To be honest, I really never understood why people claim that the WOA trilogy needed to be ‘gritty’ like the older games, particularly contracts. As someone who’s played every hitman game, but poured over 2000 hours into the WOA, I just don’t really see why that theme needs to return. I’m going to annoy some people, but the violence (and particularly the sex) in the old games was really overdone.
Take the Meat King’s Party for instance. The gore, I get, fair enough. The twist at the end that the girl was actually dead was pretty awesome, but-did it really need to by a BDSM sex-fest? Like come on, you’re just pushing it into edgelord territory. In fact, that’s the worst thing about the old games other than the controls and the detection system-half the levels feel like they were written by a 15-year-old trying to look tough. Please. It just ruined the vibes. I much prefer the great comedy of the modern games over the gore and sex of the old ones.
In my personal opinion, I think that the Blood Money level of this ‘grittiness’ is a good compromise, however-there should be a filter in place (off by default) due to the likely hyper-realistic graphics of Hitman 4. I’m curious to see what IOI does in regard to the blood and sex in the new remaster of the O.G trilogy for similar reasons. Feel free to debate and/or call me a wuss in the comments.
The whole Meat King party thing seemed like something you’d see in darkweb snuff videos. It seemed extreme, but on the other hand, seemed likely to be a thing. At least, imo.
The WoA could’ve “went there”, but did not. And for good reason. Novikov and Margolis have been compared to Epstein and Maxwell. Then one could draw parallels to what Margolis and her models did to their targets. But instead of blackmail (although, that could still be a factor if a target has an affair with a model) we just say they’re spies/honeypots.
Isle of S’gail. Obvious parallels to Eyes Wide Shut. I still say the dungeon area would be where they had the… Ogres? No. That’s not it.
Or other vile violations are committed to who knows who or what. Then they take the [REDACTED] next door to the kitchen…
That’s all that comes to mind right now.
Maybe Marakesch with Standberg and the one ET that was an arms dealer… While not “gritty”, probably based on something irl.
It’s also important to point out that Contracts is a product of it’s time and the whole level is heavily inspired by films of it’s era and that subculture. Blade, The Matrix, Underworld all film that have a similar scene with underground rave parties and a play on BDSM culture.
It was a big theme in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
Not to mention dark and gritty Thrillers of that time, like the David Fincher Movies and others. That style was really popular back the.
Hitman to some degree always was a product of its time. And 2016 to now just hasn’t that style of grittyness and thankfully not that awfull Neo-Grindhouse-Flair of Absolution, that had it’s short return during that time, because Tarantino brought it back and then everyone tried to copy it, and it all went to shit in about 5 minutes. Everything is “cleaner” nowadays. Violence tends to be more “cartoonish”. Which actually is fine with me, because it fits the humor of Hitman perfectly in my opinion.
That can and will change of course, but for now, I don’t see that happening. To be honest, I have no idea, how the next Hitman could look like, to make it different from WoA. Over the last 10 years, mainstream popculture hasn’t really changed that much, I think.
I honestly never had a problem with Woa having a lighter tone. That said, Meat King’s Party is one of the most atmospheric levels in the whole series, so I have to disagree that having a bdsm sex party in the level is somehow “too much.”
I miss the tone of the older games, the more dreary weather, the darker atmosphere, hits taking place in public without it being broadcasted to the entire world. H16 and H2 feels to bright, to bombastic, luxurious at times. H3 brought back some darker levels, with a bit more grit. It felt refreshing coming from the two previous games. Personally I think IO leaned a bit to much into the humor in the overall gameplay to gameplay moment. I enjoy humor when it’s more subtle.
I like the big luxurious levels, but I like them in moderation. Just like the other side of the coin needs moderation. H16 and H2 felt to me a bit more stale as an experience. I hope to see the next game in the series, return with a in my opinion a better curated set of missions.
I hope to see the story also take a step away from the evil cabal of shadowy figures running the world. The stakes can’t always be secret elite running the world and 47 taking them out.
I never really cared for the story of Hitman anyway so I have no “wishes” regarding that. I think, H2016 was fine storywise, but the following games it was just some stuff, I’ve seen a billion times, and mostly better. When they revealed who the shadow client was, I lost interest in the whole thing.
But regarding the “style”, I wouldn’t mind, if they mix it up more. I can have fun strangling a rapist in one mission and dropping a piano on the head of some evil landlord in another either way. I guess, the challenge is, to find a tone that fits it all. But shouldn’t be impossible.
I still don’t see them going darker again, but time will tell.
A lot of people do bring up Contracts and I think people mainly want the dark tones and styles back. More targets with really sick backgrounds and intentions is likely part of that too, and I also have heard people miss Jesper Kyd, as well as the way the old games had language dialogues that matched their locale instead of everyone just speaking English.
I also feel people forget that Contracts is the way it is for a reason. It’s all a warped perspective of 47’s mind of his memories as he goes in and out of consciousness, with only the end giving you a true moment of clarity.
Blood Money followed a similar approach. All of the events take place before the finale, but you’re witnessing the calm before the storm throughout the cutscenes as the reporter is being told of 47’s legend.
Plus, Contracts and Blood Money are interwoven in a way that events leading to Contracts are seen, several missions taking place before Contracts, etc.
C47 and H2SA on the other hand, do not really have this dark tone those two had. They are more traditional action-revenge style stories, and H2SA was truly a sequel to the first game in every way it could be. While these don’t have the same dark elements, they do share other things in common. Namely, that the environment you play in feels more diverse because you hear native languages of the area you’re in.
With all this said, I think people’s appreciation of WOA grew over time. 2016 seemed to not win everyone over but practically everything people complained about was fixed or added to H2, and then H3 just upped the ante there to where now it’s collectively one massive experience. Freelancer also feels darker, namely in the cutscenes and music exclusive to freelancer having a darker vibe. So I think maybe IOI has listened to their audience in more ways than people give them credit for.
I dont want every Hitman game to be liek contracts, but the basically non narrative / zero story line coupled with some truly darker themes on the stand alone levels made for a great experience. We haven’t had a game like that in a while AND at the end of WOA we’re basically at a point where 47 might as well work for some secret govt agency bc he only does things that while bad result in the greater good.
It’s time for a return to contracts, but you are correct when you say not every game should be that way… but another one certainly can be, and I would very much like that with the next one.
