Holy shit, what a rollercoaster the last few days with this game have been. It's on offer in the current Humble Monthly Bundle, but I decided to have a go with the free opening levels on PS4 (since my PC is hurting for hard drive space). It's a fucking blast, the finest stealth game I've played in years. It has all of the best elements of stealthing in MGSV, but further expanded on. I've always found Hitman's controls rather cumbersome, but here they're quite serviceable.

Then I discovered what playing offline costs you. I knew the gist of the notoriety this game had attracted, but was foggy on the details, so I tried playing the first bit offline. The game seemed to work perfectly fine, and I greatly enjoyed myself. The next time I sat down to play I let it log me in. It wasn't immediately apparent what had changed, but I eventually figured it out. Each mission has "escalations," new conditions that force you to alter your strategy and further test your skills as you get more familiar with the level. They're insanely fun, but only available if you play online. Furthermore, you can't unlock any new gear for 47 unless you play online. They patched it so that you can play with already unlocked gear, but expending effort on such a half-measure almost feels more insulting. That's to say nothing of the Elusive Target missions that involve content that is only accessible for a single week before being scattered to the wind. Without online this is half a game. This is a single-player game that locks certain players out of certain content so they're pressured to participate in its garbage "live service" business model. It's absolutely grotesque and I refuse to give it any monetary support, and I'm glad the game sold poorly, despite how much talent the developer exhibited.

The entire game is free on Steam for the next three days so I suppose I'll enjoy what time I can with it. Since the sequel is coming out in a couple weeks I've been keeping my ear to the ground trying to find out if IO will be using the same tactics again, now that Square Enix are no longer calling the shots. The fact that I haven't found any concrete info with the game only weeks away does not bode well in my opinion, but if IO winds up doing the right thing I recommend everyone consider picking it up. If you're not sold on the quality of the sequel, give the free content for this entry a whirl since there's nothing to lose.