Enter a world of sandbox assassination with Hitman 2016, the series' first "season" release. Taking an episodic approach, in the same format as the TellTale games, the first of the season's six episodes launched in March 2016, while the final mission came in October of the same year. This is a first for Io-Interactive, who've always launched their Hitman series in full for each of the five prior releases, and thanks to a warm reception a second season has already been confirmed.
If you've never played a Hitman game before, have no fear, as Hitman 2016 is the perfect place for you to start. During the prologue, the game gives a decent backstory for Agent 47 which details his initiation into the ICA, and finally gives a face to the infamous Diana from Agency that all of us long-term fans have come to adore. It's revealed that Diana is actually the one who sought for Agent 47 to be hired into the ICA, amidst a barrage of skepticism due to his excessively cold, calculated nature, which leads others to believe that he wouldn't be able to be controlled if he went against them. After a couple of training missions, the title then jumps ahead 20 years, into Agent 47's current assignments. Even though Hitman 2016 does lack in overall story, it makes up for it with a gratuitous amount of content that will take gamers dozens of hours to complete.
So by now you're well aware that there are six main missions to the game, along with a prologue and bonus episode; these aspects are just the tip of the iceberg that is the mountainous glacier of content available within Hitman 2016. You're free to play the episodes in any order that you like, although you will mix up the story cutscenes in doing so; still, that freedom is yours. Freedom is what this entire game is about, given that it's a semi-sandbox assassination title, and the title aims to help subtly lead you on your way through hundreds of challenges, dozens of feats, multiple hidden objectives, and a megaton of Escalation missions. Unlike the older Hitman releases, this episodic adventure does point out nearly all of the different ways that you can take out a target, and even challenges you to dispatch them in every manner possible.
Each episode has its own set of challenges and feats, and while there are the well known classic challenges such as Silent Assassin and Suit Only, a plethora more await; kill both targets with the fiber wire, take out a target with a headshot, poison the target, drown or electrocute them, murdering targets during certain events, etc. There are literally hundreds of these throughout the game, and while some are much harder than others, there are challenges that are both unique to each mission, and ones that stay the same. Completing these challenges and feats earns you experience points, which helps boost you to a max level of 20 for each episode. Leveling up unlocks new items and different areas that you can start your mission at during the planning phase, where you can also choose Agent 47's loadout; which suit he will wear, what weapon he takes, and two extra items such as the coin and fiber wire.
There are also multiple Escalation Missions for each episode, which are specialty missions where you will take out one or more targets while wearing a specific disguise, and kill them in a specific way. Each Escalation Mission usually has five levels of intensity, with each new level adding another stipulation; for example, more security cameras, only being able to wear a disguise once for x amount of seconds, having to keep your pistol out, taking out the targets with x amount of time of each other, and hiding all bodies. These bonus missions are both fun and addictive, yet extremely challenging even to the most skilled Hitman player. Completing a full Escalation Mission will also earn you experience points and additional unlocks.
A lot of people have reported experiencing bad optimization with this title, however I have experienced neither crash nor low framerates, you can view my specs in my profile. With all settings maxed out at 1080p resolution, and running in DirectX 12, I saw a maximum framerate of 144, and a minimum of 62, even while in densely crowded areas; the same results were given when running the game under DirectX 11, so both modes are par for the course. However, if your PC does not have ample cooling then you may run into some difficulty with complications caused by overheating, as Hitman 2016 made my rig fire up like a jet engine even with its six case fans and AIO closed loop cooling system. This game is not poorly optimized by any means, it just requires top-end hardware if you want to reap the benefits of its graphics.
Io-Interactive surely have made good on their promise; Hitman 2016 truly is a living world, overflowing with NPCs, episode exclusive events, one-time only elusive targets, hundreds of challenges, exciting Escalation Missions, and hours upon hours of content that will keep you busy until season two. The only thing holding this game back a little is a cumbersum control layout both on controller and KB+M, but it can be forgiven since once you get used to it, it's not that bad. This is the ultimate release for all fans of the Hitman franchise, and for those who enjoy a deeply immersive stealth experience that's both easy to pick up and play, and challenging.
Rating: 5.0/5.0 - An astonishing achievement, this game must be played.Enjoyed this review? Join my Steam Group!http://steamcommunity.com/groups/bhhreviews