Ok, my first try at a longer review so please be gentle :)

First of all i'd like to clear some things about the game:

1. No it's not Online Only, but yes, the Offline stuff is basically just story/training. So we better hope servers keep up.
2. It's Episodic, wich means there is not much to play storywise right now.
3. It's basically a sandbox. If you like to murder people in every way possible, this is where to do it.

Ok, now that those are out of the way, lets see what it's all about.

The story seems interesting enough, altought it's pretty quickly played through the first steps, it did leave me wanting to know more. I play this with kb and mouse, but the game also seems to recognise controllers too, as it did notice mine right away. The game play was solid, nothing really new there either, but it worked out like it's supposed to do. I'm a bit bad at rating graphics, but for me it really looked nice. Some random npc:s in crowded spaces lack detail, but it's barely noticeable if you don't stare them too much, it's impolite anyways!

The bad (the stuff that most negative reviewers scream about) is the basically always online stuff. If you wanna have a rank from the main storyline missions, or if you wanna play contracts, or any other live stuff, you have to be online. If you are in the middle of a contract and the servers go down, it's mission over, start again after they get back online. I bet that will get people riled up every time a server goes down, it will force you to start over, or you can wait to get the connection back, waiting for servers is not something a pc gamers patience is capable of.
The second bad thing is the shortness of the first part of the game. It's not actually short for a episodic game, but it feels short for those who are not used to it. There's also an annoying DX12 bug (at least for me and few others) that seems to crash the first prologue mission if the dx12 is on, so i recommend using DX11 at least on the first mission, other than that the game seems to be working nicely for me at least.

The Good (that most reviewers seems to completely under rate!) is that this game really is more old school Hitman than the Absolution. You have to sneak, try to find opportunities and ways to move around without being noticed. It's done well. Some may disagree with the way game handles "random events" as they are made so that they seem random, but in reality they trigger when player is near. There are real randomities too, but few of those key thing do wait for player to be around. I think it's a good way for this type of game, but i do realise it pisses some people off too. The game still has a good replayability value as you can do almost everything in so many different ways and after that you can just do your own contracts and see others fail miserably in them!

I dont want to rate this game because it's just the first episode, but i can sum stuff up here to try and help you to make your decision:

IF you like to play a story driven game and just play story: Wait till the episodes are done.

IF you like your game to have a variety of maps and different layouts for you to roam in: Wait till the episodes are done.

IF on the other hand, you just can't wait and love the Hitman series: buy now and learn every freakin' detail of the paris and prologue maps you can.

IF you like doing challenges and create challenges for others to do, that has something to do about killing people: Just buy already.

IF you hate online stuff and you have a 56k modem, stay away!

IF you feel like you have to throw a screw driver trough someones eye, throw a hammer at a security guard, throw a battle axe at random bystander (yes, there are battle axe and swords!) or maybe feel the need to crush someone under a weighty chandelier/lightrig/speaker, or just have the basic need of dressing as an oil sheik. Buy.

And if you decide to buy the game, i think you should buy the complete set, unless you really can't afford it. It will give you the episodes to come and it's fairly cheap still. And i bet buying the complete set of episodes separately will be more expensive. But ultimately, it's totally up to you.

IF you managed to read my bad english all the way here, I thank you. I hope you like the review and if you buy the game, i do hope you don't dissapoint :)

Final Verdict: Recommend WITH RESERVATIONS! Not really for every one, at least not yet. But for me, who has been enjoying all the old Hitmans, this really is a game i think i wil be returning frequently.