Just started playing this last night, well, actually past midnight and well into the morning. I have to say this is a beautiful looking game and quite well optimized. For the most part I love the gameplay mechanics. The cover system seems fluid and natural. Now and then there's objects I can't take cover behind that I'd like to, and sometimes there's a little stickiness getting out of cover, but for the most part it's less sticky and finicky than the typical cover systems in games.
I'm not super good at Hitman games generally, due to a lack of patience with the tedium of timing patrol evasion, so I'm starting out on Normal. So far it seems maybe more intuitive regarding good routes and hiding spots, and they give you a fair bit of options, which I really like. Part of what makes evasion intuitive is they have pretty good light and shadow details in the maps, along with the fact that those carrying flashlights are more likely to spot you.
At first I thought the pre-targeting would make it too easy, never used it much in SC Conviction, but I have to say in certain situations it provides a nice alternative to burning Instinct if you have little to spare and/or a questionable disguise. Then there's the fact that they catch you off guard. Just when you think you've gotten through a section, you sometimes find you have barely enough Instinct left to stealth through, but the game certainly gives you the tools to get the job done.
Going loud in this one is not horribly frustrating either. In fact at times it's quite fun. Some of the weapons are quite effective, and at times the kill animations are quite good. I honestly can't see why thus far in my play through that some are complaining about disguises not working and combat being too ineffective. Maybe it's that you can't totally rely on any one element of the game, you have to balance your use of skills, which is what I do.
OK, so I'm only playing on Normal and I'll probably find it much harder on higher difficulty levels, but keep in mind most are playing on levels they're used to playing Hitman on. So far this seems to be a game that has great replay value though. I liken it to Max Payne 3 as far as it's visceral gameplay and ability to find various effective tactics. Whether it's pulling off a perfectly timed sneak or stealth kill, knocking a thug off his feet with a shotgun, or tossing a fire axe into someone's skull, this game keeps you engaged.
That said, I guess about my only gripe so far is the hand to hand uses Quick Time and is based on random Q,E,W Space counter moves that are shown in such tiny fonts even at the mere 1366x768 res I play on that it often results in me button mashing those keys because I can't see the prompts well enough. That and the fact that sometimes every once in a while the hand to hand slow mo cam seems to glitch out and either freeze or just go incredible slow with no apparent reaction to your input. I can also verify that every now and then I get a strange physics glitch as mentioned, where bodies over react to contacting certain things.
I'd really like to see them address these things in a patch, especially making hand to hand prompts more legible and intuitive. I'd prefer no quick time at all with the hand to hand. I liked Max Payne 3's melee much better, and something like that would have fit this game's combat mechanics and the protagonist's elite killer persona better too. There are however many ways you can avoid face to face melee, and I guess many consider that a last resort and an indicator you've not used stealth as well as you could have. So far this is kinda a sleeper GoTY potential title though I think.
gives the game replayability apparently!
Yes all of them have had a lot of bugs and glitches, but it never annoyed me to the point of not finishing the game because the story structure was always entertaining for me. I can't say anything about this new one yet, as I haven't played it yet. It's a shame the developers didn't do more testing before releasing it to us gamers.