC or microtransactions”, the studio promises.

But over the course of 2016 we’ll add more locations, more missions and we’ll have things like targets that only appear for, say, 2 days. That’s something you can only do in the live world."

So… Online connection required all the time?

I don’t think so. More like “required to download new content”?

It’s not very clear. The 2-day temp mission and his reference to “live world” make it sound like he’s talking about an online connected thing. Could be bad wording.

I think those will be daily or weekly challenges, like other games have.

Hmm… by OTHER GAMES, I’m assuming you mean MMOs?
I’ve never really encountered that kind of thing in the games I’ve played… (but then I only play “offline” single player games: GTA, XCOM, Anno, Witcher, Far Cry…etc) I reckon they will try and make this an online game, though I’m not sure how that’ll work on the potentially offline consoles.

Race the Sun was one.

Or more ontopic: Hitman Absolution is another one.

Right! Never did play much of Absolution and forgot about that mode…

There is a closed alpha going on. Some people have made lilttle videos showing the size of the level
http://webmshare.com/play/PzQR0

Gamesradar give us a list of things to do in the E3 demo

At the level’s opening 47 walks past a TV reporter discussing her upcoming interview with target Victor Novikov, providing a potential opportunity to get at him.
• You can subdue security guards for disguises that let you access certain areas without being searched meaning you can get weapons through checkpoints.
• There’s a garden heater you can tamper with: for example puncturing it with a screwdriver to create a trap for anyone smoking nearby.
• The palace is full of chandeliers you can drop on people.
• If you can get a bar tender’s disguise you can poison the target’s drink.
• Not all poisons are lethal. Some can make people sick instead, making them run to the toilet and letting you manipulate the level.
• The palace is hosting a fashion show and if you can reach the lighting rig you can drop it on people.
• If you can get backstage you’ll find Novikov arguing with the fashion show director. It’s a situation you can manipulate, potentially to get your target on the stage and under that lighting rig.
• There’s an AV crew covering the fashion show with access to the first floor. Handy if you can get their disguise without raising an alarm.
• The AV crew also has crates being taken into the building that you can hide things in to smuggle them past security.
• There’s a power generator you can tamper with to cause a distraction or attract attention.
• Replaying the level can unlock new options, like the ICA (International Contract Agency) planting a sniper rifle for you to use in a garden shed.
• You can potentially leave the level in the target’s helicopter if you want to really rub it in.
• There’s also a speedboat as an additional exit point if you can find the key.
• There’s a river barge that makes a good sniper point if you can reach it via some underground passages.
• Post-fashion show fireworks can be set off early if you can find the remote. They’re very noisy and can create a large distraction for you.
• You can now climb drainpipes to reach different parts of buildings.
• There’s an isolated waiter on a smoke break who’s allowed upstairs. That access makes his disguise useful if you can reach him.
• A large overhead outdoor loudspeaker can be weakened with the right tool to create a trap by dropping it on someone.
• You have access to a piece of gear called ‘an audio distractor’.
• There are also remote explosives.
• The coin from Blood Money is back to create distractions.
• AI reacts intelligently to surroundings. So instead of using a bomb to kill someone, you can place it and let a guard find it. They’ll deactivate it and go to hand it in at the security room, leaving the area in the process.
• You can go to a vending machine, buy a soda and then throw it in the face of someone to knock them out.
• The security room has the security tapes if you want to erase them.
• If a civilian sees a weapon, bomb or something out of place they’ll run and get the nearest nearest guard who has to leave their post to deal with it.

Hate how 47 looks
Hate the huge “TRESPASSING” and “DISGUISED” notifications
Hate the huge 8/10 UNNOTICED KILL notification

Like the rest.

Destiny has daily and weekly challenges. DiRT Rally has daily, weekly, monthly challenges. I’m primarily a single player game player too, and I like it a lot. It’s a good way to keep the game fresh. In DiRT Rally, it’s a good way for the developers to keep the game’s economy challenging. If I was playing only the championship mode, when I finished the championship for one tier of cars, then I have enough money to buy the car from the next Tier, etc. I can go at a slow pace. But with the Weekly and Monthly challenges, I get an additional goal for myself like “buy a car from the 2010s by the end of the week, so you can play this week’s weekly challenge”. And I do that by mostly trying to do really well in Daily challenges and finishing some championships too.

What it also means is that I’m constantly out of money for what I need to buy next, which makes the game’s economy feel a lot more precious and urgent.

Showstopper Playthrough

I’m sold, this looks like a total return to form.