Remembrance
Member
Got to leave room for better sniper rifle unlocks down the road.
I guess the timing is right, since Sapienza's sniper vantage points are mostly sufficiently deserted so that no one can hear your shots.
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HITMAN |OT| Blood Monthly
- Thread starter VE3TRO
- Start date
Got to leave room for better sniper rifle unlocks down the road.
I guess the timing is right, since Sapienza's sniper vantage points are mostly sufficiently deserted so that no one can hear your shots.
fiction226
Member
^^^^. If they let you unlock all the best stuff too early everyone will be complaining about how the unlocks suck in episodes 3-7 and nothing to look forward to -- not too mention making the game too easy.
One of downsides of episodic is we forget we are only at 20-30% point of the full game (maybe 5-10% if they do multiple seasons!) and it is standard protocol in just about every game to have the most desirable unlocks carefully spaced out, with the very best OP items closer to the end of the game than its beginning.
So it feels like a bunch of stuff is forgotten, or missing, or just plane lame when in reality likely EVERYTHING we want will be in the game by its completion. Could be dead wrong on this but what I have seen so far pretty confident all the big stuff on peoples' wish lists will eventually show up in the game.
Demoskinos
Member
Anyone get a survey in your email about the Elusive target? I filled it out. Always want to give feedback on this thing when I can. Its turning out to be one of the best games of the year.
Hank Scorpio
Member
Yeah, agreed.
Btw, is there any 'hours played' stats included in the menus?
Can't see any.
keltickennedy
Member
Yeah. I think its great too. Especially now with the Elusive missions... Having those missions never show you the location, just giving you hints during the briefing. Players who have played the hell out of the levels right away have a good idea of the specific locations to start looking for the target.
I don't know where it is ingame. Steam shows that I have put 36 hours in so far. Man, with only two levels out so far....I can't wait for the rest of the year.
FrontalMonk
Banned
I have some mixed feelings on the game, honestly. I love the actual game itself, the levels, the opportunities, the targets...but god DAMN if they can't get out of their own way with respect to bugs, performance, patches to fix performance introducing new bugs, and all the way being rather sporadic with communication. Some AAA games/devs we expect timelines of a day or two max to get a patch out that addresses concerns...with IOI we're lucky to get a patch addressing problems two weeks out. The load time is finally at a place that is almost acceptable on PS4, and the server issues are finally stabilized, but then there's the non-target kill bug when you choke a guy out.
Like...it could be SO good if they could just get on top of squishing the problems out. I'm kind of afraid to see what kind of new nonsense crops up after they kill the non-target kill bug, or whenever they patch in new conditions for contracts, or whatever else is coming down the pipe. I find myself getting more anxious than excited for a new release.
Like...it could be SO good if they could just get on top of squishing the problems out. I'm kind of afraid to see what kind of new nonsense crops up after they kill the non-target kill bug, or whenever they patch in new conditions for contracts, or whatever else is coming down the pipe. I find myself getting more anxious than excited for a new release.
I still have all the bugs I described in my posts, plus I noticed no matter what, I can pass in front of a camera and I NEVER get a notification about the camera catching me, no matter what. But of course in the end stats is stated that camera caught 47.
This game is really early access, no matter what IO says. It's episodic, but it's even EA because it's very unpolished, full of bugs, as you wrote each patch broke something while fixing something else...this is not what they stated when the game should be released.
I bought the game because I simply loved all Hitman, I couldn't wait and I wanted to support IO. But for now, I'm not happy with my purchase. This, plus the fact in the end we'll have only 6 main missions and that's it.
It's ok providing contracts, elusive targets etc, contracts were in Absolution too and they were a good feature to increase the game lenght, but here the core of the game is doing challenges and whatever. If you do the main mission only, you can beat the whole game (and if other episodes will be indicative, let's say each episode is 10 minutes) in less than two hours, for 60. Yeah, you can do challenges etc. playing for 10X that time, but honestly I dropped the challenges after I cleaned up Paris, for me it's just too boring going on a virtual checklist to be rewarded with nothing. I reach level 20, see all opportunities and moving on.
The game should provive at least 12 main missions, PLUS challenges, cotnracts, elusive etc.
The justification IO stated for releasing an online only product is not enough for me, you can just create a fully single-player experience and going online only to do elusive targets, if you really want. But they want full control over their game, probably to gather data or whatever, and there are still disconnection issues.
fiction226
Member
Bugs or at least not fixing them quickly is inexcusable. And PC users seem to have it worse off than console so far in this department. This is a valid gripe.
As far as episodic complaints I feel they are being compounded by people who plunked down $60 from the start vs buying the individual episodes. I've spent $25 on the game so far and even with its issues it has been more than worth it. But if I paid $60 for it I would definitely be more negative. How could you not be?
Now the difference in buying episodes vs full game I think is $5 which for me wasn't enough savings to tie up $60 up front on a game I may not even like but for others I guess it was or they wanted to support developer. For whatever reason I wish there was no up front option especially for so little savings as I really feel it makes things worse for those experiencing problems.
As far as episodic complaints I feel they are being compounded by people who plunked down $60 from the start vs buying the individual episodes. I've spent $25 on the game so far and even with its issues it has been more than worth it. But if I paid $60 for it I would definitely be more negative. How could you not be?
Now the difference in buying episodes vs full game I think is $5 which for me wasn't enough savings to tie up $60 up front on a game I may not even like but for others I guess it was or they wanted to support developer. For whatever reason I wish there was no up front option especially for so little savings as I really feel it makes things worse for those experiencing problems.
Remembrance
Member
That happened with the patch a while ago that added completion counters. I think the reason would be that the game did not actually track escalation completion before - only what level you had reached.
Except you would think they could get that information from your challenges completion...
fiction226
Member
Kotti's latest trick kill... the man is a mad genius born to play this game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNG6Ex7a2EI&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNG6Ex7a2EI&feature=youtu.be
You have to imagine it's coming. There's no reason to give it to you right off the bat.
That's incredible. Game has so much freedom.
balls to that. I'm not going back and doing it again.
SlackAdjuster
Member
You only have to replay the 5th level.
That Kotti dude is amazing.
That Kotti dude is amazing.
Remembrance
Member
That got me to watch TheKotti's AGDQ speedrun of Blood Money. It is unbelievable how exploitable that game was, and how many of those behavior quirks now work completely in this game.
Anyone notice that you can use left trigger (when nothing is equipped) to eavesdrop on conversations more clearly?
Also, I have once again hit the bug where you get compromised just by killing someone while unseen. In fact, I start to get the "suspicious" noise while dragging the body around - it's like the corpse is somehow still able to get suspicious.
I've reached the point where I turn opportunities and challenges back on to mop up the ones I can't figure out. There should really be some always-displayed challenges - like, what's the point of hiding the alligator challenge?
Anyone notice that you can use left trigger (when nothing is equipped) to eavesdrop on conversations more clearly?
Also, I have once again hit the bug where you get compromised just by killing someone while unseen. In fact, I start to get the "suspicious" noise while dragging the body around - it's like the corpse is somehow still able to get suspicious.
I've reached the point where I turn opportunities and challenges back on to mop up the ones I can't figure out. There should really be some always-displayed challenges - like, what's the point of hiding the alligator challenge?
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Oh good its not just me. On one of my attempts to do the Helmut escalation in Paris I knocked out a guard but got marked as compromised and I think he continued to spout lines like "hey! what are you doing!" as I dumped him in a box
Fluffhead14
Member
no word on a release date for the next ep?
ClosingADoor
Member
Yes, the intro pack is only Paris and the tutorial level.
The others will need to be bought separately. Sapienza is out already. Marrakesh is probably following in a month or so.
Baldwin_the_First
Member
How do you figure that? Marrakesh should be out at the end of May if it doesn't get delayed.
ClosingADoor
Member
Took them 6 weeks to get Sapienza out, so more then a month. Did they actually name May for the new episode before? Can't really remember.
Kwansu Dudes
Member
IIRC, the original marketing was that a new level would come out each month until around summer. Then they recently added, "subject to change"
Baldwin_the_First
Member
March: Paris
April: Sapienza
May: Marrakesh
They did say they were gonna release one per month for those 3 maps. Then they tweeted that it could possibly be subject to change. But as of now, nothing was officially said that it was delayed, so it could still release at the end of the month.
I mean it is always like this with episodic releases.
Look at TT games, look at Dotnod with LiS etc. They all started out with the promise of 1 episode per month and couldn't keep it up.
Basically the only game that was released this way that actually had every episode come out on time that I can remember was Resident Evil Revelations 2. That is because they had completed the whole game before though and then just chopped it up into episodes IIRC.
keltickennedy
Member
I'm not holding my breath for a May release. Though it would be great. Glad I got the intro pack and buy each level.
Fluffhead14
Member
no chance. it's already the 17th.
D
Deleted member 80556
Unconfirmed Member
Great review! I feel like it's pretty accurate. If you are just a bit interested in the game, purchase the intro pack, try also Sapienza if you're still not so sure, and if you like it, get the whole pack.
FrontalMonk
Banned
Yeah, I know they don't want to show their whole hand, but the fact that we haven't seen even a sliver of video about Thailand/Japan/USA makes me nervous and makes me think we're going to see a Hiatus from IOI.
I'm fine with a hiatus. Sapienza still needs a lot of content and Paris could use a few new things like night missions and stuff. If they want to spend 3-4 months fleshing out the first 3 stages before moving onto the next 3, I don't have a problem with it. Maybe they can even optimize them on PC (yeah right, who am I kidding).
fiction226
Member
I just finished last available escalation (kotti) today and don't mind the break until the next ET or escalations drop. But definitely looking forward to the trailer for next episode. The one for Sapienza got me hella hyped.
Remembrance
Member
Mopped up the remaining achievements tonight. Finally figured out Unleash the Kraken - I feel like I'm missing an in-joke somewhere.
And I just had it pointed out to me that "Mario" and "Luigi"'s last name means "jumper" in Italian. This game.
Edit: Oh, it's a Pirates of the Caribbean reference.
And I just had it pointed out to me that "Mario" and "Luigi"'s last name means "jumper" in Italian. This game.
Edit: Oh, it's a Pirates of the Caribbean reference.
Remembrance
Member
Okay, looks like Marrakesh will be shown at E3. So that lines up with a June release.
In the meantime I'll look forward to whatever elusive targets are in the pipeline (plus hopefully the night version of Sapienza).
SlackAdjuster
Member
Damn, I just finished ALL challenges on all levels. I was hoping for some new stuff soon.
The Elusives are cool and all but that only consumes, what, 10-20 minutes at best and then it's done.
The Elusives are cool and all but that only consumes, what, 10-20 minutes at best and then it's done.
Haloid1177
Banned
Is PC performance fixed? I bought the game when it was $15 for the full package on Amazon but never bothered installing. After Doom I'm gonna need something to play.
Intheflorsh
Banned
Yeah, the monthly release schedule was clearly never going to happen. Have you seen Sapienza? You can't bang a map out like that in a short amount of time.
We know Marrakesh has been far in development since it was shown off in trailers and was originally supposed to be one of the three launch levels.
After that we haven't seen much and know little.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
The way they have marketed and developed this game is gonna make a very interesting post-modertm.
"Its not DLC, its episodic. We're just trying something, we know its all very confusing and probably costing us a bunch of sales, but you gotta try, right? December 2015, 3 maps at launch, more to come!"
"Actually, March 2016, so we have more polished content ready to go, still 3 maps tho, more coming every month!"
"Actually, you know what? Its just gonna be like, one map and a tutorial, ya know? But we'll keep that monthly content coming"
"Tune in for E3 in June to see the new map coming eventually!"
"Its not DLC, its episodic. We're just trying something, we know its all very confusing and probably costing us a bunch of sales, but you gotta try, right? December 2015, 3 maps at launch, more to come!"
"Actually, March 2016, so we have more polished content ready to go, still 3 maps tho, more coming every month!"
"Actually, you know what? Its just gonna be like, one map and a tutorial, ya know? But we'll keep that monthly content coming"
"Tune in for E3 in June to see the new map coming eventually!"
Well, honestly there were 3 maps at launch, the fact is two of them were tutorial related, that's the problem.
I think it's the weakest Hitman so far, and this comes from a fan of the franchise who bought the new game because he couldn't wait for a price drop.
For now:
-the story is weak. Not that the plot is very important in Hitman games, but here what happens in cutscenes have no relationship with what you play
-very easy maps, they can all be completed in less than 10 minutes each, so if you play them just once, skipping challenges and achievements, you have 30 minutes of content so far (I'm excluding all contracts etc based on the fact you need to play the same level 300 times with variables).
-buggy and unoptimized, each patch broke something, and plus IO is VERY slow to provide fixes. I still have all bugs I described in my posts, and that's a shame.
-online only "feature" which is basically a DRM, adding NOTHING at all to the gameplay: you can have contracts etc without needing to force network elements. If they really want, they could relate the online usage for elusive only, since that is the "true vision" behind a world of assassination.
Who the hell is completing Sapienza in ten minutes on a blind first try? Reducing all the content down to 30 minutes is absurd.