Hitman: Absolution Preview

Developer(s): IO Interactive
Publisher(s): Square Enix
Platform(s): PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Cloud (OnLive)
Release Date: November 20, 2012

It all comes back to sexy nuns. Hitman: Absolution launches later this year, and, if you looked back a few months, the only discussion about this game resolved around sexy nuns. Not that there’s anything wrong with discussing sexy nuns. This is just indicative of Absolution: appealing to a new market. Before we examine the sexy nun controversy, it’s important to understand the previous games in the series.

The Hitman series began in 2000 with Hitman: Codename 47. There have been three games since then, with Hitman: Blood Money being the most recent in 2006. The series revolves around Agent 47, an assassin for hire. The player is given a target, or targets, to take out. The game rewards you for taking out the target with as much stealth as possible. The less guards and bystanders that notice you, the higher your score. If the death looked like an accident, even better. An example would be replacing a prop gun with a real gun before an opera performance. The games did allow you to kill everyone in the area with a machine gun as opposed to stealthily fulfilling your contract, but the game would penalize you for doing so.

Then comes Hitman: Absolution and its “Attack of the Saints” trailer. In this trailer Agent 47 is in a motel room. A group of sexy nuns attacks with rocket launchers and machine guns and are promptly killed. There are explosions, tons of bullets fired, and enough spandex to make Twisted Sister jealous. The problem with this trailer is the change in tone from previous games. There has always been risque settings (brothels) and women in spandex (gimps), but the trailer is completely misleading as to what kind of game this is. Agent 47 doesn’t enter into gunfights. He doesn’t throw caution to the wind and willingly stand between four sexy nuns holding high powered weapons. Yet, here we are. This trailer will appeal to fans of Call of Duty and Saints Row. This trailer will not appeal to long standing fans of the series.

“Attack of the Saints” was released in late May. Shortly after at E3, we were shown a lengthy play through of one of the levels. It was at this point we got to see how Absolution will play. At first glance the worry from “Saints” was right on the money. Absolution is a change in the series. After the opening cutscene to the level, we find Agent 47 standing on the street of a small town. Twenty-five seconds later a new feature is shown off: the screen turns blueish and all of the characters on screen are highlighted. The targets are highlighted in red and the bystanders are yellow. A hint pops up on the screen explaining who the targets are. Eight seconds later Agent 47 uses this to see through the walls of a building and see if the characters inside are red or yellow. Actually, I said this is a new feature, but is it too late to change that? This is not a new feature. This is almost exactly what you would find in Assassin’s Creed or the Arkham series.

When entering into this “instinct mode,” a button prompt appears at the bottom of the screen for “point shooting.” Point shooting would be for when there are multiple enemies in the area that need to be taken out at once. Once selected time nearly stops and Agent 47 can select each target with a marker. A cinematic follows, with bullets being fired to wherever a marker has been placed. This is also not a new feature, as it is straight out of Splinter Cell or Red Dead.

The Hitman games took a fair amount of skill to play properly. The levels were difficult and took time to master. In Absolution you can see where everyone in the area is, even through walls, and if things go awry, you can kill everyone in the room with no response from them. The director of the game, Tore Blystad, is quoted as saying "Even though the fantasy of the Hitman universe has a very universal appeal, the games have been so difficult to play, that it's been more of an acquired taste.” He went on to say that a goal with the new game “was to make it much broader in every sense, so that it was easier to play and more accessible.”

Let’s put this behind us for a moment. Let’s forget the “new” features. Let’s even forget sexy nuns, only for a moment. There is some good news with Absolution: you can turn off all of the hints, highlights, and point shooting. With these all gone, it is still a Hitman game. There are environmental-related deaths, impromptu weapons, and plenty of assassinations to be made. The hardware has been improved quite a bit too. The graphics are definitely something to ogle, the AI is more dynamic than ever, and the physics engine has certainly made progress. Is it a bad thing that the best part of the new features is that they can be turned off? That isn’t the best part to everyone, of course. New comers to the series may find themselves lost and not sure of what they can or can not interact/kill with. But, long standing fans certainly find something to rejoice in that the game can be played as a classic Hitman game.

Hitman: Absolution is the fifth game in the Hitman series. It is to be released November 20th and seems to have things to attract old fans and new players. Perhaps if the new features receive enough scorn, they will be removed from the next entry. Square Enix has announced that a sixth Hitman game will be the debut project at their new Montreal studio, and that it will be released on the next generation of consoles. That’s a ways off, though. Until then, suit up and kill away.

Preview by Chris Lohr

Posted in: Chris Lohr,Hitman: Absolution,IO Interactive,PC Previews,PS3 Previews,Square Enix,Xbox 360 Previews