With the planned restart of the 2016 "Killer" series, the experimental plot and core gameplay have successfully left a deep mark on the new work, although Square Enix abandoned the game last year, Warner Bros. did not make drastic changes after taking over, and the steady style made "Killer 2" a hardcore legacy loyal user-oriented work that is destined to fail to present gorgeous and stunning performances, but there will never be any missed hardcore heritage loyal user-oriented works.
Whether it's the five titles in the old series or the two new ones after the reboot, they all progressively interpret the entire Killer game: becoming a professional killer is much more difficult than it seems, from tracking enemies familiar with their whereabouts and disguising them to killing with a silenced pistol, every link is actually important. Whether it is to suffocate the target with a pillow, throw the car battery into the pool to cause an electric shock accident, or mix a little chloral hydrate in the wine glass, or even induce the target to go to the abyss... The abundance of assassination techniques is also extremely challenging.
"Killer" has always adhered to the concept, and the new work is no exception, in a moderate range of mission areas, a bald uncle with a barcode with the tail number 47 engraved on the back of his head, puppet-like tracking and solving customer-specified targets. However, a simple assassination does not bring much honor to No. 47, let alone bring much game experience to the player, on the contrary, the magic and playability of the killer lies in patience, exploring the entire environment, disguising to become any character, designing hidden traps, using creativity and wisdom to complete the assassination, leaving no trace, who would have thought that the hairdresser who often visited across the street, the new barber actually ended his life with his hair? The charm of assassination stems from this.
Smooth evolution
"Killer 2" does not have much new ideas, mainly on the core of the previous game to further improve, but in the details are not leaky, providing absolute breadth and diversity, and actively changing the small loopholes in the old game that are easy to be overlooked will inevitably make the game more delicate.
There are not many breakthroughs in the plot, not to mention that the legacy pack provides the complete content of the previous game, which is equivalent to the mission content of the previous generation in the world review of Killer 2, except for a slight upgrade of the map, an increase in the density of NPCs, and an increase in enemy AI. Of course, these improvements have increased the overall level of the game again, and the more crowded and active environment characters will make the mission more challenging, and the ordinary people will also generate feedback on the protagonist's behavior, and even become enemies to investigate and interfere, which is enough to make the experience more realistic, rather than just existing as a fragment in the killer world.
Obviously, after Continuing the Killer series, Warner Bros. did not join hands with IO Interactive to try to complete the crazy jump, but firmly optimized the immediate quality and the content that the producers are good at, by providing more interesting puzzles and richer ways, allowing the Assassin Masters to show their superb assassination skills in various modes of difficulty.
Such an approach does bring minor regrets, and Killer 2 is currently more inclined to be an extension of the previous hitter than an orthodox sequel. The content of the Master Challenge is very detailed and will leave a very deep impression, but whether its plot can be as memorable as the early predecessor "Killer: Blood Money" needs to be seen.
Not bound by a single goal
Without too much new content, Killer 2 is brilliantly expressive, with all of 47's actions having tangible consequences, and it's satisfying to deal with unique goals in a stylish environment.
As all Master Assassins expect, memorizing every detail from the first loaded level to the mission is a long but fun process, repeatedly challenging the mission, understanding the specific behavior patterns of the target, observing anything that can be used in the environment, and achieving a stylized ornate assassination. And in Killer 2, most of the clues are closely related to the Master Challenge to encourage the creativity and imagination of the Faith Assassin.
In the new work, No. 47 will obtain a very large amount of information from the surroundings, such as being able to eavesdrop on the dialogue between civilians, figuring out the habits of targeting, and consciously identifying problems and opportunities through various knowledge and techniques transmitted through the map environment. The killer instinct of the Killer series is cleverly integrated with the focus system, which will enhance the player's ability to track targets.
For those loyal players who can easily get rid of the shackles of mission objectives, fully transform into assassins hidden in the dark, and fully use the environment knife to complete any assassination without bloodshed, for them, the minimum guidance accompanied by high difficulty challenges can bring a more realistic killer experience and get a more interesting game look. The Nimble Master Challenge provides the perfect immersion, while the demanding learning curve in the face of tasks occasionally triggers killer instincts to look for possibilities that might be overlooked, and the completion of incredible ideas is also the elaborate architecture of IO Interactive.
butterfly effect
Killer 2 is challenging, and true masters often observe and learn deeper techniques from misses, failures, and even death, as if it were a puzzle game that constantly improves itself as it moves towards its goals.
Touching any piece of the game puzzle can lead to changes in the surrounding things and force NPCs to respond accordingly, and the cat-and-mouse game tests wisdom and patience. Therefore, failure seems to be an integral part of experiencing the Killer series, as the level is constantly frustrated, high-level players can more effectively absorb relevant information, find the most effective way to guide the direction of the environment, the right decision will often lead to logical results, allowing the assassin to accurately predict the next move, and sloppy negligence will also put themselves in trouble, in short, if you want to grasp the rules, you have to try.
Finding the key factors and balancing the trade-offs between clues and goals is the charm of Killer 2, which is usually not a specific routine, but a technique that needs to be repeated and confirmed.
Pick a hole in
While the gameplay experience of Hitman 2 is excellent, there are still unsatisfactory parts, with occasional strange interactions from NPCs and ad hoc strikes by physics engines that can lead to phenomena such as the appearance of invisible obstacles and overlapping models. Sometimes, if the player is too far away from the target, it may cause the character to be unaffected by the environment, and it has been found more than once that the distant target drinks half a bottle of juice mixed with poison, but has no effect and continues his journey.
And in some cases the target seems to be unconsciously immune to any accident, and there seems to be no better solution than to break their neck themselves, which will make players who are keen to create accidents feel a little embarrassed. However, these are only harmless small obstacles that will not affect the rigor of "Killer 2".
A more focused master move
IO Interactive, in collaboration with Warner, tells a more charismatic Assassin story, with 47's past and Diana's future presenting a wonderful appeal, but the cutscenes are slightly stiff and the static interactive scenes are somewhat cheap. Also noteworthy is the online mode "Sniper Assassin", which has a strong rhythmic transition and competitive fun.
As in the previous game, "Killer 2" did not seek too many changes, but continued to polish the core of the game to be precise and delicate, which seems to make the work more accurately positioned, becoming a hardcore work with an absolute focus on loyal players, and the new assassins may need a lot of time to invest a lot of time to cross the learning curve and enjoy the most realistic assassinations; and for those experienced shadow killers, this game is definitely the best platform to show the skills of assassins.