I miss when developers genuinely learned what was good about their games and leaned into it instead of appealing to the horrors of the mass market.
Coming from Codename 47, Silent Assassin delivers more of what made the best levels from that game great. Offering the player a variety of interesting environments to explore and more ways to approach targets than the last game. Guns blazing, poisoning, a sniper from a distance, the choice is yours, and the game will even award you with a title and stats based on your performance.
Instead of a semi-determined screen of weapons to choose from with cash limits, Silent Assassin allows players to equip any weapons they have taken from previous levels (or unlocked from completing missions in the stealthiest way possible, only eliminating the target) to really give a player not just a more personalized way of taking down marks, but also offering a fun side challenge of collecting weapons to have a full arsenal.
From the cold streets of St Petersburg to the arid markets of Afghanistan. Hitman 2 offers an even more diverse range of levels that offer unique challenges to the player every step of the way.
While the story is quite barebones, same as the last entry, it is at least interesting enough to keep the player engaged. Being said, its also completely possible to ignore it if you wanted to.
The game also manages to surprise you, especially near the end with some twists that took me by surprise so much that I thought I was experiencing bugs. The return to St Petersburg will be burned into my mind forever as a time I was genuinely trolled by a video game in such a way that you really don't expect to get messed with.
That being said, Silent Assassin still has many flaws that will need tweaking going forward. I ended up not playing on the highest difficulty as I found guards were WAY too jumpy over my actions, even if I was mirroring the pattern and behaviors of the man I replaced. I understand a game demanding perfection. But I really don't find it fun when a game turns from reasonable challenge with fair rules to a game where I couldn't tell you how or where I fucked up if I wanted to. I am a masochist sure, but I prefer the kind of struggle I can work with and understand rather than the pain of being black bagged and gang beat in an alley at seemingly random. This could just be a skill issue on my part, but this is a sentiment I have seen around.
This concludes the first 2 Hitman games that I was told to skip before starting the series. I can understand why people are told to skip the first two games. They are clunky, awkward, and sometimes don't work quite the way you expect them to, but they are 100% worth a try if you are willing to put up with their unique quirks.
Coming from Codename 47, Silent Assassin delivers more of what made the best levels from that game great. Offering the player a variety of interesting environments to explore and more ways to approach targets than the last game. Guns blazing, poisoning, a sniper from a distance, the choice is yours, and the game will even award you with a title and stats based on your performance.
Instead of a semi-determined screen of weapons to choose from with cash limits, Silent Assassin allows players to equip any weapons they have taken from previous levels (or unlocked from completing missions in the stealthiest way possible, only eliminating the target) to really give a player not just a more personalized way of taking down marks, but also offering a fun side challenge of collecting weapons to have a full arsenal.
From the cold streets of St Petersburg to the arid markets of Afghanistan. Hitman 2 offers an even more diverse range of levels that offer unique challenges to the player every step of the way.
While the story is quite barebones, same as the last entry, it is at least interesting enough to keep the player engaged. Being said, its also completely possible to ignore it if you wanted to.
The game also manages to surprise you, especially near the end with some twists that took me by surprise so much that I thought I was experiencing bugs. The return to St Petersburg will be burned into my mind forever as a time I was genuinely trolled by a video game in such a way that you really don't expect to get messed with.
That being said, Silent Assassin still has many flaws that will need tweaking going forward. I ended up not playing on the highest difficulty as I found guards were WAY too jumpy over my actions, even if I was mirroring the pattern and behaviors of the man I replaced. I understand a game demanding perfection. But I really don't find it fun when a game turns from reasonable challenge with fair rules to a game where I couldn't tell you how or where I fucked up if I wanted to. I am a masochist sure, but I prefer the kind of struggle I can work with and understand rather than the pain of being black bagged and gang beat in an alley at seemingly random. This could just be a skill issue on my part, but this is a sentiment I have seen around.
This concludes the first 2 Hitman games that I was told to skip before starting the series. I can understand why people are told to skip the first two games. They are clunky, awkward, and sometimes don't work quite the way you expect them to, but they are 100% worth a try if you are willing to put up with their unique quirks.