NullPointer
Member
My first thought too.
Those intro stages are truly the kiddie pool. Then you get tossed into an ocean ;p
I've put most of my time into Paris and I still have plenty to learn about it. It really shows how the episodic model makes sense, as you're missing it to only run through it once or even a dozen times.
Reminds me of learning the maps in Rainbow Six Siege a bit. Like you can just get the basic layout of rooms, hallways and ladders pretty quickly, but thats far from the whole picture. You also have to take in the windows, the breakable and unbreakable surfaces of the walls and floors and ceilings, and you start to re-examine the place like you're the architect with the blueprints. Then you're looking at walls for interesting kill-hole placement, or where you can blow a whole in the floor to reach another area quickly, and even down to the particular furniture in each room for attacks, defense and drone placement. Each level slowly reveals each of its layers over time and through play.
Hitman's intricate sandboxes are no different. You get the layout, sure (and even that takes some time considering how large they are). But then you start figuring out where the main players move, when they're guarded and when not. Which NPC roles are allowed in to each area, where the bosses and guards are. Where items you can put to crafty uses are, where to hide weapons, the works. And each time you do another run, you know a bit more, you're a bit faster, you're more calm and in control and seem like that slick bald killer who knows how the level is playing out. Its magic.
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