Hitman has made it through its first season as an episodic experience. It was a move that divided the series’ faithful fan base, some of whom have embraced the approach and some of whom remain dismayed over six months later.
Every episode reviewed on IGN has triggered the same to-and-fro, from players who’d warmed to patiently tackling each level as they were gradually shipped versus those who were vocally against the concept and would regularly reiterate their plan to wait until all the content was released until beginning.
It’s obvious that the episodic approach has been a successful one for developer Io Interactive
I’d certainly concede my preference would have been a more traditional Hitman experience; one delivered in full that I can later hop between levels at will. If nothing else it helps disguise the less interesting missions rather than shine a stark spotlight on them for several weeks.
However, it’s obvious that the episodic approach has been a successful one for developer Io Interactive, and if it’s this approach that has allowed Io to bake so much extra nuance into each level then it’s ultimately been worth it. The end result, after all, combines the kind of dense and deadly playgrounds that have made Hitman: Blood Money an eternal fan-favourite with the more refined feel of its follow-up, Hitman: Absolution. And that’s more than fine with me.
For better or for worse, this new breed of Hitman game has been a good one – and sometimes a very, very good one. Aside from the ill-suited voice acting making armed guards across four continents all sound like the same three blokes (and the fact that 47 has apparently forgotten how to dual wield) Hitman Season 1 has been a genuinely satisfying ride.
My biggest problem all year, however, has been with the incredibly frustrating user experience it brought with it, which has consistently driven me crazy each time an episode was released. Delivering enormous patches alongside every new episode got really old, really fast; especially since every one added hours and hours of additional download time to reach my Internet-challenged home on the fringe of semi-rural Sydney, Australia.
I feel as if I’ve downloaded this entire game multiple times over, just in updates
I haven’t kept a running tally but, with every new episode being preceded by a hefty patch, I feel as if I’ve downloaded this entire game multiple times over, just in updates. This doesn’t factor in each new level itself. On a PS4, for instance, the complete Hitman Season 1 takes up just under 50GB of space. The last patch alone would account for almost 20 per cent of the size of the final install footprint.
Am I the only one vexed by this giant pile of updates? I realise this is likely an easy issue to ignore for those of you who live with vastly superior internet infrastructure, but for me it’s been a constant bugbear.
I’m no Luddite, either. I too miss the era when games began the moment you put them into your console, but I also agree that the environment we game in today – where developers can improve and repair existing games – is ultimately a good thing for all of us.
However, at around 8GB the most recent patch for Hitman was almost twice the size of the final Hokkaido episode itself. Having to wait overnight for such a large patch is a seriously frustrating user experience, exacerbated by the fact there have already been over a dozen such updates since April.
Is there any way they could be smaller for Season 2? Or is there no more elegant way to feed the game updates without apparently re-downloading vast segments of it? Could they perhaps be released at better times?
Not everyone’s consoles live in stand-by mode, and I feel like I’ve spent about as much time this year waiting for Hitman to update as I have playing it.
Luke is Games Editor at IGN's Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter @MrLukeReilly.
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