“There will be killing till the score is paid.”
The Hitman series (not to be confused with The Hitman and Her) by developer IO Interactive stood head and shoulders over all other stealth games for a long, long time. But then Absolution came along and the series took a more action orientated approach and longtime fans went mental. IO Interactive have gone back to basics for this next gen release but can they bring back the gory days? 
The first thing to mention is the way IO Interactive are releasing the game. We've know for a long time that Hitman is going to be an episodic release with new content and levels coming every once a month. The remaining countries levels are set in have been announce as Sapienza, Morocco, Thailand, the USA, and Japan. So episode one is basically a taster of what's to come. Along with an episodic release a bewildering amount of purchasing options are also available. Episode One which includes a level in Sydney which is the introductory level, an airbase which is a prologue with Paris being the main level and all this will cost you £11.59.
However each additional location will cost you £8 each of which there are six. So buying them all separately will cost £36 including the £11.59 you've already spent and that's £46.99. You can also just buy everything straight away if you want to take a chance for £44.99 which includes all future content and maps with the first set expected to release in April and May with more to follow until the end of the year. It's a ridiculous pricing structure and if you're a fan of the Hitman series you're just going to buy the complete package anyway. I'm not into episodic releases at all. It just makes me think the developer has no confidence in the game or they are just testing the waters to see how much interest there is out there.
This Hitman goes back to the game's roots where a methodical approach to each contract will always net you the kill. Patience is key and forward planning will more often than not be your saviour. I found myself just wandering around levels trying to find the smallest pieces of information that I could use to my advantage. I became lost in the world as I tried on various disguises that allowed me access to areas that would normally be out of bounds. Disguises work for the most part but there is always someone who will look at you suspiciously as soon as you're in their line of sight so you're best avoiding these characters or getting out of their way ASAP once spotted. Eavesdropping on npc conversations opens up a whole world of different assassination opportunities for you to take down you target as well. You might overhear a maintenance crew talk about a safety test on an ejector seat that you could sabotage (my favourite kill of the games far). There are many different ways to assassinate your target. Some are very grim other are downright hilarious.
Hitman Absolution had one outstanding feature and it makes its return here, challenges. These challenges task you to complete previous missions in a specific way. You will inevitably keep going back time and time again to complete levels using different methods because it's impossible to complete every challenge during a single playthrough. Contract mode also makes a welcome return and adds yet another level of replayability. These missions are created by other players and IO which will task you with killing different targets within the levels in very specific ways. As well as your average contract (if such a thing exists) there are Escalation Contracts that increase the amount of tasks you must complete in any mission. You can also create your own missions with your own specific set of rules. But you must complete the level yourself before you're allowed to upload it to the database. IO Interactive have introduced a new feature called Elusive Targets which are timed mission that are only live for 48 hours. These targets will take a lot of work to track down and you will only get one chance to kill them. If you fail you will just have to wait until the next mission is live. I love the idea behind this, however at the time of writing this review Elusive Target has been postponed so I never got the chance to try it out. 
So far so good then but here's the problem, Hitman requires a constant Internet connection. Now that might not sound like a bad thing until you experience the constant server disconnects. There is nothing worse than spending an hour tracking a suspect and planning his/her assassination for the connection to the server to drop and all that progress to be wiped clean. At no point does the game save your progress and this happened to me several times. Why does a single player game that is an offline experience need a constant online connection. This also applies to challenges in each mission and it makes zero sense. I have yet to find out the reasoning behind this bizarre choice and I don't suppose I ever will. I lost count of the times I tried to complete a certain contract only to lose my connection time and time again and with all that time wasted I finally gave up.
There is so much potential here and when Hitman works it's brilliant. But when it doesn't it's a frustrating mess and that mess all stems from the connection issues. The content available seems very lite but those issues soon disappear if you play Hitman the way IO Interactive want you to. Sure you can finish levels within 10 minute with a bit of luck and an easy kill but where's the fun in that. How much enjoyment you get out of Hitman will all depend on how much time your willing to invest in it. Numerous ways to finish Missons, Mission Challenges, Elusive Targets, and Escalation Contracts all add up to an exciting package with hours of replayability. If only IO Interactive can sort out their server issues but only time will tell how long that will take. But will I return to the world of Agent 47? Damn right I will.
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: IO Interactive
Modes: Single Player
Hitman; The Full Experience £44.99
Review code supplied by XCN