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Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

Full gameplay trailer for the new Hitman game has been released.

..and as a staple for most modern games it was regenerating health. In most games i guess it's acceptable but in a stealth game it's just stupid. It takes away the whole element of getting caught/found out and subsequently injured. In the earlier games getting found out and injured may jeopardise your ability to complete the mission but now it's just herp derp, full health in 2 seconds. It just removes all threat from the game. It's literally like they design games these days so that people can't lose.

*facepalm*

Posted: Oct 11 2011 02:12 pm

One of my good friends has played Hitman: Blood Money into the ground, and it was always interesting to watch him attempt the higher difficulties because a single mistake could pretty much screw up the entire sitting.

I would still imagine that Agent 47 will go down with minimal damage in the higher difficulty settings, and if you're going for a perfect rating, then regenerating health probably isn't going to help you.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

Saw the trailer, looks cool, but is most likely a tutorial level or something. It seems too linear for a typical Hitman level, and if you can imagine little tool tips or hints popping up on screen, it seems kind of obvious. The Hitman series has typically been a game that is very well-rounded difficulty-wise, and since the drooling window-lickers that produce the Kane and Lynch games are still in business, I'm hoping that none of that crap has seeped into the Hitman dev team. From what I see, I like the whole "Hitman Sense" as a way of getting rid of the old, convoluted map system from the older titles, and I especially like the way 47 moves more smoothly and stealthily instead of the clunky movement system that pretty much didn't change between Hitman 1 and Blood Money. I'm wary of the regen health, but it's far from being a dealbreaker. As someone who grew up backtracking for health packs because you didn't play the level the exact way the developer wanted you to, the regen health idea is an interesting system that is implemented badly about 98% of the time.

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

Greg the White wrote:

Saw the trailer, looks cool, but is most likely a tutorial level or something. It seems too linear for a typical Hitman level, and if you can imagine little tool tips or hints popping up on screen, it seems kind of obvious. The Hitman series has typically been a game that is very well-rounded difficulty-wise, and since the drooling window-lickers that produce the Kane and Lynch games are still in business, I'm hoping that none of that crap has seeped into the Hitman dev team. From what I see, I like the whole "Hitman Sense" as a way of getting rid of the old, convoluted map system from the older titles, and I especially like the way 47 moves more smoothly and stealthily instead of the clunky movement system that pretty much didn't change between Hitman 1 and Blood Money. I'm wary of the regen health, but it's far from being a dealbreaker. As someone who grew up backtracking for health packs because you didn't play the level the exact way the developer wanted you to, the regen health idea is an interesting system that is implemented badly about 98% of the time.

I think this is just the first level. In most of the games the first level is pretty linear but i know what you mean: the whole different ways to assassinate the target(s), movement about the level etc.

Well on regen, if i recall the Hitman series never had any health pickups. There were the injections that you could choose pre-mission but that's it.

I dislike regenerating health full stop. I can understand it within some games. Hitman however it just makes no sense. It literally means you can just bust in guns blazing and do it that way. I know that was an option in the earlier games as well but you usually got slaughtered quickly.

Apart from that and maybe 47s new Xray super powers it looks pretty dead on.

Also this finally gives me a reason to post this:

Fucking hilarious.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

Regen is just as good as any system if implemented well. Brothers in Arms 3 had a system where the screen would build up in redness as a "danger" system, until you finally got hit by one bullet that killed you. How fast the screen filled up depended on your exposure, the enemies' weapons, range from enemies, how suppressed your enemies were, etc. Hell, Gears of War, one of the early games to popularize it evened it out in a way that made its cover system its health system. You could fart around and go crazy if you wanted to, but if you hit that point where you're just about to die, you have to make sure you're in a decent position to maneuver into cover that's safe on all sides. Modern games just feel like they have to have regenerating health in the same way that a lot of older games had clunky health systems, so they just kind of stick it in the game without a second thought.

If Hitman wants to reward stealth gameplay, it will definitely need to incorporate the health system in a way that benefits the gameplay. Maybe your health can only regen if enemies are in a calm/unaware/dead status (The reward for successful evasion or winning a firefight).

One thing on my wishlist is to perhaps fix the sometimes goofy AI. It's made progress since Hitman 2 (He's holding his AK across his chest? Fire!), but there are still times after playing and fully-SAing Blood Money where I don't understand what makes the NPC's go into alert.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

I tried to enjoy the Hitman games, I really did. They just never had that rewarding stealthy game play like I expected them to. Also, the main character moved in such a clunky way that it was almost comical. Regenerating health isn't really an issue nor does it bother me, it just seems like a silly choice for a stealth game.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

I can see that. You have to work around a lot of clunkiness to really enjoy the games, especially 1 and 2 (the first one having aged horribly by now). Contracts improved things by removing the clunk and overly-wary AI. Blood Money was great because it opened up so many ways to achieve your objective. I remember reading an article where the creators were having a lot of fun looking up videos online of taking down targets in ways the devs had never thought possible, and I thought it was pretty cool. I personally favor the "snipe from a hidden spot, then calmly make my way out while everybody completely loses it" method.

Posted: Oct 15 2011 08:41 pm

Hitman is one of my all time favorite series. pumped to finally be getting a true next-gen version. I hope it lives up to the previous games, and is worth the 5-6 year wait.

Posted: Oct 17 2011 10:09 pm

Hitman Absolution Cell: Sam Splinter Convection

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

Ice2SeeYou wrote:

Hitman is one of my all time favorite series. pumped to finally be getting a true next-gen version. I hope it lives up to the previous games, and is worth the 5-6 year wait.

"It has been reported the game will be "familiar and yet significantly different experience from other Hitman games"

Time will tell.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

Picked it up, and I have to say that it's really fun. They reformed the game, getting rid of the goofy map system and tweaking the costumes and enemy AI so that the game is more focused on what 47 is doing and planning each stage of your incursion/assassination/escape.

There are also a lot more options for accomplishing goals. One example required me to get to an elevator guarded by a bunch of hostile cops. I couldn't find any ways to get by them even with a disguise, so I started checking side rooms. One room had a cop inspecting a locked safe. He eventually got frustrated and gave up. Out of curiosity, I looked around and found the code, and opened the safe to find a bunch of money and explosives. At the same time, the cop walked back into the room, so I had to dash away with the safe door still open. He noticed what was inside, and called his buddies near the elevator to come see. They left the elevator completely unguarded so that I could proceed. It was just a nice touch.

If I only have one complaint, there's this kind of hurtle mission early on in the game where you have to infiltrate a hotel, kill an arms dealer, and escape. It starts out great, reminiscent of Hitman 2's Japanese Castle mission as you have to make it through several stages of entering the hotel, getting to the target's floor, then to his room, then finally kill him and escape, but due to plot developments you can't kill him, which leads to this serious blue-balling. Even then, it's still a fun sequence, as there are just layers and layers of things you have to do/can do, and even the infamous trailer mission is a lot more difficult and open-ended than it looked.

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

Greg the White wrote:

Picked it up, and I have to say that it's really fun. They reformed the game, getting rid of the goofy map system and tweaking the costumes and enemy AI so that the game is more focused on what 47 is doing and planning each stage of your incursion/assassination/escape.

Yeah i picked it up too. I'm on the last mission but overall i thought it was decent but it has problems. I mean there were times i enjoyed the game and times where i was pulling my hair out.

I've seen criticism of it online that it's not like the previous games. I agree and disagree with some of the claims.

In a way it is better than the previous games. The previous games didn't really have a cover system, if i recall it was basically just 47 just running around and standing in open areas and crouching behind walls. In that way it is an improvement.

I'm not totally sure of how much i approve of the instinct mode. In the previous games 47 was basically totally invisible with a disguise on. It's nice that people now question you since they don't recognise you but the way instinct works is a bit flawed to me. Sometimes it just runs out and your sort of stuck in the middle of a room full of like 20 guys.

Another flaw is that the game is called Hitman. This isn't really a spoiler but i swear to god there is a mission sequence, cutscene build up for you to walk into a shop and acquire a suit. The scene loads up as you walk in and the guy recognises you and then you control 47 as you walk into a dressing booth and thats the mission over.

Why did they think this was a good idea to include this? That is only one example. There are numerous cases were you don't actually do any assassination but like collect four screws or escape a burning building.

The reason for this is the game is now more cinematic. It isn't load screen, kill your target, then next mission. I actually liked the story. I mean it isn't oscar material or anything but it was nice that it was strung together. However the suit acquiring isn't really needed and seems to pad out the game a bit unnecessarily.

The game is pretty linear as well. The old games used to boast that you could complete the game with a suit run and acquiring silent assassin. That i can assure you is impossible in the new game.

The AI can be pretty bad in places as well. There was a mission in a nunnery were my cover got blown and i was hiding behind cover. The enemy AI never ceased shooting. They never stopped to wonder whether i was there or not. They just blasted and blasted. In a later mission i was behind bulletproof glass and they just shot the bulletproof glass in front of me like it wasn't there.

Greg the White wrote:

There are also a lot more options for accomplishing goals. One example required me to get to an elevator guarded by a bunch of hostile cops. I couldn't find any ways to get by them even with a disguise, so I started checking side rooms. One room had a cop inspecting a locked safe. He eventually got frustrated and gave up. Out of curiosity, I looked around and found the code, and opened the safe to find a bunch of money and explosives. At the same time, the cop walked back into the room, so I had to dash away with the safe door still open. He noticed what was inside, and called his buddies near the elevator to come see. They left the elevator completely unguarded so that I could proceed. It was just a nice touch.

How i did this was i distracted them with the disco music and they all moved in there.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

Now that I'm working my way through most of the game, I'm getting really sick of infiltration. I liked them at first, because they built up tension, but they get too numerous, and I almost forget what I'm supposed to be doing half of the time. It was cool the first few times, but I miss having a dozen+ missions of inserting, disguising, finding lots of ways to kill someone, then ditching the map.

I do like the Instinct more than dislike it. While other Hitman games forced you to constantly be checking the map and reloading your save states depending on how loopy the AI felt like being, Absolution is more about being in the moment. I'll find some cover, analyze the enemies/paths, and squeak by in these little moments that made me feel like a great infiltrator. It makes everything a bit more seamless.

Also, while the story is pretty awful, props to Keith Carradine for his voice acting. He played an amazing slimy asshole villain in this game.

Posted: Nov 29 2012 12:53 am

In the prior Hitman games I always shot\stabbed\ bludgeoned\garroted my way through all the NPC's on the map in the levels (that allowed this kind of behavior mind you), hiding and switching costumes between take downs and watching the AI get more frantic trying to find me etc before I tried any stealth approaches, and I have to say it's a LOT easier to do that in this game at least so far, and I'm like 75% through it from what I can tell..

I think maybe the Fallout VATS style kill shot queue is what's making it easier? Honestly it feels like Gears Of Hitman with all the cover based shooting options, I know you're not supposed to play it that way, but all stuff in the environment that doubles as a chest high wall, regenerating health, and insta-kill stab moves or quick time event punching match when you get close enough that cancels the gunfight for you and your attacker just feels like a modern shoot em up action game to me... not a bad thing just weird to see it in a Hitman game.

Maybe my silent assassin play through will be more fun than my psychopath play through has been so far. Confused

Also WTF is up with that mission that is nothing but going to the tailor to get a suit? Is there anything to sneak around or steal in there? I tried killing the guy for the hell of it and noticed the game had disabled my attack buttons, not being content with just taking my silverballers away, so is there even a point to this mission, or is it a playable cut scene? Mad

I don't like some of the changes, I miss the map, although I guess it never did make sense how he had a live map that tracked everyone on it so whatever.

I really miss 1st person mode but I'm getting over it.

Instinct seems to work fine until you run out of it, and sometimes it doesn't make sense, also LOL at 47 covering his face with his hand to blend in, that seems like it would be counter productive when you're trying to be inconspicuous! Laughing

The graphics are pretty sweet but sometimes the lighting and bloom goes really crazy and blinds me, and they seem to have fixed 95% of the wacky ragdoll physics from earlier games, although I still get the occasional body that starts wigging out, or turns to rubber once I shoot it.

The story doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, seems like he didn't need to complete the first mission if he was gonna turn coat that fast, but then again the story has always kind of been a bit stoopid anyway.

Is it just me or is this game really dirty? Not the gross / pervy stuff, that's always been there, but I mean all the trash everywhere, seems like every level is a refuse strewn shithole, everything is grimy and filthy and cluttered, like a hoarders house.

I'd say in my current opinion it's a B-, it'd be C in my opinion but the online contracts mode seems to be a great idea and I cannot wait to jump in to that after beating my two play throughs crazy psycho\silent assassin, heck if it's obscenely awesome I might reconsider and give this game an A.