So, it's taken a while for me to play this title. First I was appalled by the episodic model of releasing a single level and having people pay full price (or pay even more buying piecemeal), and then I also never was into this franchise before. After having heard a lot of good about this title and the first season having finished I finally bought it when it was on offer. Then it sat on my harddrive for a few months more. Last week I finally gave it a shot - and now I'm in love!

So if you are like me and you are not very aquainted with the Hitman franchise this is what it is all about: you play a hitman called Agent 47 working for a mysterious agency that gets hired by third parties to kill people in order to get rid of 'business obstacles', for revenge or some other hidden reasons. Each game has its own story that spans a couple of missions each with one or more targets, with an overall story arc connecting the games loosely. Each mission starts with an introduction by your handler and has one or more targets to kill, sometimes with optional objectives. You have a lot of choice in approaching the kills, how to set them up, and how to infiltrate - and often listening in on conversations or carefully exploring and monitoring the routines of people opens up new options.

Graphically it looks very nice, the levels feel alive and are fun to explore. There are tons of little sidestories hidden everywhere - some open up new options, others are simply background. But they all add to the atmosphere and keep it fresh when you play the level again. You can sneak around, camouflage yourself by offing (or knocking out) guards, staff or other people in a level, lay traps and use the environment for your kills. Sometimes you can drive people mad by manipulating the scene or lure them to where you can kill them in an especially crazy way. And Hitman doesn't take itself too serious - some of the options are simply ridiculous funny!

A lot of emphasis is put on replayability - trying out all the different possibilities or completing extra challenges. The latter being especially true for this (fifth?) installment in the series - and with the very notable exception of Hitman: Absolution (the fourth? game in the series) which had lots of very linear levels with only few options and little replayability.

When the episodic release was announced many people (me included) were very doubtful about how that would play out. After the failure that many consider Hitman: Absolution to be, people didn't trust them to make a good game - and paying full price for an episodic title is always risky - what if they put all the effort in the first level so critics are happy and customers pay up front, but then fail to deliver on the following episodes? Well, in this case they did deliver - and due to the high replay value and the many extra challanges provided (i.e. one off 'elusive targets' reusing the existing assets but with new targets and extra challenges) I actually think Hitman may be exceptionally fitting for an episodic release. When you play the game after the final epsiode released you are always in conflict on whether you want to continue in the story (i.e. play the next mission) or want to try some other fun ways to play a level. With an episodic release you have enough time to thoroughly explore each level before the next is released. Of course you have to trust them to keep up the quality.

The game currently is at the end of season one, with a big story cliffhanger and the start of season two on the horizon. I might actully get in early this time, just to have more time for each individual level - even though I can only hope they keep up the quality of the levels.

TL;DR: Very good stealhy, sneaky, fun third person murder game. Episodic format works very well. Highly recommended if you like this kind of games. Lots of replay value, will keep you busy for many, many hours!