Hitman (2016 video game)

Hitman
Developer(s) IO Interactive
Publisher(s) Square Enix
Director(s) Christian Elverdam
Writer(s) Michael Vogt
Composer(s) Niels Bye Nielsen
Series Hitman
Engine Glacier 2
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Action-adventure, stealth
Mode(s) Single-player

Hitman is an episodic action-adventure stealth video game developed by IO Interactive and published by Square Enix for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It is the sixth entry in the Hitman series. While the game's prologue acts as a prequel to the series, the main game takes place 7 years after the events of Hitman: Absolution.[8]

HITMAN: The Complete First Season will be released on 31 January 2017 with all episodes included.[9] Previously released Elusive Targets that players have missed will not be making a return.

Gameplay

Hitman is a third-person stealth video game in which players take control of Agent 47, a genetically enhanced assassin, travelling to international locations and eliminating contracted targets. As in other games in the Hitman series, players are given a large amount of room for creativity in approaching their assassinations.[10] For instance, players may utilize long-ranged rifles to snipe a target from a long distance, or they may decide to assassinate the target at close range by using blade weapons or garrote wire. Players can use explosives, or disguise the assassination by creating a seemingly accidental death.[11] A common method to approach a mission is to incapacitate other characters and wear their outfits as a disguise, which allows the player to gain access to restricted areas more easily.[12] Actions of non-playable characters influence the game. For instance, players can gain more information about the position of their target through listening to a nearby news reporter.[13]

The level design of the game features a structure similar to that of Hitman: Blood Money and earlier games in the series, as opposed to the linear structure of Hitman: Absolution. Every episode in the game features a sandbox-type environment which can be explored by the player, featuring numerous ways to eliminate targets from accidents to scripted "opportunities" which require multiple tasks to complete. Levels are larger in Hitman, in which the maps in the game are "six to seven times larger than the biggest levels in Absolution". Levels accommodate about 300 non-playable characters (NPCs), with each having different routines and reacting differently to players' actions.[14] Players can save their game anytime during missions.[15] Instinct mode, which was introduced in Absolution, returns in a simplified form, no longer being an expendable resource.[15] A player's mission performance review is rated on a 5-star rating system, influenced by factors such as time taken, number of non-targets killed, whether the player was spotted, whether or not they have been recorded on camera or if bodies were found. Completing challenges in a mission will award players with Mastery Points. Gaining enough mastery points will cause the player to earn a level of Mastery Level, with a total of 20 levels. As the player progresses through the 20 mastery levels, each level will earn players new items including new gadgets such as weapons, different types of poison and explosives, new agency pickup locations, or new starting locations.[16]

IO Interactive introduced a "live component" to Hitman,[17] with new content being delivered regularly in downloadable form. This includes time-limited missions called "Elusive Targets". If a player fails to assassinate an elusive target before the mission expires, or alert the target and allow them to escape, the target will not return. Successfully completion of multiple targets yield cosmetic rewards for the player.[18] "Escalation contracts", which are contracts created by the developers, include multiple stages that requires the player to complete certain tasks such as assassinating a target with a specific weapon or disguise or breaking into a safe. Completing a stage will progress through the escalation, and the difficulty will increase with new targets to assassinate, new challenges to comply with or new changes to the level. All additional downloadable content after release will be free of charge.[19] Hitman: Absolution's online Contracts mode also returned in Hitman, allowing players to assign up to five NPCs as assassination targets, set requirements for how to kill them, and share their contract with other players to compete for high scores on.[20]

Synopsis

In Season 1, 47 fulfills several assassination contracts for the International Contracts Agency. Though the contracts at first appear to be unrelated, an unidentified man, referred to only as the "shadow client", has covertly coordinated these contracts to attack a secretive organization called Providence, so that the ICA will appear culpable while disguising his own involvement. The final contracts of Season 1 address the fallout caused by the ICA uncovering the shadow client's actions, and by Providence discovering the ICA's role in the attacks.

Season 1

Twenty years before the events of the main story, 47 is initiated into the ICA, demonstrating exceptional aptitude as an assassin. ICA Training Director Erich Soders is disturbed by 47's antisocial behavior and nebulous, unverifiable background, and creates an unusually difficult final test to reject 47 from the ICA. ICA handler Diana Burnwood intervenes to help 47 complete the test, forcing Soders to approve 47 for field duty, with Diana assigned as his handler.

The events of 47's subsequent career are illustrated as a montage of assassinations from the previous five games in the series. An unidentified man narrates this sequence, asking 47 whether he understands the consequences of his actions on the world.

Episode 1: The Showstopper (Paris)

The unidentified man carries out an assassination for Viktor Novikov, one of the leaders of the international spy ring IAGO, in exchange for a copy of all of IAGO's collected intelligence.[21] Using the IAGO files, he goes on to uncover Providence's secret activities, while anonymously leaking key information to antagonistic parties.[22]

To cover his tracks, the unidentified man informs MI6 of IAGO's plans to auction off a NOC list of deep cover operatives, causing MI6 to hire the ICA to assassinate both Novikov and fellow IAGO ringleader Dalia Margolis to stop the sale.[23] Agent 47 is sent to Paris, France, where Novikov's fashion label, Sanguine, is hosting an exclusive fashion show at Palais de Walewska as cover for the IAGO auction. There, 47 eliminates both Novikov and Margolis.

Episode 2: World of Tomorrow (Sapienza)

The Ether Biotech Corporation, in a secret project unknown to even its own corporate board,[24] is developing a prototype virus for Providence that will be able to kill any individual on a DNA-specific basis. The unidentified man leaks this information to a high-level Ether stockholder, prompting her to hire the ICA to stop the project on ethical grounds. 47 is sent to the fictitious town of Sapienza (on the Amalfi Coast of Italy), where Ether bio-engineer Silvio Caruso is developing the virus from a subterranean field laboratory hidden in the caves beneath Caruso's family villa. 47 assassinates Caruso and his laboratory head, Francesca De Santis, and destroys the virus prototype.

The virus's destruction allows the unidentified man to accomplish his true goal: luring a Herald, a messenger and liaison for Providence operatives,[25] to investigate, whereupon the man is able to retrieve an object called a "key" from the Herald and kill him in an ambush.[26] It is revealed that the man had also obtained a key from Eugene Cobb, a bank director and Providence member, while engineering his death.[27]

Episode 3: A Gilded Cage (Marrakesh)

In Morocco, Providence is plotting to overthrow the state government in a coup d'état, and install Moroccan general Reza Zaydan, a Providence operative, as president.[28] Zaydan hopes to incite civil disorder as pretext for the coup, kindling public outrage by ordering mercenaries under the guise of a terrorist group to forcefully free bank CEO Claus Hugo Strandberg, Zaydan's co-conspirator, from his imprisonment for a pending trial for billion-dollar investment fraud.[29] Hamilton-Lowe, a multinational construction contractor, learns of this plot from the unidentified man and hires the ICA to stop the coup so as to preserve its lucrative government contracts. 47 is sent to Marrakesh, Morocco, where he assassinates Zaydan and Strandberg.

Two days later, in New York City, two Providence members investigate a breach of a vault which stored information on Providence's assets and operatives, requiring two keys to open. They find the vault compromised and raided. One of the two men, addressing the other as "Fanin" and "Director", deduces that the recent deaths of Providence operatives and failures of its projects are actually a series of coordinated attacks, and warns Fanin to begin preparing defenses now that Providence has been exposed.

Episode 4: Club 27 (Bangkok)

The influential Highmoore family hires 47 to assassinate Jordan Cross, a famed indie rock singer, and Ken Morgan, attorney to the Cross family. The Highmoores seek extrajudicial retribution after Cross was acquitted of the death of his girlfriend, Hannah Highmoore, through a legal defense and cover-up conducted by Morgan on behalf of Cross's father, recluse billionaire media mogul Thomas Cross. Traveling to the Himmapan, a luxury hotel on the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand, 47 completes the contract on the day of Jordan Cross's 27th birthday.

Thomas Cross emerges from seclusion to attend Jordan's funeral, where he is kidnapped and murdered by the shadow client's forces; his offshore bank accounts are then emptied. Diana informs 47 that the ICA, alerted by these events, has discovered that the clients who issued the previous contracts had all acted on intelligence from the same anonymous source. Realizing that they have been manipulated, the ICA dubs the anonymous source the "shadow client", and sets out to identify him.

Episode 5: Freedom Fighters (Colorado)

Tracing the shadow client's transmissions to a farm compound in Colorado, USA, the ICA concludes that Sean Rose, the leader of a private militia that has co-opted the farm as a training camp, and an eco-terrorist and bombmaker connected to Thomas Cross's kidnapping, is the shadow client. Urged by Erich Soders, the ICA board of directors orders Rose's death without further investigation.

At the camp, 47 eliminates Rose and three other targets: Penelope Graves, a criminal profiler who defected from Interpol while investigating Rose; Ezra Berg, an interrogator and former Mossad operative; and Maya Parvati, a combat instructor and former assassin for the Tamil Tigers. 47 is also able to learn that the militia comprises combatants and specialists from all over the world, recruited to fight Providence as a common enemy. The shadow client, Rose, and Olivia Hall, a hacktivist, make up the militia's command, and Rose himself is not the shadow client.

In the camp's command center, Diana and 47 discover the shadow client's research linking the targets of the Sapienza and Marrakesh contracts, Thomas Cross, Eugene Cobb, Erich Soders, and many other persons to Providence; they recognize this as the name of a rumored secret organization that covertly controls world affairs. They also find a list of 47's assassinations over past decades, which could not have been made without knowledge of 47's modus operandi and identity. Diana announces that Soders's betrayal of the ICA must take precedence over pursuing the shadow client.

As 47 leaves the farm, the shadow client observes him through a sniper scope, but declines to shoot. Speaking to Hall by phone, he tells a cryptic story from his childhood, about he and his friend's failure to escape from their "warden" in an unspecified place. Hall realizes that the shadow client is professing that he himself knows 47.

Episode 6: Situs Inversus (Hokkaido)

The ICA confirms that Soders has defected to Providence in exchange for a cardiac transplantation to stave off his incipient heart failure—complicated due to a congenital condition. Seeking to gain control over the ICA, Providence has recruited Soders, procuring for him a rare right-sided heart and a fast-tracked surgery at the GAMA private hospital in Hokkaido, Japan. To stop Soders from trading a full list of ICA operatives to Providence and to issue a warning against interference with the ICA's sovereignty, 47 is admitted to the hospital to eliminate Soders and his Providence liaison Yuki Yamazaki, a former lawyer to the yakuza.

After 47 completes his mission, Diana is approached by the unnamed Providence member from New York. With Providence now knowing that the shadow client masterminded the attacks, he extends an offer to partner up with the ICA and target the shadow client instead. In the face of Diana's reticence and suspicion of Providence's honor, he offers to provide information on 47's unknown background in exchange for an alliance, handing her an old photograph of a small boy who appears to be 47.

The Sarajevo Six

47 receives contracts to assassinate the six former members of the Sigma deniable operations paramilitary unit of the CICADA private military company, who were collectively responsible for war crimes committed during the siege of Sarajevo, but evaded prosecution by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. In this alternate storyline, 47 tracks each Sigma member to one of the Season 1 mission settings, with the events and characters of Season 1 now serving as backdrop.

At the Sanguine fashion show in Paris, 47 eliminates Scott Sarno, who now serves as CICADA's European Director of Operations. In Sapienza, 47 eliminates Gary Lunn, now head of security at the Ether biolab. In Marrakesh, 47 eliminates Walter Menard, who has been hired to extract Claus Strandberg from Morocco. At the Himmapan in Bangkok, 47 eliminates John Stubbs, now in retirement and on holiday with his wife. At the militia training camp in Colorado, 47 eliminates Patrick Morgan, who has been recruited by Sean Rose into the militia.

For the final contract, 47 is sent to the GAMA hospital in Hokkaido to both eliminate Taheiji Koyama and retrieve a set of files documenting Sigma's operations. If 47 approaches the target, Koyama, deducing 47's identity, confesses that he himself ordered all six assassinations to bring the Sigma members to justice for their crimes, and that he and his comrades each became rich by attacking and bombing a convoy of refugees fleeing Belgrade, and stealing the convoy's concealed cargo of gold. Koyama instructs 47 to publicize the Sigma files before freely submitting himself to death at 47's hands. After completing his objectives, 47 remarks to Diana that despite the release of the files, public indifference would nevertheless relegate Sigma's long-past atrocities to obscurity.

Development

Hitman was to be developed by Square Enix developer Square Enix Montreal, a newly established studio.[30] Due to cutbacks and layoffs at IO Interactive, other projects were not followed through, and they shifted their attention to a new Hitman game,[31][32][33] and Square Enix Montreal turned their focus on developing smartphone and tablet versions of Hitman and other games.[34][35][36]

On 16 January 2014, an open letter was filed by IO Interactive, sharing some news details on the next game. It stated the intention to make the next version less linear, with more open-ended maps.[37] On 28 June 2015, the first concept art of the game was released.[38] On 18 March 2015, Square Enix trademarked "World of Assassination", which was later revealed to be a promotion slogan for Hitman.[39]

On 15 June 2015, a full reveal of the game took place at Sony's E3 2015 press conference.[40] A gameplay trailer of the game was released during Square Enix's press conference on 16 June 2015.[41] Also on 16 June 2015, David Bateson confirmed that he would reprise his role as Agent 47.[42]

The Hitman beta, featuring the prologue of the game set in a secret recruitment and training facility, was launched in February 2016, with the PlayStation 4 version released a week earlier than the PC. It was available for a limited period to players who preordered either version of the game from selected retail or digital outlets. A second beta was announced for all PlayStation Plus members that was released on 4 March at no cost.[43]

In March 2016, advertising company Omelet announced they had collaborated with Square Enix for a new campaign called Choose Your Hit. People could vote online or through Twitter to "kill" either Gary Cole or Gary Busey, with the "winning" actor who received the most votes lending their voice and likeliness to the target in an upcoming mission. It was announced one month later Busey had won and would feature as the target in a mission released sometime in mid 2016.[44] On 18 July 2016, Busey was announced as the seventh elusive target in the game, and his mission would be available for seven days starting on 21 July 2016. Cole appears in the mission as well.[45]

Release

Hitman was originally set to be released on 8 December 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but was later delayed to 11 March 2016 so as to allow additional development time for IO Interactive to include more content into the base game.[46] The PlayStation 4 version of the game features six exclusive missions known as The Sarajevo Six. Players who pre-ordered the game gained access to the game's beta, which was released for PlayStation 4 on 12 February 2016 and Microsoft Windows on 19 February 2016.[8][47] No "season pass" was available at launch, as the company considered the addition of paid-content a "wrong approach".[48]

Originally, the game was to be released in an "intro pack" that included all the base content, including Paris, Sapienza and Marrakesh locations, six story missions, three sandboxes, forty "signature kills", a contracts mode with 800 different targets, and regular events held by the developer. New missions and locations set in Thailand, the United States, and Japan were to be released after the game's launch, and a full-priced version was to be released following the release of this post-release content.[1] No downloadable content was to be released for the game and no microtransactions were to be offered, and new missions, locations and targets were to be added to the game regularly as free updates after the game's release.[49][50] This format of release was inspired by modern TV shows, and two seasons is set to follow after the completion of the first season.[51] According to the game's lead writer, Michael Vogt, season 1 only serves to introduce the game's characters, whereas the game's story would become increasingly important in later seasons. Io Interactive intentionally prevented adding lots of story content in the first half of season 1 to ensure that players can relate themselves to Agent 47, a merciless assassin who travels around the world to kill targets assigned to him.[52]

On 14 January 2016, it was announced that Hitman would instead be released in an episodic manner; on-launch, the game would consist of the prologue and Paris missions. New content will be released on a monthly basis, including the remaining two cities of the main game (Sapienza and Marrakesh) in April and May 2016 respectively, followed by the previously planned Thailand, U.S. and Japan expansions by the end of the "season" in late 2016, as well as weekly events and additional planned content between the monthly updates. These expansions will be available at no cost to those who purchase a full-priced digital copy of the game, but those who purchase the "Intro Pack" must purchase them. IO Interactive head Hannes Seifert explained that the move was designed to provide the team time to develop the game's levels, and to allow them to "create a living game that will expand and evolve over time and establish a foundation for the future — this is the first game in a storyline which will continue and expand with future Hitman games."[53] After the release of Marrakesh, IO Interactive announced a "Summer Bonus Episode". It was released on 19 July 2016 and features a remake of the Sapeniza and Marrakesh levels, which "will also present a range of new in-game Challenges and Opportunities and an entirely new setting for Escalation Contracts and Elusive Targets."[54]

Episodes and Post-Release Content

Hitman is separated into seven episodes, promised to be released in consecutive calendar months, starting in March 2016.[55]

Episode Release date
"Paris" 11 March 2016[1]
"Sapienza" 26 April 2016[2]
"Marrakesh" 31 May 2016[3]
"Summer Bonus Episode" 19 July 2016[54] (Only available to Full Experience and Upgrade Pack Owners)

31 January 2017[56] (Also includes a third, previously unreleased, mission)

"Bangkok" 16 August 2016[4]
"Colorado" 27 September 2016[5]
"Hokkaido" 31 October 2016[6]

Reception

Online game progress and unlocks will not carry over to offline mode if players lose connectivity; IO Interactive has confirmed that this is part of the live component experience and not attributed to the DRM.[57] This issue was partially rectified with a patch on 28 November 2016.[58]

The game has received mixed user reception on both Metacritic and Steam, despite positive critic reviews. These lower scores were attributed to HITMAN's episodic release format and always-online restriction, but had nothing to do with the gameplay.[59]

In an interview with PCGamesN, lead online designer Torben Ellert has stated that past Elusive Targets will not be making a return, citing that the quality of the older content would not stand up to newer ones.[60]

Aggregate review scores
Game GameRankings Metacritic
Intro Pack (PC) 81.25%[61]
(PS4) 78.35%[62]
(XONE) 74.38%[63]
(PC) 75[64]
(PS4) 77[65]
(XONE) 75[66]
Sapienza (PC) 86.25%[67]
(PS4) 84.16%[68]
(XONE) 75.83%[69]
(PC) 84[70]
(PS4) 84[71]
(XONE) 79[72]
Marrakesh (PC) 79.20%[73]
(PS4) 73.88%[74]
(XONE) 76.67%[75]
(PC) 79[76]
(PS4) 75[77]
Bangkok (PC) 78.25%[78]
(PS4) 70.15%[79]
(XONE) 80.00%[80]
(PC) 78[81]
(PS4) 70[82]
Colorado (PC) 75.00%[83]
(PS4) 69.36%[84]
(PC) 73[85]
(PS4) 70[86]

Intro Pack

Intro Pack received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 81.25% based on 8 reviews and 75/100 based on 17 reviews,[61][64] the PlayStation 4 version 78.35% based on 44 reviews and 77/100 based on 69 reviews[62][65] and the Xbox One version 76.25% based on 4 reviews and 75/100 based on 11 reviews.[63][66] Arthur Gies of Polygon awarded it a 7.5/10, praising it as a "promising start to the game" but felt it was more unfinished than episodic.[87] PC Gamer expressed a similar sentiment that, "Hitman feels unrefined and unfinished in lots of small but important ways."[88]

Sapienza

Sapienza received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 86.25% based on 4 reviews and 84/100 based on 7 reviews,[67][70] the PlayStation 4 version 84.16% based on 25 reviews and 84/100 based on 37 reviews[68][71] and the Xbox One version 75.83% based on 6 reviews and 79/100 based on 7 reviews.[69][72]

Marrakesh

Marrakesh received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 79.20% based on 5 reviews and 79/100 based on 7 reviews,[73][76] the PlayStation 4 version 73.88% based on 17 reviews and 75/100 based on 26 reviews[74][77] and the Xbox One version 76.67% based on 3 reviews.[75]

Bangkok

Bangkok received mixed to positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 78.25% based on 4 reviews and 78/100 based on 6 reviews,[78][81] the PlayStation 4 version 70.15% based on 13 reviews and 70/100 based on 19 reviews[79][82] and the Xbox One version 80.00% based on 1 review.[80]

Colorado

Colorado received mixed reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 75.00% based on 1 review and 73/100 based on 5 reviews[83][85] and the PlayStation 4 version 69.36% based on 11 reviews and 70/100 based on 16 reviews.[84][86]

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