Alright, so I literally just finished Hokkaido, and the thing that really stuck in my head was that it's mentioned (again) that 47 was taken in by the ICA 20 years ago. I noticed that at the end of Colorado it was implied that Providence(?) must have been following 47 for "decades", but this game feels like it takes place over the course of a few months.

Are the early scenes at the ICA training facility supposed to have occurred 20 years before the events of the main game? Or is this alluding to some history between the ICA and 47 prior to "The hospital in Romania?" If the training missions are supposed to have occurred 20 years ago, then why do the 'actors' have smartphones, etc.? Also Diana and 47 seem totally ageless?

Is this just a weird plot-hole that showed up as a result of not writing the whole story at once? Or am I just missing something major that explains this all away? They seemed very insistent on the idea that 47 had just appeared out of nowhere in the early scenes, but now they're acting like he's always been there.

Pretty sure that the ICA bit is supposed to be in the past. The phones etc. is due to the story being meaningless pap.

The game makes it pretty clear that everything before paris is a prologue set long before the events of the rest of the game.

The new hitman is not a reboot; it is a sequel to all the previous hitman games including absolution. Throughout the series, 47 has been working for the ICA, and has done a lot of bad business. The prologue is just a flashback to when he first got discovered by the agency. As to why everyone seems ageless, well--I, uhh--hmmm--

He's a BALD KILLERCLONE. I'll just leave it at that.

The training was 20 years ago. From what I can gather the whole game otherwise works as if all the other Hitman games (maybe besides Absolution) occurred. They reference them at some points (like in Colorado in the room with the evidence, where you can see some previous hits from the series on the board). Also on the train they talk about how his origins, via cloning, which were covered in 2 (and maybe Contracts? I kind of mush those two games together somewhat).

As far as any ageless stuff, 47 is a weird clone and I think they just don't bother to make anything else with that with Diana. That and small details like smart phones are just glossed over I guess.

From the end, they seem to suggest there is some history past the cloning discussed in the past games. Or maybe it's a cover up or something? Not sure where that will go.

I actually think they're trying harder with this game's story (and doing a good job of it). It attempts more world building and subtlety, which is a welcome departure from Absolution's method of storytelling.

Blood Money had great subtle storytelling too, with the newspapers, that set up the storyline only if you are actually paying attention to them, and the custscene delivered storyline with the reporter running adjacent to 47 and how that tied back in at the end. It was fantastic. This is picking up where that left off more. Absolution just sucks in so many ways, that being one of them.

I went back and played the whole prologue again, and I was mistaken it does actually seem like Diana has aged, but 47 definitely hasn't. I guess you can chalk that down to him being a magic perfect clone man, and I guess the technology thing is just an oversight.

The thing that really put me off about the phones is that it's not just like the generic NPCs happen to have phones on them, but Norfolk himself is using his phone consistently and it's the reason you can pull him aside to impersonate him.

@yinstarrunner: I knew the prologue was supposed to be in the "past", but I figured it was a few years, not 2 decades. I played most of the other Hitman games but I just went back and read plot synopses for all of them and totally forgot how weird and convoluted it was. I didn't realise until just now that every Hitman game is part of the same story.

@claybrez: @artisanbreads:

I think I don't care for the story because I associate the development of the stories in Hitman games with the level design getting (in my eyes) worse and more restrictive. I'd much rather play the earlier missions in say Blood Money (except for that brilliant Xmas party one) than those last ones where the story is getting wrapped up. I just avoid the story as a matter of course now.

As for Absolution, I only played the first couple of levels and concluded it was Hitman only in name. Really enjoying the new game so far even if I am sick to death of everything being on Paris which I feel it a pretty poor level.

The idea that Schroder was a grumpy old bad guy when 47 started, and then somehow made it through the 20 years and 3 or so purges of the ICA's staff made the timeline even more confusing for me.

Do you mean Soders? He was a recruiter and then moved to be a board member according to the game, and he was the best ICA agent before that, so he is supposed to have chops at spy/assassination business even in the field. I think he's 60 by the end.

@artisanbreads: Yeah sorry definitely Soders, I think auto-correct got me there. I know that he's already with the ICA during the prologue, but I just assumed that the reason he's so opposed to 47 joining the ICA is because he was always with Providence (i.e. he already knows?), rather than pure paranoia.

If the earlier Hitman games are canon, I'm pretty sure the ICA is dissolved and then rebuilt in Blood Money, and the plot of Absolution kind of hinges on a purge of rogue elements in the ICA board. It just seems weird that he'd still be around.

EDIT: Whoops, I went back and checked, and Diana explictly says "cannot have been on Providence payroll for more than a few weeks."

@mvhvtmv: Yeah I'm not 100% on the specifics there I just took it as what Soders says in that cutscene after training: He doesn't like that 47 is so basically flawless that he can't be controlled. He's a scheming type, whether he would have had any contact with Providence back then or not, he would be thinking about control. You are right about the stuff with the turmoil of the ICA through the other games but I assume Soders is a very capable guy who could survive through all of that. He could go into hiding if need be since he was a top field agent.

Personally I just hate Absolution and could only get about 2/3 through it, and I'll just roll on with this game pretending none of that happened. I see ties to the other games more than that one in here but might be some stuff I'm glossing over because I hate Absolution.

It's definitely playing fast and loose, but the implication is that, as people are saying, this isn't a reboot. Everything from Paris onwards are hits that have happened after the events of the previous games. Colorado mission confirmed that with pictures of targets from other games. I've yet to play Hokaido so can't comment on anything that happens there, but yeah, that's my understanding.

Honestly though, I'm not playing for the story. It may as well not be happening for me.