Hitman (Intro Pack) – Review

Hitman (Intro Pack)

Developed by: IO-Interactive

Published by: Square Enix

Released: March 12, 2016

Platforms: PS4 (Reviewed), Xbox One, PC

Price: $14.99 (Intro Pack), $59.99 (Full Game/Season Pass)

It has been 10 long years since the release of Hitman: Blood Money, and boy, has the time passed slowly. Sure, IO-Interactive released Hitman: Absolution four years ago, but that prettier version didn’t quite capture the same magic of its predecessor. The developer even released letters on its web site in response to the lukewarm reception and promised to make a better playground for the bald assassin. Well, Friday was the first step in bringing 47 back to the forefront as IO-Interactive released Hitman: The Intro Pack—or episode one of seven. So is this modern version of Hitman a worthy successor to Blood Money?

If you played the Hitman beta, you might find that episode one starts out in a very familiar way. That’s right, the first three levels are the same ones that IO-Interactive debuted earlier this month. For those who didn’t take part, here is what’s in store: Agent 47 is dropped off at a secret training facility deep in the mountains where he meets his handler, Diana. Granted, nobody knows his name yet. He’s just a mysterious recruit with exceptionally impressive skills. So, 47 is put through a three-part training to test his assassination ability.

The first mission is the basic guided tutorial in which Diana walks 47 through a training level on a yacht. The objective is to kill a thief named Kalvin Ritter before he can complete a sale of illegal goods. The guided portion is very straightforward, but it’s exceptionally helpful if you haven’t played a Hitman game before. This mission shows off the ability to knock out NPC’s, steal their clothes, and sneak around an open playground.

The second mission is a repeat of the first, only with the added ability to pull of the “hit” any way you like. 47 can dress up like police officers, deck crew, maintenance workers, and many other characters as he hunts Ritter. The “ship” is mostly a big wooden creation with cardboard walls, but it serves its purpose well. I found at least five different ways to take out Ritter in my playthroughs, but I know that there were more to discover. For such a small ship, the yacht actually offers quite a bit of freedom.

The third mission is the final test, also from tutorial, placing 47 in a paper mache/wooden version of Cuba. His objective is to take out a famous chess player named Jasper Knight. Apparently, Knight is fleeing to Russia after his secret spy background is revealed to the CIA. This training mission is the most entertaining of the three given the added security and larger size of the area. This air force base offers fewer outfits, but it’s still entertaining to mix and match between a Russian soldier, a security guard, a mechanic, and the head Russian officer. You have to be careful when choosing outfits because there are specific characters—marked by dots—that can see through your disguises.

Infiltrating the Air Force Base

There may be fewer outfits, but the assassination options have been expanded. I took out Knight by drowning him in a toilet, launching him through the hangar roof, choking him, and throwing a bust. For those keeping score, the bust is the noisiest version. According to the list of challenges in the menu, I could have pulled off the hit multiple other ways. Those four are just the ones that I had the most fun with.

This three-mission tutorial is helpful in that it introduces you to the controls and shows off opportunities, which are little side methods of killing targets. If you eavesdrop on the right people, the game will walk you through a step-by-step method of taking out enemies. The tutorial also reintroduces the instinct mode from Hitman: Absolution, which is basically Batman Vision from Arkham Asylum. You can use Instinct to keep track of targets and scan the environment for helpful clues. Opportunities and instinct are both helpful, but they can be turned off if the missions become too easy, or if you want to be a purist.

Instinct Mode

Once you complete the Jasper Knight mission, you complete the tutorial segment and finally open up the main game. The final mission of the intro pack is a dual hit set at a huge fashion show in Paris, with emphasis on “huge”. Seriously, this map includes a four-story palace with surrounding gardens, parking lots, and a pyrotechnic boat. It’s very easy to get lost while trying to take out the two characters running the fashion show, and some playthrough attempts can take up to two hours. It’s ridiculous in a very good way.

The fashion show is by far the most complicated map of the three, but with good reason. The sheer amount of outfits and assassination methods make the tutorials look bare by comparison. For example, you can roam around dressed as a supermodel, a security guard, a chef, a waiter, or a sheik. There are obviously drawbacks to each outfit, and finding them all takes a lot of practice. Some security guards can go through the entire palace, but they may run into NPC’s that see through the disguise. Waiters, on the other hand, are limited to the bottom two floors. These pros and cons can be difficult to manage, especially when you are watching out for security cameras and other outside factors. This mission can get frustrating if you almost reach the end and screw up in a random way, losing an hour of progress, but IO includes some helpful features to keep this from happening.

She Stuck to a Desk. Not My Fault.

Similar to Blood Money, Hitman has a set number of slots that you can use to periodically save your game throughout the mission. This comes in very handy if you want to test a theory but don’t want to restart an entire mission. Hitman also has a set number of autosave slots that save your bacon when you forget to record your progress. Granted, die-hard Hitman players don’t save their games mid-mission, but us “common folk” need a little bit of extra help. The save games also come in handy when the game breaks, wrecking your progress on a hit. Unfortunately, weird glitches occasionally happen during missions, such as a when one of the targets couldn’t go through a door. I tried to drag the body onto a patio seven different times. Each time, the target’s arm would randomly attach to a desk or door jam, causing the body to flail around and launch across the room. It was hilarious to watch at the time, but I still needed to complete the mission. Luckily, I was able to reload the previous autosave and finish without any more issues.

Loadout Heaven

Another returning addition to Hitman is the ability to plan your loadout before a mission. 47 has access to different weapons and gadgets like lockpicks, poison syringes, and rubber ducks. Switching them around depending on strategy is very entertaining, and it completely changes your playstyle. Try going into a mission without garrotes. Of course, there is also the new addition of choosing which suit to wear into the mission. This choice doesn’t particularly affect the mission, but it’s a nice little touch. Why use the regular old black suit when you can rock the white suit from Blood Money’s epilogue?

White Suits Are Always Awesome

There may only be one actual mission after the tutorial, but the content doesn’t end there. Hitman has some extra modes to enhance the fun, including Contracts, Elusive Targets, and the PlayStation exclusive Sarajevo Six. Contracts mode gives you the ability to go through each mission, mark up to five new enemies, and choose your preferred method of assassination for each one. Once the mission is complete, you can upload it and share with other Hitman players around the world. These contracts are an entertaining new way to play through the levels, especially when you try to fulfill the unique requirements set by other players. These requirements are great because you can earn a ton of points for completing every objective, meaning that you have a higher place on the online leaderboards. Who doesn’t like comparing their assassinations with other players?

My Crowning Achievement.

Elusive Target and The Sarajevo Six are both very similar to Contracts mode, but these two are sole creations of IO. Elusive Target tasks you with finding a specific enemy that could be gone at a moment’s notice. You don’t get to attempt the hit more than once, and if you screw up, the target is gone forever. The Sarajevo Six, on the other hand, is centered on six war criminals that need to be dealt with. Each member of the Sarajevo Six is placed in a different episode of Hitman, with the first being present at the fashion show. The other five will be released alongside the upcoming levels throughout 2016.

The intro pack of Hitman isn’t the biggest package on the planet…that came out wrong; however, it’s a fantastic intro to possibly the best stealth series around. The changes to instinct and suspicion are welcome, and the new hardware gives IO the ability to craft massive playgrounds to enjoy. Even better, IO completely crams the levels full of special outfits and little Easter Eggs that just make me smile with joy. If you look carefully at the parking lots during the Paris level, you notice multiple catering vans with the Mini Ninjas logo. Hopefully this means that the adorable ninja franchise isn’t dead and a Mini Ninjas 2 is a possibility.

Is Hiro the Caterer?

If you love Hitman and want to continuously explore the playgrounds, then this is definitely the game for you. The game plays great, and there are multiple options for practicing your assassination abilities. I would recommend buying the $59.99 version now because it’s cheaper in the long run, and you will automatically get the other episodes as they appear for download. However, If you only want a story and don’t care about downloadable contracts and the side modes, well you may want to give this a pass or wait for some more levels to drop in the coming months. At least you can check the game out for $14.99 and then buy the $49.99 upgrade later.