I hope GOG will remove this game from the store or even better, settles an agreement with the publisher to get rid of the DRM. But I'd rather like to see the game disappear if they're not listening.

If someone of GOGs staff reads this, please stand by your values. That's the one major perk you have compared to other gaming stores.

Maybe, just maybe, the outrage wasn't over 3 silly cosmetics, but about the precedent they set.

That precedent being "gog is now ok with hiding singleplayer content behind an online check"

And here we are, not a year later, with a game that has significant portions of its singleplayer content hidden behind online checks. Really fires up those neurons, doesn't it?

You know, there are some words I've known since I was a schoolboy: "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."

To put it another way: That slope was slippery, yo!

I am suprised that we haven't had any response beyond the blue post given the backlash of this release. The reviews, the comments on their Facebook and Twitter feeds and these forums, lets hope a popular gaming news outlet doesn't get wind and decides to publish an article on this.

If GOG decide to try and brush this under the carpet then I will simply vote with my wallet and shop elsewhere in future.

Well... yeah, this is exactly what people were getting outraged about. Not because they care all that much about a handful of cosmetic items, but because they knew this was the beginning of the end for the DRM-free principle on GOG. The moment you accept that DRM is OK for any part of a single-player game, you're instantly leaving the door wide open for more and more DRM creep in future games, based entirely on GOG staff's subjective opinion of what counts as a 'major part' of the game - and now here we are, less than a year later.

The 'slippery slope' concept may be overused, but it is most definitely a real thing. Many of us saw this coming months, if not years ago - so next time, maybe think twice before dismissing our arguments as 'laughable' and 'totally out of proportion'?

Another one of what could be considered a so-called 'whale' here - just filed for a refund as well, since there's really no point in wasting bandwidth on downloading 28,5GB worth of offline installer packages only for more (and continuous) bandwidth to be required and taken up for the majority of singleplayer content and the progression system(s) to function.

Will gladly pick it up again once the GOG release is in a state that's more in line with the '✔ DRM FREE (for the most part)' claim it's advertised with.

I do wonder - is the 'Ghost' bridge/wrapper that was utilised (to eventual success) for the proper DRM FREE GOG release of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided not something that could also be employed in HITMAN (2016)'s case?
To at least get the progression system(s) and unlocks to work completely offline?

Will not buy it, until the always online part is removed. First time I'm realy dissapointed by GOG, besides Linux users still can't use Galaxy.

I don't see how - it's a completely different game! I'm pretty sure the wrapper for Deus Ex was to do with simulating certain Steam DLC handling stuff. Pretty sure Hitman 2016 is communicating with IO Interactive's own servers, not using Steam for the online stuff.

I wonder what will come next? HoMM VI where your Dynasty stuff doesn't works except online?

My immediate reaction to seeing this on the store was "Instant buy" since it was always locked behind an always online DRM. I figured finally I would be able to play the game. But then I read that a lot of the game is still gated behind online DRM.

I can understand a key for online play where you need to connect to some server for match making and hosting but a game where your rewards, your unlocks, your gameplay modes are all restricted to an online connection does not make the game DRM free.

Who controls whether you play a game? You or someone else? If the answer is not you then it isn't DRM free.

GOG should really have a look at this because this is just pushing the boundaries more and more from the once GOG philosophy. Complete games no longer applies since every game has DLC which means no game can ever be complete anymore but throwing away who controls the games you play leaves you with no reason to buy anything from GOG anymore.

Stop making excuses, be better.

Sigh....

When I read the rumors that this game was going to be released here I was afraid of this kind of result and sadly my fear were justified... Gog once again managed to shoot themselves in the foot.

First, just to be clear as I know some have selective reading : I consider that this release is a mistake, it shouldn't have been released in this state and the reaction in this thread was 100% to be expected

Now I also think that it's necessary to do a little reality check. Some peoples says that this game is 90% online only, that the offline part is a demo / shareware, or even that the game requires always online...it's mostly BS.

First what is locked behind the online requirements, Escalation, the Elusive Targets and users contract, honestly all three are rather, all three are not really "mission" per see, but just rather, instead of killing the main story target, try to kill this random NPC instead using this weapon while wearing a clown outfit. So yes they add some re-playability and there is no justification / excuse for IOI to lock those stuff online apart from trying to create some sort of "community" feeling BS, but IMHO they are not really that interesting and not the core of the game.

Also peoples seems to diminish the offline part of the game, it's not like it's a two hour game offline that magically becomes a 100+ when online. Even with all the dumb limitations there is still a tons to do, you can still replay the levels for hours trying all sort of weapons, disguise and different tactics to eliminate your target.

Even if you forget all the online part and only consider the offline ones I don't think it's any shorter or has less content than the previous Hitman games.

However as I said earlier I still think that it was a mistake to release it in this condition because of the elephant in the room : the progression system.

The whole progression system is online only, as in no unlock of new goodies if you are not online, and it's not like Cyberpunk where it's 4-5 goodies in a game that contains 100+ similar ones in-game, it's the opposite there is 4-5 in-game and the other 100+ needs to be unlocked online. That's incredibly stupid and even if the game is fully playable without any of those goodies it removes a lot of the fun, not to mention the various starting points that are also unlocked online which add new possible strategies. It makes the game feel incomplete.

And that's where IMHO Gog screwed-up.

First Hitman is technically a "dead" game, not just an "old" game, but a dead one as in if you own Hitman 3 you have no real reason to ever install and play Hitman 1 because if you own the third game and the legacy packs you have all the content of the two previous games with better graphics and some new feature. So why release the first game ?

I also means that it's incredibility unlikely IOI will ever spend any money doing any development on Hitman 1, if there is any hope of them ever removing the online requirement it will be on Hitman 3. Not to mention that there is apparently already a "mod" on the Nexus for Hitman 3 that allows you to play the online content offline.

Another issue where Gog failed is that even if there is very little doable for the Escalation, Elusive targets & co, there is something doable at least for the progression. There is a tool to unlock all the content (costume, starting points & co) in the "unofficial" version of the game, so at the very least they should have either released such a tool with their version allowing peoples who want's it to unlock the content offline or provide an already unlocked save.

TL;DR; I really hope Gog will fix this release, at least to unlock the progression content if nothing else and I am sad that they once again shot themselves in the foot.

Edit: typo

How much off the game has to be behind online drm until this message "DRM FREE. No activation or online connection required to play. " is removed from the game page?

Is it enough, if the player is able to view the intro and after that the game requires online connection?

Completely agree with your analysis

Err.. I'm not, really.
It's how Gog deals with controversies lately :\

This was seriously bound to happen sooner or later. They just don't give a damn anymore. The lack of communication is deafening from the blues, not that they are trying to remedy even that. When the corporate cancer started seeping in it was the beginning of the end. Things have started to rot and decay as an after effect because of piss poor management and of staff not doing what their job descriptions fully entail. People should be pissed off about a variety of things that have gone on in the past, but more and more is left to slide and now here we are again. What is the point if it is forgive and forget? What is stopping them from doing this again if their feet aren't held down to the fire? Make a hell of a lot of noise and fight this unless you want GOG to become Steam-lite.