I'm loving it so far. Only done two of the main maps. I'm going slow (work up to SASO before moving on, without the weird "kneecap people and get Silent assassin" approach; this is a sneaking mission!)

The maps feel larger and with a lot of gratuitous details. Try taking coins from the Colombia bar. I look forward to Mexico Rules this Hitsmas

Another Life might be my favourite map so far. It's like a deluxe version of A New Life from Blood Money and I really hope it gets picked for this year's Hitsmas feature.

I feel like I should be somehow bummed that the game is almost the exact same as the previous one, but I just can't. Like Jeff and Brad talked in the review this is one of those games where you just want more of the same with little tweaks. I've only started to dig into the Columbia map and have already spent almost 10 hours. Learning all you can about the maps is still so much fun and at least the first three have all been amazing so far.

I'm so excited about this!

PSA: There is a battle axe in the Miami level. It's in the gym at the top of the Kronstadt building. There doesn't appear to be a challenge related to it, but it seems so random and specific I have a hard time believing it wasn't intended as a GB reference, especially since there is a challenge to dress as the Sheikh on the same level.

Where is the quicklook for this? I need to see Vinny do his work. (And Brad)

https://www.giantbomb.com/shows/hitman-2/2970-17657/free-video

For some reason it doesn't appear in the video section for Hitman 2.

I've gone through all of the levels once and can confirm: It's more Hitman. That said, I think the general quality of the maps is consistently better than in Hitman 2016. There's no Bangkok or Colorado to slog through, and the opportunities I've run into are somehow even dumber and goofier than the last one. I'm definitely going to end up putting some more time into this once holiday breaks start rolling around.

I've only played a few hours so far. It is more Hitman - which is not a criticism at all.

I'm only up to Colombia at the moment. I'm happy with it - prerelease footage of Colombia made me think that it was going to be another Colorado. In reality it is more Sapienza like.

I feel like this is more likely a reference to how lots of fan-made contracts involved battle axes, or just tradition. IIRC every map in Season One had a battle axe somewhere, and also there were escalations based around quickly getting an axe to where you needed it.

I am 14hrs in and have not yet left Miami... I have puzzled through all of the challenges/kills on it and finally feel ready to move on.

I played through the first mission fairly quickly, think its a fun looking map but immediately moved on to Miami so I could begin my 'Kill Sean Bean' (First elusive target) preparation. As someone who spent about 150-200hrs in the first game, I spent a lot of time doing the optional weird and wonderful weekly challenges. They forced you to learn the map in ways you never expected to, by the end I could get anywhere on any map with just the suit and fibre wire. This made the last 5/6 elusive targets an absolute breeze and I want to get Sean Bean so badly I am happy to put the hours into preparation.

So... for me, this approach feels right, and I am glad I have done it. I think its great that all the content is available immediately, but I wouldn't have thought twice on buying at launch if they went episodic again. I plan on moving onto the Columbia map tonight for the first time and starting the process again.

My current thoughts on the game are that it's exactly what I expected. More Hitman, slightly better. PC version optimisation sucks a bit, its the only game with my 1060 6GB where I have to lower the settings to get a steady 60fps at 1080p. I am also frustrated that all my progress from the first game is lost. I played HITMAN on PS4 so I guess I am asking way too much, but from what I understand even for pure PC players losing over 100hrs of progress would suck... but I get the technical aspects as to why it's not possible.

I haven't seen any of the 'challenges' from the first game yet, where every week the Dev (IOI) would load up a new permanent challenge. Hope they come back into play, as previously stated I got a lot out of them. I know the community will be building thousands of them... but the Dev's really do know these maps more intimately and can create some very unique puzzles. I remember in Paris having to find a way of getting the Battleaxe to 3 different targets, without allowing anyone to get suspicious, and get the kills wearing outfits which were unsuitable for carrying the battleaxe.... and the targets were all on 3 different floors and usually had a friend close by. It was great running back and forth, switching outfits to carry the axe, change to get the kill... it was really satisfying to work out & required an insanely intimate knowledge of the map to figure out (without Youtubing it).

Some people complain about the lack of CG sequences as if it speaks to a lower quality product overall... I frankly couldn't care less. The studio suffered major setbacks and brought Hitman 2 back from the brink of death... if a lack of CG cutscenes is the biggest blow to the 'Quality of the overall package' then I don't see why it can't be forgiven and forgotten by even the most enthusiastic CG overs out there.

Can't wait to see what the other maps bring... and I am very excited for the first Elusive target. I just hope they got rid of the 'Restart if no escalation' cheat so people can't scout ahead... let's see some honest success & failures just like our fellow duders will be forced to do on-camera.

Final note to the Dev - Please add a 'No Blood' option so I can play it in front of my kids and tell them that the targets are 'Just Sleeping'... my 3 year old has caught on and doesn't care for it so I can't play it on the big TV with Steam Link anymore... but he does still laugh when I push people into the water 'for a swim'. Yes, I'm a terrible parent.

@bpcupid: I got level 20 mastery on Miami yesterday and that was one of the best gaming experience I had this year. I think all maps are super great, even the prologue is worth getting full mastery on. Also Hitman is just a big stage play no one is getting hurt for real, it’s suitable for kids ?.

I’m glad you don’t need ALL the challenges though, some (especially the redacted one) I have zero idea how to get. I’d rather play without a guide and knowing full mastery is attainable for me means I’ll likely do it on all the maps.

Played it for 22 hours now, and gotten my SA/SO on all of the new maps. I just can't be bothered replaying the older maps, i spent 130+ hours on those and feel like i have seen enough of them. That said I'm not sure weather or not i like it as much as Hitman 2016. Sure it being a known quantity probably has something to do with it, but I'm not that much into many of the maps and i don't think that making some of them larger adds to anything of real value to the mix.

It's not a bad game by any means, i might have just gotten my fair share of that experience.

Man, a whole lot of single episode updating today. Good thing for a fast connection, can attempt The Elusive Target today.

I love it but there are a lot of bugs to iron out that I feel are a result of them being forced back into release crunch by WB and fans. The obviously missing levels carved out for the DLC are handled poorly as well, they should at least be a bit more honest that they are coming in the expansion packs and add a placeholder on the campaign menu. As it stands now you finish mumbai and get its cinematic, but theres actually another cinematic you need to watch before Whittleton creek, the continue story option completely skips over it and takes you straight to the next map yet the cinematic details why you are headed to Whittleton creek...

At the same time I'm confused about what 47 will be doing in the mean-time, after mumbai I imagine its a little more evidence gathering to identify the targets in Whittleton, but then they identify the final location in the game immediately following Whittleton, the cinematic to follow the second missing level just shows a further reaction to Whittleton that sets up a complication for the final map. Perhaps 47 is trying to maintain his cover in this time by continuing unrelated hits for the ICA or their employer?

For reference here's where the first missing mission will go, long shot will get autoplayed after you finish it, its pretty dishonest that they don't have a coming later placeholder, they did use those in hitman 1. I do own gold edition, I'm happy to pay for more maps even ones that got cut because of the release schedule but at least be up front where they fit around the existing maps.

I was hoping Hitman 2 would be one of the best games of the year. But after trying to rebind the keys in the PC version it's clearly worse than Quiet Man. Sorry I don't make the rules.

I think it actually might be mathematically impossible for me to bind the keys to what I used in Hitman 1 given that:

• You can't assign a key if it already has an action assigned to it.
• You can't unbind a key from action only replace it with another.
• Several keys are assigned to multiple actions by default, but these still block other rebindings.

(Edit: It is actually impossible, because several actions that were just on the generic "Interact" key in the original are now spread across multiple keys)

So Hitman 2 is $30/$60 right now at Best Buy for Cyber Monday.

Those that got in early might wanna look into a price match.

Just got Hitman 2 for $23 from Best buy with GCU, been playing the old levels through the free prolouge and all the mechanical changes are great. Can't wait to see the suburban level, since that was my favorite in blood money, and the last level with how the crews been talking it up.

Having played a ton of Red Dead 2, I have accidentally ruined good runs because I pressed square instead of triangle when I was supposed to pick up a thing next to someone only to have Agent 47 sucker punch random people. But I am reminded of how much fun things going all the way sideways are in these games. I took out a target once in a way that seemed too easy only to fumble amd entrance somewhere in the most stupid way and dying. But all the maps I have seen so far seems to offer a lot of creative ways.

Only really encontered one bug where one target locked themselves in some conversation and never returned to their routine. Otherwise things have been smooth sailing.

Some of the keybindings really have me scratching my head. Like how you use E to open a door, unless it's locked or is an exit point then you use G?

I get I for Inventory is nice, but I is all the way over the other side of my keyboard. Meanwhile, TAB doesn't seem to do anything and would be a perfect candidate to bring up the menu. M doesn't open the map. I think F2 brings up the sub-pause menu that lets you then go to map? Or is that F1?

I really hope there's a patch at some point to allow custom keybindings.

One thing I've noticed about Miami - and I don't know if it's just because I know how to play Hitman now, but following the objectives seems to make the assassinations much quicker than they ever did in Hitman 1. Like you pretty much get pointed at everything. Go here, get this disguise, go to the rat poison, go back to the drink, use the poison. And everything is labelled with an arrow. I'm playing on Professional but I think I'm going to have to ramp down the assistance or play at a higher difficultly.

With Paris it took me hours the first time to kill both targets. With Miami I honestly was done in about 25 minutes, and 15 of those was just running around looking at the map for fun.

It's very handholdy throughout the whole game, if you have the "Opportunities" setting set to Full. Minimal will remove the tracker icons or then you can just turn it all off.

@glots: Thanks I'll check it out. I don't mind the opportunities being presented, but on full it's just too handholding.

@jesus_phish: It took me a while to realise this was what failed to make the previous Hitman fun to play. By default there is no sense of discovery, immersion or experimentation because there are icons and markers constantly spelling out what you should do next. Why even play? Missions feel like interactive cut-scenes.

Disabling all the assists (opportunities, minimap, etc) that are enabled by default is the only way the game begins to manifest into the thing everyone speaks of so highly but doing so feels at odds with how these games are designed. If the opportunities and feats were all hidden until you achieved them for yourself that sounds exciting.

Those actual new maps (not sniper ones) are apparently finally coming, though it'll still be a while. The Bank will appear sometime around summer and The Resort during fall.

https://www.ioi.dk/hitman-2-2019-content-highlights/