Those are my thoughts about it. I'm sure Derrick would be able to explain it much more clearly.
Hitman games are about many things for different people, what defines a Hitman game is the flexibility that is put in hands of the player. To adress some of your points:
so you can't even use instinct, which the whole game depends on?
??? This might change in later levels but im ghosting through them so far. It's forcing me to play extra careful, exploring and observing the surroundings, like i said level design did take a dive but since levels are now more compact there's less tedium when retrying new aproaches.
so if you run out of it, your stealth playthrough is pretty much screwed.
The trade mark of stealth games, many retries until you polish your run. The other alternative after that is improvisation, maybe distract the oppostion and subdue them.
then you probably sneaked past everyone, which isn't what a Hitman game is about,
I adressed this above, yet your idea of what a Hitman game is about is, oddly enough, in contradiction to what the "silent assasin" is about... that is to pass undetected and just reclaim your target.
it never makes sense then, as they never worked as I expected them to.
I.E. the group of exterminators working in the same building should know each other, so i will certainly not try to fool them using an exterminatior disguise.
which doesn't really matter in a stealth game, though I can't complain here
A well thought out control scheme doesn't matter in a stealth game... it matters for almost every game that has been developed. Safe some weird experimental stuff to evoke some kind of emotional response out of the player.
cool, so I can play this social stealth game as a straight-up shooter! (which I did, actually)
You play it the same way as all Hitman games beofre (specially after Silent Assassins)that is, the way you want to. All around shooter, stealth games or somewhere in between.
maybe I wasn't supposed to be discovered, I guess
That's your second chance to not completly f*ck the playtrough, remember you complained about runing out of instinct and the implication to your run. Let me explain, the idea of this mechanic, is to slowly walk to an isolated area and maybe getaway with knocking 1 guy out.
All the above pending of change of course, i'll give it more time to see wich way it goes.
I'll want to close up for now, by saying some people sh!ting the game didn't have the patience to play the game using the tools that were made available specifically for them. If you want oldschool Hitman, pick above expert difficulty, not a 1:1 authentic experience but it preserves most of the essence.
RealityExists said:
I'll have to wait to play it until tomorrow though.
Be sure to let us know your impressions.
seems the game is divisive in the way max payne 3 was. some people hated the modern updates, which may seem to be the case here. I enjoyed max payne 3 for what it was and I didn't play the previous entries in that series either so perhaps not having prior entries to judge hitman will fare the same results. However, if the game straight up doesn't work the way it was designed to, then I'll have no problem eviscerating it right along side you.
Not even close. Max Payne 3 totally ruins the game flow, it kills any momentun the player builds with the game. The only redeeming quality of that game is the tech that powers it, which does enhance the shooting aspect of the game. Absolution why no where near close the pinnacle of the series doesn't do such extreme sh!t to the degree Max 3 achieves.
