Hitman: Absolution's director says only 20 percent of player will see the final level of the game. Not because they lack the skill, but simply because that's what cold, calculated metrics tell them.
"We are using metrics a lot more now than we did, for good and for bad," Hitman: Absolution director Tore Blystad told OPM. "The general player will probably never even finish the game, which is very sad. Or they might only play through it once, but the game is built for the people who want to go back through every single level and get all the stuff out of it. It's built to last, rather than be a one-off experience."
He expressed the completion metric isn't just for Hitman, but covers "any game." That's a bad metric, but he also notes how metrics show to incentive replayability, with user tests revealing "the situation or the humor" makes people play levels over again.
"They want to see more, they want to find these things, which makes us very happy, because it takes a lot of time and effort to get these things in."
The Hitman series has always packed scenarios with plenty of ways to complete an objective, whether through brute force or as a silent assassin. We'll see if the team at IO has what it takes to bump that 20 percent completion metric on November 20.
Hitman Absolution (E3 2012)
Joystiq
