Today, I finished the video game Hitman (2016). I call the game with the date on the end to differentiate it from the previous games of the Hitman series, i.e., 2000's Codename 47, 2002's Silent Assassin, 2004's Contracts, 2006's Blood Money, and 2012's Absolution (none of which I've played). Hitman (2016) was a reboot of the series, and was followed by a sequel, 2018's Hitman 2.
Hitman (2016) was part of the group of games I purchased last Thanksgiving at an extreme discount during a sale on the gaming web portal, Steam. The game was bundled together with Hitman 2 as a single item, so I basically got two games for the price of one discounted game. Good deal.
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I played the first of the games from I got from that sale, Far Cry: New Dawn, before I started Hitman (2016) on December 29. According to the Steam statistics, it took me 68 hours of game time to complete the game, or about 2 1/4 hours per day over the past month. For what it's worth, I got up to Level 79 in the game with 472,495 experience points (XPs). I have no idea if that's good, bad, or about average.
But anyway, the game was mostly fun. Over the course of the game, you play "missions" in six different locales - a fashion show in Paris, a villa on the Italian coast, the Swedish embassy in Morocco, a luxury hotel in Bangkok, a terrorist training camp in Colorado, and a hospital/high-end spa high up in the mountains of Japan. Each locale is beautifully rendered and they're mostly (with the exception of the Colorado setting) the kind of ultra-wealthy, luxury settings you see in James Bond movies.
You're assigned a target or targets for assassination at each locale (you have four targets in Colorado), and you complete each mission multiple times, using different and often highly innovative techniques to eliminate the targets. My favorite was dropping a stuffed moose on the corrupt Swedish diplomat during a television interview. You can play and replay each assignment as many times as you want, and once a mission is completed, the game rates your performance on a five-star basis. I think I got perfect five-star ratings only about three or four times in the game.
The problem is that a mission usually takes about 45 to 90 minutes to complete, and once you're done and get your rating score, you don't feel compelled to immediately start the same mission over again. Your motivation to replay may to get a better, hopefully perfect score or to use a different technique to complete the assignment ("What would have happened if I had released the cable on that moose suspended from the ceiling?"). But unlike some role-paying games, the episodic nature of the missions doesn't compel you to play for hours on end, as after every hour or so the game basically suggests that you wrap it up for the day.
Hitman (2016) flows seamlessly right into Hitman 2 - once you complete the last of the mission of Hitman (2016), the game segues into the first mission of Hitman 2. But rather than play Hitman 2 for some 68 hours over the next month of so, I think I'm going to set the franchise aside for a while and play another game from my Thanksgiving bundle.
As noted above, I ended last year with the game Far Cry: New Dawn, a sequel to the 2018 game Far Cry 5. I've already played 2014's Far Cry 4 and I enjoy the Far Cry series, so for the next game from my Thanksgiving cornucopia, I'm going back to 2012 and Far Cry 3. It's not a new game, but it's new to me.
I might change my mind - who knows? - and play around with Hitman (2016) a little longer before moving on (part of me wants to replay some of the missions over again if only to revisit the settings, like that Italian coastal resort). Or I might decide to download something a little more contemporary instead. That's what's so nice about having that bundle - I still feel like a kid on Chrsitmas morning with so many presents yet to unwrap.
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