Who the hell is completing Sapienza in ten minutes on a blind first try? Reducing all the content down to 30 minutes is absurd.
Well, actually is very easy if you follow the first opportunity you get in the church. Ok, maybe Sapienza isn't 10 minutes on your first try, but 30, anyway the amount of content is very small. An old Hitman level requires hours to be carefully planned and executed, here you can get SA by reloading saves in a bunch of minutes.
The 10 minute thing is an hyperbole, since I was referring to the fact
when you know what to do, you can complete each level blindl. The first time requires much time, because you never played it, but since you can reload a save, there's ZERO challenge. The only challenge here, a puzzle-like challenge, is figuring out challenges listed in the game and how execute them, but even here if you follow opportunities usually they clean up some challenges.
Compared to other Hitman, this one is a joke for me. In older Hitman (even in Absolution) even if you know the level exactly, executing what you need to do required skill and there was always a chance of something going wrong. Here there's isn't such opportunity: when you figure out the fast way to clean a mission, really it requires some minutes with zero risk.
Regarding the replay value, as I wrote IO here just made visible a thing present in ALL Hitman games, the possibility to kill your targets in several ways.
And they build an entire game around it, with unlocks, challenges and achievements. But if in the past you have ZERO hints on what to do, and since the game required also skill to be completed, replaying levels was fun because you could actually get very good by your own, because the game was like "here, this is your target, kill him" at least on Pro difficulty, in Hitman 2016 you can do very very well on your first try simply by following opportunities. And if you return on a level, at least for me, is just for unlocks and to see, out of curiosity, a couple of interesting challenges.
The big problem I think is the game is actually too guided for now. It's not bad, be carefull, I like it.
But there are a lot of issues, like Sapienza being very similar to Paris (big level, two targets etc).
I would appreciate a major variation, like several smaller leves instead of having just a big one each time. Older Hitman proposed both huge levels and very small one.
I know you can turn the hud off etc, but you can't turn off the saving system, and if I screw, why should I restart the level if by reloading a save I can keep on going without a penality? This means the game lacks an alternate difficulty selection too, in my opinion, a Professional option would be appreciated, maybe with a couple of mandatory save in the middle of a mission like it happened for Hitman 2 in big levels.
This is the same kind of bullshit MGSV was accused of last year and has been a consistent argument for people who want us to regress to what games were a decade ago whenever they talk about a game that has decided to go for an open world design.
I liked MGSV a lot, and I think the "problem" is similar but different. Because yeah, in MGSV you can clean each mission in a different way, but...why should I play the mission again if I S ranked it? Often to S rank it you need to go with no kills, no alert and a very good time, so by taking S you got the best you could.
In Hitman is similar, but different: if in MGSV the replay value was an option, in Hitman is the rule, since the whole gameplay involve doing the same mission again and again, to unlock gadgets and achievements. A thing present in all Hitman, but again totally optional. Instead in 2016 the whole game is focused on this.
But this is just my opinion, I don't want force anyone to think like me. I'm just disappointed on how the game is turning on for now. The decision to have only six map (with a season 2 already planned) is horrible for me.
