Hitman (2016; PC, PS4, One)

[Yoshi]

I'm really curious to see how an online game like this would play out. It's Hitman, not Sniper.

[Yoshi]

This is sounding very promising. It amazes me that these threads are for the crickets and people keep buying Assassin's Creed.

[Prince Planet]

Since you're so lonely here, I'll chime in and agree...this does look very promising. After completing Hitman GO, I've actually got the bug for a full blown, proper stealth game.
P.S. - Don't pick on Assassin's Creed. Not too much, anyway.

[Rumpy]

That AI still sounds pretty stupid to me.

[NeoZeedeater]

I'm interested but I still need to check out Absolution. Hearing that it was dumbed down compared to earlier games lowered its priority for me and I forgot about it.

[bVork]

Absolution gets a lot of flack that it doesn't really deserve. Yes, the game is a lot friendlier for people who play it as a run-and-gun mass-murdering goon. Which I think is fine if you want that. But it doesn't impact the "proper" way to play the game: going for the Silent Assassin rating where you eliminate your target without anyone the wiser. The only real change is the implementation of instinct (which can be turned off, by the way) to highlight enemy routes, important items, and briefly allow you to avoid having your disguise blown. It's treated as a resource that refills as you progress through the mission, too, so it's not just something you use all the time like detective mode in Batman games. What instinct does is make a Silent Assassin rating possible on your first attempt, which is something you're unlikely to ever do in any other Hitman game because you'll need to learn enemy routes and item locations via trial-and-error.

[Yoshi]

I agree. Absolution was also more story driven than the others in the series, which tended to make it more linear, but it's still better than that other series Prince Planet asked me not to pick on.

[Frogacuda]

I'm somewhat skeptical of the episodic format for this. I do like episodic games when they're done right and released close together and it makes sense for the story, but it seems like an odd choice here.

[NeoZeedeater]

Absolution gets a lot of flack that it doesn't really deserve. Yes, the game is a lot friendlier for people who play it as a run-and-gun mass-murdering goon. Which I think is fine if you want that. But it doesn't impact the "proper" way to play the game: going for the Silent Assassin rating where you eliminate your target without anyone the wiser. The only real change is the implementation of instinct (which can be turned off, by the way) to highlight enemy routes, important items, and briefly allow you to avoid having your disguise blown. It's treated as a resource that refills as you progress through the mission, too, so it's not just something you use all the time like detective mode in Batman games. What instinct does is make a Silent Assassin rating possible on your first attempt, which is something you're unlikely to ever do in any other Hitman game because you'll need to learn enemy routes and item locations via trial-and-error.

I agree. Absolution was also more story driven than the others in the series, which tended to make it more linear, but it's still better than that other series Prince Planet asked me not to pick on.

Sounds good enough. I picked up the game today.

[Geo]

Delayed until March 2016

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.

Expected, the 2015 release never seemed realistic. The digital-first release with content delivered afterwards, all leading to a physical release of everything, is definitely interesting. With that being the case, they're better off having more content ready on day one and consistently released afterwards, so hopefully this delay helps make that happen.