Hitman: Episode 1 - Paris

Quite possibly the greatest action stealth game on the market right now.

One thing’s for sure: The more I've played Hitman’s debut “episode” the more I've enjoyed it. Despite the often boneheaded AI and dire loading times, Hitman has definitely combined the best of both worlds. There’s scope for it to improve in some areas as the levels are released throughout the year but this is a fun, confident start.

Hitman’s episodic release plans and amount of content are going to be a source of controversy. It’s got all the fundamentals of a terrific Hitman game, and if the future levels live up to the scale of what’s in this intro pack, then they’ll be massive, densely detailed locations filled with possibilities that will take dozens of playthroughs to fully explore. Completing all the challenges and permutations of this offering alone will easily last you five to ten hours. But taking the ti...

Hitman tries an interesting balance of stuffing a lot into a little, but doesn’t exactly pull it off with elegance. While levels are large sandboxes containing numerous death-fulfilling opportunities, they come with the extra baggage of lackluster technical performance. Without the option of going to different locations of an equal size, Hitman currently feels like a product that lacks in its offering once enemy patterns and building layouts have been memorized.

Ultimately, however, while the episodic content and the odd Internet connectivity requirements are annoyances, they are only small blemishes on an otherwise fun and engaging game. Hitman Episode 1: Paris represents some of the finest open-ended stealth gameplay since Dishonored, and the incredible replay value of the episode makes up for the fact it is only disjointed one piece of many in the latest Hitman story. Gamers who love stealth gameplay and freedom of choice should definitely give the new-and-improved Agent 47 a chance.