Hitman™ 2

Soul_Reaver

I want to start a Hitman™ 2 discussion

It's less than a week till release (13.11) and only 2 and a half day till early access for gold or collector's edition owners.
Sadly, it's confirmed, that there will be no preload on steam (while both xbox and ps4 downloads already started) - game will be available for download from 9.11, 7PM CET. I guess actual preload might be available to those with standard/silver editions only ... that sucks. What sucks even more is that they've sneaked in Denuvo DRM just before release (1.11). Just another reason not to preorder games (well, low price was a reason good enough, but if I'd have bought it directly on Steam, I would have asked for refund already).

Ok, enough about bad parts (I have more griefs ;p).

What we've learned soon before release:

game locations were revealed: New Zealand, USA, Colombia, India, Isle of Sgàil and Austria,
first elusive target, played by Sean Bean, would (subject to change) appear just a week after game release and will be available for 10 days,
according to steamdb, Gold edition has 13 DLC, Silver has 11 (1 of them is not present in Gold :/ ),
there is a good summary of changes that will be brought with Hitman 2 over Hitman 1 on reddit, so there is no point in duplicating it.

Now, are you ready to again step into the World of Assassination? 🙂

pb_

I'm disappointed they're going the Elusive Target route again. Maybe it's good for sales? But it's definitely not good for those with limited time for gaming... Other than that I'm excited, HiTMAN is my most played game apart from Civ5. ;-)

Soul_Reaver

pb_ Well, ETs are not that bad. I am not really interested in them that much. There were some rewards for successful completing them, but those were not all that great - only 11 new suits.
Main sin for this restart of a franchise (because we start with 1, now part 2) is that single player content requires you to play online. Sure, you can play offline but there will be no rewards, so in 1st season you would be limited to:

never use a sniper riffle, because those are rewards only and not your starting set of weapon,
never get better tools like silenced pistols, undetectable pistol, lethal syringes, etc,
you won't be able to play in professional mode - this one is unlocked when you complete some challenges, and ...
challenges are unavailable,
no new starting locations / outfits (minor problem, just like the above one, but challenges unlock everything here so ...).

Long story short - if you have problems connecting their server, then you will miss big part of this game and replayability which extends this game A LOT would be gone. You will probably try to attempt your missions 2 or 3 times and that's all, because nothing changes. It's a very short game when played this way.
As for problems with connecting the server - I shouldn't have any, because I had good internet connection, yet, I simply couldn't connect for the first time. After about 5 minutes of trying I've started playing offline. Next day, the same. It continued for about a week. I really thought this game does not have anything else to offer until suddenly when I opened it again it successfully connected to server and O.O wooot, I can unlock stuff?? That's when this game started a new for me. I really like this game but I don't like dev's decisions in regards to this franchise.

pb_

I got all suit rewards for season 1's ETs so that's not a problem. I missed a few ETs* and that's a slight problem, because I got less fun out of the game than I might have. The big problem in my book is that the game gives me a one-time 10-day time window to play a specific part of the game before I'm locked out of it. I don't think it's fair and thus I don't like that concept.

(*) I installed a companion mobile app that was supposed to alert me of new ETs, but it didn't...

Soul_Reaver

Was that official app? Even if it was, your phone might not like you in terms of giving you notifications. My phone has memory issues (low system memory) and there are apps that simply stopped giving me notifications (I was expecting them on a daily basis).

Btw, it seems that in the end, there will be (sorry, there is) a preload. 1 day to download. Not bad 🙂
For now, I don't see Legacy Pack or Legacy Pack Upgrade assigned to my account.

P.S.
It seems they've added season 1 achievements to this game as well. If you have original (I mean season 1), you get it for free, otherwise, achievement hunters are "forced" to get legacy pack/legacy pack upgrade. Btw, I don't quite get it, what is going on with those 2 versions of legacy pack. Why Legacy pack has everything (GOTY) and upgrade is only upgrade to GOTY. There is no legacy pack version that would correspond to just season 1. Maybe that will be added as "hidden" DLC (visible in library, but not the store).

pb_

Yes, it was an official app. The reminders worked in the beginning and that's what dulled my vigilance. The app was here but I see it's removed now: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squareenix.hitmancompanion

JackSide

Do I need to play other Hitman games to be up to date with story in this game?

Awiaton

JackSide Just only the first (I mean rebooted) - previous games in this series don't have same story as in these two

pb_

JackSide I haven't played any of the previous Hitmans and I didn't feel like I was missing anything (story-wise).

Soul_Reaver

There is somewhat a bit of relation to maybe the very first game (I still haven't completed that one), I mean in terms of actual origin of Agent 47. This stuff is explained a bit in the tutorial stage of season 1 (in Hitman™ (2016) or in legacy pack for Hitman™ 2, I am not sure if this tutorial is available without legacy pack, as the game started directly from season 2 mission for me, not from tutorial). If you are interested - read about it on the net, there is no point in playing unless you want to foce yourself to play a very old 3d game - those aged very poorly.
As for other parts of the story, as mentioned above - this is direct sequel to Hitman™, a game from 2016. Actually, you should call them season 1 and season 2, as that is how they were originally planned. So yes, for the story - you should have played previous game, but Hitman is about replaying a game over and over, to find different ways to approach same target. This means, that story is not something that is the most important in this game, but I must say, that while first season was not about the story at all, now you really complete story missions, I won't say more not to spoil anything 🙂

ArghVerdammt

i stopped long time ago @ preorder. so often the games suck much and just the hype is good :/

JackSide

Thanks for help.

Soul_Reaver

Now, after "completing" Hitman 2 I can tell ... the story is much more interesting here, but you already know big bits of it - from previous games (origins of 47) and the comic book. Game leaves players with a cliffhanger like situation (again, comic related), for us to wait for season 3 ... will wait, until they will give it us for free ;p

ArghVerdammt

im so annoyed of this "waiting for the next chapter".... normaly i wait until all seasons are out.

Soul_Reaver

You should have waited for the moment, when they would give all three seasons away for free ... Hitman 2 "prologue" free right now + legacy pack also free ... I don't know how they want to earn money ;p

pb_

Hm, so I added that free licence of Hitman 2 and in the store it shows I own it but it doesn't show up in the client. Also, the GOTY legacy pack is not shown as ownet but I own all of the previous Hitman. Maybe need to wait for some refreshing?

[edit] Ok, it showed up in the library once I started downloading it but it disappeared again when I cancelled. So it seems it's a free2play licence, not free4keeps, even though after clicking I had the usual "HITMAN™ 2 is now registered to your account on Steam." message. Something seems messed up a bit.

Biskuit

pb_

Bazul

for free legacy pack, you need to "play" it first (it's fine with the demo)
so what you need to do is, just go play the HM2 free ones
then straight quit the game
youre HM2 will be auto update instantly (around 31gb-ish) to download the legacy content (HM1 content)

you'll get something like this later

and after you get your legacy pack for free, your HM2 will stick to your library until you remove the license from license page (accounts ones)

i've been playing HM2 for a while now (tho i only play it for HM1 content, since i didn't purchase HM2 for now) xD

*note you need to own Full experience / GOTY HM1 first to get the legacy pack for free (if you own like episode 1,2,3 only, you can't get them for free)

Bazul

Anyone know getting legacy pack is limited in time or it will be possible always for all people who have previous Hitman?

pb_

Bazul A related question, can the legacy pack be added (for existing owners) to the free prologue, anyone tried it?

pb_

Biskuit

Thank you, it sounds promising, gonna try it (I have H1 GOTY). :-) Does it actually play better on the new engine? Anything you particularly liked about it compared to v1?

Biskuit

pb_ yup it's better in the new engine
more improvement, for example more colourful about the game info, iirc in HM1 you only get B&W color, but in HM2 you get various color, like for example trespassing will result in yellow coloured maps, and i kinda forgot but you can throw melee weapon in HM2 (at least it's on the tutorial in HM2, i don't recall it's at HM1 tutorial if the throw mode exist in HM1 since i really didn't know if you can throw it until i replay them in HM2). Sound seems have improvement too