The general wants a drink; vodka, to be precise. He is Russian, after all, and so he's requested a soldier to deliver it upstairs to his room so that he and his guest can swig it together.
The soldier in question never makes it upstairs, but I'm more than happy to take his place. I steal his uniform and his gun and nonchalantly make my way upstairs past the armed guards that just minutes before halted my progress. From there it's simply a matter of patience. I enter the room while it's empty, taking the opportunity to pour two glasses of vodka. Then I add some rat poison to give it an extra kick before making my way to the bathroom.
As I hide inside a storage container in the little boy's room, I use my all-telling instincts to see the results of my mischief. My target, outlined in red, enters the room next to me. He's a master chess player, one who has defected to the Soviet Union and must be silenced as a result. He doesn't know that it's already checkmate when he raises the glass to his lips.
It's only a moment later and both the general and his new comrade are sprinting toward the bathroom in a fit of sickness. Entering first is the chess player, his drink coming back up in reverse. The general comes next and waits his turn, but neither notices when I crawl out of my crate.
Soon the general's neck is snapped, leaving only the vomiting traitor left. Just as he stands up, seemingly recovered from his fit of illness, I shove his head back down into the toilet, drowning him. I dump their bodies in the storage crate and casually make my way to the nearest exit. Mission accomplished. My training is complete.
But that's just one way the entire scenario could have played out. I could have enabled the ejector seat in the chess player's get-away jet during his safety test. I could have lured the man into a secluded radio room. I could have poisoned one of his chess pieces. Or I could have simply forced my way into his room and shot him dead.
That's the beauty of Hitman, and if you've ever played previous entries in the franchise, the above scenario will likely sound familiar. IO Interactive's latest installment in the franchise, simply titled Hitman, is assassination in its purest form, an open-environment sandbox that rewards careful planning, improvisation and creativity.
It's an in-plain-sight stealth title, as you steal uniforms and adopt disguises to gain access to new areas of each level and get closer to your target. There is some shooting and a basic melee system, but more often than not you'll be snapping necks, throwing blunt objects or poisoning your foes rather than executing them with a gun.
You'll be leaning on Agent 47's "instincts" ability often to navigate each environment, as it allows you to detect NPC's through walls and gives you a general idea of where to find your targets. It may seems like a crutch to some, to have so much information at your fingertips with the press of a button. However, given the sheer size of the environments and the huge number of NPCs in them, having the ability to see through walls puts less emphasis on memorizing guard walk patterns and speeds up the moment-to-moment gameplay exponentially.
Before we go any further, allow me to elaborate on Hitman's episodic release plan. Hitman, as it is now, is a digital-first title that is being released in parts. For $15, players gain access to the Intro Pack, which contains the game's prologue and Paris locations. That's all there is for now, but new locations will be added periodically over the year at $10 each. Players can buy the entire experience for $60, or upgrade from the Intro Pack for $50. A disc version that will include all of the game's areas is scheduled for a January 2017 release.
The prologue (which is essentially basic Hitman training) and one additional location doesn't sound like much to start with, but IO has crafted a near endlessly replayable experience that goes on long after you've completed each story mission for the first time.
Indeed, playing each level once is barely scratching the surface of what Hitman has to offer. Pulling off the perfect hit is more than a little challenging, and as such requires players to have an intimate understanding of each environment. The game's Paris location in particular is massive; a four-story palace with the accompanying grounds outside. You could easily spend two hours simply walking around and learning all of the level's secrets.
As you explore each story mission, "opportunities" will present themselves which can make staging a cinematic hit much more manageable. You may eavesdrop on a conversation about a character requesting a drink, for instance, or maybe you learn shutting down a certain computer will lure out your target. Hitman points you in the right direction as long as you keep your eyes open, and the rest is up to you. Still, given the number of opportunities in each level, it's unlikely you'll even learn about all of them in your first playthrough.
As such, the first time in an environment is an exercise in trial-and-error. You'll learn guard positions, identify easy places to snag necessary disguises and track down handy items to aid you in your hit.
You'll eventually assassinate your target in the least cool way possible, but that's OK. More than a few of my early missions ended with a silenced pistol shot to my target's head from across the room. Hardly stylish, but it gets the job done.
All of the game's story missions feel like training for the real game to come. While in a story mission, the game frequently auto-saves and allows for manual saves as well. That way when you walk into a restricted area and are caught or make a wrong move, it's simple to roll back the clock a few minutes and try again.
That's not the case in the featured, escalation and elusive contracts. This is where all your skills come into play, as one wrong step and you'll be restarting the mission. Escalation contracts have players pulling off a five-stage hit, with the difficulty ramping up each time another target is eliminated. Elusive contracts are even more intimidating, as you only get one try. Mess up, and that target is gone forever. Players can even create and upload their own contracts for other gamers to enjoy. And then, there is the option of playing each story mission again and trying out a different method of attack. There is way more than $15 worth of entertainment here, if you enjoy the gameplay that Hitman has to offer.
All in all, Hitman delivers on its sales pitch. Though there are some framerate problems in the Paris location (no doubt thanks to the hundreds upon hundreds of NPCs), the game looks beautiful and plays well. If there is one major issue with Hitman, it's the game's so far wildly inconsistent servers. More than a few times while in the middle of a mission I found myself disconnected and booted back to the main menu. It's not too much of an issue while playing a story mission thanks to auto-saves, but if you're disconnected during an escalation contract you're out of luck. Why does a single-player game need to be always-online? The reason isn't entirely clear, and so far it's the only flaw that might be a deal-breaker for some.
Also worth noting is that if you're here for a story, there isn't much of one. The prologue begins with Agent 47 beginning his career as an assassin and then moving on from there. It's hard to say what the story will look like as a complete package, but for now it's simply a backdrop for Hitman's sandbox. But what a great sandbox it is, and soon it will get much, much bigger.
This review is based off a PlayStation 4 copy of Hitman provided by Square-Enix.
