Errant Hitman

By Shamus Posted Monday May 30, 2016

Filed under: Video Games 30 comments

Chris and Josh got together to stream some Hitman for everyone. This is the result. It’s a lot of fun.


Link (YouTube)

I love that Hitman seems to have turned itself around so quickly. Hitman: Absolution was so bad on so many levels, and I just assumed it was in the wrong creative hands and there was no way for the series to pull out of that nosedive.

But here we are. The idiotic story is gone, along with the ugly, overblown cutscenes. We’re back on proper thematic ground, with Agent 47 traveling the world and assassinating important targets instead of bouncing around the United States fighting wrestlers and bondage nuns. The levels are large and open again. Disguises are useful again.

I haven’t played it yet. As I’ve belabored in the past, my gaming habits don’t mesh well with episodic games. But it’s still good to see Agent 47 back in his element.

 


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30 thoughts on “Errant Hitman

  1. Zagzag says:

    Since I missed the stream, and my opportunity to join the chat, I’ll leave my offering here.

    Chris: Say something interesting about Hitman!

    1. lucky7 says:

      And be careful!

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Chris,say ludonarrative dissonance.

  2. Dreadjaws says:

    No comment on the “always online DRM for a single-player game”? Darn it, hearing Shamus complaining about DRM is like my drug of choice. I start getting shivers when I don’t get it.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      And no one asked what do they eat!

      1. Jokerman says:

        Poison.

  3. Jokerman says:

    It is absolutely a return to form, i couldn’t be happier with what has been released so far. The always online stuff is annoying, but they have made some good adjustments to it, but i would be nice to see it scraped completely.

  4. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Josh,do you really want to see this in hitman:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU4mFOOG-oY

    1. Echo Tango says:

      That would be the friggin’ best! :D

  5. Joe Informatico says:

    Showing my age here, but that first tutorial level reminds me of the Clint Eastwood pre-Clancy Cold War thriller Firefox.

    1. Echo Tango says:

      Not the correct number of Russians! :P

  6. evilmrhenry says:

    I think the video game food blog referred to in the video is
    https://gamesandfood.tumblr.com/

  7. Daemian Lucifer says:

    A few answers about earlier hitmans:

    I think hitman 2 was the first that introduced limited saves.Which was a huge improvement.

    Original hitman dealt with the story of clones.The last level was you going back to the clone lab to deal with it.

    1. ColeusRattus says:

      Well, IIRC, the very first Hitman: Codename 47 hat no saves whatsoever during missions. Which made the Lee Hong Assassination doubly awesome if pulled off flawlessly.

  8. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Chris should totally stream satellite reign.

  9. Ninety-Three says:

    So uh, is there supposed to be a Diecast today? Because I don’t see a Diecast.

    1. Josh says:

      Jacob (Glitch) is getting married on Saturday, so I’m going to be totally unavailable for recording for next week. Since we’re starting Fallout 4, we decided to record two weeks’ worth of episodes and forego this week’s Diecast, because otherwise we’d start Fallout 4 and immediately have a break week. This stream was posted to hopefully make up for that a little bit.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Is the wedding going to be at wendys?

        1. el-b says:

          they opted for renting a fazbears for the day, its been going cheap since the robots started eating kids skulls.

  10. Andy_Panthro says:

    I like the look of this, but I am absolutely awful at hit-manning. I’ve never completed any of them. Got to the jungle levels in the first one, didn’t play the second, did the first 2 or 3 missions I think in Contracts and Blood Money and can’t remember which levels are in which.

    Still, I appreciate the way it gives you more hints in this one (for the challenges), as well as the Batman vision. It makes it seem like I would actually be able to enjoy it, rather than before where I’d spend ages wondering what the next step in an elaborate chain of events I was missing in order to get a “silent assassin” kill.

    I think this was quite a good choice for a stream, I think slower-paced things work well, it gives plenty of time for commentary and general chat. Although the delay for Josh was a little off-putting, but there’s no good way of avoiding that without being in the same room.

    1. NotSteve says:

      I also thought this was a fun choice for a stream. A less serious game wouldn’t have nearly as many chances for things to go hilariously wrong.

      We just need to get Rutskarn to teach Chris the path of no witnesses.

  11. Daemian Lucifer says:

    I love how the first thing Chris does when left alone is ogle hitmans pecks.

    1. 4th Dimension says:

      Yup, he really is not helping himself prevent us from trolling him about his interest in sexy men. The moment he started talking about 47s shirt I knew this one should also be going into our Chriss quote archive.

  12. John says:

    Darn you guys, stop making me want to play Hitman again! I have approximately the same issues and experience with Hitman as Chris, with the distinctions that (a) I’ve only ever actually played Contracts (i.e., the third one) and (b) I suck. What ultimately turned me off Contracts was the repitition required in order to learn how to beat a level elegantly. It doesn’t really satisfy the unstoppable assassin fantasy that the game (sort of) tries to sell. The other problem that I had is that there were a couple of bits in the game that required me to kill both quickly and silently. I can do one or I can do the other, but asking me to do both simultaneously is just cruel. Also I suck at sneaking around. Alas.

    1. Jokerman says:

      Blood Money and now Hitman 2016 (Absolution doesn’t actually exist) really shave off a lot of those rough edges from Contracts and the earlier games. Less random AI, in the new game you get a hud warning (its on the map) when you trespass and all you get as punishment for doing so is to be walked back into an area you are allowed in, as long as you don’t run away from them, they won’t usually start shooting you, so its more forgiving.

      There is still trial and error, but you have much more ability to poke around the level without fear of being shot to pieces.

  13. el-b says:

    i cant be the only one who noticed that helmut kruger is a kotor dark jedi, can i?
    http://s230.photobucket.com/user/AtomicStables/media/SW/bastila_zps5087b474.png.html

  14. Humanoid says:

    Feels like Hitmas starts a little earlier every year.

    Incidentally, it looks like Squeenix have adopted the Hitmas tag for themselves.

  15. Aaron says:

    hit man is naturally a game about hiding and covering up what you have done. i want a game where you play as krieger from archer going around covering up your experiments that ‘should not be’

  16. Kyte says:

    I kinda wanna throttle Chris for desperately looking for a dump spot for Helmut when the UI itself said he could dump him over the railing and into the river.

    1. Benjamin Hilton says:

      Yeah, it wouldn’t have been so bad if he didn’t later say “I wish I could just throw him into the water”

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