I had the opportunity to play the new PS4 Hitman Beta and I have to begin by saying I’ve not played the Hitman Series in a while so to have this opportunity was quite a thrill. My first thought was that the cinematics and in game graphic were nothing to yell about when factoring in the abilities of this this generation of consoles, but in comparison to past titles, it’s 100 times better and is visually sharper than anything the series has offered before.
As for the gameplay; I found myself a bit lost until I got my baring with the controls and fully understood which objectives were needed in order to complete the missions assigned during the tutorial.
The stealth factor had me a bit anxious at times and felt that the slowness was a way to make the player more conscience of your surrounding and take in the scenery more than the series had before.
This often resulted in me getting lost and having to remember what was coming up next. This got annoying but that may have been because I was quite curious as to just how many option and actions I was capable of in the beta. I did find it quite hilarious that I could take out someone in front a crowd of people then immediately disguise 47 in their clothes while people became clueless about what just happened.
There were also instances where I would be dragging a body in a room and if I got close enough to a door I’d actually glitch through far enough to be seen by those in the hallway immediately triggering an alert. After getting past the first phase of challenges I found myself once again with a laundry list of stealth missions top complete. After failing a few times, I went hog wild exploring to see what new wrinkles and tricks I could discover next. I think with more time I would have been more patient and attempted to completely all the challenges set forth. Overall I enjoyed the game for what it’s worth and as a beta, it gave me a glimpse into what is to come with the final release. I get a feeling this iteration of Hitman will be a trophy hunters dream game. Let’s hope the March release date holds water as I look forward to seeing what comes next.
