Game Review: Hitman – Episode 1: Paris

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. About the Game
3. History
4. Audio/Soundtrack
5. Interface / Graphics
6. Gameplay
7. Difficulty
8. Game Modes
9. Cost X benefit
10. Replayability/Game Duration
11. Conclusion

It's time to tour the facilities of the International Contract Agency (ICA), participate in the training of the most silent killer in the gaming world and witness the resurgence and entry of the Agent 47 at ICA. As well as getting to know the fashion world and maybe even having your 15 seconds of fame by walking on the Sanguine catwalk in Paris. Welcome to the world of Hitman assassinations.

Introduction

Hitman is a successful franchise made up of games, movies and books. The first game in the franchise was released in 2000 by developer IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive for PC. Hitman: Codenome 47 was a stealth action game that could only be played in single-player mode.

The first film came only 7 years later, Hitman: Assassino 47, was a French feature directed by Xavier Gens, and had Skip Woods as a screenwriter. The cast included actress Olga Kurylenko (007 Quantum of Solace, Oblivion, Promises of War), Timothy Olyphant (Die Hard 4.0, I'm Number Four) and Mission: Impossible 2 and Hemlock Grove actor Dougray Scott .

The first book was also published in 2007, Hitman: Enemy Within written by William C. Dietz, whose plot is situated between Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman Contracts and Hitman Blood Money. The synopsis is basically and in a nutshell: agent 47 being targeted. Volume 2 of the series, Hitman: Dammation, was only released in 2012 and was written by Raymond Benson. You can't find volume 1 in Spain, but you can find volume 2, Hitman: The Condemnation, published by Leya in 2013.

About the Game

Hitman (2016), was developed, like its predecessors, by IO Interactive. The publication was the responsibility of Square Enix. Unlike all other games in the franchise this Hitman is being released episodic. will be 7 episodes in total, and all will be published this year of 2016.

The game is all single-player, you can play the main quest offline, but to play the contracts you need an internet connection. You will be able to play Hitman on PC, Playstation 4 ou Xbox One. Remembering that whoever plays on PS4 will have exclusive access to “The Sarajevo Six”, which consists of 6 bonus contracts.

First, the launch beta, with three missions, which serves as the game's prologue. After this introduction we have the Episode 1: Paris, which was released on Friday the 11th of this month, the next episodes will be: in Italy (Sapienza) in April and in Morocco in May. The other known locations are: Thailand, USA and Japan. Check out a preview of what episode 2 will look like below:

If you haven't played the beta, don't panic as it comes with the first episode of Hitman.

History

It begins "20 Years Ago" (from Hitman: Absoludion) with a man supposedly with no past and no memory arriving at the training facility of the ICA (International Contract Agency). It is at that moment that he knows Diana Burnwood who will be your contact agent.

Its first mission is a simulation of one already carried out in Sydney, in Australia. The target at the time was Kalvin Ritter, also known as the Sparrow. Kalvin is an excellent thief who specializes in rare and, of course, great value arts. The mission takes place on Sparrow's private yacht during a social gathering. The “original” agent managed to infiltrate this meeting and eliminate the target discreetly, without any guests noticing. The mission of the ICA agent-in-training is exactly to repeat this feat.

The final proof is based on a mission that took place in 1979. At that time, the then agent Erich Soders masterfully eliminated the target, Jasper Knight, a famous American chess player, who assassinated the US Soviet ambassador and was exposed as a KGB spy. Soders infiltrated a military airport in Cuba, which was almost a fortress, and even then it was successful in eliminating Knight. Of course, your exam is a little more difficult, given that the current Director of Training, Soders, considers you a threat and has placed a few extra guards so you fail your exam.

 – Our team did not find any records. No name. Anything.

 – I think they call me “47”.

 – That… is not a name.

 – Then invent one.

 - It's ok. Agent 47.

As the agent has passed the test and is the deadliest professional assassin on the planet, you will land in Paris, in a super event, the Sanguine Fall Fashion Show, which shows all the glamor of the fashion world and also how lethal it can be.

In this mission you will have two targets: the owner of Sanguine, Viktor Novikov and the retired model, Dalia Margolis, who are considered by the ICA “two of the most dangerous people in the world”. According to the agency, the two are actually the leaders of the IAGO, a spy ring that trades the most valuable secrets of the global elite. This evil couple intends to sell a list of the names of English secret agents at an auction during the Sanguine parade. And of course, for that reason, they must be stopped by the most silent and lethal professional assassin in the gaming world.

Contrary to what one might imagine at first glance, Hitman (2016) is not a reboot of the series and the events of the main game take place after the events of Hitman: Absolution.

Audio/Soundtrack

Audio adds to the tension after the targets have been eliminated. In Paris, it's certainly good during the show, but other than that there's nothing exceptional and as for the soundtrack, it's not as memorable as that of Hitman: Blood Money with Franz Schubert's Ave Maria.

Opening parenthesis, the Blood Money soundtrack, created by Jesper Kyd, was nominated for best game score at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, but did not win. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion soundtrack by Jeremy Soule was the winner.

Interface / Graphics

The graphics are good, but maybe a little short of what I was expecting. Below you can see some screenshots.

Gameplay

The degree of difficulty of Beta (ICA Facility) is clearly smaller than the Chapter 1 mission: Paris.

The prologue has three missions: guided training, free training and final test. Guided and free training are the setting for a simulated mission that has already taken place in Australia, as mentioned above.

Your first contact with the game, in guided training, is, as the name suggests, training, “a guided mission”, so that you become familiar with the game, with the controls, with the classic disguises and hiding bodies, in addition to showing you how to eliminate your target. .

No free workout, you learn that in Hitman there are several ways to kill a target and that chance is given to you, so you repeat the guided training mission unaided and eliminate the target in another way. Here some challenges already appear as, for example, assassinating the target with remote explosives, drowning him or in the classic way, strangling him. 

Finally, the Final Test. In this last stage of the prologue, the map is slightly larger than the training mission yacht and is a simulation of a mission that took place in 1979, which is, by the way, a milestone between intelligence operations. In the test, you must murder Jasper Knight. As you move around the map, you will likely find “opportunities” that will help you achieve your goal. For example, early on you will hear two technicians talking, an icon will appear on the screen warning you about the opportunity and then you will be asked if you want to follow it. This opportunity will help you sabotage Knight's ejection seat, and well… he'll move on from this one to a better one.

The scenario of Episode 1: Paris It's a little bigger, but it doesn't offer great difficulties. Unlike missions in ICA, here you will have to eliminate two targets: Viktor Novikov e  Dalia Margolis. To help you eliminate the couple, several opportunities will appear on the screen. In Paris, don't forget to complete the challenges, as once completed, they'll give you XP so your domain level in the game increase.

When you increase your mastery level, you unlock some benefits, such as starting the game in other places: disguised at the auction, disguised as a stylist or starting in the attic, among others. It also unlocks items such as weapons, poisons and locations to smuggle an item. Once the game starts in Paris you can only plan your mission by hiding an item under the stairs that Viktor descends. Improving your domain you can, for example, leave a rifle hidden in the shed near the “Barcaça” which is one of the highest points on the map, where you can have a great view of some targets.

Difficulty

The game is playable by anyone, even those who have never played a single Hitman level. In the prologue he can familiarize himself with the controls and methods of assassinations, the opportunities and the challenges.

In Episode 1: Paris, despite being two targets in a large location, with many witnesses and heavily secured, the player will also not find it difficult to eliminate the couple.

The difficulty of the game is just to be able to complete all the proposed challenges or to improve your own strategy to assassinate your targets more and more creatively. With some time exploring the map you can see which disguises give you access to which locations, helping you to move around the scenario in order to kill targets in the best way. For example, the palace employee disguise gives you access to the entire ground floor and also makes you walk around the outside area without arousing suspicion, which you wouldn't have if you were still in your formal attire. But the palace official does not roam freely on the second floor.

The pre-game planning part also helps you assassinate targets faster, as it gives you the opportunity to start the game in a certain area and smuggle in some useful item for your mission.

Game Modes

History

you have the classic story mode starting with training Agent 47 at the ICA (ICA Facilities) and then moving on to Episode 1: Paris. Remembering that new destinations will be added, those already confirmed are: Italy (Sapienza), Morocco, Thailand, USA and Japan

Contracts

If you're tired of assassinating Dalia and Viktor in a variety of ways, you can start accepting some contracts and eliminating different targets. Contracts are created by other players and vary in requirements such as targets, number of targets, mandatory disguises or not, and which weapon must be used for each assassination.

You can also create contracts. In a way, these contracts are a way of challenging other players regarding their homicidal talent, because for you to create a contract you need to play, mark the target and eliminate it. So, it's like a challenge for the other players to accomplish the feat you initially achieved.

Unfortunately, there is no way to see contacts created by your friends, or any way to filter them by target number or difficulty, for example. Succeeding in a contract mission also does not yield Mastery XP and there is no planning part of contract missions.

Escalation and Elusive Target Contracts

The game also features “Elusive” and “Elusive Targets” missions.

Escalations serve to challenge your local knowledge and force you to explore the map, going to places you haven't been. Each Escalation mission has 5 difficulty levels. These contracts were not present in any previous version of Hitman and serve to offer players new challenges.

Escalations do not auto-save, cannot be manually saved, and unfortunately do not generate Mastery XP. In the aggravation contracts, the already known “opportunities” do not appear, which serve as a clue to discover a way to assassinate their targets.

As of this writing, we have three escalation missions: A Rise of Snorrason, where you must murder Cilas Netzke, disguised as a Soviet soldier and using a pistol. (I went back in time now… it was Mr. Black, with the candlestick, in the music room.); Or Mandelbulb's Requiem where you must disguise yourself as a palace official and eliminate Michael Charest, a CICADA security guard, using any weapon for this purpose. And the third aggravation available and the most interesting: The Holmwood Trouble where you should eliminate a CICADA security named Faustin D'Aoust, using a firearm and dressed in magical vampire. To find out how to get the Vampire Magic Costume click here.

At the moment, we don't have any elusive targets. Elusive targets are only available for a limited time.

Cost X benefit

having the Steam as a base, the game's initial pack costs 32,99 reais at launch. There are 3 missions from the beta and one more from Episode 1, in addition to the contracts that are basically infinite, the escalation missions and the elusive targets. That's a lot of material to explore at the standard launch price. The complete package (Full Experience) costs R$ 129,99. 

For those waiting for the game's physical media, the wait will be long. The disc arrives only in January 2017.

Replayability/Game Duration

The duration of the game depends a lot on how each one plays. Eliminating a target doesn't take long, if you don't have much practice maybe an hour, if you're a veteran or have been familiar with the map a lot less. The thing about Hitman is that you have multiple ways to assassinate targets and the game makes you want to kill every hour in a different way. Therefore, you will spend well over an hour taking out your targets several times and in different ways. In addition, you have contracts created by other users and there are dozens of contracts that, in turn, are also replayable. And then there are the Elusive Escalations and Targets. In short: replayability is to infinity and beyond.

I've spent 14 hours on Hitman and I'm still discovering new ways to achieve my goals and I recently discovered what lightning is the magic vampire costume disguise. Click here to know about the Vampire Magic Disguise. 

Conclusion

Hitman fan? Yes. Play it.

Not a fan? Play too.

As Hitman is a stealth action game, you have to be patient and wait for the best moment to attack. Even so, it is indicated even for the most impatient, as it conquers the player for the creativity and variety of ways available to eliminate their targets.

Maybe I see possibilities where others see limitations. Isn't that what a support agent does, sir?