Picture it: the new Morocco location releases in May and once you’ve crossed the assassination targets off your checklist, explored the sandbox, and taken part in the developer events, you decide to try your skills back in Paris. This time you have a keener eye for your environment, and a couple of fresh angles to take. Perhaps you worked out a new way to utilize fire alarms, or discovered that using a wrench to alter something in the environment could give you the upper-hand in a tricky situation. This gives players a reason to go back and give an earlier mission another try.
With the gameplay in order, there are those concerned about how the story will work in this episodic format. In a news post on the official Hitman website, IO Interactive stated that the episodic content drops will allow individual stories to be centered on Agent 47’s targets, as well as longer season stories involving 47 and the other characters. While the overall narrative and individual mission stories may run alongside one another toward the beginning, the later content drops will merge the stories together to give answers to those who are interested in the bigger picture.
We don’t know many details about the shady organization that Agent 47 is now working for, but this, along with the motives for eliminating each target, will become clear as each piece of content drops. It’s a method that can potentially satisfy players with each episode, while also giving enough intrigue to have them look out for what comes next.
The beta gave a small taste of this approach to narrative. The cutscenes that we mentioned before gave insight into Agent 47’s motives. They provided just enough context to keep players driven to discover more. Yet, they made sure not to give up too much of the plot. Important story details for your target, however, were delivered through mission briefs.
This two-pronged approach to narrative allows for those who want something deeper to receive that over the course of the episodes, while those who just want to play get mission specific information. There is no punishment for jumping around and ignoring the bigger picture, and that story in turn becomes an added bonus for those who want it. If you do become fully engrossed in Agent 47’s storyline, eagerly awaiting the next drop of episodic content will just be like waiting for the next episode of your favorite TV show to drop. This could prove to be a catalyst for some interesting fan theories, just like those that sprang up around Life is Strange. If IO Interactive introduces a handy recap system seen in the likes of Telltale Games’ episodic releases, this could prevent the wait from being jarring to those following the overarching plot.
While the beta for Hitman didn’t take long to finish, it did pique my interest in the game’s release a few weeks from now. Having never played a game in the series before, the beta did a good job of welcoming me into its dark world of assassination and proving the idea that its episodic nature may actually turn out to be a pretty smart move.
Have you played the beta? Will you be picking up the game in March? Let us know in the comments below.
