So here i am gonna list the improvements that IO introduced to Hitman Absolution and whether they are effective or simply drastic. This blog will be updated frequently as i progress through the game. It will have me listing as many features and mechanics that don't work for a Hitman game, while some do in terms of improving over the last installments.

Good Improvements

• The disguise system is way improved in terms of realism and detection capability. In the past Hitman games you can simply pick up a disguise and walk just like you were that previous owner of the said disguise if you meet certain requirements such as holding the right weapons. Whether in Hitman Absolution if you disguised yourself as a cop for example, walking by fellow cops will blow your cover if you are facing them.
• The Enemy AI is more balanced, focused and fierce. They will simply chase you if they are suspicious until you decide and hide from their sight. Especially in harder difficulties were they react immediately and are more alert they will prove to be your will...worst enemy in the game.
• The serious addition of the cover system is pretty much helpful in any stealth game, which is absent in previous Hitman games. They allow you to "peak" around corners and walls instead of standing behind a wall and rotating the camera for better view. It also help for changing from cover to cover with "Sam Fisher-y" fashion without exposing your cover.
• Using objects as distractions. As far as i remember you only had a coin before to distract NPCs and make look "elsewhere". In Absolution you can nearly throw any object available whether for distraction purposes or lethal ones. This allow for more organic use of the environment objects laying around and work them for your advantages.
• What Hitman Absolution is great at is delivering tension. Tension is really vital to any stealth game, and since this Hitman game relies a lot on stealth, it builds up your tension meter to really heightened states, which in turn might make you do something illogically or act otherwise sharply.
• The combat and gunning feels a lot more "punchy" and delivers much more impact. With that said when you go about in a level without firing a single shot but you eventually do it because you need to assassinate you target or just you have to, it gives both a soothing and a shocking effect, helped by the dramatic sounds or effects accompanying these acts.
• The abundance of challenges and difficulties. The inclusion of challenges in this game helps the replayability value it tend to offer. You cannot always finish all the challenges in one playthrough, but maybe after three or more playthroughs. Challenges are their to remind you that there are different play styles you can achieve if you experiment and improvise. Not to mention the five difficulty options that surely will satisfy every person type out there whether he is new player, expert, or a perfectionist.

Bad modifications

• Hitman games are known for their virtually open sandbox levels where you have the freedom to go exploring and plotting to ultimately finish your objective(s). Unfortunately this game kills that concept in favor for more segmented sections in a level connected by checkpoints where exploring and plotting are kept to a minimum. Checkpoints are the real enemies in a Hitman game because implementing them means restriction and no more quick saves. It defies what the real premise those Hitman games were set for, which is experimentation.
• IO this time seemed to forgot what made previous Hitman games so original and fun and focused on a story that is more akin to movie fanatics. Hitman games were always about gameplay, with players always regarding the story as a flavor or ignore it completely. Whether in Absolution you have entire levels build with the story as a backbone, relying heavily on cut-scenes and wasted segmented levels, which seems radical in a Hitman game.
• The tailored and streamlined fashion of the game levels will render immersion useless, which again a factor that made the previous games enjoyable. Occasionally you will find yourself in a level with a setup of weapons and a suit that designed for that said level, you have no control over your equipment whatsoever prior to a level.
• It makes playing with Agent 47 seem less professional , and less playing as Agent 47 as a whole. Agent 47 now has emotions and apparent eyes (remember how his eyes always concealed especially in covers) that change the look of the cold-killer that he was before, a professional assassin who kills for money and probably enjoyment, now he kills over sentimental issues and for the sake of saving a girl.
• The instinct vision (or mode). You know maybe the Eagle Vision is cool in Assassin's Creed and Dark Vision too in Dishonored (it depends on the person) but seriously i never feel the obligation of including a similar "supernatural" vision to a Hitman game.
• The fact that this game plays a lot more like a stealth game rather than a Hitman game is depressive.

OK, so having played the PS3 demo a little while ago, i would say my first impressions are biased toward accepting the reality of the game. To make myself more clearer, before playing the demo i had the impression that this RE game is going to be an abomination and should be not touched. In fact, I'm still on my high alerts, as this is just the demo. To be precise, I've been stricken awe by a demo before that felt so good to be true, and that is Dragon's Dogma's. That demo gave me the impression of a game of my dreams, an open-world fantasy where you have your own companions and battle fantastical creatures with satisfying combat. Well, it turned out that was just the "tricky" first bite, that will eventually become redundant over successive bites.

Let's just go back to RE6, the demo really had me going and fueled my hunger. First of all, the sheer amount of setting you can adjust to your liking is amazing, it is like the developers said: "you whined about the controls in RE5 and whatnot you sons of b?%$#, here, you have plenty of options available and you can customize the color of the dot sight too!". The second thing that gripped my attention was the superb in-game animation, honestly I've never seen anything like it yet, the fluidity of the movements is incredible. Not to mention the top-notch graphics are also one of the best I've seen so far.

Let's first talk about the Leon campaign; you start off in some kind of presidential campus. The atmosphere is very tight and gripping, the lighting and shadows are awesome compared to the tight controls of your character. While saying that, well, surprise! surprise! you can move now...and move a lot!. No more sticking to your spot and shoot, you can do it freely, like most shooters do. Also, you can change your weapons and equipment without the need to enter that lofty "weapon management" screen anymore, who needs that anyway,right?. At this point i just accepted the fact that this a RE game and its not going to change, so i started to stretch my mind a little bit and pretend that this is not a RE game, so i can enjoy it.

OK, so continuing with the Leon campaign, which have the best atmosphere i think amongst the other ones, plus dark corridors, tension, zombies! the only thing that is distracting are the quick time events and those pointless "wait for partner to open the door with you" moments.

Second Campaign, Chris's. Skipping the cliched intro cut-scene. We are straight into action. You are accompanied by other members of BSAA (if you still remember what this is) and together you start blazing your way upstairs to the roofs of some building, gunning and "melee-ing" zombies, which surprisingly (or not) are now wielding guns, taking covers, and..what?...wearing masks?! Hold on a second, i'm fine with zombies wielding rifles, issuing commands, and being organized, but wearing wearing masks?...that is just absurd.

So, you manage to lead your way up the roofs and down again, beating "mindless" zombies and discover that your melee attacks are more powerful and efficient than your gun blazing, yeah, you aren't afraid of those brain-eaters anymore that you punch them straight in the face and perform an executing a KO move with fearless efficiency.

Onward to the last campaign available, the Jake campaign. This campaign is different than the other ones, it starts in daylight unlike the previous ones. featuring faster characters. Here you will experience one of the worst camera angles in the demo. The game gave you "hints" about the bad camera at hand, which will serve a bad remainder in this campaign, specifically when facing the mutant boss.

Overall, being a huge deviance from its previous RE installments (without a doubt), establishing a more action bombastic set-pieces and fluidity in control. The game does retain (at some points) some of that classic creepy Resident Evil atmosphere better than the sunny atmosphere of RE5. In fact, the game plays and feel much better than RE5 in so many ways.

The graphics and color depth are so vivid that anyone else will mistake it for a movie. The characters clothes and hair are just gorgeous.

Some elements of the game that disappointingly screams "action" that purposefully creates an atmosphere of "bumping adrenaline" instead of fear and tension, which the original RE titles captured. Having a "buddy" alongside and fighting helicopters and machine guns isn't horrific, if you ill-mouthed the latest RE movies, you will hate this certainly. Fans already experienced the same action-oriented gameplay in the last title, so basically you won't feel much changed in the style.

All in all, this is just the demo, i don't know if the full game will bring cries or laughs.