This is the very time I’m posting a “press release”.
I feel like press releases are generally a gigantic waste of time, and amount to the person publishing them phoning an article in as opposed to taking the time to write something that’s interesting. Having said that, this one is pretty important… at least if you’re a fan of the Hitman franchise. So I’ll let you read it, and then I’m going to talk for a minute.
An Open Letter to Hitman Fans
Just a little note here, the bolded sections are my own. I’ve highlighted a few points that I feel are especially interesting, and I’ll talk about them afterwards.
Dear Hitman fans,
We wanted to share this open letter with all of you out there eagerly awaiting more news about what’s happening next in the franchise.
At Io-Interactive right now, we are building the next AAA Hitman game for PC and next-gen consoles. It has our total focus and we wanted to take a moment to tell you a few things about it.
In the next game you will experience a globetrotting Agent 47 at the prime of his career – the apex predator stalking his prey across the world, with the support of his long-term handler Diana Burnwood and the whole of the ICA.
The game concentrates on the core Hitman fantasy of using a wide range of tools to take out a diverse group of targets across expansive, exotic locations around the world. We are building this game on the backbone of the Glacier 2 engine, using the best parts and what we have learnt through Hitman: Absolution and drawing inspiration from past titles like Contracts and Blood Money to fulfil the core Hitman fantasy. That means we’re packing in an extreme level of detail on the largest levels we have ever built for a Hitman game. We’ve adopted an open, non-linear level design approach to the game, ensuring the game will play out across huge, checkpoint-free, sandbox levels. Our aim is to create living, breathing and believable levels which will allow gamers to play around with the AI to create those unique moments every fan of the Hitman franchise loves.
Contracts Mode is back – you will be able to create and build challenges by experimenting with the large levels and possibilities within them. And of course, you can share them with the world and challenge your friends or foes to complete your hits. Your rules, your Contracts.
You will also be glad to hear that we have removed 47’s magic pockets. We believe that’s all we need to say about that subject.
As we get further into 2014, we will reveal more and get into much closer contact with all of you. There are so many things we have planned and we are extremely excited for the future of Hitman.
Thank you all for your dedication. We will share much, much more in the coming months.
The Io-Interactive Team
Sorry, I got a little carried away with the highlighted passages.
So here’s my interpretation. IO-Interactive fucked up Hitman: Absolution badly… like, really badly. It was a disaster of epic proportions, and I’m assuming that was reflected in the sales as well. It takes a big man (or company) to apologize for his/its mistakes, and I’m happy to read that IO-Interactive is taking the Hitman franchise back in a direction that people actually want to play.
Game studios seem to have a hard-on for turning their video games into interactive movies. I don’t know why, but I do think it’s awfully stupid. Games are games, and movies are movies, and though they can and should draw from each other, they’re still different mediums.
Hitman: Absolution was a game that tried very hard to be a movie, and failed at both. IO, thank you for your open letter to Hitman fans, and I’m cautiously looking forward to seeing what you’re working on over the next year or however long it takes you to finish the game.
– Chad of the Unfinished Man Team
