This latest update to the future of HITMAN is exactly the move needed to build fanbase loyalty and goodwill for people who had gripes with Season 1 from the newly established IO-Interactive. For a brilliant game marred mainly by the former publisher’s demands for always-online DRM, the Elusive Targets and the Episodic Model, which I found to be surprisingly beneficial, this franchise has taken the first steps to restore its name.

While not all the infamous issues are gone, such as level progression (not player progression) being unlocked by connecting online, IO-Interactive have taken great strides by removing Denuvo and including the two prologue missions as a demo. For a newcomer, it will probably take you around 5 – 7 hours to complete all challenges as you learn the intricacies of what makes HITMAN a different type of stealth game. Even if you’re still on the fence because of the online component as well as the idea of Elusive Targets, the demo is still worth experiencing to see how an episodic model can enrich an AAA game.

Unlike my other reviews on episodic games, I think this one warrants examining the levels individually for what they offer because of how infamous this game has become. This review will serve to talk about the overall experience of Season 1.


As someone who abstains from purchasing games with episodic releases until they’re complete as I don’t like to wait to finish my games nor do I enjoy incomplete storylines, I cannot help but think that outside of Square-Enix’s demands there were also good intentions with this design to make a true-to-form Hitman game for modern audiences. The reason I stress this point is because if this game was released as a complete season I don’t believe a lot of modern audiences would enjoy it.

When it comes to modern gamers’ tastes, the sad fact is that many people will not replay a game after their first experience, even less will replay a level to appreciate what the game offers. You could play through Season 1 in under seven hours to experience all the content, but you would be experiencing the game at its worst when you’re unfamiliar to the levels, unsure of how the AI behavior works, and you end up fumbling your way to success. This is ultimately the most difficult hurdle to get into the series that it’s understandable why HITMAN has never been popular.

I believe this is why Absolution was such a departure; it emphasized more bite-sized open-areas in a linear progression with optional challenges for replayability that didn’t feel like a true HITMAN game. Season 1, however, is more tightly designed to reward replayability in the style of Blood Money by offering huge levels of stealth-sandboxes of timers for opportunities and items to create a meta-game progression. In terms of HITMAN, you don’t level up your Agent 47 to get better; you increase the number of variables you can influence as well as your overall understanding of every level with rewards to persuade you to try again.

It’s an experience that can undoubtfully feel intimidating to new players that are not accustomed to this playstyle. Unlike Metal Gear Solid V that also forced you to replay levels by changing area parameters, enemy placements and objectives in the same environments, Hitman has you replay the same levels for alternative objectives and challenges. The result is a system that rewards the player becoming more intimate with all 14 levels to truly master your knowledge, and this progression could take you up to 50+ hours with no filler.

This all leads into a question about the episodic model, “Was the model meant to force players to replay levels to truly appreciate how much depth there is?” Now whether the quality of Season 1 was the result of IO working around/with Square-Enix demands or if it was designed to encourage newcomers to enjoy the HITMAN experience I think the final product goes to show that AAA episodic releases could be beneficial if handled correctly.


For those who are unfamiliar with the series, the question that probably comes to mind is, “What makes HITMAN distinct from other stealth games?” In many ways, the archaic controls such as placing items on the ground, the odd AI behaviors, and the stealth gameplay are all rather simplistic that would be black marks in any other game. Its simplicity, however, is what makes it so rewarding to infiltrate as a caddy to set an explosive golf-ball on a target or to perform an act of irony by killing a target with a safety-inspection procedure.

HITMAN itself embodies the phrase there is an art in murder, and the gameplay runs with the idea to ludicrous, self-aware rewards for taking out horrible people in the enjoyment of the act. It’s not something you earn on your first runs, nor do you master the game on your third. In fact, it’s preferable to spend a good hour learning the ins-and-outs of a level as well as the locations of items, opportunities and disguises before you attempt it. There are some settings to help guide players to explore levels, but the satisfaction you earn by finding out the best route and quickest means to get through a level with only your suit and no traces behind is the ultimate test of your skills.

With this design that admittedly feels more like a stealth puzzle game or reminiscent of the abandoned house in Metal Gear Solid 3, there are shortcomings to the design of HITMAN that I hope are fleshed out in the future.

The first of which is the lack of storytelling in this game. It’s a concern I can ultimately live with as the act of replaying the level with new clues and more detail about your targets is a more enriching storytelling experience than the narrative between levels. Even though the story relies on piecing together pieces of cinematics and random mutterings of NPCs in the levels between hours apart from trial-and-error gameplay, the story itself is rather simple. None of this is to say the narrative is weak; it’s intriguing enough for what it is if a bit too subtle for most people to piece it together and too impersonal to invest interest long-term into what is offered.

The far greater issue, however, is the repetitious nature of all missions sharing the same objectives: Kill two targets and escape. I realize that with HITMAN it’s more important how you handle both targets that provides more variety along with the act of exploration and a few additional objectives, so the fact that all missions share the same structure is perhaps beneficial. Even with this design I think they could add modifiers like the Escalation challenges to add more variety in the core gameplay, but the fact that a mode already exists to fix that issue should make my point moot. However, I think for Season 2 there should be something new to shake up what feels very formulaic to a fault with Season 1.

The only thing about HITMAN that I don’t agree with are what are known as Elusive Targets, one-time opportunities for contracts in certain levels that are available only for 48 hours until they’re gone forever. While I can live without them as they are meant to be like matchmaking special tournaments or long-term reasons to replay HITMAN, I cannot deny they can make some feel like it punishes players who wait for the full season or for reviews and it creates an appearance of a product decaying with time.


For the moment, the future of HITMAN is brighter than ever with these few first steps and moving in a better direction that I can only help will benefit IO-Interactive if they continue to build upon what they have achieved so far. While I doubt that HITMAN will ever reach an audience beyond those who desire something different from modern games, what has been crafted is an experience as fine as wine and, hopefully, something that will age better once all the constraints on single-player are lifted.

This latest update to the future of HITMAN is exactly the move needed to build fanbase loyalty and goodwill for people who had gripes with Season 1 from the newly established IO-Interactive. For a brilliant game marred mainly by the former publisher’s demands for always-online DRM, the Elusive Targets and the Episodic Model, which I found to be surprisingly beneficial, this franchise has taken the first steps to restore its name. While not all the infamous issues are gone, such as level progression (not player progression) being unlocked by connecting online, IO-Interactive have taken great strides by removing Denuvo and including the two prologue missions as a demo. For a newcomer, it will probably take you around 5 – 7 hours to complete all challenges as you learn the intricacies of what makes HITMAN a different type of stealth game. Even if you’re still on the fence because of the online component as well as the idea of Elusive Targets, the demo is still worth experiencing to see how an episodic model can enrich an AAA game. Unlike my other reviews on episodic games, I think this one warrants examining the levels individually for what they offer because of how infamous this game has become. This review will serve to talk about the overall experience of Season 1. [h1] Which Came First? The Episodic Model or Intricate Design? [/h1] As someone who abstains from purchasing games with episodic releases until they’re complete as I don’t like to wait to finish my games nor do I enjoy incomplete storylines, I cannot help but think that outside of Square-Enix’s demands there were also good intentions with this design to make a true-to-form Hitman game for modern audiences. The reason I stress this point is because if this game was released as a complete season I don’t believe a lot of modern audiences would enjoy it. When it comes to modern gamers’ tastes, the sad fact is that many people will not replay a game after their first experience, even less will replay a level to appreciate what the game offers. You could play through Season 1 in under seven hours to experience all the content, but you would be experiencing the game at its worst when you’re unfamiliar to the levels, unsure of how the AI behavior works, and you end up fumbling your way to success. This is ultimately the most difficult hurdle to get into the series that it’s understandable why HITMAN has never been popular. I believe this is why Absolution was such a departure; it emphasized more bite-sized open-areas in a linear progression with optional challenges for replayability that didn’t feel like a true HITMAN game. Season 1, however, is more tightly designed to reward replayability in the style of Blood Money by offering huge levels of stealth-sandboxes of timers for opportunities and items to create a meta-game progression. In terms of HITMAN, you don’t level up your Agent 47 to get better; you increase the number of variables you can influence as well as your overall understanding of every level with rewards to persuade you to try again. It’s an experience that can undoubtfully feel intimidating to new players that are not accustomed to this playstyle. Unlike Metal Gear Solid V that also forced you to replay levels by changing area parameters, enemy placements and objectives in the same environments, Hitman has you replay the same levels for alternative objectives and challenges. The result is a system that rewards the player becoming more intimate with all 14 levels to truly master your knowledge, and this progression could take you up to 50+ hours with no filler. This all leads into a question about the episodic model, “Was the model meant to force players to replay levels to truly appreciate how much depth there is?” Now whether the quality of Season 1 was the result of IO working around/with Square-Enix demands or if it was designed to encourage newcomers to enjoy the HITMAN experience I think the final product goes to show that AAA episodic releases could be beneficial if handled correctly. [h1]The Artisty of Murder[/h1] For those who are unfamiliar with the series, the question that probably comes to mind is, “What makes HITMAN distinct from other stealth games?” In many ways, the archaic controls such as placing items on the ground, the odd AI behaviors, and the stealth gameplay are all rather simplistic that would be black marks in any other game. Its simplicity, however, is what makes it so rewarding to infiltrate as a caddy to set an explosive golf-ball on a target or to perform an act of irony by killing a target with a safety-inspection procedure. HITMAN itself embodies the phrase there is an art in murder, and the gameplay runs with the idea to ludicrous, self-aware rewards for taking out horrible people in the enjoyment of the act. It’s not something you earn on your first runs, nor do you master the game on your third. In fact, it’s preferable to spend a good hour learning the ins-and-outs of a level as well as the locations of items, opportunities and disguises before you attempt it. There are some settings to help guide players to explore levels, but the satisfaction you earn by finding out the best route and quickest means to get through a level with only your suit and no traces behind is the ultimate test of your skills. With this design that admittedly feels more like a stealth puzzle game or reminiscent of the abandoned house in Metal Gear Solid 3, there are shortcomings to the design of HITMAN that I hope are fleshed out in the future. The first of which is the lack of storytelling in this game. It’s a concern I can ultimately live with as the act of replaying the level with new clues and more detail about your targets is a more enriching storytelling experience than the narrative between levels. Even though the story relies on piecing together pieces of cinematics and random mutterings of NPCs in the levels between hours apart from trial-and-error gameplay, the story itself is rather simple. None of this is to say the narrative is weak; it’s intriguing enough for what it is if a bit too subtle for most people to piece it together and too impersonal to invest interest long-term into what is offered. The far greater issue, however, is the repetitious nature of all missions sharing the same objectives: Kill two targets and escape. I realize that with HITMAN it’s more important how you handle both targets that provides more variety along with the act of exploration and a few additional objectives, so the fact that all missions share the same structure is perhaps beneficial. Even with this design I think they could add modifiers like the Escalation challenges to add more variety in the core gameplay, but the fact that a mode already exists to fix that issue should make my point moot. However, I think for Season 2 there should be something new to shake up what feels very formulaic to a fault with Season 1. The only thing about HITMAN that I don’t agree with are what are known as Elusive Targets, one-time opportunities for contracts in certain levels that are available only for 48 hours until they’re gone forever. While I can live without them as they are meant to be like matchmaking special tournaments or long-term reasons to replay HITMAN, I cannot deny they can make some feel like it punishes players who wait for the full season or for reviews and it creates an appearance of a product decaying with time. [h1]Welcome Back, Agent 47[/h1] For the moment, the future of HITMAN is brighter than ever with these few first steps and moving in a better direction that I can only help will benefit IO-Interactive if they continue to build upon what they have achieved so far. While I doubt that HITMAN will ever reach an audience beyond those who desire something different from modern games, what has been crafted is an experience as fine as wine and, hopefully, something that will age better once all the constraints on single-player are lifted.