I'm interpreting "bringing this topic to our attention" and "we're looking into it" to mean an honest mistake or error in judgement that caught you off guard and needed to be pointed out.

But if that's the case and there seem to be game updates without changelogs, how do I know I'm not updating other games into always online requirements that need to be brought to your attention, after the refund period to boot? How's this supposed to work going forward?

Isn't it also bad for every other developer here legitimately trying to adhere to DRM-free, as well?

Wow I would disagree when this DRM Free is a huge conflict with a game that has a form of it

Is an internet connection required to launch the game? Can it be played offline or does it require internet at startup?

Their stance against DRM has changed, to the extent that things outside of the "core singleplayer experience" don't count. They've said that bluntly before about things like the Cyberpunk bonus t-shirts or whatever. This was basically to allow things like pre-order bonuses and whatnot, I'm sure. I can see how that could lead them to making a mistake with Hitman... "oh the story missions are DRM free and there's some online only challenges? Okay we'll sell it."

The problem is Hitman is really designed around those challenges and their unlocks being the core of the game. I could see GOG either not knowing that, or not realizing how big a deal it was. I'd guess most people who play Hitman don't spend dozens of hours doing that stuff.

Again if they were going to "sell out" and start purposely selling DRM'd games I would think they'd go for a bigger payday than Hitman 2016, which has been free on the Epic store and in $5 sales and shit before. They'd sell Resident Evil 8 or something.

According to other peoples' reports, you can launch offline. And the limited story mode can also be played offline.

You can play the games story campaign and bonus missions offline. The Escalation missions and Elusive targets are online challenge s that are online so gamers can compete to get the best score.

Posting a vague response 2 days later telling us obvious things like (textually):
1) "Thank you for bringing this topic to our attention" (Were you sleeping?)
2) "We’re looking into it and will be updating you in the coming weeks" (wow! that's comforting!)
3) "not satisfied with the released version, you can use your right to refund the game" (Nice, a discovery!)
4) "we will not tolerate review bombing and will be removing posts that do not follow our review guidelines"
Guess what: Today around 1PM EST I checked and my review was gone: I won't dramatize considering my review on purpose was not related to the game (I did not save the exact text) but was something like "22Sep2021: The day GOG betrayed the DRM-FREE" on both title and description. So we both agree the deletion was justified... good! and my purpose was exactly to identify when GOG would delete it.
Therefore thanks to my own experiment I can testify the only effective thing to our eyes GOG did until this exact moment was to delete reviews...
Dear gogers - I insist: Please keep making noise until we get a real & effective actions towards solutions!

Right, but if their stance on DRM has changed that much and they're the arbiter of what constitutes the "core singleplayer experience", how do I know existing content for games in my library won't be tied to an online check or removed outright in an update?

Make sure you back up your current games if you haven't already.

Made it to page 47. Agent 47. Coincidence? I think not.

He is summoned, and hunts down bad reviews maybe even their creators

After sleeping one night, thinking about this situation & this "answer" from Gog CM: i am still very disappointed.

I will keep on buying on Gog - but i will stay away from IOI - forever.

And for sure, i will proof any may upcoming purchase even more than i used to do (which was already a lot).

Like most of us, i too have several games in my library, that have some "online" or missing features - & i don´t like it.
Some of them i was getting noticed by the well-known threads after buying the game(s).
In all cases i decided to not refund & not to chime in to online protesting.

This specific release for "Hitman" made me change my pov. This release is for me a turning point, this may was the "one too much" (for me).

I am fully aware, that i do not make any difference.
This game will sell well (because as others stated before - most people don´t care or aren´t aware about the meaning of "drm-free") & Gog will be successful in the future (which i hope for them).

But i am only responsible for myself. That is all i have control of. And i am very self-confident about my part, what makes a difference to me.
So if Gog & IOI wants to know what "damage" they may have done - this is my reaction to this.

Regarding those who think, that some media attention would be helpful: honestly, i wish you good luck. Those self-declared "journalists" are only reporting about the next steam sale or epic freebie.

Since years, gaming stores harm customer rights. I am not saying, that nobody reported about those...but my pov on this is, that beside the huge amount of money that is running in this industry...our hobby (& money) is still ridiculed as a niche.

"30/40/50+ year old grown up´s who play games...angry about games? What low lifes."
This is what is happening here also: Gog is totally sure, that nothing can happen to them.

Gog react as much as they have to and as little as possible.
But that is exactly what I, as a customer, will reflect in the future.

Well written.

Thank you, i appreciate your kind words. :-)
I needed to "free" myself about this unpleasant situation.