Hitman Absolution Review
Hitman Absolution is a stealth action game developed by IO Interactive and published by Square Enix. Hitman Absolution is the long awaited game that has been in development for six years. For Absolution, IO Interactive built a new game engine from the ground up and are bringing Hitman to a new audience by making the game easier to play and more accessible. IO Hopes to do this while trying to retaining hardcore aspects the series is known for. Is Hitman Absolution able to bring in new players while appeasing their hardcore fan base?
Story
Hitman Absolution has one of the quirkiest stories this year. Absolution like previous entries in the series, uses dark humor to coincide with a game that is essentially about an Assassin on spree to murder tons of bad people. In Absolution you retain the role of the Silent Assassin Agent 47 after the events of Blood Money. Your first mission in Absolution is to take out your former handler Diana Burnwoon who has gone rogue and plans to sabotage the Agency. After you do the deed, the story revolves around Agent 47 going rogue in order to save a young girl named Victoria who was genetically engineered by the Agency in the same fashion that Agent 47 was. Throughout the story you will meet a crazy lineup of characters that you will be itching to take all of them due to their inability to care about others, their disgusting habits, or outright their outright despicable behaviors. Absolution does an excellent job of relaying conversations that you can listen to during your missions that motivate you to take out your targets while feeling good doing so. What makes Hitman Absolutions story so enjoyable is the crazy variety in locales where you meet guards and civilians that spew crazy one liners while simply carrying on with their ordinary lives. They are usually unaware of Agent 47’s presence allowing for some game’s most clever dialogue and enjoyable moments to occur. I will not spoil all of these moments for you but some of the standouts include a guard who finds out he beats prostate cancer and is immediately thrown out the window by Agent 47 or a creep who is getting a lapdance yelling “Show me that Alabama Wildflower!” The little stories that you encounter in Hitman Absolution is what really brings the game to life and is a perfect example of interactive emergent storytelling through gameplay.
Graphics
The six years it took for IO Interactive to built is Glacier 2 Engine really shows through in Hitman Absolution. The PC Version especially hod true to this with tons of customizable HUD and Display Options and a game that runs beautifully at a1080p resolution at 60 fps. If you have a PC that can run it, this game has some truly next generation graphical detail. This is partly due to the great lighting and bloom effects in addition to the the variety in environments. You will travel to strip clubs, fight clubs, deserts, motels, laboratories, train stations, and a spectacular festivities during Chinese New Year. These are just a few of the locales and they look gorgeous while you explore these open ended environments.
Gameplay
Like most stealth games in the market, Hitman Absolution falls to most of the complaints that I find prevalent in the genre. The most apparent issue being that the game is a tried and true trial and error stealth game. You are rarely going to find the most optimal way to achieve you missions without reloading a save or two. With that in mind, this issue becomes even more of an issue when you present the other two issues associated with having reload saves so frequently as you do in this game. For one the loading screen are way too long and take longer on the PC then on the console. Next, is the inability to quick save in the game and the flawed checkpoint system that takes its place. In this system, you must activate checkpoints in random points in the level. I could not tell you the countless times I loss up to 10 minutes of gameplay because of the inability to quick save. I think it was foolish of IO Interactive to exclude the quick save feature when it was so prevalent in previous Hitman games before. The second issue of course being the inconsistent AI. For the most part the AI has its preconditioned patterns which you can memorize after reloading sections after consecutive fails. The problem with this is that it becomes repetitive and ends up feeling like a puzzle game instead of stealth title where you must think intelligently on how to take out a guard, distract them, or sneak past. With all issues aside though, Hitman is still a fun game when you are completing a mission in the way you choose to tackle your objectives and are successful at doing so. The freedom to choose how you a tackle a mission successfully is due in part to how you use the abilities and weapons Agent 47 has in his repertoire. The most important and substantial being his Instinct Ability. In Absolution, Instinct allows you to see through walls to find guards much like Assassin’s Creeds Eagle vision or Batman’s Detective mode. Instinct also allows you to see the paths of guards so you can map out their patrol routes. Lastly, Instinct gives you the ability to sneak past guards without being seen and mark enemies for execution much like in Splinter Cell Conviction. Instinct is a vital part of the game and is what allows Hitman to have such creative gameplay moments. Other than Instinct, Hitman Absolution stays true to the series with the Disguise system that lets you take out various guards and civilians throughout a level in order to gain access to unauthorized areas in that level. What makes disguises so great is that Agent 47 often takes on some hilarious variations of the disguise when he actually puts them on. I think it funny to see 47 sneak past a guard when you can clearly tell it is him. I think this probably IO Interactive’s intention when they devised the system to kind of poke fun at the mechanic in modern stealth games today.Another handy tactic when trying to sneak past guards is the ability to distract them. This is mostly done by throwing bottles or bricks in the other direction while the guard foolishly leaves his post allowing you to sneak right past. This tactic is a must have in later levels in the game is quite a handy tactic at that. Probably the least fun way to tackle a mission though is through direct combat. The problem with this is the game becomes a watered down cover based shooter that be compared to most third person shooters on the market. Absolution punishes players for playing anyway besides stealth in their point system and I really disliked that it was even there to tracking your progress though its pre established rules. I would rather have rather had my progress dependent on the plays style I chose to pursue and rewarded me accordingly based on how well I stuck to that playstyle. With that being said though, what makes Hitman such a enjoyable game despite its flaws is its open ended sandbox where you can explore and assassinate your targets how you see fit without the developers interfering in your playground.
Features
Like Dishonored this year, Hitman falls prey to some of the same issues I had with that game. Depending on your playstyle, Hitman falls into some dramatically different lengths on how long it takes to complete the game and each of its’ subsequent missions. If you sneak around and try the stealth assassination route, the game can take around 20 hours with all the trial and error needed to obtain play in that fashion. Whereas going with a more mixed action / stealth assassination approach, the game can be anywhere from 6-8 hours depending on the amount time you fail. Rather than creating a lengthy campaign, Hitman seems to drag out its levels by forcing you to replay them repeatedly to achieve the maximum point percentage. But neverless there is some replayability with the ability to select any mission once you unlock it or tackle them with different objectives in Hitman Contract Mode. Contract Mode being a nice addition to the series that allows players to play through any level of the game and select up to three NPCs in it to mark as targets and set of conditions for that Contract. This mode offers almost Infinite replayability and adds to Hitman’s sandbox level design. With that said ,if you are like me you probably will not be playing through a mission more than once feeling the actions you choose where the best results for a particular stage.But if you like to replay missions more than once for different outcomes contracts mode is right up your alley.
Conclusion
Hitman Absolution does a great job of bringing new players into fold while respecting the core fans who enjoy the series for it baseline mechanics and story. Absolution like previous games in the series is all about a dark world where you must assassinate targets in the fashion you see fit while encountering some hilarious situations and quirky characters along the way. If you are a fan of the stealth genre, the new improved controls and graphics are a welcomed addition to the traditional tank controls and outdated visuals of previous entries. If you are a veteran Hitman player, all the depth found in previous entries are still present and ripe for you to explore. Overall Hitman is a must play in the stealth genre this year.
Score 80%
Rent: Unless you plan on replaying missions or spending significant time in the Contracts mode you can tackle this campaign in a week or two.
