After a wild ride of emotions, it’s been confirmed that Hitman’s Agent 47 will be bringing his killing expertise to next-gen platforms. For a while there it seemed like the series was doomed. Thankfully, it’s popular and Square Enix knows it.
I’ve been playing stealth action games for many years, and have a soft spot for the Hitman franchise for good reasons. What other game gives you the option of killing an unsuspecting target by swapping hot sauce for lighter fluid?
We know Hitman is coming to PS4 and Xbox One, but we want it to be as good as possible. In some ways, that means it needs to be a radical departure from the last release, Hitman: Absolution.
Below is our wishlist for Hitman Next-Gen:
Hitman Next-Gen Wishlist
-
1. Cut those cutscenes.
Listen, the Hitman franchise doesn't have a fanbase because of its story delivery or characters; it's the tactical gameplay that keeps us coming back for more. Hitman: Absolution took itself way too seriously totaling at nearly two hours of cutscenes. Why would I suffer through that when I could be watching James Bond or Mission Impossible?
Not only was the narrative disinteresting, but it got in the way of the fun, much of which is derived from letting the player control the playing field and outcomes. Mid-mission cutscenes completely tear control away from the player. That's a no-no in this genre.
Instead of trying to open the franchise up to a wider audience with more mainstream values, Hitman Next-Gen should stick to what it's good at: stealth gameplay. Use cutscenes to lay a simple foundation and introduce the objective of each scenario. Less work for you, more enjoyment for us.
-
2. We took freedom for granted.
Linearity is a problem that reared its ugly head during the last-generation. But guess what? We're in a new generation now.
If there's one thing Hitman has done better than any other gaming franchise it's giving the player a huge landscape to design a plan of attack and leaving the options seemingly endless. Like a child entering the gates of their first amusement park, being thrown into these open playgrounds evokes pure excitement.
IO Interactive has promised more open environments, and for that we're ecstatic, but we hope they're met with an equal elevation in freedom. This franchise isn't a puzzle solver where there's one solution to the problem at hand. Hitman fans like myself love knowing that there were over a dozen other ways of accomplishing the objective, and knowing that they're compelling enough to go back and try them out.
Just look at the Metal Gear franchise. It's jumping into the open-world arena for a good reason. It works remarkably well when executed correctly.
-
3. Agent 47 is an INTERNATIONAL killer.
The entirety of Hitman: Absolution was based within the continental United States. By the end of the experience it felt very static in its environments and level design.
Being exposed to new environmenst is part of the challenge in Hitman. Let us go to Europe and figure out how to use Baguette to take out a crime lord. I want to go to real mainland China, not its americanized replica China Town.
-
4. Give us a set number of saves.
The checkpoint system in Hitman: Absolution was arguably its greatest flaw. Much of the challenge of the game came from completing short-term objectives to reach the next checkpoint. In many cases, this was the equivalent of breaking each mission up into many sub-sections, breaking the feeling of an open environment in the process.
IO Interactive says the checkpoint system is gone, but what will replace it? The best solution I can think of that doesn't compromise the scope of missions is giving players a set amount of manually usable saves with the amount depending on the difficulty being played on. Although this would still be a "checkpoint" system of sorts, it would give players another form of strategy. Determining when and where to save will be part of the decision making process during levels.
-
5. The more tools the merrier.
Some of the best moments in Hitman history come from being able to use objects in the environment in clever ways to take out enemies. It could even be argued that this is an integral part of Hitman's DNA.
In Hitman Next-Gen I hope to see more tools employed to Agent 47's arsenal than ever before, and preferably tools that don't come in the form of rifles and handguns.
-
6. Hitman: Disguises Extravaganza.
There was no better way to beat Hitman: Absolution on the highest difficulty than to learn the location of all the game's disguises. In a way, they were a requirement for achieving perfect mission completions.
Disguises shouldn't be that integral to the experience. Please, take them out completely or make them far less commonplace.
