What did you think about the very first Hitman? Interesting to see how it started considering how much better the franchise got
Played the demo and bought the game soon after. I was enthralled by the music, atmosphere and at the time novel gameplay. I still think the music and ambiance of the game is very unique, it's dreamy and slightly forlorn due to the mudic and sometimes quite bare levels. I especially like the starting couple of levels in Hong Kong, and also Budapest (the hotel). On replays I've noticed how shitty some sections are (the jungle and Rotterdam, jesus christ nearly dropped my replay right there). Jank or not, the game will always be close to my heart.
>>12608382It's an excellent game. Very fun and there's a lot of little hidden details. >>12608430Absolutely, the jungle levels are by far the worst, though the atmosphere is good.alsoI NEED TO USE THE BATHROOM
I learned to love it.Contracts' remakes blow.
In spite of all the issues, I liked it. Until HC47 there were no other games about being a hitman (with all the planning and stuff) in a realistic environment. Felt like R6 vice versa, kind of. Sure, by some Level 3 it was obvious the game had hardly any freedom of action but I enjoyed it anyway.
>>12608382The gameplay is super rough, but thankfully like half of the missions were remade in Contracts, and the rest mostly sucked, especially the jungle, so nothing of value was lost.Sick main menu theme though, very iconic.
>>12608382It was bold and innovative, extremely forward-thinking, but it's not the most enjoyable game to play. It was really rough around the edges. It's not easy to recommend when Blood Money exists.
>>12608382This is a core child hood game for me. I remember renting it (yes renting) at a game store and then just burning it. I was pretty obsessed with it. First game I ever played that had ragdoll physics and it blew my mind. Id spend so much time messing around with the physics and making up my own missions in the levels. The hotel level was legendary
The 3D renders in this game ooze soul.
I have never bothered playing it but I know they were able to have working mirrors and ragdoll physics. Max Payne 1 came around the same time but only Max Payne 2 had the mirrors and ragdolls some years later.
>>12608810There was some thing where it looks like a different artist made every loading screen and such and he was meant to be more of a mix instead of being clearly caucasian in later games.
Got started on Hitman with Blood Money, I love it, but the older Hitman games have completely filtered me.
>>12608382I only evet played the demo and I rememebr thinking it was kinda shit. I absolutely adore the sequel, though, and I still play it to this day.
>>12608875Basically only BM and WoA embrace the sandbox mostly open-ended levels. Hitman 1-3 and Absolution have only some elements here and there, I mean they rank how you did based on stealth/aggression but they can be really linear. Contracts is maybe close to BM.
>>12608875Forgot to say that among giving you a rating after missions, they often let you choose your loadout tho even that was not always the case like you would at least have to clear the mission first with whatever and I don't remember if Absolution let you choose shit.>>12608880Do you tap shift or was it W or do you play SA straight.
>>12608382I loved and hated it. I love the trial and error format where you have to string together some perfect sequence of events like dominoes falling against each other but I hated how difficult some of the later levels were, particularly the one where you start in a jungle and have to take down some drug kingpin guy. But overall I really liked the game.I tried playing the second game immediately afterward but it felt so dumbed down I lost interest. The formula changed and it didn't feel as important to get a perfect run, which was maybe less frustrating but took away the thing I liked the most about the first game.I've never played any others since, just the first game.
>>12608882Blood Money's levels aren't that much much sanboxy than Silent Assassin's
>>12608891The only sandboxy level in SA is the demo/promo mafia mansion level and maybe some other level I forgot. In Contracts there are some pretty open levels (as in not tunnel levels) like the Meat Factory, Mansion and the Hotel from C47.In BM every level is open-ended except the tutorial which gives people the wrong idea, the White House level which is a tunnel, and the penultimate Heaven & Hell level is close to an elevator tunnel but not as much as the White House.
>>12608891Also I gotta give it to SA that there's this thing where the high profile targets will flee if there's an alert or you act out too much and that should have been in BM too at least on higher difficulties. BM did introduce backup units in the witness protection level and they should have appeared in some other levels too but they likely ran out of time and had to make sure the game runs on enough machines. Like at least the Paris and Vegas levels should have backup units appearing and obviously the White House too but that level is pretty fantasy like anyway.
>>12608914Ps. And the mardi gras level should have backups etc but they did do some or most of these ideas in later games. There were a lot I think one off ideas in BM too like the human shield (can easily be op), npcs picking up guard's weapons to shoot you. The notoriety and newspaper systems which were really beta proof of concepts but were just dropped.
>>12608909>and maybe some other level I forgotThe Stakeout, Karov Park Meeting, Invitation to a Party, Murder in the Bazaar, Temple City Ambush,Terminal HospitalityAll small, but open levels for their design, and should fit whatever definition of 'sandboxy' you might have considering you've already admitted that Anathema countsFurthermore, non-linear or not, what really matters is whether there are multiple, creative and fun manners to approach the mission, which both Silent Assassin and Contracts has plenty of.
>>12609010Yeah I had to refresh my memory by watching some SA levels on youtube and I admit there were more open levels than I remembered but not equal to BM. Especially considering not every way to complete a mission has to be silent assassin ranking in any game.BM (developed alongside Contracts partially) was the first game where they were confident that people were okay with (almost) every level being open-ended and shooting not being necessary and you were almost always able to get a silent assassin ranking so it doesn't even look like a homicide. Also in BM the levels were stuff like public gatherings or invite parties too, not james bond like military HQs and such. They were going to that direction in Contracts but the game was at least half a remake of C47. In first two entries they were afraid that no one would play the games if it didn't have some standard tunnel shoot em up levels in between.
>let's map all the movement to the number keys>don't like that? Well here's the default "WASD" layout >There are like 10 keys that control your movement, and we created this weird context menu to pick up/interact with items (point, right click, scroll wheel to selection, let go)>Let's make the combat as primitive and frustratingly inaccurate as possibleIt was obviously built to be a standard third person shooter with badly implemented stealth elements tacked on. Full disclosure I've never played it when it came out and I'm playing it now for the first time as a big nuHitman fan. It's rough and I might just go straight to Contracts or BM
>>12608875>the older Hitman games have completely filtered me.thats because they dont work. just random alerts for no fucking reason constantly.
none of you posted the Biker bar hooker dancing on the stripper pole outside!!! For shame!!
>>12608382It's not a game I would recommend to most people, but I like it. The later entries improved the stealth mechanics but the core idea behind the series is so good that even its most basic and simple iteration is still enjoyable. Like in the other games, the atmosphere and soundtrack is top notch, and The Hong Kong missions are some of my favorite in the series, even with Contracts remaking all of them. Also the voice acting is hilarious.
>>12610086They probably added rng to whether guards discover your cover or not to add tension, but it doesn't make the game fun really.
>>12610086>>12610192its not random just less transparent on what causes the alerts
>>12610203Ok I thought it was intentional that the tension meter goes up and down like crazy and then rng chooses if you get discovered. That might sound cool on paper but it would obviously be pretty bad for consistency and teaching the player the rules.
>>12608382The first 3 missions to Lee Hong Assassination is one of the biggest difficulty spikes of all time, I finally managed to beat it a few years ago but I used a guide for some missionsIt was an ambitious but very unpolished game, the sequel fixed most of the mistakes
