Agent 47 is back.
Hitman: Absolution follows the iconic Agent 47 in a new story. When his former Agency handler Diane Burnwood fled the Agency and deleted all subsequent records, becoming rogue, new Agency handler Benjamin Travis tracks her location and a kill order is issued, and offered to 47. This leads to an Agency asset who is the heart of a deadly plot from some mysterious characters and 47 must find out the truth behind such a hunt. Absolution's story, following the introductory sequence between 47 and Burnwood, had great potential to be a brilliant story. While it has many characters, takes a few twists and turns and the overall presentation is polished, the story never develops into anything great or remotely riveting, instead just keeping the pacing going and advancing each mission. The story contains some weird, occasionally annoying characters who often have strange lines of dialogue, which makes you sigh for the wrong reasons. The cut-scenes, though, are actually fantastic, and are really well-directed, as is the overall production. There are some scenes in the game that will make you go "WTF", but this reinforces a sort of darkly comic tone that IO attempted in the story and, in that respect, it shouldn't be criticized too much – nor taken that seriously. The menus are good, the voice acting is solid (except for the dialogue and annoying characters) and the sound design itself is great. Guns pack a punch, the soundtrack is brilliant and sound effects are solid.
Hitman: Absolution's visuals are also impressive. Running on IO's Glacier 2 game engine, Absolution packs some really great environments and inspired lighting. The visual effects are some of the best I've seen for the past year and the animations are good. Though there are occasional bugs and stiff NPC character models, the game runs well and is overall a technically adept game. The aforementioned nice environments are also varied throughout, ensuring the 10-13 hour campaign is never visually repetitive or uninspired.
The biggest change to Hitman in Absolution is the actual gameplay. The level design in previous Hitman, where 47 traverses different environments to reach each objective while staying silent remains, but it has been changed drastically. Firstly, the level design is open-ended and allows for multiple pathways to the objective. Though some areas have a straight path, most missions are varied enough to offer a satisfying amount of choice, thus giving the player the option to kill how he/she likes. Assassinations in Hitman: Absolution are the heart of the single-player. There are over two dozen targets for 47 to eliminate, and these can be achieved in many ways. There are several times where environments are filled with crowds of civilians. This makes the level design even more interesting. Allowing 47 to blend in, he can reach his target in more interesting ways than without crowds. Most of the time, the targets are in plain sight of 47, and this where IO Interactive are insisting on handing the choice of killing to you. Most players will have completely different elimination techniques, ranging from sniping the target to re-wiring a generator and quietly pulling the lever with the subsequent shock of electricity through their body, and arming explosives in their apartment to beating them with a bottle in an alleyway. I have said this more than twice this year, but there really are dozens and dozens of ways to kill your target and this system is hugely gratifying. This approach to the game design thus opens up replayability for the single-player, which you will definitely want to play more than once.
Another reason for this replay value is a score structure integrated into the game. Each mission and area has its own rating system that tracks your progress. It covers everything from your objective, target and noise level to being spotted, killing non-target enemies and finding pieces of evidence in the world that increases the rating. This score adds to an overall rating at the end of the entire level, which also tracks the items you find in each level, such as weapons, disguises as well as level-specific challenges. These challenges are numerous, over 150 at least, and range from collecting disguises and killing in certain ways, to reaching your objective without alarm and finding weapons and items. These challenges are really good to complete and add to the replayability all the more. There many different various environments you will traverse in Hitman: Absolution ranging from a mansion, industrial compound and courthouse to a hospital, silo facility, abandoned hotel and even a fight club. These levels are very enjoyable to complete and are worth playing through multiple times to play around with the many ways to kill and routes to take.
The cover system in Hitman: Absolution works brilliantly. If in a guard's line of sight, a yellow arrow will indicate whether they can see you. You must hide or keep your distance before the arrow enlarges to an alert. The cover system allows 47 to easily switch between cover, which is effective for indoor stealth moments. Then again, this system works so well because of the great controls. Smooth, simple and responsive, Absolution is easy to play because of this. Objects can be thrown using the left trigger – and can also be used as weapons, ranging from knives and bottles to cleavers, police tonfas and even a katana. and 47 can run while crouched which is pretty cool, as well as choke out enemies or just snap their neck. Aiming and actions like opening doors and picking things up also work well. The artificial intelligence is also good.. for the most part. Most of the time they will investigate your position and will follow you constantly if they spot you. This leads to the new Instinct feature. This feature allows 47 to track enemy patrols and learn of their traversal routes. This enables 47 to hide appropriately as to never enter the enemies' line of sight. This feature is also useful to tracking enemies in other rooms and buildings. It makes stealth play more accessible. However, and perhaps more important, is that instinct mode is really useful when in disguise. The disguise system returns and is overall good, but underdeveloped in some instances. Firstly, there are some good and various disguises, from the regular occupational clothes like police officers, agents, chefs, club bouncers and barbers to the more comic hazmat scientist and chipmunk outfit. It's also satisfying to infiltrate areas without their knowledge – all the more if an objective is completed in the process. Though unusual outfits like the chipmunk and 47's regular suit will attract immediate attention, the alert counter will start to rise if wearing the same outfit as another. To prevent an alert, holding the R1 button will enable 47 to cover his face and continue on, thus preventing any suspicion. This costs instinct though, and killing or completing objectives is the only way to re-fill the meter. The more difficult sections occur when there is on instinct.
Though stealth play is definitely the way to go, shooting is more of an accessible option this time, and the actual gunplay is somewhat solid and easier to use than the clunkier shooting of past titles. The guns never feel weighty or responsive, but at least they dispatch of enemies. Shooting isn't recommended, however. For every enemy you kill you will lose points on your rating, so the guns blazing method is a practical though consequential option for 47. There are actually quite a few weapons to shoot. The traditional Silver Ballers are great (and are accessed a few hours in – 47 is without them for a while), and there are also machine guns, snipers, shotguns and proximity mines to utilise. The AI is a real challenge in the game, even more so on higher difficulties, so take your time when playing. The AI has its dumb moments, too. They will run at you regardless of if you just shot their friend, and will often spot you very easily. Perhaps the most annoying aspect of the game design is the disguise system. Like I mentioned before it works well, but you are always under suspicion. It makes sense that local law enforcement officers may notice an imposter, and scientists may spot a colleague, but surely armed forces or hazmat scientists (with masks) will miss you. It's frustrating to be spotted when you know you shouldn't be and it can be disheartening at times. Still, planning your approach and using calculated methods will probably ensure you don't run into this problem much. Then again, if it all goes pear shaped, you can fake surrender to the enemy, grab them and take them as a human shield and gun your way out of the situation. There is also another new feature called Point Shooting. Similar to Ubisoft's Splinter Cell: Conviction, this enables 47 to tag multiple enemies – should he have sufficient instinct to do so – and take them all out at once in a slow motion effect. It isn't original or thrilling, but its there for others to use as fun, and it does at least work.
There are levels, especially at the end of the game, where the game design revolves around action over stealth. This is fine, but it loses its momentum when they are dozens of guards around. I don't mind shooting, but Absolution loses not only its story focus, but the objectives too, as it plays out like a third-person shooter rather than a third-person action game. Dishonored is a game that be played as action at times, but it never lost its sense of identity, whereas Hitman can at times seem like it has a problem with its direction and just wants to wrap up the story. Thankfully, the preceding eight to nine hours are so good that it shouldn't take away from the experience too much.
Once the campaign is completed, there is Contracts mode. Instead of a traditional multiplayer – which wouldn't work in regards to the Hitman formula – this mode is a sort of community feature where gamers can create their own hits. Simple, easy to use and highly replayable, this mode will have you creating hit after hit and playing around with the many offerings in the level design. During the creating of a hit, whatever you wear; whoever you kill and how you kill them become the primary criteria for that contract. You can mark and kill up to three targets who can be anyone in the level except civilians. You can also use any weapon and route to the exit point, of which there are three to four points in the level. However, if the hit is completed without satisfying the criteria, you must try again, which is a challenge in its own right. You can also rename them and provide them with a contract description. This is, in some ways, superior to the main game, as it allows you to use this sandbox design to tailor the hits to your own style and improvisation. Tricking the player, providing exciting ways to kill or making a hit challenging will ensure that others will want to play through your levels too. The score system is featured in this mode too, and has its own overall score separate to the main game. There is a leaderboard system to track who is playing which hit and who has the highest score, and this system also carries over to single player. This is a fantastic mode that provides friendly competition set within the creative minds of the gamers.
Hitman: Absolution, though, gets a hell of a lot of things right that its easy to overlook its inconsistencies. The story never thrills, there are some small bugs and weak character models and the disguise system and AI can be erratic, but the overall game design and the many ways to kill your targets are gratifying plus points in an overall brilliant experience. Hitman fans have waited over six years for this installment, and perhaps many will be disappointed. However, those fresh off the back of the incredible Dishonored will find another open-ended experience that will excite and satisfy all the same. Definitely pick this one up. It's another great game for 2012.
SUMMARY
Presentation 7.0 - A forced story with characters that lack personality. The menus work well, though.
Graphics 8.0 - The new engine allows for some great sights - and lighting.
Audio 8.5 - Decent voice acting and music, but the sound effects are great.
Gameplay 9.0 - Gratifying assassinations, open-ended level design allows for variety and Contracts mode is awesome.
Replayability 9.0 - A highly replayable story as well as a great Contracts mode.
Overall - 9/10