[jnichols35]

> Hitman's main campaign and bonus missions can be played offline, but content including Elusive Targets, Escalation missions (bonus levels and challenges made by developer IO Interactive) and user-generated Contract missions require an online connection to play.

I think this article misses one of the major issues here. While yes you can play the entire campaign offline, you do not get access to the progression system. Sure you can beat the game with the very basics, but that isn't really the core of the game imo. Replaying levels with different strategies(weapons, tools, outfits, starting locations) is the real meat of the game.

[Kirby64]

Yup, that's a huge huge part of it. It's absolutely ridiculous to me that this is completely barred behind the online-only section. There's zero reason for it except to either curb piracy or punish those that play offline.

Likewise with the elusive targets or escalation missions. Those could have easily been 'free DLC' that was released, similar to how Witcher released all that free DLC over time.

Even worse, if you have progression online but lose internet or go offline for whatever reason you get shoved back into the non-progression mode.