Wow. That looks fantastic. It seems IO understand why people love Hitman. Judging from the gameplay demonstration, their 2014 open-letter wasn’t just PR.
Things they are doing 2 things that I dislike:
It has 7 total missions at release and they are VERY vague as to how they plan to support it after release.
Some missions will be offered that if you fail them, they will be gone forever. Really?
So it seems that the initial release of Hitman will feature seven levels.
That doesn’t sound like a lot of content at launch for the price of a full game but you really are buying into something bigger than that.
You won’t have to fork out more for DLC, with regular updates bringing new levels, challenges, weapons and more.
IO Interactive also plans to have special one off events - missions which only appear once and if you fail them they’re gone forever.
Hmm… maybe it’s like a “mission of the day” leaderboard thingy? Like a target is chosen at random every day in one of the always available levels and you get one shot at it.
It’s the only way that would make sense to me.
Yeah, missions as in “hits”. They will be gone… and others will replace them. Not exactly a big deal.
In fact, if he looks 8-9 posts above him, he will see we already discussed this.
I agree with the fact that the post release content is vague. Are they going to release what, 1 scenario? 2, 3, 4?
But they still have time to announce it before release.
Delayed to March 2016.
https://hitman.com/en-us/news/important-release-news#
It’s safe to say HITMAN is the biggest venture we’ve ever undertaken at Io-Interactive. Not just in terms of scope and ambition but also in terms of the size of the game world itself. The playable area and density of our locations goes beyond anything we’ve built before. We’re striving to create a series of living, breathing worlds in those locations and we get pretty obsessed about every detail that you’ll experience.
On top of that, we’re going for a new release model where we put out a good chunk of the game when it begins and then release the remaining locations over time. We want to make absolutely sure you all get the best possible experience when you join, so we’ve made the difficult decision to move the initial release date to March 2016. These few extra months will mean we can add more to the launch content of the game, more than we had originally planned, and then follow with a tighter frequency of updates, which ultimately will create a better game for everyone. And in the end, that’s what we’re all looking for.
I wish they’d release Hitman: Sniper for Steam or something. It looks grindy as hell, but it would be somthing to whet my appetite.
Was that the preoder bonus thing they released with Absolution?
Sort of, they made another game in that same vein for cell phones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOF3LF1MgTk
It must be hell to build and test levels of that size and complexity. Looks pretty great though. Please don’t suck.
Christ on a stick apart from the terrible “TRESSPASSING” GUI bullshit this game looks utterly amazing
If they manage to bring this level of detail and expansiveness into all the levels, and in finished game end up with at least 10 of them, and the gameplay/story do not suck, this will become my favourite stealth game ever.
I love that “Let me try it out” is over half the price of the “full experience.”
That’s not really what I’d consider a “try out”
They make a distinction between campaign missions and “sandbox locations”. I’m starting to think there are recycling the locations, two missions done in each (two sets of 3 levels, 6 missions).
If the final amount of locations is just six, it will be a bit underwhelming, even if they are bigger than before. Though it’s better to have 6 that are very good than double the amount with the quality of Hitman Absolution, so there is that too.
I am just gonna hold off for the Steam Summer Sale and get the full game for like $20. I dislike this release and pricing plan they are going with.
I’m actually okay with the plan as stated. I’m just wary of their ability to execute on that in a satisfying way. For example, I’m pretty sure that TT is right about the sandbox areas just being repurposed levels from the campaign.
At any rate, waiting until after launch is the best strategy with most games.
Oh, come on, I was pasting already the url :P
Great video. It really shows what they are going for this game. Less levels sure, but each one it’s more like a small “open world sandbox” scenario, several times bigger than before. I can see how the Contracts mode will made you replay each level a lot of times.
Wow, that’s beautiful map design. I’m looking forward to this one.
This is now episodic.
A change to the release structure, sees HITMAN become a truly episodic AAA game experience, with a major live component. Where players will perform contract hits on powerful, high-profile targets in exotic locations around the world.
Starting with a Prologue Mission and a Paris location on March 11th, followed by the next location, set in Italy releasing in April and then Morocco releasing in May. From there HITMAN will deliver regular monthly content updates, including three additional locations; Thailand, the US and Japan until the season concludes in Japan later in 2016. With weekly live events and additional planned content in between the monthly updates.
“We decided to take the full leap and publish HITMAN as a truly episodic game experience,” said Hannes Seifert, Head of Studio at Io-Interactive. “Part of that decision is for that little bit of extra time to ensure every location we release is at the quality level fitting for a HITMAN game. But the main driving reason is that this will allow us to create a living game that will expand and evolve over time and establish a foundation for the future – this is the first game in a storyline which will continue and expand with future Hitman games.”
A new Intro Pack now contains Prologue and Paris levels and will release at the new price of $15 (or local equivalent). Each subsequent location will be priced at $10 as an add-on item to the Intro Pack*. Alternatively, players can buy the Full Experience up front for $60. This includes all of this year’s content as it’s released, and guarantees them not to miss any live or bonus content.
The disc version of HITMAN will ship at the end of 2016.