I'm sure a narrow audience will enjoy this, but by that I mean fans of old Hitman games who are also willing to pay an unjustified amount of money. The levels are very well made, there is a ton of freedom and multiple ways to eliminate your targets and the audiovisuals do a good job, so I don't have any problem with those parts.

The problem, however, is that the solid level design is expected to carry the game alone, while terrible decisions regarding other aspects weigh it down almost every step of the way.

It feels like yet another skeleton of a great game that had the engine stripped down to work on consoles and then dumbed down for a "wider audience", hereby alienating both core Hitman fans and PC gamers. And here I thought these two were your primary demographic.

Here are some bullet points off the top of my head:

• Every time you boot up the game, there will be this unskippable message: "HITMAN WAS DESIGNED BY A MULTICULTURAL STUDIO WHERE STAFF IS OF VARIED ETHNIC BACKGROUNDS". You'll then learn that there are no difficulty options. Savescumming is completely unlimited, and even encouraged by tooltips. Everyone is a winner, let's all hold hands and sing cumbayah. Hey kids, you can play Hitman too! Here are some tooltips that will make the game basically play itself. Scores? Everyone gets the same score! Accident kills or shotguns to the chest, same score! I think you see where this is going.
  
  
• My biggest gripe is that there is no difficulty setting. You can disable psychic powers, seeing through walls, slowing down time and tooltips that hold your hand throughout the game, but this will not affect your score in any way. This is unacceptable for a Hitman game.
  
  
• Your score is not accessible at all during gameplay. If you get spotted, you often won't even notice, or be able to find out until the mission is over. The only way to check your score is to finish the mission. Even then, the scoreboard is minimalistic at best. Despite its' many other faults, Hitman Absolution (2012) did this exceptionally well.
  
  
• The preparation and equipment still pales in comparison to Blood Money (2006). There are no newspaper headlines either. What is new, is the ability to start at predetermined checkpoints (such as starting in the kitchen with a cook disguise), but only if you already completed the mission.
  
  
• Explosion kills of any kind all count as "accident kills". This makes it very easy to cheese, but it doesn't matter since there is no such thing as a "signature kill" or "accident kill" anymore. The score for genius environmental kills or just clicking on someone with a shotgun are the same. They give you more level points, but all that does is unlock new starting locations and starting disguises.
  
  
• There is no penalty for savescumming. The tooltips even encourage it.
  
  
• Some of the stealth mechanics are sloppy and too easy to cheese. There are no difficulty options to reduce their effectiveness.
  
  
• The story and characters aren't bad, but they won't blow your socks off. Let's just say they're interesting when acting naturally during gameplay, and boring in the cutscenes.
  
  
• Releasing the game in episodes may be convenient for the developer, but it certainly isn't for the consumer. They've shot themselves in the foot by failing to explain it properly as well. It is, however, the consumer's fault, for enabling this kind of behaviour with preorder culture, and it is lowering the quality of games in all genres. I won't go as far as calling it beta-testing for money, though, since they are well-designed and have a lot of attention to detail once actually released.
  
  
• Selling the first level is not the way to go, that's what a demo is for. The game is already expensive as is, and the high price for individual levels is terrible value for money. Additionally, if you buy individual levels and decide to buy the full game, you will be stuck paying for them again since it's a bundle. A big ♥♥♥♥ you to the consumer.
  
  
• If you liked the first season (7 levels for 40-60$), then you will love the next one. Be sure to drop 40-60$ for the next batch.

It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, don't get me wrong. The levels are great. Everything else about it, however, is sub-par. I loved the little things, but the big picture is a mess.

The potential is there, but they absolutely have to solve some of the issues I mentioned above. Just introduce difficulty options, fix the scoring system and wait for the price to drop. How hard is that? I won't even mention the sales strategy.

Until they address these points, I'll reluctantly say that Hitman: Absolution was more enjoyable, though I'm sure 90% of you will disagree with me. If you are looking for good a stealth game, I would recommend you get Hitman: Blood Money, MGS5: Phantom Pain or the Batman games. All of them bundled together are likely to cost around the same as this title alone.

I'm sure a narrow audience will enjoy this, but by that I mean fans of old Hitman games who are also willing to pay an unjustified amount of money. The levels are very well made, there is a ton of freedom and multiple ways to eliminate your targets and the audiovisuals do a good job, so I don't have any problem with those parts. The problem, however, is that the solid level design is expected to carry the game alone, while terrible decisions regarding other aspects weigh it down almost every step of the way. It feels like yet another skeleton of a great game that had the engine stripped down to work on consoles and then dumbed down for a "wider audience", hereby alienating both core Hitman fans and PC gamers. And here I thought these two were your primary demographic. Here are some bullet points off the top of my head: [list][*]Every time you boot up the game, there will be this unskippable message: "HITMAN WAS DESIGNED BY A MULTICULTURAL STUDIO WHERE STAFF IS OF VARIED ETHNIC BACKGROUNDS". You'll then learn that there are no difficulty options. Savescumming is completely unlimited, and even encouraged by tooltips. Everyone is a winner, let's all hold hands and sing cumbayah. Hey kids, [b]you[/b] can play Hitman too! Here are some tooltips that will make the game basically play itself. Scores? Everyone gets the same score! Accident kills or shotguns to the chest, same score! I think you see where this is going. [*]My biggest gripe is that there is no difficulty setting. You can disable psychic powers, seeing through walls, slowing down time and tooltips that hold your hand throughout the game, but this will not affect your score in any way. This is unacceptable for a Hitman game. [*]Your score is not accessible at all during gameplay. If you get spotted, you often won't even notice, or be able to find out until the mission is over. The only way to check your score is to finish the mission. Even then, the scoreboard is minimalistic at best. Despite its' many other faults, Hitman Absolution (2012) did this exceptionally well. [*]The preparation and equipment still pales in comparison to Blood Money (2006). There are no newspaper headlines either. What is new, is the ability to start at predetermined checkpoints (such as starting in the kitchen with a cook disguise), but only if you already completed the mission. [*]Explosion kills of any kind all count as "accident kills". This makes it very easy to cheese, but it doesn't matter since there is no such thing as a "signature kill" or "accident kill" anymore. The score for genius environmental kills or just clicking on someone with a shotgun are the same. They give you more level points, but all that does is unlock new starting locations and starting disguises. [*]There is no penalty for savescumming. The tooltips even encourage it. [*]Some of the stealth mechanics are sloppy and too easy to cheese. There are no difficulty options to reduce their effectiveness. [*]The story and characters aren't bad, but they won't blow your socks off. Let's just say they're interesting when acting naturally during gameplay, and boring in the cutscenes. [*]Releasing the game in episodes may be convenient for the developer, but it certainly isn't for the consumer. They've shot themselves in the foot by failing to explain it properly as well. It is, however, the consumer's fault, for enabling this kind of behaviour with preorder culture, and it is lowering the quality of games in all genres. I won't go as far as calling it beta-testing for money, though, since they are well-designed and have a lot of attention to detail once actually released. [*]Selling the first level is not the way to go, that's what a [b]demo[/b] is for. The game is already expensive as is, and the high price for individual levels is terrible value for money. Additionally, if you buy individual levels and decide to buy the full game, you will be stuck paying for them again since it's a bundle. A big fuck you to the consumer. [*]If you liked the first season (7 levels for 40-60$), then you will love the next one. Be sure to drop 40-60$ for the next batch.[/list] It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, don't get me wrong. The levels are great. Everything else about it, however, is sub-par. I loved the little things, but the big picture is a mess. The potential is there, but they absolutely have to solve some of the issues I mentioned above. Just introduce difficulty options, fix the scoring system and wait for the price to drop. How hard is that? I won't even mention the sales strategy. Until they address these points, I'll reluctantly say that Hitman: Absolution was more enjoyable, though I'm sure 90% of you will disagree with me. If you are looking for good a stealth game, I would recommend you get Hitman: Blood Money, MGS5: Phantom Pain or the Batman games. All of them bundled together are likely to cost around the same as this title alone.