SE has nothing to do with Io anymore. They're independent now and own Hitman, they probably are in need of cash.
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Hitman: HD Enhanced Collection Coming January 11 (Blood Money+Absolution, 4K/60FPS, improved lighting, more)
- Thread starter Turkoop
- Start date
SE has nothing to do with Io anymore. They're independent now and own Hitman, they probably are in need of cash.
Wait they want full retail price for this? Are they trying to kill this series?
As much as I want IO to succeed and to support them 60 bucks for this is crazy. Especially since one of them is a game I'd rather not even get.
As much as I want IO to succeed and to support them 60 bucks for this is crazy. Especially since one of them is a game I'd rather not even get.
No amount of marketing money will make casual audiences buy Hitman 2. Fundamentally, Absolution sold better because it's a game casual audiences actually want to play, and its marketing was able to capitalize on that.
Casual audiences are not interested.on what see as a four hour long third person shooter game with barely any plot and a central gameplay hook of replaying missions that they find distinctly unappealing.
Hitman Absolution is like Bioshock. System Shock 2 sold poorly. Alien Isolation sold poorly. Prey sold poorly. But the heavily diluted, casual friendly Bioshock was a huge success. I'm not saying this is a good thing. It just is what it is.
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It absolutely has a lot of linear stealth sections. That's why it's such a weird game in the series. It basically has normal Hitman levels interconnected with a bunch of linear stealth sections and action setpieces.
None of it is actually bad, but the "normal" Hitman levels just aren't that great and the more straightforward stealth sections are just fine.
If you're not a fan of regular Hitman it's actually the best game in the series for you.
I liked Absolution more than most. Not really as a Hitman game, but I thought it was an okay stealth game with a pretty terrible story.
Blood Money of course is a classic, so I am very excited to see how that remaster turns out.
All that said, full price for these two games and the PC versions being MIA is a bit of a bummer.
Blood Money of course is a classic, so I am very excited to see how that remaster turns out.
All that said, full price for these two games and the PC versions being MIA is a bit of a bummer.
The new Hitman games don't really follow Blood Money's design philosophy. The new Hitman games are like "haha xD look at all the funny ways you can kill the target! So wacky and fun!" and the whole system where events and convos between NPCs get triggered only when you are in close proximity makes it a highly scripted affair. They are good games, just nowhere near BM's level.
Blood Money is also a 'highly scripted affair' except there are only 3-4 ways to kill your targets instead of the 8-10 ways you have in the new games.
Has 60 bucks been confirmed?
Because that's lunacy.
Honestly, 19.99 for both would have been the smart move, especially given the age of these games.
39.99 would have been pushing it.
Because that's lunacy.
Honestly, 19.99 for both would have been the smart move, especially given the age of these games.
39.99 would have been pushing it.
Oh right you are! Offttt first not going episodic with season 2 and now a full priced remaster... someone pls take control over at I-O and stop a great series dying on the vine.
This.
Never got the hate for the game, I really enjoyed the wacky, Tarantino-esque story and didn't mind the more linear sections (which were nice if you were e.g. a Splinter Cell fan as well) considering there were about a good dozen sandbox levels (chinatown, chinese new year, the redneck town, the strip club etc., to mention a few) too, many absolutely crowded by NPCs. Also loooots of playtime even if you didn't want to replay the same sandboxes over and over again for all the different approaches (which the new Hitman games are pretty much all about, and little else). And it's not like several of the levels in older Hitman games (cough, Hitman: Contracts, cough) weren't small... or linear (first level in Blood Money or the Asylum in Contracts come to mind) either.
For me it sure was a breath of fresh air after the older titles. And if sales numbers are any indication, the market seems to prefer its approach over the latest game as well.
Contracts was the low point of the series, not Absolution. 6 out of 12 missions were literally copy-pasted from the first game.
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I think I'll give Hitman 2 a try, another poster mentioned a more guided node which appeals to me. The demo alone was a bit overwhelming in how many options it provided for achieving an objective. Maybe once I learn the ropes it will be more approachable
Absolution is one of the most criminally unappreciated games of last generation. It's not much as a Hitman game but it's probably one of the best Splinter Cell games never made.
Full price, eh. $80 CAD for these two games. Not super impressed with the price - but tbh, I'm down for anything Hitman. I'll buy it to support IO (and also because I've never played Blood Money). Absolution is fine too.
I totally forgot how good Blood Money's soundtrack is.
What's up with it? I actually only played the PS2 version back in the day. And overall I haven't played Blood Money since 2006 or 2007, so I really need to get back on this shit. Maybe if I have some more time this month between other backlog games and eventually RE2.
All that's really impossible to say. I won't say it was solely marketing, but I also don't think that no amount of marketing could make the newer Hitman games appealing to the same audience or a similar mainstream audience.
I think BioShock had multiple advantages over System Shock: its introduction to the console audience (particularly the introduction of the Looking Glass storytelling style to console audiences), its unique and eye-catching setting for the time, and its marketing. Part of the issue with System Shock and Prey is it's hard to quickly sell the appealing points of an immersive sim -- that you can solve problems however you want. Prey had the additional advantage of its flawed technical performance on consoles. I think a BioShock game with Prey's gameplay could've done just as well. To be really honest, the only huge difference I noticed gameplay-wise between BioShock 1 and System Shock 2 is the former led players around much more directly and was generally just less punishing, and you could turn off nearly all of BioShock 1's anti-frustration features which made environment navigation extremely similar to SS2.
Commercially the most successful game of that type is probably Skyrim (which I consider an immersive sim). I think that was a combination of the popularity build-up that started with Oblivion being an early Xbox 360 highlight, and a marketing campaign that was really widespread and simple. That theatrical ad of the village, the dragon, and the lone warrior was the perfect tease, into what was ultimately a free-form sandbox game where people did just about everything BUT the main story.
That and plenty other games are proof people don't need a big focus on a linear story for a game to sell. And I don't think replaying missions is the appeal of sandbox Hitman, but really just the level of freedom.
Not him but no unfortunately. As good as modern Hitman is, Jesper Kyd is a huge reason why I still look back fondly on the older games.
Open world games are a different case. They have oodles and oodles of content. You can wander around and do quests for 50+ hours and you still haven't seen everything the game has to offer. Hitman is different. And this is both a strength and a weakness. The issue with Hitman is one of scope and scale. Hitman: Absolution was a 12.5 hour long game. The average player would get something like 15 hours of fun from it, without even trying. The game would just keep feeding them new content in a "pull this string and eat the lollies attached to it" manner. Open world games just scatter the jelly beans all over an open map and you go looking for them. And they have a lot of jelly beans.
Hitman 2 is 5-6 hours long if you complete each mission in sequence and move on. Maybe even shorter if you get lucky. Any self-respecting fan will tell you that playing 20+ hours of Hitman 2 comes as easily as breathing. The challenge of getting Silent Assassin. Of completing the stories. That kinda deal. But unfortunately, a lot of players aren't really interested in playing a mission more than once. MP gamers will do that, SP ones not so much. They reach the end of the game and have a "That's it?" moment.
Audiences like looooong linear games with a strong story focus and characters they find appealing. They also like loooooooong open world time sinks. The formula of Hitman 2 sits in the middle. It's a $60 game that is very plot-light, and is 5 hours long. It's not an easy sell.
All things considered, the AAA industry has actually moved away from the kind of game Absolution is. Player agency is in. Sandbox design at the forefront is in. There are ways to strike a balance. To craft a game that has both freefom sandbox gameplay, a thrilling narrative, and length. But it's not easy. And it's very difficult to please both sides.
One of the problems with marketing Hitman 2 from a marketability perspective is that it doesn't have a cohesive aesthetic or narrative hook. It's more of Hitman 2016 -- random locations with random art design and assassination fun times, which is fantastic news for Hitman 2016 fans, but for the people who weren't interested in 2016, it doesn't inflame the imagination. It's Agent 47 doing... Hitman stuff. Why is he doing the Hitman stuff? What are the stakes? Hitman 2 is all about killing a string of random people because there's a background plot but to a casual gamer none of it has any compelling reason to be there.
Hitman: Absolution is different. Hitman: Absolution's core aesthetic theme is very simple to understand. You are a man pursued by a conspiracy. A bad man doing bad things to even worse people to keep a promise he made. Many of the promotional shots of Absolution show Agent 47, head downcast. There's faint themes of conviction, of determination. Of a man seeking absolution for his sins. His black gloves clenched tight.
The imagery of Agent 47 on the run, protecting a fragile young woman wanted by a powerful agency, calls to mind Minority Report.
It's a very easy thematic concept for audiences to click with. You need to know exactly nothing about the universe of Hitman to understand Absolution's version of Agent 47 and the characters around him.
In terms of mass market appeal, I think the only way for Hitman to really hit it big is to pair a more constrained and cinematic main narrative (expensive!) with sandbox assassination modes in well designed maps. Going open world would destroy what make Hitman gameplay work. (Too easy to run away, for example.) But being too linear hurts player agency. And any and all actions to insert more significant plot into the central gameplay flow are resented by sandbox fans because they interfere with the sandbox. And there just don't seem to be enough purist sandbox fans willing to buy these Hitman games to give them a long term future. They have great word of mouth, but no real momentum.
At least everything in BM happens whether or not you are there. You don't trigger anything unless you are directly involved in it. The world doesn't revolve around you unlike in the new games.
Now I'm not saying they suck, they are actually better than BM in some ways. The AI is much better and the disguise system is the best it's ever been.
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That would be cool if they updated their PC versions of these games to match whatever they are doing to these on the consoles. It would make sense. It would make so much sense to give the fanbase that has them and can still play their old games some updates to some old games like any smart developer would. It makes so much sense that it probably wont happen. Its not like the work isnt already done or anything.
That almost sounds like a call for a more "wide-linear" type of game where individual levels are medium-sized sandboxes -- a type of game that is exceedingly rare today where everything is either Uncharted or Grand Theft. The only major games we've seen in recent years that sit in the middle are Dishonored 2, Prey, and Deus Ex Mankind Divided, and look how those sold. I still think a lot of that was marketing though (and Square Enix meddling in the case of DXMD).
I seem to recall that Dishonored was criticised on release by players that made a beeline for main objectives and then complained that the game is short.
I have to completely disagree. Blood Money's kill set ups are significantly simpler and it's levels are much smaller than what's found in the recent games. Combine that with Hitman 2016 & Hitman 2's superior controls and gunplay and it's basically a wash. Also, there are plenty of unscripted kills that the player can accomplish in the new games.
Dishonored 2 is a game that pairs a strong narrative with sublime sandbox level design. And its sales weren't particularly great. Hoever, Dishonored 2 was down 38% from Dishonored 1. Hitman 2 was down 90% from Absolution. Dishonored 2 may not have set the world on fire, but it didn't stumble out the gate so awkwardly.
This whole affair depresses me. I want games like Hitman 2 to be financially viable. I want focused sandbox games which focus on replay value and emergent design paired with elaborate scripting to be popular with audiences. (I want the next Perfect Dark to be like Hitman+Deus Ex+PD. I'm not scared of change, but I do love this style of smart, thinking man's design.) I don't want developers to be forced to add a spoonful of expensive cinematic sugar to make the medicine go down if that isn't what they want to do. (At the same time, I also want developers to have the freedom to make more cinematic games if they want, without people throwing a shit-fit. I've always found it depressingly myopic how some Hitman fans would rather the series be dead than for games like Absolution to keep it alive.) A lot of classic Hitman fans are passionately convinced that Absolution put the series in danger and that returning to the old formula has made Hitman flourish. Returning to the old formula has almost certainly make the games safer due to lower production costs. But it's never that simple. The series was in a sales decline with Blood Money.
There's this self-sabotaging sense of resentment. You see it with fans of certain game series who throw a wobbly over mobile spinoffs. Instead of realizing that these games are designed to introduce the core ideas of a series to a new audience, they go into Highlander Mode. "THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!" Why can't Hitman have narrative oriented entries and sandbox oriented entries? Why can't Doom had horror style entries like Doom 64 and Doom 3, as well as fast paced action entries like Doom 2016? Why can't a game series have two fanbases co-existing, leaning to stronger sales and more stability overall? Why do people have to be so pissy about it? (A new game comes out, and instead of saying, "This new game is in a style I don't like. Well, not everything is for me," fans TANTRUM. Review bomb. Scream about how they've been betrayed. It's revolting behavior.)
Resident Evil cultivating a survival horror and an action fanbase is good for Resident Evil. If survival horror loses popularity, then the action side takes up the slack. If people lose interest in action, then the horror side keeps the lights on.
I came here to read if we already knew the price and saw the 60... Nope I love these guys, but 60 is too much. The Golden edition of Hitman 2 is now 50 in the European store I bought it for 100... In such a short time I've never seen a Golden Edition going down so quickly. If these two games where in the expansion then I would say it was a good deal.
Same. The recent Hitman don't have the same excitement without him.
Well Doom 64 was more of a true Doom II sequel than Doom 3, based on what I've heard about Doom 3. 64 had a darker, more horror-themed style but was still unmistakably a Doom game.
Part of the problem with all these examples is branding. These wild departures are pushed as The Next Big Thing in this franchise which makes longtime fans feel like their style of that game is being taken a way. People today think RE4 should've been a gun survivor game or the start of its own entire new franchise, similar to how Devil May Cry started as an early attempt at "Resident Evil 4" but eventually became its own successful franchise. Personally I think fixed cameras and tank controls were really outdated by that point and RE4 was a needed shot in the arm, but it also may have been too much of a shift in structure and genre, and RE7 and the RE2 remake look more like what Capcom probably should've tried to do back in the early 00's. I guess what I'm trying to say is, when franchises flip the way Hitman Absolution did, they usually don't flip back to their classic styles, or if they do it ends up taking a really long time. These franchises don't always get a Hitman 2016, a Sonic Mania, or a Doom 2016 to recapture the old flame.
Personally I also think stuff like Absolution was a result of the general market stagnation and contraction of the time when publishers had to take much safer bets. During the PS3/360 era in the AAA space it seemed like everything that wasn't a shooter or a sports game got downsized or disappeared. We've kind of emerged from that period in the current console generation.
As a big fan of Hitman 2016 and Hitman 2 I LOVED Absolution. It's what really got me into the series. Looking forward to giving Blood Money a playthrough for the first time. IO will get all of my money.
Nope. Controls feel much more responsive when it's unlocked
https://youtu.be/cwiX4X61gNE
sleepbrain: why sound so epic when it's just a murder sim
wokebrain: from a personal perspective, he is the coming Apocalypse for you.
sleepbrain: why sound so epic when it's just a murder sim
wokebrain: from a personal perspective, he is the coming Apocalypse for you.
Trophy lists are up.
https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/8625-hitman-blood-money
https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/8626-hitman-absolution-hd
Beware spoilers for both games in some of the trophy descriptions.
It seems that the online "Contracts" mode was completely cut from Absolution HD, which is unsurprising.
https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/8625-hitman-blood-money
https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/8626-hitman-absolution-hd
Beware spoilers for both games in some of the trophy descriptions.
It seems that the online "Contracts" mode was completely cut from Absolution HD, which is unsurprising.
Updated controls has me the most interested. I played the demo for Blood Money on the 360 way back and the controls were asssssss.
That's quite the bummer. For the PC version they said they would work on making it GPDR compliant and enable it back eventually.
Makes the 60$ price tag all the worse imo
For all the hate Absolution receives, it was the first Hitman game to have genuinely solid controls.
I've played this franchise since the mediocre first entry on PC and they never felt all that great to play but Absolution had a much tighter feel, especially in regards to shooting and melee.
The games that came after Absolution most assuredly benefited from these much-needed changes.
I'm actually down for playing Absolution again. Don't need Blood Money though. Just played that through X1 BC.