There is a long running heated debate at digital crack about the latest entry in the hitman franchise. I’m sort of the apologist for agent 47 while my other podcast colleagues have made it clear they’re not big fans of the episodic structure that Square Enix has decided for this game. I’m more open to it but I have my doubts as well. I’m not totally against episodic gaming as a matter of fact I really enjoyed all the telltale games, but I did play those games when all the episodes were released so I was able to get a satisfying conclusion to all those games. Truth be told that possibly the best way to play that style of game wait for all episodes to be released and just purchase the bundle and play through all episodes on a weekend. I’m a huge fan of the stealth genre my favorite franchise to date is metal gear solid so the hitman franchise is right up my alley. The Beta is set in a Secret ICA training facility the prologue features your introduction to your future handler Diana Burnwood and features 2 free from training missions.
Here you become familiar with agent 47 mechanics The prologue missions can be beaten rather quickly, but you can go back and replay the training missions and eliminate your target in a number of different ways. Doing so will complete some of the challenges that the prologue offers. During my time i was able to complete a few challenges like eliminating your target by drowning him in a toilet or finding the rat poison and pouring it in his drink. Staying true to the hitman series there are a number of different ways to eliminate your target so it will be fun to go back and discover the number of possibilities. I spent over 2 hours with the beta and I came away impressed.
The visuals looked great (Agent 47 bald head never looked so good) the gameplay and mechanics are solid and the AI seem to be responsive to all my actions. I’m still on the fence on whether I will wait to experience the complete game or just purchase individual episodes and play it as they are released. It will be interesting to see if this method will be successful for the hitman franchise. If you do decide to pull the trigger you can enter the world of assassinations on march 11, 2016.
