Bangkok may be the fourth of Hitman's seven episodes. At this point, just at night halfway mark, a very important factor is clear: IO's level designers know very well what they're doing. The quality varies, certainly. Some levels can be better than others. But that Bangkok just isn't as good as Sapienza—one with the year's finest digital spaces—doesn't prevent it from being an enjoyable location where you can ply 47's murderous trade.
For my first playthrough of every new episode, I always disable Opportunities in an effort to more naturally locate a route to my target. This time, I went a measure further and powered down all UI elements. It created a fascinating new tension, forcing me being cautious, despite whichever disguise I was wearing, because I couldn't make sure who might forecast it. Default Hitman is slightly too simple for anyone informed about the series. It's good how the options available are extremely granular, and means I can chase that purer expertise in a game which also caters to new players.
Even if it is your first Hitman, with this point—four episodes in—I'd still recommend trying some type of UI handicap. In Hitman, you will get out everything you put in. It's an activity with an unusual strategy to difficulty, that scales according to your chosen goal for just about any particular run. Technically, Marrakesh was harder. In that mission, both targets were hidden behind layers of protection, each forcing different disguises and a few light stealth. In Bangkok, you have a hotel. Much of it truly is open to the population. One from the mission's two targets is running around in the open, (mandatory bodyguard along).
He's an easy task to kill—in my second playthrough, I used the proximity duck—but this is not one in the few clean methods. It's not just that chasing the silent assassin rating is surely an enjoyable challenge, but that playing within the possibility space of the guy's death is entertaining all alone. Difficulty doesn't imply much in Hitman, because it's a game title designed to support your changing whims. Bangkok, similar to the previous levels, succeeds in creating scenarios worth repeating.
The second, main target can be a musician suspected of killing his girlfriend. Although official reports have listed her death being an accident, 47 is hired by her family to exact revenge. He's hired an entire wing on the hotel, and hang up up a recording studio inside. It's locked down, naturally—hotel staff and security aren't allowed nearly the upper levels. A familiar challenge, then, like Paris's secret auction—albeit with a lot more sound engineers.
Bangkok's hotel is really a little too just like Paris's mansion. Not just for the reason that it's a big building, but the layers of staff and security feel similarly structured. There's a similar quantity of drainpipe climbing, too. In Blood Money, most missions offered a distinct location: the riverboat, the suburban house, the club, the New Orleans parade. But while Hitman's levels are quality areas to manipulate systems and events, it feels as though they're riffing over same few themes. IO does a pleasant job of capturing Bangkok's look; less so its feel. The backdrop is of shimmering golden waters and ornate temples. It's beautiful, but, ultimately, this is really a hotel wearing a Bangkok skin, in lieu of something that feels individual for the place.
It doesn't help that, again, you encounter a similar few voice actors. Early Hitman marketing promised a "world of assassination". That world, as it turns out, is stuffed with just a number of American accents. In fairness, it's similar to the series to deliberately make a sense of artificiality to be able to detach you, as 47, in the world. But where Blood Money's grotesque caricatures were a definite stylistic choice, this just is like an attempt to economize.
Ultimately, though, Bangkok succeeds. What I love about Hitman—both the series this also game—is that space is really a puzzle mechanism of interlocking systems and AI behaviours. And Bangkok is yet another great mechanism, although the fiction from it as a real, believable place just isn't as strong.
Post a Comment