I hate it because it's giving developers even more ideas about releasing half-finished games. Give an inch they'll take a mile and all that.
I feel like it's a concept that could work for a subscription based thing, like the old shareware days. You get the first level for free, then buy in instalments or pay a subscription for regular service like an MMO. But this sounds like some weird hybrid of that and paying full price at launch :/
You just reminded me that I need to get back to playing the first one, and yeah it is super archaic, practically no PC games function like Fallout 1 and 2 do nowadays. It's almost like an RTS but you're controlling one frail unit and the interface was lifted straight out of the earliest point and click games.
As for Hitman...I kind of agree it looks like ass. Never been the biggest Hitman fan, I only just started playing Absolution a week ago, but this sounds like all kinds of shady. If they're gonna do something like this, why not just make it an episodic game? That sounds more reasonable than whatever this is.
Oh man, Fallout 1 and 2 felt super ancient first time I played them, but it was so, so worth persevering. After the first town you'll get the hang of it. The penny dropped for me when I realised I should read the manual because these were games from a time before tutorials were a thing and you were expected to read the nice pretty booklet that came in the box first.
Learning how the Action Points worked and what all the buttons were, and how to use all the skills made a big difference. It quickly becomes second nature.
The Fallout games closest equivalent in modern mainstream games are probably the Xcom games. At least in terms of combat they play similar as they are Tactical/Strategy RPGs. You have the grid layout and a limited number of action points in a turn based setting. It's not so different to stuff like classic Shining Force or Banner Saga imo. I think that the new Shadowrun is similar too?
As for Hitman, if you've only played Absolution, understand that Absolution is the black sheep of the series. I understand it plays nothing like the old games and many were really unhappy with it. Try out the old games if you can. Even the old one is really quite brilliant in it's open ended nature and gameplay. You're basically dropped in a massive map and given free reign to use multiple tools and strategies to get your target. It's really quite brilliant.
