HITMAN [Steam, Feral Store] is the brand new Linux port from Feral Interactive and what a game it is! This is some serious fun to keep you occupied for many hours!
Disclosure: Key provided by the developer.
Note: I will be livestreaming the game, so be sure to follow us on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/gamingonlinux
To get the elephant in the room out of the way first: The game does have an online requirement for certain features, these are extras and do not affect the main single-player story, which does not require you to be online.
Sadly, this isn’t as in-depth as I was hoping it would be due to limited testing time, and Steam decided at one point to remove my access and delete the game files forcing me to re-download 38GB (a known Steam bug with beta branches), which also sucked away some time for testing.
Fun fact: The music in the kitchen scene gave us a copyright claim, so if you see adverts it’s because the rights holder chose to, not because we enabled them.
As usual, it features the rather useful Feral launcher, which has been styled appropriately for the game:
This utility allows you to pick your monitor, resolution and so on. I actually find launchers to be incredibly useful, since I have two monitors. I’ve never had a Feral game pick the wrong monitor, so that’s fantastic.
The way the first scene drops you in after a short clip of a helicopter is so beautifully seamless I was actually quite impressed! It does this in each mission too; as you are introduced to the mission, it just fades you directly into the gameplay.
The performance has been reasonably good. With everything on High, I’ve been getting a pretty decent FPS, but it does depend on your location. This will drop quite a bit in the more populated areas (like a lot of games do), but it has been mostly smooth.
I do have a few issues with the game becoming sluggish, while the FPS counter remained high. If you’re using KDE be sure to have it setup so that full-screen games do block the compositor, as that is what I believe was partially causing my issues. It did come back after doing that, but it doesn’t happen as much.
There have also been two instances where the graphics became corrupted, with this being presented to me:
I still haven't found the cause of it, but it required me to save it, quit the game and load it for it to go away.
I also had a bug where in the third main mission, the audio was completed garbled forcing me to restart it.
I did a range of different benchmarks on my main rig:
- Antergos, Nvidia 980ti, Intel i7 5960x, 16GB RAM, 1920x1080
Please note: These benchmarks will be different to scores you’re likely to get, unless you have the exact same setup as me your scores will be different, remember that.
As you can see, the AA mode in use doesn’t really make much difference and it’s so small it’s within the margin of error due to slightly different scores on each run. However, the choice of which AA option you use might make performance change more on lower powered GPUs.
Thankfully, a lot of the issues the game started with aren’t an issue in the Linux version. There’s something to be said for getting a game late, as we do end up with a much more polished experience. In the many hours I’ve put into the game, I haven’t had any issues with online connections. The game originally launched with poor offline support, but this has constantly been improved since release.
You do not need to play any other HITMAN game to enjoy this one, as it’s actually set before the others. You start off by being introduced to International Contract Agency (ICA) by doing some training missions, but things heat up quickly after as you go straight into the story.
One thing I don’t particularly like is the main menu, it feels cluttered and unclear with too much presented to you at once. It’s easy enough to navigate when you’ve spent a few hours in it, but initially it did overwhelm me somewhat.
As expected, you have many ways to achieve your objectives, as the game is rather open to any approach you feel like doing. You could go in loud and proud, but unless you have a seriously good exit planned out you might want to go for a more stealthy approach. Still, it’s fun to see what happens if you try going guns-blazing. Not well, is often the case, but it is doable.
You have the ability to knock out people and steal their clothes, which I’ve had a lot of fun with. One disguise won’t last forever, though. Your disguises can cause an issue with certain people who become suspicious of you, so you will need to repeatedly change your outfit depending on the location you’re trying to access.
The game relies heavily on the reactions from various NPCs and some of it can be truly hilarious. Bumping into people, for example, will annoy them and they will say something like “oh yeah, you’re tough!”. Hitting someone and having someone else see it, is not game over, but you will need a good plan to hide out as they will give out your description. A quick outfit change and you should be good to go if you do get discovered. Being discovered doesn’t instantly mean everyone will be looking for you, either. It also depends on how quickly you react in taking down whoever found you out.
At one point I took out a guard, stole his gun and uniform, and proceeded to drag is body down the stairs. What was hilarious, was that his head kept bumping on the steps as he went down and I couldn’t contain my laughter during it — sometimes physics really is amusing.
The first two training missions are a piece of cake, but the third and final training mission is where the game begins to expand. There’s multiple paths you could take and I kept switching between them until I found the way to eliminate the target that sounded the most fun. Surprisingly, the training missions by themselves were actually damn fun and a great introduction to the gameplay.
Thanks to the Linux version being fully up to date with the current Windows patch, we are able to enjoy all the extra content. I’ve been able to play one of the timed elusive targets, which are not linked to the main story. These elusive targets are difficult to achieve since you start off with zero intel on how to go about the mission, which makes them really interesting to try. You have a limited window to start them, you cannot save you progress during them and if you die you cannot re-try them. I failed my first miserably too, as I tried to subdue a hotel worker to gain their uniform, but I didn’t notice someone had walked in mid-act and some soldiers quickly took care of me. I look forward to the next one!
The game does have a habit of hand-holding, putting markers all over the screen which can be a little immersion breaking. Luckily, this can actually be disabled. Personally, I’ve found them to complement the experience as I often get a bit lost. You don’t really get them in the elusive targets, which is part of the reason that they’re so difficult.
If, like me, you’re a terrible assassin and you fail the various big opportunities that come up in trying to take care of your target, don’t fret! The game has more ways to kill your target than you might initially think. Watch where they go, look around for items that could be used in your favour — like wires and puddles which could make for a very entertaining outcome. However, if like me you’re pretty stupid, be sure not to stand in said puddle while you expose a wire.
In the end, each mission has the same main objective — kill your target. How you do that, of course, is up to you to decide depending on the mission requirements. When you complete a mission, you unlock various items and starting locations/disguises based on what you did during the mission. You can then use these as you re-play the mission, so it has a lot of variety on offer. The great thing about HITMAN is how open it is, so you might watch how someone does it, like me on the livestream later, yet how you play through would likely be entirely different.
The extra feature of being able to make your own contracts, or play through contracts created by others is amusing too and I look forward to the challenge. I might have to livestream some Linux-gamer created contracts to see how I do, as it could make for some great fun for us all.
There are some places that the game falls short in, one of them is the animations. Dumping people inside objects, for example. Instead of a smooth transition from dragging to dumping, it just skips to you dumping them inside and then jumps back to you. A small oversight, but noticeable when you’ve done it a number of times. There’s also a time someone is on a set path to put up posters in a mission, but he does the animation for getting one out and putting one up where there already is one. Another small, but silly oversight.
The second place it falls short are the boundaries for interacting with items, like you may notice at the end of my video at the bottom of the article. I had an annoying time getting into the correct position to interact with the helicopter door to actually finish the mission. Stuff like that has happened a few times, where I’m literally a single step away from being able to interact with something. That kind of thing happens in a few games and it’s a real nuisance.
In many ways the game has surprised me, from being able to tamper with objects I honestly thought the game wouldn’t let me mess with, to being able to climb up drainpipes to avoid guards. It has more options than I expected it would and it’s been a very enjoyable experience.
It’s the kind of game I have been longing to have on Linux and it’s absolutely fantastic (bar those minor annoyances). I’ve had so much fun with it, especially trying out different outcomes in each mission! I couldn’t be more pleased when it comes to the gameplay and it’s going to suck away a lot of my time for sure. The first night I had it I sunk many hours into it without realizing it had gone past midnight.
I have completed the first four episodes, so I have a pretty good grasp of the gameplay now if you’re wondering how much time I have been able to put into it. I’m far into the fourth episode too with over 11 hours under my belt. The whole season consists of 6 episodes, a bonus episode and then you have the extra user-created contracts, challenges and so on. I think the length of the main story is fine, with how much playtime I have in it already, I don't consider it too long or too short I think it's exactly right for the gameplay.
The game is also on sale right now, so that should help some of the less fortunate amongst our readers!
Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going back to my cave to ignore the world for a while and play more HITMAN.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Disclosure: Key provided by the developer.
Note: I will be livestreaming the game, so be sure to follow us on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/gamingonlinux
To get the elephant in the room out of the way first: The game does have an online requirement for certain features, these are extras and do not affect the main single-player story, which does not require you to be online.
Sadly, this isn’t as in-depth as I was hoping it would be due to limited testing time, and Steam decided at one point to remove my access and delete the game files forcing me to re-download 38GB (a known Steam bug with beta branches), which also sucked away some time for testing.
Gameplay video
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Direct Link
Direct Link
Port report
As usual, it features the rather useful Feral launcher, which has been styled appropriately for the game:
This utility allows you to pick your monitor, resolution and so on. I actually find launchers to be incredibly useful, since I have two monitors. I’ve never had a Feral game pick the wrong monitor, so that’s fantastic.
The way the first scene drops you in after a short clip of a helicopter is so beautifully seamless I was actually quite impressed! It does this in each mission too; as you are introduced to the mission, it just fades you directly into the gameplay.
The performance has been reasonably good. With everything on High, I’ve been getting a pretty decent FPS, but it does depend on your location. This will drop quite a bit in the more populated areas (like a lot of games do), but it has been mostly smooth.
I do have a few issues with the game becoming sluggish, while the FPS counter remained high. If you’re using KDE be sure to have it setup so that full-screen games do block the compositor, as that is what I believe was partially causing my issues. It did come back after doing that, but it doesn’t happen as much.
There have also been two instances where the graphics became corrupted, with this being presented to me:
I still haven't found the cause of it, but it required me to save it, quit the game and load it for it to go away.
I also had a bug where in the third main mission, the audio was completed garbled forcing me to restart it.
Benchmarks
I did a range of different benchmarks on my main rig:
- Antergos, Nvidia 980ti, Intel i7 5960x, 16GB RAM, 1920x1080
Please note: These benchmarks will be different to scores you’re likely to get, unless you have the exact same setup as me your scores will be different, remember that.
General thoughts
Thankfully, a lot of the issues the game started with aren’t an issue in the Linux version. There’s something to be said for getting a game late, as we do end up with a much more polished experience. In the many hours I’ve put into the game, I haven’t had any issues with online connections. The game originally launched with poor offline support, but this has constantly been improved since release.
You do not need to play any other HITMAN game to enjoy this one, as it’s actually set before the others. You start off by being introduced to International Contract Agency (ICA) by doing some training missions, but things heat up quickly after as you go straight into the story.
One thing I don’t particularly like is the main menu, it feels cluttered and unclear with too much presented to you at once. It’s easy enough to navigate when you’ve spent a few hours in it, but initially it did overwhelm me somewhat.
As expected, you have many ways to achieve your objectives, as the game is rather open to any approach you feel like doing. You could go in loud and proud, but unless you have a seriously good exit planned out you might want to go for a more stealthy approach. Still, it’s fun to see what happens if you try going guns-blazing. Not well, is often the case, but it is doable.
You have the ability to knock out people and steal their clothes, which I’ve had a lot of fun with. One disguise won’t last forever, though. Your disguises can cause an issue with certain people who become suspicious of you, so you will need to repeatedly change your outfit depending on the location you’re trying to access.
The game relies heavily on the reactions from various NPCs and some of it can be truly hilarious. Bumping into people, for example, will annoy them and they will say something like “oh yeah, you’re tough!”. Hitting someone and having someone else see it, is not game over, but you will need a good plan to hide out as they will give out your description. A quick outfit change and you should be good to go if you do get discovered. Being discovered doesn’t instantly mean everyone will be looking for you, either. It also depends on how quickly you react in taking down whoever found you out.
At one point I took out a guard, stole his gun and uniform, and proceeded to drag is body down the stairs. What was hilarious, was that his head kept bumping on the steps as he went down and I couldn’t contain my laughter during it — sometimes physics really is amusing.
The first two training missions are a piece of cake, but the third and final training mission is where the game begins to expand. There’s multiple paths you could take and I kept switching between them until I found the way to eliminate the target that sounded the most fun. Surprisingly, the training missions by themselves were actually damn fun and a great introduction to the gameplay.
Thanks to the Linux version being fully up to date with the current Windows patch, we are able to enjoy all the extra content. I’ve been able to play one of the timed elusive targets, which are not linked to the main story. These elusive targets are difficult to achieve since you start off with zero intel on how to go about the mission, which makes them really interesting to try. You have a limited window to start them, you cannot save you progress during them and if you die you cannot re-try them. I failed my first miserably too, as I tried to subdue a hotel worker to gain their uniform, but I didn’t notice someone had walked in mid-act and some soldiers quickly took care of me. I look forward to the next one!
The game does have a habit of hand-holding, putting markers all over the screen which can be a little immersion breaking. Luckily, this can actually be disabled. Personally, I’ve found them to complement the experience as I often get a bit lost. You don’t really get them in the elusive targets, which is part of the reason that they’re so difficult.
If, like me, you’re a terrible assassin and you fail the various big opportunities that come up in trying to take care of your target, don’t fret! The game has more ways to kill your target than you might initially think. Watch where they go, look around for items that could be used in your favour — like wires and puddles which could make for a very entertaining outcome. However, if like me you’re pretty stupid, be sure not to stand in said puddle while you expose a wire.
In the end, each mission has the same main objective — kill your target. How you do that, of course, is up to you to decide depending on the mission requirements. When you complete a mission, you unlock various items and starting locations/disguises based on what you did during the mission. You can then use these as you re-play the mission, so it has a lot of variety on offer. The great thing about HITMAN is how open it is, so you might watch how someone does it, like me on the livestream later, yet how you play through would likely be entirely different.
The extra feature of being able to make your own contracts, or play through contracts created by others is amusing too and I look forward to the challenge. I might have to livestream some Linux-gamer created contracts to see how I do, as it could make for some great fun for us all.
There are some places that the game falls short in, one of them is the animations. Dumping people inside objects, for example. Instead of a smooth transition from dragging to dumping, it just skips to you dumping them inside and then jumps back to you. A small oversight, but noticeable when you’ve done it a number of times. There’s also a time someone is on a set path to put up posters in a mission, but he does the animation for getting one out and putting one up where there already is one. Another small, but silly oversight.
The second place it falls short are the boundaries for interacting with items, like you may notice at the end of my video at the bottom of the article. I had an annoying time getting into the correct position to interact with the helicopter door to actually finish the mission. Stuff like that has happened a few times, where I’m literally a single step away from being able to interact with something. That kind of thing happens in a few games and it’s a real nuisance.
In many ways the game has surprised me, from being able to tamper with objects I honestly thought the game wouldn’t let me mess with, to being able to climb up drainpipes to avoid guards. It has more options than I expected it would and it’s been a very enjoyable experience.
It’s the kind of game I have been longing to have on Linux and it’s absolutely fantastic (bar those minor annoyances). I’ve had so much fun with it, especially trying out different outcomes in each mission! I couldn’t be more pleased when it comes to the gameplay and it’s going to suck away a lot of my time for sure. The first night I had it I sunk many hours into it without realizing it had gone past midnight.
I have completed the first four episodes, so I have a pretty good grasp of the gameplay now if you’re wondering how much time I have been able to put into it. I’m far into the fourth episode too with over 11 hours under my belt. The whole season consists of 6 episodes, a bonus episode and then you have the extra user-created contracts, challenges and so on. I think the length of the main story is fine, with how much playtime I have in it already, I don't consider it too long or too short I think it's exactly right for the gameplay.
The game is also on sale right now, so that should help some of the less fortunate amongst our readers!
Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going back to my cave to ignore the world for a while and play more HITMAN.
Another shorter gameplay video
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So, for the first time I tried purchasing a game from Feral directly instead of through Steam. And I gotta tell you guys, it's a really quick process. You don't even need to register. Just three clicks and it's done (at least if you use PayPal).
You don't even need to open any mails, you get the Steam key right away after you paid, as part of the receipt in the browser. Just copy-paste into Steam and off you go to download - and Feral gets a well deserved bigger share of your payment.
I'll totally go this route from now on.
Last edited by Beamboom on 17 February 2017 at 8:42 am UTC
You don't even need to open any mails, you get the Steam key right away after you paid, as part of the receipt in the browser. Just copy-paste into Steam and off you go to download - and Feral gets a well deserved bigger share of your payment.
I'll totally go this route from now on.
Last edited by Beamboom on 17 February 2017 at 8:42 am UTC
9 Likes, Who?
What about performance on AMD CPUs? Once again my FX-8350 is in the minimum settings and only Intel is in the max settings.
0 Likes
Insta-purchased.
To be honest, I'm happy to wait for the Linux version if that means we get the Game of the Year/Full Season editions.
To be honest, I'm happy to wait for the Linux version if that means we get the Game of the Year/Full Season editions.
3 Likes, Who?
I definitely need a better GPU.
I played low settings 1920x1080 and mostly between 20-30fps.
:'(
I played low settings 1920x1080 and mostly between 20-30fps.
:'(
0 Likes
Has anyone been able to run this game on OpenSUSE Leap 42.2? The game would not launch on mine.Whilst I don't yet have Hitman, I do sometimes have this problem with Feral games. Have you tried launching it from the command line? That often works for me.
At the moment I cannot get Mad Max to run, though it might be to do with the latest Nvidia graphics driver.
0 Likes
What about performance on AMD CPUs? Once again my FX-8350 is in the minimum settings and only Intel is in the max settings.
Haven't tried it extensibly yet, but from the few minutes I played it was running very well (I have an RX 480 8GB GPU, in case it's important).
EDIT: My CPU is an AMD FX-8350
Last edited by beniwtv on 17 February 2017 at 9:04 am UTC
0 Likes
Interesting :D
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=newshttp://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Vulkan-Signs-HITMAN_item&px=Vulkan-Signs-HITMAN
Try this and see what happens :)
<key name="IndirectX">
<key name="Direct3D">
<value name="UseVulkan" type="integer">1</value>
Has anyone tried VK_INSTANCE_LAYERS=VK_LAYER_LUNARG_standard_validation?Interesting :D
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=newshttp://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Vulkan-Signs-HITMAN_item&px=Vulkan-Signs-HITMAN
Try this and see what happens :)
<key name="IndirectX">
<key name="Direct3D">
<value name="UseVulkan" type="integer">1</value>
I will give both a try later :)
0 Likes
I’d love to play this but Steam-only + additional always online DRM means I’ll wait for a huge sale if I ever buy it.
There is no always online requirement for HITMAN. See the opening section from Liam's review for more details.
"To get the elephant in the room out of the way first: The game does have an online requirement for certain features, these are extras and do not affect the main single-player story, which does not require you to be online."
My saves didn't work until I was connected to the hitman servers so I would have to call that an always on to be fair.
I don't class loading a previous save game as a extra/special feature.
Unless there's a setting I've missed that disables it.
What about performance on AMD CPUs? Once again my FX-8350 is in the minimum settings and only Intel is in the max settings.
I'll let you know in a few weeks and I'll compare it against my current 4790k ;)
0 Likes
I definitely need a better GPU.
I played low settings 1920x1080 and mostly between 20-30fps.
:'(
:-/
Maybe lowering the resolution could help?
0 Likes
If Feral is still perusing this thread, what are the chances of you porting Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag? To me it's best in the AC series.
Also, Witcher 3. Can you use your growing porting clout and expertise to convince CDPR there's a linux market? That's one game I will gladly pre-order from you at $60 (GOTY edition) if you somehow managed to get the porting rights for.
And finally, GTA5? I will pay $120 (double day-1 price) for this, it's my wet dream. I know at some point wine will support it, but I will die a happy man if I saw a native GTA5/GTA6/GTAX port.
Thank you, Feral for your hard work and support of linux gamers.
Also, Witcher 3. Can you use your growing porting clout and expertise to convince CDPR there's a linux market? That's one game I will gladly pre-order from you at $60 (GOTY edition) if you somehow managed to get the porting rights for.
And finally, GTA5? I will pay $120 (double day-1 price) for this, it's my wet dream. I know at some point wine will support it, but I will die a happy man if I saw a native GTA5/GTA6/GTAX port.
Thank you, Feral for your hard work and support of linux gamers.
0 Likes
MadVillain Feb 17, 2017
Does anyone have an issue with game executable missing? For some reason Steam is not downloading the game, but it downloads DLCs.
0 Likes
I'll try that but I don't expect much.I definitely need a better GPU.
I played low settings 1920x1080 and mostly between 20-30fps.
:'(
:-/
Maybe lowering the resolution could help?
In 1080p, it's playable but you have to deal with lags and it's not really fun.
Someone can tell which episode I should considerer to play.
Maybe it's time to overclock my CPU and GPU.
0 Likes
And finally, GTA5? I will pay $120 (double day-1 price) for this
Totally agree. I've said this before, I have no problem whatsoever with paying an extra "fee" for a Linux version. Not when I know how small we are. And GTA5? I'll send a carte blanche (hah - do any of you youngsters know what that is! :) ).
Last edited by Beamboom on 17 February 2017 at 12:25 pm UTC
0 Likes
I did test this and I tested it again then to be certain, it works fine for me. The game does nag you, telling you the save was made while being online, but I had no trouble loading it while offline.I’d love to play this but Steam-only + additional always online DRM means I’ll wait for a huge sale if I ever buy it.
There is no always online requirement for HITMAN. See the opening section from Liam's review for more details.
"To get the elephant in the room out of the way first: The game does have an online requirement for certain features, these are extras and do not affect the main single-player story, which does not require you to be online."
My saves didn't work until I was connected to the hitman servers so I would have to call that an always on to be fair.
I don't class loading a previous save game as a extra/special feature.
Unless there's a setting I've missed that disables it.
2 Likes, Who?
I did test this and I tested it again then to be certain, it works fine for me. The game does nag you, telling you the save was made while being online, but I had no trouble loading it while offline.I’d love to play this but Steam-only + additional always online DRM means I’ll wait for a huge sale if I ever buy it.
There is no always online requirement for HITMAN. See the opening section from Liam's review for more details.
"To get the elephant in the room out of the way first: The game does have an online requirement for certain features, these are extras and do not affect the main single-player story, which does not require you to be online."
My saves didn't work until I was connected to the hitman servers so I would have to call that an always on to be fair.
I don't class loading a previous save game as a extra/special feature.
Unless there's a setting I've missed that disables it.
Just refuses me, states I need to be online, no other options.
I'll give it another go later.
Edit:
Wonder if it's because I was connected to their server when I first started ? Thus not saved locally
Last edited by pete910 on 17 February 2017 at 12:47 pm UTC
0 Likes
Just refuses me, states I need to be online, no other options.It will nag you, but once you get through the nags and click load again it does work. Try being offline on Steam before you load the game.
I'll give it another go later.
Edit:
Wonder if it's because I was connected to their server when I first started ? Thus not saved locally
0 Likes
@Feral ,
If you guys make it here to page 6 of the comments. Please release your games on a platform that isn't Steam.
I would have bought it if it was on GoG or Humble Store.
Thanks.
If you guys make it here to page 6 of the comments. Please release your games on a platform that isn't Steam.
I would have bought it if it was on GoG or Humble Store.
Thanks.
2 Likes, Who?
I bought it direct from the Feral store also. Only played about 30 minutes but should be up to speed pretty soon!
0 Likes
What about performance on AMD CPUs? Once again my FX-8350 is in the minimum settings and only Intel is in the max settings.
I'm with Intel i3-4130 and the game was running ok at around 40-50 fps with occasional drops to 30s, 1080p everything maxed out.
All four threads of the cpu were equally charged at around 80-90% (100%?).
So I think you should be totally fine.
0 Likes
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