Hitman: Absolution

The Hitman series has always been about patience, exploration and execution of the perfect assassination, and Absolution brings that same unique stealth style back. The classic trial and error gameplay allows you to plan out your attack until you create your own perfect execution, whether it be by "accident" or by a straight up neck snapping. While silently assassinating your target has never been as fun, some poor (and down right strange) design choices really hold Hitman: Absolution back from being as great as it could have been.

Agent 47 returns to continue assassinating whoever the Agency has on their hit list, except this time there is a twist. Diana Burnwood, Agent 47's handler has gone rogue, releasing secrets about the agency and kidnapping a girl that is very important to them. 47 is set to assassinate Burnwood, only to find out the reason that she kidnapped the girl, Victoria, was because the Agency was experimenting on her to turn her into some sort of killing machine similar to 47 himself. 47 decides that he does not want the girl to have the same fate as him and turns his back on the agency, going rogue as well while trying to protect Victoria and find out what has been going on.

Overall the story is alright. It has some solid villains who are interesting enough, and the whole thing feels like you are watching a classic action movie, whether that is a good or bad thing is up to you. The problems lie with how the story sets up the mission structure. Unlike in other previous Hitman games, 47 is on the run from the Agency, the police and the games main antagonist Dexter. Therefore, a lot of the missions mean that 47 can not be seen by anyone without a disguise. This makes missions fun in that suit only playthroughs are extra challenging and some missions require you to be extra stealthy, but it also hurts the gameplay because the player is more restricted. You can't freely explore areas as easily as you would like and sometimes it can become frustrating having to play an entire mission crouched behind cover. Also, some missions don't even have any assassination targets, they just require you to stealth your way through the level. Yes, it can be lots of fun, but it really makes you wish there were more classic Hitman style missions in the game. Not having a target to assassinate felt really weird. Also, the story has 47 make some really stupid decisions that are just not something 47 would do, just to put the player in some type of situation. Rather than being cool it just makes you think the whole scenario is stupid because 47 would never make such dumb mistakes. Not to mention the games pacing is terrible. Not to spoil anything but some missions take 2 hours to complete while some literally take 1-2 minutes. Some missions even have 5 or more parts to them and it tends to feel dragged while other missions you wish would last longer.

Thankfully when the game does give you more of a classic Hitman mission it is lots of fun. The trial and error system may not be for everyone, and if you are anything like me and feel the need to complete your assassination in the perfect way, then there can be a lot of replaying parts over and over. In the end though, when you get the perfect "accident" kill and slip out undetected all your hard work feels worth it. The game requires great patience, but the reward for that patience is something you can't find in any other game. Some of the missions set you up is some really cool scenarios that I won't spoil, but I will say that I was pretty happy with most of them. The game has some amazing disguises and some really great "accident" kills, though a few things are repeated a bit too often. The game also has some excellent humor. The npc conversations are often worth taking the time to listen if you want a good laugh. Some of the writing is hilarious and really memorable as well as some of the disguises. Most importantly the developers did a perfect job of fitting the comedic parts within the seriousness. Nothing feels out of place and the comedic writing was actually some of the best in the game.

The new addition to the missions is the scoring system which gives the player points based on the type of assassination, whether they remain undeteced or not, and takes away points for killing innocent people or being spotted in a disguise. It is a really cool idea in theory but in practice is a bit messy. Each mission has its own set of challenges such as collecting all the hidden evidence, completing the mission with all the disguises, using only your suite, doing all the signature assassinations, and some other secret ones. The challenges are really fun and encourage multiple play throughs of the missions, as well as offer score multipliers. Here is where it gets strange. Your completed challenges carry over every time you replay the level and it usually takes around 5 or more playthrough to complete all the challenges. Upon completing all the challenges in a level you unlock the highest score multiplier and then if you replay the game you can get the best score on the level possible. But, the game also gives a score multiplier for the difficulty level, so the only way to get the best possible score is to complete all the challenges and then do a silent assassin run through on the hardest difficulty, purist. The game makes none of this clear either and while I really enjoyed the challenges, the score system seemed really pointless and made me think killing someone who was not my target was a bad thing to do when it lowered my score. Not to mention I often went through a level completely undetected with a signature accident kill and slipped out unnoticed yet I would not receive silent assassin. The score of "Shadow" appeared quite often and the game never tells you what you have to do to get the best score title or what even is the best one. This isn't a big problem, just an annoying one.

Another addition is the "instinct" ability which allows 47 to see his enemies through walls and their patrol paths. This system was great for a player like me who is not interested in playing the game hardcore. It was very helpful to see the guards pathing so I could know which way to move and avoid detection. Even with the instinct you are still going to get caught a lot and I found that in no way did it ruin the experience. The other uses of instinct are for shooting and for disguises. When shooting it allows you to freeze time and select where you want to shoot, release and then headshot everyone instantly. With disguises, people wearing the same outfit as you will know that you aren't someone who should be dressed up that way and catch you. Using instinct allows you to blend in and trick people of the same outfit into letting you walk by unnoticed. Both of these drain your meter as you use them so you can't just freeze time constantly and kill everyone. You build meter by finding the collectible evidence, hiding bodies, and completing objectives so its a fair trade off that works well if you are the type of player who plans on using the system. Don't worry purist players, instinct can be turned off and does not have to be used to complete any of the missions.

Each mission also allows the player to use checkpoints which will start you at that spot if you die or get caught and it saves any assassinations you have completed. And that is it. Instead of saving all the actions you have done and all the actions of the npcs, the game resets the entire level with you starting in the middle. I constantly had issues where I used a check point then got caught, restarted, and was trapped at the checkpoint because a guard I had choked out from behind to get where I was, was now facing me and blocking my planned path to the target. The entire system is really nonsensical as the game has a set of actions the npcs commit, like walking to a certain spot, that have to happen all over again when you restart at a checkpoint. Because the level gets resets with you in the middle your whole plan of attack can be totally thrown out the window, and so half the time I felt the need to beat levels in one go through. The system is just plain bad and it is a shame they couldn't have foreseen these problems.

As far as looks go, Absolution is one of nicest games I've ever seen. The lighting is amazing, particularly in dark areas. The game makes constant use of it to, between police lights, neon signs, and sunlight. The facial and environment detail are also really well done and the entire look of the game really added to the experience. I wanted to explore the environments not only to find all the ways I could dispose of my target, but just to see what the game had for me to look at it. The controls work well most of the time. The only constant issue I had was when trying to choke people out I would sometimes end up punching them, because although I could not tell, I was not fully behind my target, thus causing the fight animations to happen which always got me spotted.

The new game mode, contracts is a welcome addition. Players can choose anyone of the missions, pick up to three targets, assassinate them in anyway they see fit and then have other players try to duplicate their assassinations. The game scores you on how well you copied the assassinations and how fast you do them. It is a really cool idea that works well with the scoring system. A lot of players have created some really interesting, or hilarious assassination missions and they are worth checking out. It can even be really fun to create your own, as it allows Hitman's gameplay and creativity to shine.

Hitman: Absoltuion is a really good game that could have been great if it weren't for some major design flaws. Parts of the story just don't work (47 is not an idiot, why does he sometimes act like one?) and the check point system is completely terrible. Fortunately, the game has good length if you play really stealthy, my final play time being around 22 hours. With over 200 challenges to complete and contracts mode, Absolution has tons of worthy replay value. If you can get past the somewhat strange mission structure and poor pacing then you will have a lot of fun with Absolution. No other game makes assassinating a target feel quite as good.