Hitman

I hope this whole episode-structure gimmick that video games have been trying doesn't stick

that this wasn't sweeping up Game of the Year award is an indictment against the entire industry. what in the fuck is wrong with everyone

The episodic structure kinda sucks but this is the best Hitman game for shenanigans

Played it within the World of Assassination. I personally appreciated the narrative guidance options, as I usually find such open sandbox experiences overwhelming. It also means I'm unlikely to replay missions, so it's a rather short experience.

I relish the franchise, but it always had this strange ludonarrative dissonance, when you read up a dossier on your target about how he's as tough and smart as they come...and then you're standing in front of him with a giant kitchen knife and he can't tell there's trouble because you're wearing a chef's hat.

Some of the levels are lame such as Marrakech, but this is a game that expands upon Blood Money's formula in substantial ways by not only giving you cool new mechanics to work with but expanding upon scripted events and level design in ways Blood Money never could. Not only that, but the game adds a lot of cool features such as elusive targets, achievements, and curated contracts that really make use of the game's level design and mechanics in really cool, dynamic ways.

It's fun to murder people and meme at the same time.

It took them 16 years, but they finally figured out how to make a Hitman game. They keep trying to throw a story in for some reason though.

I dunno... I appreciate the attempt to return to Blood Money style hits following Absolution, but I don't actually like how they did it. The game feels too heavily scripted; in focusing on set methods of hits, it felt like you were almost required to go down one of their constructed paths. Everyone has a bodyguard glued to them at all times, making the oldschool hide and garrote no longer work. I got bored because I felt freedom was replaced with "choose from these deaths".