Why is Killer not a stealth game, but an open-world puzzle game?

When it comes to popular stealth games, the HITMAN series is bound to be a name that cannot be avoided.

Since 2000, the series has not only won the recognition of a large number of players, but also won several global awards with its attractive character settings, unique assassination gameplay, and rich plot content.

In particular, the "Killer" trilogy, which was restarted in 2016, has reached a new height in terms of playability and game depth. At the end of last year, foreign media PC Gamer also awarded their "Best Stealth Game of 2021" to the trilogy's final chapter of "Killer 3".

Recently, some overseas authors have shared their other insights on the "Killer" trilogy. To GameLook's surprise, in his opinion, the Hitman remake trilogy is not just a stealth game, but more like an open-world Punchle Game.

Here's the full content of the GameLook compilation:

Launched in 2016, "World of Assassination" is the latest trilogy in the Killer series. Although often positioned as a stealth game series, it appears to be a truly uncategorized trilogy due to its inclusion of elements such as stealth, open world, puzzles, and action.

So, what kind of game is this?

The loop of the stealth game

Until then, the easiest way to explain the Killer cycle is if you're thrown into a massive environment full of NPCs, props, and landmarks, with the main goal of assassinating a barrage of targets before escaping. Of course, how you accomplish these goals is entirely up to you, and the game offers players many different ways to complete the mission.

A simplified view of the Killer game loop

Before diving deeper, I want to reiterate the word "massive," and the complexity of what's happening on these maps isn't a joke. Many NPCs run on a specific schedule, and if the right conditions aren't triggered, or if you don't happen to be in the right place at the right time, you'll miss out on a lot.

At first glance, the latest Killer can be seen as a series of stealth games, which is also an easy assumption to make. After all, when players move on different maps, many systems and rewards are designed around the use of stealth as the primary tool.

The main challenge in all games is the "Silent Assassin in Suit Only", which requires you to wear a suit to kill the target without being detected, in order to complete the mission. And it also means that you're not allowed to wear any other camouflage while running, which usually allows you to enter various areas of the area without being caught.

As far as the gameplay itself is concerned, although there are a fair number of weapons and gun battles in the game, it is usually the last resort, as too many enemies and lack of ammunition will limit your ability to get out of conflict.

These two points can prompt the player to adopt a stealth-first mentality to advance the mission, at least initially.

What's hidden under the invisible mask?

As mentioned earlier, missions take place in large-scale maps, but they are not designed to be fully explored in a single experience. Repeatability is also an important part of the game, and several systems within the game help facilitate this.

Killer 2 Miami maps all the sights on the first floor, and 4 floors

Mission stories are hand-crafted secondary plots that are executed through a specific map. For example, you might be following a journalist who wants to do a once-in-a-lifetime interview with a fashion tycoon; or you might pretend to be a yoga instructor who is targeting people... They provide players with a way to gain insight into the different NPCs, items, mechanics, and locations across the map. But since everything is happening at the same time, you need to play these maps over and over again to understand everything that happens.

Challenges are an achievement system divided into three distinct sections that continue to help players learn about the map:

Completing the task will automatically identify the target, so I will skip those;

Assassination and specialization depends on the way you kill, such as using a sniper rifle or throwing a lighting device at a target;

Discover a specific area based on reaching the map and collect specific items in that area.

Similarly, each map usually has a large number of challenges (completing one will usually isolate you from several others), which requires you to replay the mission multiple times to get all of them.

Combined with massive replay factors and knowledge building, the game seems to shift from a pure stealth game to a puzzle game. As Wikipedia defines, puzzle games emphasize puzzle solving and "can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and complementing words." ”

These games require players to understand the environment and tools through groping and trial and error, and as players accumulate more knowledge, they can be able to manipulate the world according to their needs, or react to changes to ensure that they can eliminate their targets. From this point of view, Killer has become an instant decryption game.

Another unique thing about the game is that it is not a series of puzzles that need to be solved. Rather, it is a combination of parallel puzzles that occur simultaneously in an open-world puzzle environment. Other games in this genre include The Witness, The Talos Principle, and Antichamber.

However, most of these games are collections of different puzzles, and players are limited before solving the puzzles, i.e. it emphasizes exploring and finding hidden secrets. Still, the puzzles require players to solve them step by step and learn different tricks and methods as the player progresses.

In addition, the puzzles of these games often have only one correct solution. Players need to figure out the principles and logical rules, follow those rules under puzzle constraints, and then derive a solution.

In Killer, both of these situations are upended.

Killer: An open-world puzzle game

The entire map can actually be seen as a single puzzle, with all NPCs, props, and environmental objects serving a single purpose, whether it's a background purpose or a temporal purpose (or both). As players learn and build their knowledge about what to do and when to use, they can use the strategies of their choice and adapt to problems when they arise. There's no right way to play Killer, and whatever you decide to do, it's the right thing to do.

Once you've mastered these maps, Killer will throw out one last puzzle to really test your skills.

Level-ups are a series of small, consecutive missions that stack up layer upon layer, forcing players to solve increasingly difficult puzzles. For example, it begins with "Assassinate this target with weapon X and disguise Y". After you're done, it might add another challenge, which is "make sure all the bodies are hidden within 90 seconds" and so on.

The biggest challenges are elusive targets, which are a one-time attempt to destroy them on the map. You can't use the hints in the game, and the target won't appear on your map. Once they leave or you fail, the task is over forever. Since you only have one attempt, players need to understand all the different options they have at each stage.

What does this bring to us?

Killer is not so much a great stealth game as it is a great open-world puzzle game. It emphasizes discovery and exploration based on systems and mechanisms, and rewards players who have creative thinking. In addition, Killer realizes that things can get messy and gives players room to correct mistakes when things go wrong.

So, the next time you're stuck with Killer, give yourself an extra minute to think about everything you've learned and think about the tools you can use before clicking the Quick Load button that might be able to solve the puzzle at hand.

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