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[namajnaG]

I don't know if I'm the only one in this community to enjoy the series, But I've been a big fan of the Hitman series for some time, A good friend grabbed Silent Assassin back in 2002 at a local store and we used to play it pretty much every day after school, I've been in love with the series ever since.
I saw an Absolution gameplay trailer several months ago and wasn't all that impressed so I was turned off from it, But I decided to do a bit of reading about the upcoming fifth installment this morning, And to be quite frank, I was almost outraged at the ridiculous aspects the game has turned into, Seems like another good series is being ruined by the "I'm 10 years old and I can't play games without having someone hold my hand through the whole game" factor.

First of all, They implemented a "Instinct Mode", This will allow you to wallhax and see where the enemies are going next... Wasn't it the whole point of the game to guess what the enemies are going to do next and do the smartest thing that comes into your mind to overcome the encounters? No more strategy, I guess.
Then, I've read that there's going to be the typical scripted, Linear storyline that most games nowadays have. The fourth installment of the series was scripted as well, But not enough for me to be turned off from the game.

Will there no more be open maps with several routes and alternate ways to complete your objectives, Such as hiding your gun into a world object and carry it around, Disguising and infiltrating different areas with taking the highest precautions possible to not get unmasked, Having different repercussions on enemies depending on what you are doing, What you are wearing and what actions you take? I hope not...

There's also a slow-motion mode, And a way that you can tag your enemies to take them down easily, Such as in Red Dead Redemption, This leaves me into the doubt that whether this is going to be a stealth-based game or a shoot 'em up, Like they did with the fifth Splinter Cell installment, Which is even more deceiving.
It has been said that there will be a "hardcore mode", But I still have doubts about it, If the campaign was said to be linear and scripted, Whether there is a hardcore mode or not wouldn't change much since the game itself would be relatively easy to follow and pass through.

Despite my judgement , I hate the fact that I will have to try that game and play through it because I played through all previous installments, And I have to know whether this game is going to be enjoyable or a total deception.

Any insights/expectations on the game from any of you?

[Mangley]

I'm gonna swoop in and disagree with certain points you make. I've been a fan of the series since Silent Assassin too.

The instinct mode is a replacement for the Satellite view which tracked NPCs and displayed their current position and heading in realtime. Fundamentally it serves the same purpose, but does so without forcing you to spend half the mission staring at a really bland full-screen VGUI interface waiting for guards to turn around. The instinct mode can be disabled and is also, to my knowledge, not present in the Expert difficulty, just as the Satellite view only displayed targets in Expert. Instinct gives you progressively less information on the harder difficulties.

Objectively speaking it does the same job but streamlines the information that people used the Satellite view for anyway. It's also completely optional.

I don't believe the levels will be less linear than the previous titles. You'll still be able to complete your objectives and take out targets in different ways as before. A game being 'scripted' isn't always a negative thing. All of the previous games were entirely scripted too, all of the natural routes and actions of NPCs were scripted and the same each time. I don't think an open-world would provide enough of a streamlined experience for what Hitman games try to deliver, to be honest. It can really detract from the story or the focus of each mission if you actually have to explore and spend a lot of time getting from A to B.

The AI in previous games was notoriously silly and buggy too, I think they're really trying to make it work in a more realistic way this time. There were so many quirks in the previous games, like running at full speed would raise your suspicion but you could tap sprint and go pretty fast and it would be treated the same as walking.

As for slow motion I think that may be a mistake, I can't say I know too much about that feature. But I certainly know that theyr'e trying to broaden the game to not punish you for playing in different ways, like giving you a bad rating for going around plugging all the enemies in the back of the head with a silenced pistol (one of my favourite past-times) would give you a negative rating, even if you pulled it off to perfection. The only way to get a perfect rating was to sneak around with fiber wire for 40 minutes like a doofus only for guards to get alerted and then you restart the mission.

All in all I think they're trying to do a good thing by broadening the different ways that you can play the missions and making it a more interesting and open experience. I give them credit for deciding to change things up instead of going for a 'safe' copy-paste experience from the previous games and really broaden the appeal and the enjoyment people can get from the game.

[namajnaG]

You make appealing points, And I personally wouldn't have used the tracking system if I ever had to play. I barely used the map in the other games.
About linearity, What I said here is simply what I read over in internet posts about the game and such. What has been said is the levels would have been told to be more linear, Not less, But we'll see about it, I liked the variety in all those sweet cold-blooded murders, I hope they keep it that way.
I knew about the scripting events too such as guard routes and actions, What I'm afraid of is if assassinations/actions taken by the player will be scripted, Such as cinematics and added special effects for a "dramatic" or "epic" feeling.
 
Exaggerated example : You enter the room of the target, You get a small cutscene where 47 and the target speaks for a while, Then he goes bat-shit scared, Places himself in front of a window, And then you have no choice but to shoot him, Thus when you do that, He flies through the window, Falls down into a bunch of boxes, Makes a lot of noise and now because of that you have no choice but to run away because your cover was blown.

But what I mean't by open-world is more of an open area, Where you can reach the majority of areas that are available to you and not just follow a walkway through success, I might have explained my point incorrectly there, This mostly covers the topic about variation of objective completion and multiple paths.

I simply hope it will be faithful to the original titles, Whilst still adding new content, I'm not against it, But I just want them to focus mainly on what the game is supposed to be at first and focus too much into making the game too familiar for rookies, Like other game companies are doing nowadays. Split it out 50/50.

[RogerMooreSucks]

This was and is by far the worst edition from the hitman Series. I will not even give this game a rating because if I did it would be a negative number.