Hitman - The Complete First Season Reviews
All in all, Hitman is exactly what a Hitman game should be. It's not long in the traditional sense, but it's dense and packed with content. The mechanics are a little rough or hand-holdy at times, but that's a minor problem in the overall scheme of things. Whether it's a brutal, close-range assassination or a subtle poisoning, Hitman gives you more options than you know what to do with. The episodic nature is a boon, not a flaw, and the game plays as well in a complete set as it does individually. Fans of the genre should make it a priority, and newcomers will find few better places to start. With Season 2 on the way, there's more Hitman to come, but even the first season should have enough assassination action to keep you busy for hours.
Agent 47 is back and better than ever.
Each level feels like a real place, inhabited by real people with their own goals and routines.
Fun, but too much emphasis on ‘sandbox’ rather than a narrative that would justify monthly episodes.
Hitman: The Complete First Season is the perfect re-introduction to the third-person stealth franchise, bringing back sandbox game design and player choice to the forefront with six expertly hand-crafted missions with hundreds of opportunities and ways to approach killing targets, and a ton of side content in the form of Escalation contracts and the Sarajevo Six (effectively “What If?” scenarios and missions). Newcomers will also find the full package of Season One a lot more digestible than the episodic distribution model which may have put off naysayers. Give it a fair go if you can fit it in your holiday gaming schedule.
Hitman Season 1 as a whole is a delight for new players who enjoy Hitmans' method of play, and veterans who can make do without a challenge. Even with its faults, the base formula that made the series great can be found here in all its glory. This doesn't mean the game does not have flaws and, depending on how you value the aspects it fails in, may eventually prove to be a downer for you.
Who cares about the episodic release when Hitman Season 1 can offer a compelling, smart and entertaining experience, just like Hitman games should do? The gameplay is strong and, despite a plot that is lacking deepness, the season is fun and some maps, like Sapienza and Hokkaido, have a lot of replay value.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Hitman: The Complete First Season offers up the entire homicidal experience in one tidy package and is an easy recommend if you dig the stealth genre or open-ended games with a myriad of ways to approach a mission.
Hitman is arguably a pinnacle for the series, possibly even eclipsing Blood Money as Agent 47's finest moment. Each episode is a sandbox that you don't simply play and then forget. You'll want to master it and discover all of its hidden secrets and nuances. And therein lies Hitman's innate brilliance. It's deep, expansive and open-ended enough that you'll never want to stop playing. Hitman is quite simply magnificent.
At least the gameplay is fun. Finally.
No matter what you think of that, if you've ever thought of playing a Hitman game, then this is the one to grab. If you haven't ever heard of a Hitman game before, then you should just play this damn game and embrace the weird, wild world of sandbox murderin'.
Though, it’s clear from the start that the story is not what you come into Hitman for. It’s a game about its gameplay and the choices afforded to the player, and season 1 delivered near flawlessly. IO Interactive has built a framework that they can keep building on for years to come here, and we can’t wait to dive back into more missions in season 2.
Agent 47 is back and better than ever. The first season of Hitman has produced the definitive Agent 47 experience in a world of intrigue, espionage and murder. Not only the best Hitman game ever made, but also one of the top contenders for game of the year.
If you played it as each episode came out, or binge-played it all at once, something is lost each way from Hitman – Season 1, but not enough to detract from what is as a whole one of the most enjoyable and entertaining Hitman experiences we’ve ever had.
A triumph in both mechanics and delivery, Hitman turns its controversial episodic release model into a true strength that's suited to IO's vast and nuanced sandboxes.
IO Interactive's new, episodic Hitman is a triumph. The developer knew how to revive its ailing series and did so with aplomb, crafting a robust set of core mechanics and designing superb levels around them. Reminiscent of everything Blood Money did so well, from its focus on gameplay over story to its cold, sardonic presentation and dark sense of humour, this is Hitman as it is and always should be.It falters when the game leans too heavily on optional Opportunities, but counter to this hand-holding system are Elusive Targets – a fantastic test of any Hitman player's abilities. While these one-chance contracts are only available for a few days at a time, IO's consistent, quality support of the game ensures many more will follow this first season's physical release.
Finally. After a long wait, we have Hitman: The Complete First Season, game that groups all the new adventures of the Agent 47. Great game mechanics, terrific level design and outstanding art direction, makes this game a must have to everyone.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
This is the ultimate Hitman experience, compiling a slew of excellent maps with an additional campaign that, while short, is terrific fun. IO Interactive has somehow managed to give players an immense sense of freedom without sacrificing the creativity so essential to Hitman. If you're looking for something stealthy to dig into, you can't do much better than this.
With the exception of a late episode misstep, Hitman: The Complete First Season is a perfectly designed showcase for the skills of Agent 47, as well as an excellent demonstration of the benefits of an episodic release structure.
Although the road may have been initially bumpy, we've been won over by IO Interactive determination and conviction. They've managed to prove to the rest of the industry that AAA games done episodically can work, and can work incredibly well.