Hitman 2016 PC Beta Impressions: Is it a Perfect Reboot?
Finally, Hitman Beta has Arrived for PC gamers and I got the chance to spend the time to review it. After the news of Hitman's episodic launch schedule, we were in a doubt on how the game will survive in such competitive Titles, but after playing the Game, it had cleared all our doubts. The Game is simply outstanding and the way game mechanics have changed with it's the overall gameplay. IO interactive has managed to live up to the Hitman series fan's expectation. This Beta acts as a prologue to the main game with two different Missions.
Agent 47 will be set 20 years back where he is inside a secret training facility(International Contact Agency). Let's find out how well the overall game did and is it worth buying the Episodic Missions every Month.
Contract Killing returns and Agent 47 get to meet his long-time handler, Diana Burnwood for the very first time. In the First Prologue mission, you are assigned to Eliminate 'Kalvin Ritter' on a Cruise ship. You can try using the Disguise to enter the Ship and try various opportunities to kill your target. One thing that really surprised we was the AI was now capable of looking suspicious even in Disguise which something new to the Series.
AI interaction has been focused to a great extent, whereas the High-Level Enforcers(Bodyguard/Soldiers) can directly know that you are using a Disguise and start questioning you. We have seen this in Hitman: Absolution, but this was one layer up and more realistic. This makes Game a bit more difficult and comprehensive for the player to think of multiple opportunities to reach out for the Target.
The Second Mission which is the Final Test is to Eliminate a Chess master-turned Soviet Spy in a Military Base. This was a bit more of a concern as you get into an open environment and learn to eves drop on soldier's conversation to get more hint of the Target's location or uncover more opportunities. One thing that we didn't like about the game the freedom and techniques the players will try on how to Assassinate his target. The Game's constantly prompts the way we need to proceed and all possible solutions are already displayed which we feel that player should have discovered and eliminated the target first and then should have been displayed to him.
The Gameplay is outstanding with the biggest Maps so far in the series and hundreds of AI characters acts differently which pushes the game on a huge dynamic stage. With the superb crisp lighting effects, the graphics and the frame-rate were perfectly matched. The Main focus only goes to the volume of AI characters used on the Cruise ship and your target is interacting in between them. Sometimes the AI are unpredictable as there were times where they used to notice my disguise whereas sometimes we run by them without even noticing, so we hope this is fixed before the full game is out.
A perfect Setup for Stealth Action title and a good comeback for the Hitman series. Fans will surely won't be disappointed with such achievements. The only thing we want is the player should get freedom on opportunities of eliminating the target and stop promoting on every single path. The Episodic release will definitely try to keep the hype for Hitman in the market. Let's see what happens when the Full game comes out on 11th March for PlayStation 4, XBox One and PC.