Malf on 29/7/2020 at 13:07
Quote Posted by Thirith
I still wish they'd pick a bunch of the best
Hitman levels from all the different games and remake them in the current engine (I loved the idea of
Blood Money, but I disliked how clunky it was to play), though I guess that might be difficult due to who's got the rights to which of the games.
I can't say for certain, but I'm pretty sure Squenix released all IP rights to Hitman to IOI when they parted ways, so there shouldn't be issues there. A remake of Blood Money's levels with the new engine would be fantastic. Blood Money is an incredibly strong game, but suffers from a complete lack of new Hitman's hint system. With no pointers helping the player out, the levels often required numerous playthroughs to get to grips with, and some of the assassination methods were as obscure to figure out as old adventure games, often requiring referral to a guide.
One thing I really did like about older Hitman games however was the need to kind of tidy up after yourself to get Silent Assassin ratings. Like if you changed disguise, you had to make sure to change back in to 47's suit before leaving the level. New Hitman does have the "Suit Only" condition, but it's not quite the same.
Thirith on 29/7/2020 at 13:39
I love exiting a level in the most outlandish costume, mind you. Agent 47's grim face, the tense music, and there I go, dressed up as a big-ass flamingo, walking off into the sunset. Getting a Silent Assassin rating for that is the hilariously straight-faced cherry on top. :cheeky: (Though yeah, it would be nice for the series to allow for that kind of consistency between the games.)
Malf on 29/7/2020 at 16:30
Yeah, the flamingo outfit is a delight.
I'm a bit worried that they've said they're going for a more serious tone in the next game. I love that in the levels, they've been prepared to let you be as goofy as you like. Sure, the cutscenes take themselves far too seriously, and always have done, but I feel goofiness has always been a part of the Hitman games and should remain so.
I would love it if they started rendering the cutscenes using the in-game engine, allowing you to have otherwise serious moments be funny thanks to 47 wearing something ludicrous. That was one of the best things about the Dead Rising games for me :)
Malleus on 29/7/2020 at 21:43
I played Assassin's Creed Origins not long ago. It's been 9 years since last time I played an AC game (Revelations), but the Odyssey free weekend got me curious again. I'm glad I got back into it, because Origins was really fun. It evoked that feeling of, basically, time traveling back into a certain part of history, that I remember from playing old AC games. Origins is awesome in that regard. The clothes, the architecture, the representation of egyptian culture, everything is really well done. I often set my character to slow walk, just to take in the sights. The open world itself was varied enough with the contrast of big cities and vast desert. It was a joy to explore.
I generally don't like leveling systems in games, but here it ended up being largely inconsequential, since I did so many sidequests that I ended up being overleveled most of the time. Still, the idea, that assassinations are not insta-kill (depending on the level of the opponent) irks me. But apart from the arbitrary numbers increase, leveling also allows you to get skills, which are nice since most them are an actual, meaningfull addition to the gameplay. Speaking of which, the basic gameplay loop proved to be super addicting. Most of time, you have to clear out camps and rescue people, but I never got bored of it. The stealth mechanic isn't even that deep, it's basically hiding in bushes luring out enemies, but it was just fun. Stealth isn't always an option unfortunately, and some of the late game "assassinations" are straight up bossfights, which I wasn't a fan of. Especially the ones in the DLCs were obnoxious.
Anyway, the addictive gameplay loop was part of the reason why I did every side mission, the other being that they all added some story and lore. The other activities I did were getting the vantage points (it wouldn't be an AC game without them), the tombs, and the papyrus puzzles. I feel these were all meaningful stuff that didn't feel like arbitrary map clearing that open world games often get accused of. All in all, I really enjoyed my time with this game, and it reignited my interest in the franchise. I have some of the older games on uplay from free promotions, so I'll probably check one out before Valhalla releases.
Malf on 29/7/2020 at 22:15
At the start of lockdown, I went through Origins and Odyssey, and I'm now well and truly burned-out on the Ubigame formula.
I got Watchdogs 2 for free during their Not-E3 event. While I initially enjoyed it and the mechanical differences to AC, it soon settled in to the same old Ubi rut of repeating the same few gameplay loops until it had driven them in to the ground. I've subsequently stopped playing it altogether.
The other problem for Ubi is that RDR2 exists. And RDR2's world and run-of-the-mill NPCs make the Ubigame equivalents look like the shallow placeholders they are. Every person you meet in RDR2 feels like they have a story and a reason for being where they are.
But the NPCs in Ubigames feel like soulless set-dressing by comparison. Little more than the animated crowds in sports and racing games.
If they concentrated on reducing the size of the worlds their games take place in, then populating said worlds with more interesting NPCs and more varied quest / mission types, I think I could get behind that. As it stands, unless Valhalla and Watchdogs Legion REALLY shake up the formula, I'll be ignoring Ubigames for the foreseeable.
Thirith on 30/7/2020 at 08:47
Quote Posted by Malleus
I generally don't like leveling systems in games, but here it ended up being largely inconsequential, since I did so many sidequests that I ended up being overleveled most of the time. Still, the idea, that assassinations are not insta-kill (depending on the level of the opponent) irks me. But apart from the arbitrary numbers increase, leveling also allows you to get skills, which are nice since most them are an actual, meaningfull addition to the gameplay. Speaking of which, the basic gameplay loop proved to be super addicting. Most of time, you have to clear out camps and rescue people, but I never got bored of it. The stealth mechanic isn't even that deep, it's basically hiding in bushes luring out enemies, but it was just fun. Stealth isn't always an option unfortunately, and some of the late game "assassinations" are straight up bossfights, which I wasn't a fan of. Especially the ones in the DLCs were obnoxious.
I do mind that Ubisoft's implementation of the levelling system turned enemies into arrow sponges. In an
Assassin's Creed game, I want there to be certain methods that are *always* one-shot. If there's a fear that this makes some enemies too easy, make things more difficult by means of the mission design or the AI, but I don't get any enjoyment out of Ubisoft's main strategy, which is HP inflation.
While I enjoyed
Origins immensely to begin with, my enjoyment of it dropped considerably about 2/3 into the game, and I mainly played the DLC for completeness' sake (and yes, they do have some very nice environments). This is also the main reason why I've had
Odyssey installed for at least a year but I never played it: I burned out on the gameplay. I was positively surprised by how varied and specific
Origins' environments were - the cities all had their own flavour and the desert was also more varied than expected - but the gameplay, mission design and storytelling just don't keep me engaged for more than 20-30 hours. After that point, most Ubisoft games can't hide the extent to which they're rinse-and-repeat games.
WingedKagouti on 30/7/2020 at 09:11
I recently completed the main story in Hitman (2016). The Hokkaido level was going great until one of the guards started annoying me.
When the level was over I had killed 58 non-targets.
Starker on 30/7/2020 at 09:31
Ah yes, the best laid plans of mice and hitmen...
Thirith on 30/7/2020 at 09:42
Or possibly Hitmice and Hitmen. Though I think Agent 47 would probably be a cat rather than a mouse. I can almost imagine a mission ending with a straight-faced feline 47 leaving the mission area on a Roomba.
WingedKagouti on 30/7/2020 at 11:16
To be fair, I hadn't really made any plans at the time I met that guard, I was mostly just scoping out the location. But one thing led to another ending up iin a major shootout that killed almost all of the guards and several medical workers, which led to me basically having "free" access to every location. The last guards were killed on my way to the second target and out of the mission.