So, when Hitman was first announced as a somewhat episodic title I was a bit skeptical and wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Since the game has come out I feel like my opinion on this has slightly shifted. That doesn’t mean I’m a fan of episodic content, I just think that in the end that was probably the best choice they could make for this game.
The reason I say this is because Hitman, at least the way it is now, can be quickly digested in a single sitting. If you follow the guided routes, what they call opportunities, you are more often then not led straight to the target and how to get rid of them. If not both then one or the other. If that is the only thing you do for each level, then yes you can finish all the current content within a couple of hours. You can extend this by working on the trophies for each level which generally include completing all the opportunities and doing certain other things. This does add a bit of time to each level because some take a lot of time to sort out how to do, or waiting on the perfect time to do it. On top of that if you spend time with the contracts mode, or doing the escalation contract for each level you add even more time. I would think you could easily spend a couple hours per level doing that, longer if you’re like me and aren’t very good at it.
So, to me, the way they are handling the content by spreading it out keeps people playing long after they might have put the game down if it had all been released at once. Sure, if all you do is go in an kill the target once and then put it back down you might not feel this is worth it but that isn’t how everyone plays, nor how the game is probably meant to be played. I think the developers want everyone to play all the different opportunities, or find all the outfits.
Allowing players to make their own contracts also adds to the game because it gives you a fairly unlimited amount of ways to play the game. Personally I don’t do contracts as much as I did when it first came out, but they’re usually quick enough to do one here and there just to pass the time. The actual content comes out and a pretty decent rate. Each month gets a new level to play and they are always adding limited time contracts that you only get one shot to do.
So while I don’t think this would work for every game I would say I think it works well for this game. I’m content with being able to hop on an hour or two each Saturday to work on the game but not feel like if I don’t I’m going to get behind.