Hitman
Publisher:
Square Enix
Developer:
IO Interactive
Platforms:
PS4, Xbox One, PC
Genre:Action Adventure
Release Date:December 8th, 2015
Hitman is an action adventure game that relies heavily on stealth and is being developed by IO Interactive and Square Enix. The game is being developed for the PS4, Xbox One and PC and will be officially released on December 8, 2015. The game is the sixth game in the Hitman series, though this title is also set to be a bit of a relaunch that will start a series of its own. The December 8th 2015 release date is for the digital version of the game only and the retail boxed version won’t hit stores until 2016.
Development
This new Hitman was first announced by IO Interactive in January of 2014 but had its first official trailer unveiled at E3 2015 in June. The game was originally slated to be both produced and developed by Square Enix and Square Enix Montreal but the publisher eventually decided to allow IO Interactive to take the reigns, despite the fact that the development company was having some financial problems. In fact, in order to get the project back, the company needed to ditch all its other projects.
The companies have said that this iteration of Hitman is going to b more of an open world approach to the game than the series has previously seen. While the story will be different than the others, this game isn’t expected to be a full reboot. Instead it will be a different approach on the story that has already been offered up in the previous five games. The developers and the studio are looking to have a kind of evolving storyline for this game, through DLC.
Hitman will release in December of 2015 and the “story will conclude” in 2016. The retail version of the game will include all the DLC available for the digital version.
Story
Hitman once again centers around Agent 47 as he takes a number of different contracts from people all over the world. Instead of a linear storyline that was featured in previous games, the story will unfold more as Agent 47 takes down targets. This version of Agent 47 is said to be the assassin at the peak of his abilities, though not quite a prequel of any of the games that came before it.
The story for this iteration of Hitman appears to be a bit more stylized as the killer will move and live in a world where he gets to see the fruits of his labor as he takes down one contract after another. This isn’t a man living as a monk, but rather someone who enjoys getting the money from successfully completing his missions. The story will be decided by the twists and turns the player takes far more than other versions in the long running series.
Gameplay
Hitman will see Agent 47 going through a number of different missions in a exotic locales such as Paris, Italy and even Marakash. The game series has always relied on a sort of puzzle and stealth approach. This means that every mission will have a number of different ways in which players can approach their targets. There will be the ability to go in guns blazing, taking down everyone in your path and there will also be the ability to wear a costume into the target area and sneak around in order to take out the target. There will also be some missions in which the goal is to get in and get out as quietly as possible.
There will be a variety of weapons at Agent 47’s disposal in addition to his usual sniper rifle. Katanas, axes and other blades will be offered at different parts of the game. Explosives will be available for you to use as well. There will also be an opportunity for the Hitman to take out targets by disguising the contract hits as accidents. The disguises that are included throughout the game will become necessary for some of the contracts. Certain enemies will need to be defeated, and then Agent 47 will be able to wear those outfits, in order to gain access to restricted areas that much easier.
The developers have said that when comparing this iteration to previous games in the series, this Hitman is closer to Blood Money than Absolution. Each mission will have its own “Sandbox” to explore and the worlds laid out in this game will reportedly be six to seven times larger than the biggest levels in Absolution. Gameplay features from previous titles in the series are brought back in Hitman including “frisk stations.” There will also be the ability to create missions and targets such as what was offered up in Absolution.
This game is said to have as many as 300 NPCs and each one of them will react differently to Agent 47 depending on the situation laid out in front of them. Instinct mode has also been brought back to the game, though the developers have said there will be some tweaking of this mode in order to make it better and for the mode to make more sense. Smaller tweaks have been made such as earpiece communications between Agent 47 and his contact, instead of a HUD. One part of the old games that has not been brought back will be the checkpoint system. Because this game has more of an open world feel, players will be able to save in-game.
Characters
Agent 47 is the main character of this Hitman game as he has been for the previous five console games and the mobile games that have been produced as well. Diana Burnwood will serve as a kind of contact for the main character, feeding him information about the contracts he’s out to kill. There are also the people who are the intended targets as well as hundreds of other NPCs throughout the game. Most of these don’t have much backstory beyond the name of the character and why they are on Agent 47’s hit list. Additional characters will be discovered as the story plays out.
Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game