Hitman Episode 1 : PARIS REVIEW
On his brief trip to Paris, this overhauled take on Agent 47 has successfully combined the best of his previous incarnations. Episode 1 of the new game, which will be released throughout the year and is simply called Hitman, contains a classic-style imaginative sandbox for lethal shenanigans, and the smoother movement controls of 2012’s Hitman: Absolution. There’s definitely the beginnings of something that may well emerge as a worthy successor to cult favourite Hitman: Blood Money here, although the AI is certainly still a few sandwiches short of a picnic and the PS4 version has displayed a mild smattering of technical snags so far.
Hitman certainly doesn’t waste time getting to it; the very brief opening cutscene during the prologue quickly gives way to a duo of straightforward training missions that provide your first taste of the revamped disguise system. The flawed disguise mechanic from Absolution has been mercilessly double-tapped and plonked in a dumpster; in Hitman the right disguise will fool most of those around you indefinitely, and is not tied to an in-game ability resource.
For instance, in the second training level an aircraft mechanic’s duds will permit 47 to stroll directly into the CO’s office, collect a VIP, and assassinate him during a phony safety check that culminates in a deadly ejector seat, er, accident. In the Paris level, disguising yourself as a revered male model with an uncanny resemblance to 47 (make up and all) will allow you to access virtually every area of the building without being searched and secure a private meeting with one of the marks. The ability to truly hide in plain sight is a considerable part of what makes this new game feel like a classic Hitman game again, even if a lot of the fun still relies on the naïve AI being easy to exploit.
I appreciated some of the small tweaks to NPC AI – for instance, in the Paris level guards will first escort you from restricted areas rather than display the more binary shoot-to-kill attitude of, say, Blood Money – and Hitman so far does a fine job of making its levels feel bustling and alive with people who have places to be and duties to perform. However, it is still the sort of experience that will let you lure a steady stream of nearby people, one by one, into a quiet bathroom with the sound of a repeatedly tossed crowbar (and it’s hard to argue their reactions to the growing pile of unconscious men in their underwear they each find inside are especially convincing).
The ability to truly hide in plain sight is a considerable part of what makes this new game feel like a classic Hitman game again.
While Hitman encourages multiple attempts at missions to discover all the different possibilities they offer I didn’t find myself particularly compelled to return to the training levels. I think it may be because the levels themselves are presented as somewhat hastily constructed and partially unpainted sets (and all the NPCs are ostensibly actors). I didn’t really connect with these “fake” levels. Episode 1’s Paris level, however, is a different story.
Paris is the main meal of Episode 1. Huge, dense, and absolutely brimming with devious ways to get the job done, Paris is like an enormous onion of assassination potential; each layer stripped reveals another. There are two targets, each with a whole host of ways to die. Over many, many playthroughs I’ve poisoned, choked, shot, sniped, drowned, and crushed my victims – once with an overhead lighting rig and once by pushing one target over a balcony to crush the other below – and I’ve still got untried methods to attempt. You can either explore, experiment, and eventually stumble across them in the environment, or get some killer pro-tips from the menu that details all the bonus points to be gleaned from snuffing out your targets in these varied ways. The new ‘Opportunities’ menu will also help you track down the steps to pull off some of the zanier hits. I found myself using a combination of both improvisation and getting inspiration from the game, though purists should note you can turn off in-game advice if you want to discover everything for yourself.
