Did anyone else try the multiplayer in this? Not the sniper assassin minigame, but the actual, on-the-ground Agent 47 vs. somehow paler Agent 47 mode where you had to race an opponent to a target. It's not in the same realm of quality as the main game, but how could it be? These levels aren't designed for multiplayer, aren't designed for semi-random targets that wander around areas where the usual target is hunkered down, aren't designed to exist in an ecosystem where you can't hoard 600,000 muffins. That being said, I had some actual-ass fun playing it, which is more than I can say for most multiplayer affairs in recent years.
It only existed in the first two non-tutorial levels, Miami and Santa Fortuna - one of which is a pretty solid level, the other is among the worst in the trilogy, notable in the campaign for spreading 3 targets across three thirds of a map that is only one-third interesting. Two players spawn in with no equipment and are drip-fed a series of targets that do not normally exist in the level, and you are given a point if you can take them out without being detected, at which point the other player is given a couple seconds to do the same or forfeit the point. Equipment spawns in chests around the level - the first player gets their pick of three items, leaving only two for the other player.
While I never for one second considered playing this with an internet stranger, I did play tens of hours of this with an old high school friend, during which we took this game - a game whose single-player mode we had independently reduced to a digital chore list, noting each item's placement and coldly, surgically eliminating targets in increasingly efficient ways - and found new ways to plumb the depths of the other person's sociopathy. That's so weird that you don't have a silenced pistol yet, I've got six of them already. Are you waiting carefully, calculating the best time to poison the target? You have five seconds, I just gunned him down in broad daylight so you couldn't get the point. I hope you have the announcer voice off because I'm killing every single person in the level so that every target kill is undetected. I'm sprinting around behind you, throwing coins into your world so you can't play the game.
For some reason, IOI gave up on the unenviable task of adapting these levels for a multiplayer game mode that four people played, each of whom offered a resounding... "eh, not really my thing". Really a shame, to be honest, because it was a spectacularly interesting shitshow to play, and I think it only would've been more so if we got a chance to see levels like Mumbai or Whittleton Creek. I never expected Hitman to have that kind of up-too-late-during-the-sleepover multiplayer experience - the kind where you spend more time fucking over the other person and laughing than actually trying to play the game - but I've tasted it, and now I need more.
In all seriousness, it was intriguing to see IOI's attempts at tweaking these levels for non-standard game modes. Contracts mode is kind of self-moderating, since players ideally pick only the contracts that match the exact level of challenge they want. A real-time versus mode is a whole different beast, and while this was a decent stab at creating an alternate game mode, I'm mostly curious to see what lessons IOI takes from this for things like their upcoming Freelancer mode update for Hitman 3 or the as-yet-untitled James Bond game they're working on. In fact, I suspect that the success of Freelancer will largely depend on the lessons that they take from this. IOI have toyed with using limited replays to create stakes with the Elusive Target system, a system that still uses the traditional setup of giving each target a single, scripted path through the level. Creating stakes by having the level itself change every time you return is a different kind of challenge, and this alternate game mode is really the only thing I can think of that's similar within the Hitman series.
One the one hand, IOI has made a lot of baffling decisions over the years - I think Absolution is the easiest example of this, with IOI leadership openly admitting in interviews that they were chasing trends they had identified in other games to try and make Hitman more "modern". On the other, they seem to have really locked their focus in recent years on what's truly crucial to creating a Hitman game and have used their missteps in previous games/modes to make the core experience stronger. It's easy to forget that something that feels like a natural fit - the use of "Instinct" in the trilogy - began as a resource bar in Absolution that often made things harder to see and would show you the exact point on the map someone was walking to. Most of the PVP mode's most severe weaknesses have already been removed from the equation by virtue of Freelancer not being PVP, so I've got some confidence that IOI will be able to make something worthwhile out of the update. Not much left to do now but wait and see.
It only existed in the first two non-tutorial levels, Miami and Santa Fortuna - one of which is a pretty solid level, the other is among the worst in the trilogy, notable in the campaign for spreading 3 targets across three thirds of a map that is only one-third interesting. Two players spawn in with no equipment and are drip-fed a series of targets that do not normally exist in the level, and you are given a point if you can take them out without being detected, at which point the other player is given a couple seconds to do the same or forfeit the point. Equipment spawns in chests around the level - the first player gets their pick of three items, leaving only two for the other player.
While I never for one second considered playing this with an internet stranger, I did play tens of hours of this with an old high school friend, during which we took this game - a game whose single-player mode we had independently reduced to a digital chore list, noting each item's placement and coldly, surgically eliminating targets in increasingly efficient ways - and found new ways to plumb the depths of the other person's sociopathy. That's so weird that you don't have a silenced pistol yet, I've got six of them already. Are you waiting carefully, calculating the best time to poison the target? You have five seconds, I just gunned him down in broad daylight so you couldn't get the point. I hope you have the announcer voice off because I'm killing every single person in the level so that every target kill is undetected. I'm sprinting around behind you, throwing coins into your world so you can't play the game.
For some reason, IOI gave up on the unenviable task of adapting these levels for a multiplayer game mode that four people played, each of whom offered a resounding... "eh, not really my thing". Really a shame, to be honest, because it was a spectacularly interesting shitshow to play, and I think it only would've been more so if we got a chance to see levels like Mumbai or Whittleton Creek. I never expected Hitman to have that kind of up-too-late-during-the-sleepover multiplayer experience - the kind where you spend more time fucking over the other person and laughing than actually trying to play the game - but I've tasted it, and now I need more.
In all seriousness, it was intriguing to see IOI's attempts at tweaking these levels for non-standard game modes. Contracts mode is kind of self-moderating, since players ideally pick only the contracts that match the exact level of challenge they want. A real-time versus mode is a whole different beast, and while this was a decent stab at creating an alternate game mode, I'm mostly curious to see what lessons IOI takes from this for things like their upcoming Freelancer mode update for Hitman 3 or the as-yet-untitled James Bond game they're working on. In fact, I suspect that the success of Freelancer will largely depend on the lessons that they take from this. IOI have toyed with using limited replays to create stakes with the Elusive Target system, a system that still uses the traditional setup of giving each target a single, scripted path through the level. Creating stakes by having the level itself change every time you return is a different kind of challenge, and this alternate game mode is really the only thing I can think of that's similar within the Hitman series.
One the one hand, IOI has made a lot of baffling decisions over the years - I think Absolution is the easiest example of this, with IOI leadership openly admitting in interviews that they were chasing trends they had identified in other games to try and make Hitman more "modern". On the other, they seem to have really locked their focus in recent years on what's truly crucial to creating a Hitman game and have used their missteps in previous games/modes to make the core experience stronger. It's easy to forget that something that feels like a natural fit - the use of "Instinct" in the trilogy - began as a resource bar in Absolution that often made things harder to see and would show you the exact point on the map someone was walking to. Most of the PVP mode's most severe weaknesses have already been removed from the equation by virtue of Freelancer not being PVP, so I've got some confidence that IOI will be able to make something worthwhile out of the update. Not much left to do now but wait and see.
Reviewed on Jan 18, 2023