Hitman - Episode 6: Hokkaido Reviews
Overall, this is a strong end to the series, taking one step towards a more difficult, more restrictive level design, but still with a certain leniency once you get past those barriers.
Hitman has been an uneven project (Marrakesh and Colorado were a cut below), but even at its worst it's still an above average stealth romp. It's been a long and laborious seven and a half month process with several delays to boot, but it's all here now, and worth picking up. Not to mention, Square Enix has done a noble job of actually updating the thing beyond DLC, fixing up several large glitches that plagued the first few episodes.
Hokkaido closes the first season of Hitman. The sixth chapter offers a wide variety of situations and and well-diversified engagement, enhanced by a location that won us over from the first moments.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The story was somewhat lacking offering nothing in terms of a conclusion and was cryptic.
Episode 6: Hokkaido is a brilliant and good looking episode which offers you a lot of replay value. An absolutely good ending for Hitman Season 1, indeed.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Hitman Episode 6: Hokkaido is one of the best levels this season and a great mission to end the year on. The map itself is very good, the atmosphere is excellent, and the hits are challenging. Tricky and more than a little James Bond-esque (the snowed-in private clinic has a real SPECTRE / On Her Majesty’s Secret Service vibe to it), Hokkaido is vintage Hitman at its most creative.
Hokkaido may not be the perfect grand ending that many Hitman fans wanted, but it's a nice swansong to signal the end of a successful experiment. Episode 6 is the most atmospheric and creative of the bunch, and is right up there with Sapienza as one of the game's best levels thanks to its design.
A much better map than the last two and amongst the best of the season, while still leaving you wanting even more from Hitman’s episodic exploits.
Episode 6: Hokkaido is not a season ‘finale’ grade chapter in the first season of IO Interactive’s Hitman. The less challenging, convenient, and the lack of impact in this episode just made the thing felt it was rushed to hit a mark on a release date. Nonetheless, I applaud IO Interactive for making Hokkaido to catch the country’s atmosphere than any other Hitman episodes I’ve played.
A calm and restrictive level on first glance, episode six of Hitman is teeming with poetic kills, intricacy and intrigue as it sets up a subtle tease of things to come in future seasons for Agent 47.
For a season finale, Hokkaido is exceptionally crafted.
As a series finale, Hokkaido manages to succeed in almost every way, even if the story has a weak and unsatisfying end.
This final episode of 'Hitman' brings together all of the lessons IO has learned over the course of the season into a fun, elegant swan song. I will admit that I was skeptical of the episodic format before the intro was released, but they managed to come through and bring 47 into what is hopefully just the beginning of a glorious new career.
As a finale to the first year of Hitman content, and as an episode of Hitman on its own, this episode is easily the strongest chapter yet.
Hitman bows out with a strong finale in game terms, if not in story. A fine balance of claustrophobic level design and Hitman’s signature murder opportunities make for a fitting personification of all Hitman is and was.
The episodic approach to an action-stealth game was a big bet. In this final chapter we can tell for sure that it surprise with the uncertainty of what kind of level we will see next in each episode, but the lack of connection fails to give the player a true motive to wear agent 47’s shoes.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Overall, the experience of Hitman as it is now isn’t bad, but I didn’t like the episodic formula for it. The game is solid, the mechanics work, it looks very good, sounds very good and is fun to play, but the lack of a coherent plot and having to wait a month or more before continuing the game is not ideal.
Hokkaido is a beautiful setting that looks far more complex and daunting than it really is. All in all, if a typical Hitman level is what you want, Japan will provide.
This is in bold contrast to previous episodes that featured a lot more strangling than pondering, and Hitman’s finale was better for it.
No surprises, no innovations, nothing new or worthy of mention here. With that being said, Episode 6 - Hokkaido generally offers one of the finest levels in Hitman, despite it being somewhat short and easy. These aren't its biggest sins, however. The worst thing about the title at hand is that it's supposed to be the grand finale, only there's nothing really "grand" about it.