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HITMAN |Beta Thread| The original assassin. [PS4+PC]

TheMoon

Member
TheMoon, BernardoOne, More_Badass

I just wish all of this wasn't so simple. Absolution was extremely hard game on max difficulty level and not just because the disguise system was broken. In Absolution even a single mistake can ruin the whole thing for you, but when you flawlessly finished the mission you will feel yourself like a bad ass and some kind of fucking mastermind who just killed a target and removed all of the evidence from the entire level without even a single suspicion from anyone and without any help. But here and at least in tutorial it's... well, all of this is just completely lacking for me. I want this game to be much harder and I hope in the end it will be.


Peace.

You realize the beta does not have difficulty levels and, again, is a tutorial prologue?
 

Profanity

Member
Back out the window doesn't work for me, Agent 47 automatically goes to the wrong side of the window, and to go to the right side you need to skip to the other side, and that will make the guard below automatically notice me. And yeah, I could not coin the first dude but I wanted to make sure the mechanics wouldn't notice me.

That's weird, 47 always mantled out towards the pipe for me. Not sure what decides which angle to go out, but I was playing on M/KB so maybe there's a bug that needs to be fixed there?
 

MUnited83

For you.
That's weird, 47 always mantled out towards the pipe for me. Not sure what decides which angle to go out, but I was playing on M/KB so maybe there's a bug that needs to be fixed there?

I'm using a controller. I will try and check if it behaves differently with M/KB. It would have made the run easier. Although I loved what I come up with to sneak out from the front. Glorious coins.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
So does it even matter if this is a tutorial mission if you can approach it as you see fit? What's the difference here between tutorial and not tutorial mission? To be honest with you I don't see a huge difference.

The whole of the beta is very clearly a tutorial.

I think the point of the boat section, in the first instance, is to guide you through a typical hit; to show the player what it looks like to succeed. The freeform section of the boat mission, teaches the player to look for the multiple ways to conduct a hit; to develop "eyes" for the solutions. The Final Test is specifically to teach you about the Opportunities mechanic, of which there are several.

At the same time, these freeform sections are given replay value so that the resources spent on them aren't wasted, since 50% of the first instalment will be made up of them.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
You realize the beta does not have difficulty levels and, again, is a tutorial prologue?
Yep. But it shouldn't be so simple too putting aside the boat level

Having completed Absolution at the max difficulty back on PS3: yeah, it's hard, but at that difficulty it's no longer a Hitman game at all. It's Splinter Cell, and I'd prefer for Hitman to be Hitman and Splinter Cell be Splinter Cell.
Nah, it's not Splinter Cell at all, it's just that disguise system is broken that's why you need to use cover a lot try to stay in the shadows and try not to fuck up. I just like what IO did with Absolution and it's checkpoint system (which also not working properly), but all these flaws is making you better at the game and help you improve your skills and use your brain a lot, and that a fantastic achievement in my opinion, such a shame that almost no one appreciate this and now we're getting this episodic thing.

IO tried to do something completely different with Absolution, something really different and alot more satisfying in the end, but some of you hated it (or just didn't understand the meaning of it), just because the game was so different from Blood Money, just because the disguise and checkpoint system was broken, just because levels was more linear and...

*sigh*

I really hope all of this was worth it, because now there's no way of turning back to Absolution to try and improve the things that was broken in it and make an even better game. All that was good in Absolution is lost forever now and all hard work that was put into it too. And it's a real shame, it really is.
 
IO tried to do something completely different with Absolution, something really different and alot more satisfying in the end, but some of you hated it (or just didn't understand the meaning of it), just because the game was so different from Blood Money, just because the disguise and checkpoint system was broken, just because levels was more linear and...

*sigh*
You can't understand why people disliked a Hitman game with more linear segmented levels and a broken disguise system?
 

Profanity

Member
Nah, it's not Splinter Cell at all, it's just that disguise system is broken that's why you need to use cover a lot try to stay in the shadows and try not to fuck up. I just like what IO did with Absolution and it's checkpoint system (which also not working properly), but all these flaws is making you better at the game and help you improve your skills and use your brain a lot, and that a fantastic achievement in my opinion, such a shame that almost no one appreciate this and now we're getting this episodic thing.

IO tried to do something completely different with Absolution, something really different and alot more satisfying in the end, but some of you hated it (or just didn't understand the meaning of it), just because the game was so different from Blood Money, just because the disguise and checkpoint system was broken, just because levels was more linear and...

*sigh*

I really hope all of this was worth it, because now there's no way of turning back to Absolution to try and improve the things that was broken in it and make an even better game. All that was good in Absolution is lost forever now and all hard work that was put into it too. And it's a real shame, it really is.

You're really not going to get any sympathy with these opinions, I'm afraid. The vast majority regard Blood Money as the high point of the series, and Absolution as the opposite. The fact that IO recognised the backlash and are effectively making Blood Money 2 is a pretty big clue that you're not going to get the kind of game you want here.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
IO tried to do something completely different with Absolution, something really different and alot more satisfying in the end, but some of you hated it (or just didn't understand the meaning of it), just because the game was so different from Blood Money, just because the disguise and checkpoint system was broken, just because levels was more linear and...

*sigh*

They did try something different with Absolution, not just from Blood Money, but from the entire series. Ironically, that difference made it less unique and more like a generic third person stealth game, something the series had never been.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
You can't understand why people disliked a Hitman game with more linear segmented levels and a broken disguise system?
I can, damn, I dislike that disguise system is broken and absolutely everyone can see through it being at another end of the map (which is fucking stupid, dumb as hell and not even remotely realistic - thank god the new game improves things a lot in this regard), and levels aren't linear in Absolution, they were big enough for you to explore (and it was interesting and a lot of fun exploring levels, finding clues, evidence and other stuff) and just consisted of several parts connected with each other. Sure, you can't go back to previous levels (just as you can't do it in previous games) and at that sense yes, you're right, the game is linear, but not the levels, they are just not that big like the second level in Blood Money for example.

They did try something different with Absolution, not just from Blood Money, but from the entire series. Ironically, that difference made it less unique and more like a generic third person stealth game, something the series had never been.
It is not a generic stealth game, not in the slightest.

You're really not going to get any sympathy with these opinions, I'm afraid.
Oh, believe me, I know.

The vast majority regard Blood Money as the high point of the series
But I do too and I also understand what IO tried to do with Absolution and appreciate it alot even with its flaws (only 2 in the entire game in my opinion). Сan someone guess why is that? I'm sure it is really not common here.

The fact that IO recognised the backlash and are effectively making Blood Money 2 is a pretty big clue that you're not going to get the kind of game you want here.
You and I can't know for sure right now. Only time will tell.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
...levels aren't linear in Absolution, they were big enough for you to explore (and it was interesting) and just consisted of several parts.

I can recall about 3 or 4 levels that weren't obviously corridors or simply poorly disguised corridors.

I also recall 4 or 5 levels that were only in the game to advance the story, had less than a handful of routes, and were a complete waste of time.

It is not a generic stealth game, not in the slightest.

Compared to the rest of the series, which are primarily stealth puzzle games, I'm afraid it was.
 

Profanity

Member
You and I can't know for sure right now. Only time will tell.

I mean, unless the other four unrevealed levels turn out to be incredibly segmented and linear, impressions from the alpha about Paris and the fact that Sapienza is even larger and more diverse are a pretty dead cert. Paris itself has 300 unique NPCs, and 1600 total factoring in the crowd system, with 100 accidents crafted by IO and who knows how many more once player ingenuity is let loose.

The entire ethos of the game is underpinned by their open letter posted at the reveal. Nothing we have seen so far contradicts the content of that pledge.

I'm struggling to identify what it is you liked about Absolution so much, beyond the segmented levels. Could you elaborate?
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
I mean, unless the other four unrevealed levels turn out to be incredibly segmented and linear, impressions from the alpha about Paris and the fact that Sapienza is even larger and more diverse are a pretty dead cert. Paris itself has 300 unique NPCs, and 1600 total factoring in the crowd system, with 100 accidents crafted by IO and who knows how many more once player ingenuity is let loose.

The entire ethos of the game is underpinned by their open letter posted at the reveal. Nothing we have seen so far contradicts the content of that pledge.

I'm struggling to identify what it is you liked about Absolution so much, beyond the segmented levels. Could you elaborate?
Well, I've already told why...

Absolution was extremely hard game on max difficulty level and not just because the disguise system was broken. In Absolution even a single mistake can ruin the whole thing for you, but when you flawlessly finished the mission you will feel yourself like a bad ass and some kind of fucking mastermind who just killed a target and removed all of the evidence from the entire level without even a single suspicion from anyone and without any help.

Not only that, but the game's checkpoint system encourage you to you use your brain a lot and I really like that, it's like in Souls series where you can lose 1 000 000 souls and a lot of time just because of a stupid mistake and because of that you trying to be better, improve your skills and feeling good about yourself and confident that you can move a mountain by just using your brain. I hope you'll understand what I'm saying . No other Hitman game gives me such a satisfaction upon completion of the mission with Silent Assassin rating and I'm not joking. That is an achievement in itself.

Plus, I like the narrative thing and approach to the characters in this game, which is absolutely non existent in previous games at all. Absolution was like a huge and awesome road trip in terms of narrative and it is was a more personal story with cool characters which had their own history, lore and stuff which motivates you to kill them not because some one told you to, but because you want to do this yourself by getting to know them better and because of the things they've done which you will have an opportunity to see with your own eyes. In previous games you were told to kill this target just because he or she did something wrong and that's it, character and world development was non existent, the world was just a decoration and characters was just an NPC you need to kill without a personality what so ever. It was like just go and kill, nothing more, nothing less. In Absolution IO change that and I really appreciate it cuz they've shown to us that they can do a lot more than we think they can do, but because some of you dislike it a lot now there's absolutely no chance that we get something like that again in new games, which is hurting my soul and heart.

But the most disappointing and bad thing about this is that all the hard work that was put into all this by IO was apparently for nothing. And I know that you absolutely can't please everyone by changing so significantly something that people love, but when by the most part no one appreciate this... that's when you start and think that you did something wrong when you actually didn't.
 

Profanity

Member
Not only that, but the game's checkpoint system encourage you to you use your brain a lot and I really like that, it's like in Souls series where you can lose 1 000 000 souls and a lot of time just because of a stupid mistake and because of that you trying to be better, improve your skills and feeling good about yourself and confident that you can move a mountain by just using your brain. I hope you'll understand what I'm saying . No other Hitman game gives me such a satisfaction upon completion of the mission with Silent Assassin rating and I'm not joking. That is an achievement in itself.

Plus, I like the narrative thing and approach to the characters in this game, which is absolutely non existent in previous games at all. Absolution was like a huge and awesome road trip in terms of narrative and it is was a more personal story with cool characters which had their own history, lore and stuff which motivates you to kill them not because some one told you to, but because you want to do this yourself by getting to know them better and because of the things they've done which you will have an opportunity to see with your own eyes.

I just don't get why you think that's more impressive and rewarding than doing say a suit only/SA/no save run of something like House of Cards or Curtains Down, considering they're larger and more intricate levels than Absolution's segmentations? The BM runs are more rewarding, surely, since they require more time and planning to pull off in one go, right? Hitman 2016 will no doubt push this further with even larger levels, the live assassinations and contracts mode (which was, for my money, the best part of Absolution by far). I'll put money down that people will come up with some utterly devious hits in Paris alone.

The narrative is a matter of opinion, but it's never been Hitman's strong suit and I thought Absolution's effort was utterly dire. It's always worked best as a simple framing device for a series of mostly unconnected hits, such as Contracts and Blood Money.
 
I just don't get why you think that's more impressive and rewarding than doing say a suit only/SA/no save run of something like House of Cards or Curtains Down, considering they're larger and more intricate levels than Absolution's segmentations? The BM runs are more rewarding, surely, since they require more time and planning to pull off in one go, right? Hitman 2016 will no doubt push this further with even larger levels, the live assassinations and contracts mode (which was, for my money, the best part of Absolution by far). I'll put money down that people will come up with some utterly devious hits in Paris alone.

The narrative is a matter of opinion, but it's never been Hitman's strong suit and I thought Absolution's effort was utterly dire.
You didn't enjoy the story of a crazy CEO and his wrestler bodyguard going after a genetically engineered girl, while 47 evades latex nun assassins?
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
You didn't enjoy the story of a crazy CEO and his wrestler bodyguard going after a genetically engineered girl, while 47 evades latex nun assassins?

I'm not ashamed to admit that I quite liked the bolded for its grindhouse quality. In a series where The Meat King holds those kind of parties, they didn't seem all that out of place. Shame about the levels they were on.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
You didn't enjoy the story of a crazy CEO and his wrestler bodyguard going after a genetically engineered girl, while 47 evades latex nun assassins?
YrBuMlx.gif

My man. I know the story is stupid as fuck in Absolution, but there's absolutely no need to try and think about it that much, it needs to be enjoyed for what it is and for its weirdness, just like Grindhouse movies for example. It's not the story that was so great, it was andventure, characters and everything related to all this which no other Hitman game has.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
YrBuMlx.gif

My man. I know the story is stupid as fuck in Absolution, but there's absolutely no need to try and think about it that much, it needs to be enjoyed for what it is and for its weirdness, just like Grindhouse movies for example. It's not the story that was so great, it was andventure, characters and everything related to all this which no other Hitman game has.

I wouldn't call it weird though, it seems to me to be a very generic action movie plot (hero protects girl on the run from an organisation he used to work for). The villains are paper thin, uninteresting, and don't deserve the time they're given. Hell, the entire plot is given way too much time, which negatively affects the actual game (something the series had avoided till that point). The nuns are, for me, an exception; they're a quirky hit-squad that act as a kind of mini-boss that fit that kind of universe. They wouldn't have been out of place in, say, Contracts.

Speaking of Hitman: Contracts: that is weird. Quite unsettling in places too. Best of the bunch in my opinion, rehashed levels and all.
 
Agent 4seven, I think that barcode has finally seeped into your brain because you are being incredibly harsh on a beta's prologue mission for being too easy.

There are many TPS games that will scratch your linear-shootout-adventure-insane-difficulty itch. The only alternative for a real Hitman game is Akheline's Gun which doesn't come out until March and we have no idea how good it is. You can skip this title if you don't enjoy it for its non-Absolution roots.
 
Just finished the beta and now March 11th can't come soon enough.

Also, am I high or is there really someone in this thread wishing this game was more like Absolution?
 

justjim89

Member
How do I get the officer to kill Knight with the projector? Turning the power off doesn't seem to work. Also, I can't find the crowbar anywhere in the airfield.
 

Terra_Ex

Member
How do I get the officer to kill Knight with the projector? Turning the power off doesn't seem to work. Also, I can't find the crowbar anywhere in the airfield.
What I did was:
Get the projector slides, put them in the projector. Wait for the KGB officer and Knight to meet and wander over (placing the vodka bottle in the Commandante's room may be a requirement for this, don't poison either glass, naturally). When they're looking at the projector, switch the power off outside. Go back inside, Knight will start fiddling with the projector and the officer will proceed outside.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Agent 4seven, I think that barcode has finally seeped into your brain because you are being incredibly harsh on a beta's prologue mission for being too easy.
I know but... it's not because a want to just shit on the game without no apparent reason. Please understand.

There are many TPS games that will scratch your linear-shootout-adventure-insane-difficulty itch. The only alternative for a real Hitman game is Akheline's Gun which doesn't come out until March and we have no idea how good it is.
Hitman was never been TPS (and Absolution too), only lazy and dumb people playing the game like that. It is good that IO giving us a option, but I don't give a damn about it being in the game, just like some of the streamlined things in Absolution that makes the game a lot more easy for newcomers.

You can skip this title if you don't enjoy it for its non-Absolution roots.
Um... what? So you want me to skip the game just because I don't like prologue / tutorial? NFW in the universe. For a start I need to see the first big location (which will be available March 11th) and then I'll decide what to do next.
 

MUnited83

For you.
How do I get the officer to kill Knight with the projector? Turning the power off doesn't seem to work. Also, I can't find the crowbar anywhere in the airfield.

Turn the power off, wait for Knight to try to fix it. When he's trying to fix it, turn the power back on and he will be electrified. If the coronel is in the same room, you only need to do the power off, the coronel will come out by himself to turn the power on and he will kill Knight instead.
 

Moff

Member
is there a way to get around the 2 technicians at the start of the second missions so you don't have to listen the their dialogue every time?
 

TheMoon

Member
i5 2500
GTX560 1GB
4GB RAM

everything on low or turned off. game actually runs and is playable but a bit stuttery (don't have an fps counter on but guesstimating 20-25fps-ish?!?)

overall quite happy considering the min requirements :D

Just for fun I just tried turning up my gfx settings and turning on steam's fps counter. I was actually in the 30-40fps range with my machine lol. And I then tried turning on/up some settings and stayed in the 30fps range with medium settings. This all worked out way better than I thought. Cross-posting this to performance thread.

Now back to gameplay talk.

Run 1:
I went back to Final Test, turned off all of the HUD stuff except for Attention and NPC Icons and tried to SA+SO my way through as my second playthrough of that mission. It all worked out quite well, didn't even need to take out the first guard but then I got distracted by the Chess game on the table and the target and his escort walked back in so I knocked them out quickly, snapped target's neck and dumped them in the box in the bathroom.

Then tried sneaking my way out but that guard at the stairs noticed me after I snuck past him and did the coin thing with the two guards in the room below so I had to knock him out as well to get rid of him. Managed to get through the guard room easily, though. Those coins really are pure magic. SA went out the window but at least I got my SO box ticked with some improvisation.

Run 2:
Went back, same idea but I wanted to do it faster this time, too. So I discovered the two talking mechanics at the start are essentially blind since you can just scale the fence even though one of them is pretty much looking straight at you but anyhoo. Crouch-running all the way to the drain pipe is fairly easy to do, too. You can do this all in the first cycle technically so that the patrolling guard starts walking back to the gate shortly after you arrive at the pipe. Problem is, those two mechanics then start interrupting this clean run with their scripted route into the hangar.

Screw that, I see and climb up anyway. Of course they spot me and, boy, will I be in big trouble later when mom comes home! I climb into the target's room and still knock out the escort guard, put on his clothes and dump him in the box. Meanwhile everyone rushes into the office and starts looking for weird that weird dude who climbed around outside. I walk past them, trying to find the target and get the "shoot him while disguised as an officer" challenge in this botched run but I lose him downstairs since I'm not familiar with his escape route/script yet. And to top it all off, I run straight into one of the guards who sees through my disguise and I die in a shootout in the office area downstairs.

---

So I guess that puts a nail in that "you have to reload or the dumb AI is just gonna stand there and let itself get picked off one by one" / "escalation recovery isn't possible/sucks" argument.

Even this simple prologue mission lets you not only approach the target in numerous ways, you can also experiment with recovery/improvisation/escalation/optimization a lot already. To me, all of this suggests great things for the final game.

is there a way to get around the 2 technicians at the start of the second missions so you don't have to listen the their dialogue every time?

funnily enough, I answered this while writing this long ass post :D

see "Run 2" paragraph :)
 

TheMoon

Member
Had another go at Final Test ... messed up again and then walked around in the KGB officer's uniform to look at the level. Totally didn't realize you could go around the right side of the building right from the spawn point too.

edit: this is what I mean by messing up, btw. Classic Hitman^^

oopsmyaje.jpg
 

MUnited83

For you.
Just for fun I just tried turning up my gfx settings and turning on steam's fps counter. I was actually in the 30-40fps range with my machine lol. And I then tried turning on/up some settings and stayed in the 30fps range with medium settings. This all worked out way better than I thought. Cross-posting this to performance thread.

Now back to gameplay talk.

Run 1:
I went back to Final Test, turned off all of the HUD stuff except for Attention and NPC Icons and tried to SA+SO my way through as my second playthrough of that mission. It all worked out quite well, didn't even need to take out the first guard but then I got distracted by the Chess game on the table and the target and his escort walked back in so I knocked them out quickly, snapped target's neck and dumped them in the box in the bathroom.

Then tried sneaking my way out but that guard at the stairs noticed me after I snuck past him and did the coin thing with the two guards in the room below so I had to knock him out as well to get rid of him. Managed to get through the guard room easily, though. Those coins really are pure magic. SA went out the window but at least I got my SO box ticked with some improvisation.

Run 2:
Went back, same idea but I wanted to do it faster this time, too. So I discovered the two talking mechanics at the start are essentially blind since you can just scale the fence even though one of them is pretty much looking straight at you but anyhoo. Crouch-running all the way to the drain pipe is fairly easy to do, too. You can do this all in the first cycle technically so that the patrolling guard starts walking back to the gate shortly after you arrive at the pipe. Problem is, those two mechanics then start interrupting this clean run with their scripted route into the hangar.

Screw that, I see and climb up anyway. Of course they spot me and, boy, will I be in big trouble later when mom comes home! I climb into the target's room and still knock out the escort guard, put on his clothes and dump him in the box. Meanwhile everyone rushes into the office and starts looking for weird that weird dude who climbed around outside. I walk past them, trying to find the target and get the "shoot him while disguised as an officer" challenge in this botched run but I lose him downstairs since I'm not familiar with his escape route/script yet. And to top it all off, I run straight into one of the guards who sees through my disguise and I die in a shootout in the office area downstairs.

---

So I guess that puts a nail in that "you have to reload or the dumb AI is just gonna stand there and let itself get picked off one by one" / "escalation recovery isn't possible/sucks" argument.

Even this simple prologue mission lets you not only approach the target in numerous ways, you can also experiment with recovery/improvisation/escalation/optimization a lot already. To me, all of this suggests great things for the final game.



funnily enough, I answered this while writing this long ass post :D

see "Run 2" paragraph :)
I wonder if you throw a coin close to the mechanics at the beggining will give you enough time to go up the pipe before they arrive.
Edit: yep, this works fine.
 

d00d3n

Member
Anyone else who found the public display of achievements when completing the boat level (the first time) to be kind of a spoiler? It would have been fun to experiment and find those methods out, but they spelled everything out in the achievement descriptions.
 
Anyone else who found the public display of achievements when completing the boat level (the first time) to be kind of a spoiler? It would have been fun to experiment and find those methods out, but they spelled everything out in the achievement descriptions.

I get the feeling that in later levels, it will not be trivial to figure out how to accomplish something even when you know you can do it.
 

justjim89

Member
5 hours of playtime to get all the challenges done. Really looking forward to wringing all I can out of each episode.

Also, is this game kinda retconning Diana? I always pictured her to be late 20's, early 30's in earlier games. Especially what we see of her in Blood Money. But this is set 20 years before Hitman proper and she already looks to be in her mid-to-late 30's. It's a small detail, but it's been throwing me off.

Of course, I'm still puzzled by where this takes place in relation to Codename 47. Are they just kinda rebooting the universe?
 

Adry9

Member
A little more than 4h and all the challenges completed. I was a bit skeptical with the episodic releases but now I can totally see it working, I hope IO delivers.
 

ngt

Member
I just wish all of this wasn't so simple. Absolution was extremely hard game on max difficulty level.

I was going to disagree, but then I realized I've actually never finished it on purist. Anyway, what I didn't like about Absolution was that each level was divided to separate sections. Even if you messed something up, you were fine as long as you managed to get to the next part. This certainly made the game easier.
 

Moff

Member
just finished the silent assassin, suit only challenge for the second mission, which means I did all challenges now
and I am super happy with this.
I admit, I did not hate Absolution, I actually enjoyed it, but blood money was so much better.
and this new Hitman feels so much like Blood Money, but with all the improvements of Absolution, which is exactly what I always hoped for, and what IO promised they'd deliver. and they did.
I did not have serious AI problems like others did and if the whole game is like that but with bigger levels I will absolutely adore it and be happy to do all the limited events and contracts.
 

justjim89

Member
A Silent Assassin, Suit Only Speedrun of The Final Test from a friend of mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt0nT5rcgXI

He's been trying to log into the game's official forums to give feedback, but keeps on getting server errors. Anybody here posting there?

Never thought about using gunshots as a distraction, that's smart.

I'm curious as to how much the detection timers will decrease on harder difficulties, because they're already incredibly tight.
 
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