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Random question, but anyone here that has played through the entirety of 'Hitman'? I know the complete physical edition came out late last month, was curious if anyone else has gone through the whole game as I have; excellent installment, compared to its predecessor.
A lot of people disagreed with the release cycle (it was episodic, so I paid the $60 up front and received the content once it released over the following nine or ten months). I doubt I would've ever bought into that if it was anything other than one of my most beloved gaming series. It was most certainly a gamble, but after having sunk dozens and dozens of hours into it and acquiring all but one trophy, I'll gladly do the same once season two begins. This was a major return to form after whatever the hell 'Absolution' was trying to be, and I still find myself firing this up for a few hours at a time to replay certain levels.
However, in your case, you'd now be paying the $60 up front to acquire ALL of the content: all levels/missions, all bonus content, user-made contracts, updates, patches, etc. Hell, you'd even get the pre-order DLC that I got cheated out of, which still burns me.
One of the Elusive Targets ended up being a fan vote between Gary Busey and Gary Cole, and I believe the former won but they ended up sticking both into the game. Unfortunately, it was a timed event (as all the Elusive Targets are), so I didn't get to play it.
I just hope it's not true. I want a new Batman game, but not like this. WB are seemingly doing the same thing they are with the films, trying to cash in rushed projects with a modicum of work, and making the games an annual release that will only ruin what could be great titles through laborious deadlines. And for the life of me, I never want to play another Batman game where Gotham gets sealed off and closed down. We've had that premise four times in a row now, do something new.
I'm sure he'll end up being behind everything...again. I adore The Joker, but seriously, retire him for a while.
As for the repetitive and tired Gotham Lockdown cliche, just put it aside for a loooooong while. It's been done to death. And then, they complain when we complain about their unoriginality and hunger for remakes/reboots. Joker doesn't need to be the main antagonist every single time. That's what I loved about Beware The Batman (at least till the awakening of Ra'as), as they used the lesser known villains and never went for the obvious ones.
@ClarkDevlin, in a perfect world I wouldn't mind one last Arkham game from Rocksteady in a few years, with an older Bruce. I enjoyed Knight and hold it as the best Batman simulator in the universe, but the ending was absolute garbage and added no closure. We need another game to truly tell the last Batman story.
Either way, I'd welcome an entry only if it picks up where Knight left off. But, if they want to go back in time and inject a hole in the timeline itself to make a game taking place sometime prior to the events of the last, that I'm opposed to. It just kills the spirit for me as it does with the creativity. It's always better if they go forward rather than backward.
However, it would be a lot better if they abandon Arkham and start a new series. Rocksteady be the developers, I'd welcome that with open arms. Similar gameplay, but different canon/continuity/universe/timeline. Have Conroy return as Batman, ditch The Joker for a while and introduce the lesser known but nevertheless the awfully sinister villains instead. Can't see why shouldn't they feature Professor Pyg for example. Or maybe go more towards the lighter tone of things a la The Animated Series, bringing Paul Dini and Bruce Timm on board as well. I'd buy that without any doubt... Well, unless it's something like The TellTale Series. Not interested in that.
It'd be interesting to see Bruce forced out of retirement to save Gotham again in a big way, with him a lot older, a little slower and in need of a special suit to encase and guard his body (like in Kingdom Come, sort of). It was just so disappointing, because the game did most other things amazingly. It was a childhood dream come true to be able to drive around a massive Gotham City in the Tumbler while wearing the Nolan batsuit. The fact that I can say that is mind-blowing.
There's rumblings that Rocksteady are still involved with WB Games, and often a Superman game is brought up as their rumored current project. I would love to see them do a Superman title, with a full open world to fly around in. The Superman Returns game had some interesting concepts, with a health meter for Metropolis and giant battles to take part in, but it didn't have a cohesive development of the ideas or a great story to help it through. I would love to see Rocksteady take the open world, "fly anywhere you want" concept, have an epic story set up with Lex in cahoots with Braniac or another major force, and take Superman to other galaxies on big missions in between the open world stages. Batman's video game life was dire until Rocksteady were able to change the game forever (look at how many games use the Arkham style of combat for example), and the same should be done with Superman, who has never had it easy in the medium with even a minor success.
I played and beat it a couple months back and I loved it! There were at least two or three levels that made me think of Bond. The one in Italy and the finale in Japan. Since we don't have any Bond game coming out anytime soon, I often pretended I was Bond on a mission.
It's been so long since I played the older ones, so it's hard to compare it to them. I will say that I really enjoyed this one and it's for sure in my top two of the series. They occasionally have updates that give you new targets to take out and in different ways. It gives you a reason to revisit levels.
It is an extremely overwhelming game, with endless inventory lists, skill trees, character upgrades, quest lines, secret locations and endless other gameplay features that can really wash over you and feel intimidating. I expected this, however, and I would be damned if I said I wasn't enjoying myself.
The story of the game is very slow, and moves along at an equally slow pace (in comparison to most games of today), but I don't mind being taken on this particular journey. In the past week I've gotten caught up on a lot of the lore of the past games, and found out that there really isn't as confusing a background to the games as I thought there would be. The games are based on Polish novels, and I've realized that the pivotal story really comes to a head in 3, whereas 1 and 2 were smaller adventures leading to this ultimate and epic climax. I quickly didn't feel bad for missing the past games, and was more able to understand the characters, their motivations and the stakes set in the adventure. As a character, Geralt is still bringing together his past memories after suffering from amnesia around the time of the first game, so as the player you feel like you're organically discovering things alongside him. As a novice player, this helped me immensely and made the game less intimidating to face.
I'm still only a small bit into the game, spending a lot of time with tutorials, some minor roaming and a bit of questing. As I said, the story moves very slowly, and it feels like you're truly on a bit quest, doing all the little things you need to do to get to your end goal. The quests back this up, and the things you do can be as little as helping an old lady find a pot so she can cook with it (seriously) or taking out monster contracts to slay them and bring peace to the community you're currently embedding yourself inside to gain favor from them.
The monster slaying missions are fascinating, because the writers don't just make them big action pieces with hack and slash moments. Geralt has to act as a detective and find out the story behind the monster to uncover why it is doing what it's doing, and how it can be stopped by studying its weaknesses. Behind the monster contracts is often an emotional subtext, where some sympathy can be gotten for the creature that you must kill before the mission ends, which is powerful. You know that you have to kill the creature to help the community, but part of you doesn't want to go through with it because of the knowledge you carry of it.
The writers have taken an open world and really made it feel like everything you do is important. Many of the interactions in the game are made up of dialogue trees where Geralt can either be passive, aggressive, or even use some of his abilities to get what he wants. These decisions are actually very tough and morally meaty. I spent a minute pausing to really think about what I wanted to say each time and how I was going to respond. If I had just popped into a village to rest and was confronted by some anti-Witcher dissenters who threatened me, I could've just killed them or chosen to let their comments roll off my back. If I was aggressive, the community would react negatively, but if I acted appropriately and dealt with them far more fairly, trouble wouldn't come and I would gain respect.
In doing jobs for other people, you also find out that Geralt can be used manipulatively and that his word isn't the last. I did a little mission for a dwarf that involved me finding and bringing to him a man who did him wrong, and though I tried to make sure the man got justice fairly, the dwarf shouted over me and made sure the man was hanged. I had no control over this decision, and even my best efforts couldn't save the man from his death and a punishment I thought was too severe. Moments like this, where you think you're doing the right thing, can sometimes lead you to feeling guilt and doing the opposite of what you had originally intended. Because of this, the choices you make really do carry a feeling of unpredictability and reality. You can decide what kind of man you are, but you can't always predict what others will do in response to you.
Overall, I'm really enjoying the experience so far. The story is gradually going along, giving me pieces of the greater adventure over time when I need them. The freedom to play Geralt the way you want is truly amazing, and makes you think you have a real role and impact in the story you are in the middle of. You can be kind, fair and noble, accepting no pay for your deeds (which I've been doing), or be more aggressive and ask money from those you aid, even if they're poor. These decisions really color your persona in fascinating ways, and allow you to be the kind of journeyman you want to be. Sometimes the way you interact with people can turn against you, while in others you're rewarded for being fair. A man I helped once offered to pay me for my services with all of his daughter's money that was going to fund her wedding, and as Geralt I could choose to have him keep the money, and instead repay my memory by having someone give me a toast during the ceremony. Because of this I was viewed as more noble and understanding, and seen as less greedy or fearsome. As you create your version of Geralt and go through hundreds of dialogue trees you truly immerse yourself in that character, and make choices that would logically fit the man you've decided to be. Because of this I really think about the consequences that could come from each of my actions before I make them, to see if it makes sense to do one thing or the other, and if a particular response really matches up with the man I am playing.
The depth of the game allows this kind of thought, and its massive content is a real treat to jump into. I was looking for a fresh game to lose myself in, and as an open world game, this really has done the job. I've missed the feeling of playing a massive game for the first time, finding your way as you go and doing the best you can. Losing yourself to a gigantic game world, failing and learning through your mistakes to become better with the tools you have. The reason open world games are my favorite are because you really get the bang for your buck, and in this one in particular there's endless conversations to have, missions to do, little moments to experience, that you never know if you've truly gotten everything out of the experience. It feels like real life, where you labor over your decisions, miss out on moments with people, regret not doing something differently, and trying your best to survive the consequences of your actions as they come back to bite you.
There's still a lot of mystery left open to me, but I look forward to going out and uncovering it bit by bit.
Nothing special to write home about. But fun -80's scifi action with a lot of that familiar cheesiness associated with the genre of that era.
Phenomenal game, I was just beyond addicted to Gwent.
I think real Gwent cards are available for purchase, for you to play with friends in real life. If the developer hasn't done that, they're missing a great opportunity!
Not half bad since I pretty much knew what I was getting myself into. Nothing more, nothing less. Still, fun to play these shooters that don't take themselves too seriously.
Now, I just would like to get a third No One Lives Forever game. Been ages since the last one and I really would like to see the series resurrected.