Hitman: Episode 4 – Bangkok (Video Game)
Ted Hentschke
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Developed by IO Interactive
Published by Square Enix
Available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One
Rated M for Mature
In my previous review for Episode 3, I concluded that Episode 4 would have to raise the bar considerably. My reasoning is that we’re getting to the point where the identity of this Hitman title is established, where there isn’t enough design space left to introduce radically new stuff without it feeling forced. So far I was pleased how the game had built with each episode, but it still hadn’t managed to push from “good” to “great.”
Unfortunately, after the epic that was “Marrakesh,” “Bangkok” feels like a big step backwards. In the previous episodes, we were tasked with killing a husband and wife fashion mogul/black market information dealing duo, a pair of scientists who were developing a weaponized virus that could be engineered to kill anyone in the world, a Swedish diplomat at the center of a plot to overthrow the government, and a general on the verge of starting a revolution. In “Bangkok,” your target is Jordan Cross, a rockstar who maybe killed his girlfriend. You also are tasked with killing his dirty lawyer, who’s just kind of a dick. Kind of a step drown from bio-assassins and third world nation overthrowers.
But hey, this is Hitman, I’ll garrote the actor that voices Elmo if you give me a fun way to do it. So after the sprawling streets and varied zones of “Marrakesh,” what’s in store for us in “Bangkok?” A hotel. I was shocked with how small the map was. I’m not saying that every level has to get bigger and bigger, but the layout of the Showstopper mission in the first episode was more robust and varied. There’s a miniscule outside area, and the rest is all the hotel. The hotel itself is pretty big, going up five or six floors and down into a basement, but there’s not a lot of variety in the rooms. There’s the basement/staff area, the lobby, a bar, the recording studio, and the executive suite, but other than that it’s all just a bunch of hotel rooms.
At least it’s pretty?
As I predicted, the Opportunities the game walks you through are getting less and less comprehensive. So much of the challenge comes from just figuring out how to get into the sealed off areas. Unlike the previous episodes, there’s not really an obvious in. Once you do figure it out and get an outfit, so much of the level opens up that you realize just how much dead space there is. There’s a bit of a challenge in getting outfits that let you into the highest security locations, but it isn’t terribly difficult to find the outfits you need at that point. One of the Opportunities I pursued led me to a drummer disguise that opened up the entire level, somewhat trivializing the whole ordeal.
With my ingenious “Hipster Douche” disguise, I’m practically invisible!
What’s worse is that the kills in the level are all stock standard. You can headshot them, garrott them after getting them alone, or sabotage one of a few different objects to make it look like an accident. None of it feels really compelling. I’ll always enjoy choking a dude out in an abandoned basement, but there are no kills that really stand out. For a game about assassination, the actual assassinating is just bland. In the freaking tutorial I was sabotaging an aircraft’s ejector seat so that during the testing the dude would get launched into the ceiling of the hanger. Electrocuting a dude with a faulty microphone just feels tame by comparison.
The episode’s shortcomings added up in a way that made it impossible for me to keep ignoring the various bugs and design issues that plague Hitman. At almost every encounter, I was running into game breaking problems. After luring one of my targets into an empty laundry room, I accidentally walked out of a closet too early and he noticed me. I quickly left, and since I was in proper disguise none of the guards reacted negatively. Instead of resuming his normal activities, he just stood there with his guard. Forever. He and his guard were frozen in place, forever shocked into immobility by the audacity of my hasty retreat.
I had to listen to this same stupid phone call at least a dozen times, because every time I actually killed him his guard’s AI would reset and he would walk back in the room. Great game design guys.
Almost everything you do will break the pathing in some way. At one point, I walked three feet away before the last word of dialogue was spoken, leading to the event canceling and the target restarting his entire patrol path. At another point, I accidentally walked into one of the targets while he was leading me to another room. He spun in circles, turned around, and fucked all the way back upstairs to the start of the encounter. It’s absolutely infuriating to put what could be an hour into setting up a kill only to have bad design ruin your execution.
I’m getting ready to just call Hitman mediocre and move on. For a franchise that is touted as the penultimate assassination game of all time, this does almost nothing to innovate. Even if you hated Absolution, at least it tried some new stuff. Hitman feels like a vague attempt to replicate their glory days. I’m sure I could enjoy it as that if the game actually worked. There are just too many bugs to ignore, and “Bangkok” doesn’t bring enough new fun to make up for them. It might turn out to just be a bump in the road, but there are certainly better ways to spend $10.
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Episode
Categorized:Reviews
