Hitman Absolution stars Agent 47 who, after the events of Hitman Blood Money, has been assigned to find and assassinate his old handler with the I.C.A; Diana Burnwood, who has went rouge and plans to expose the agency. Upon completing the mission 47decides to go break off from the agency himself and keep a girl named Victoria safe, which was the dying wish of Diana. 47 is now a rouge agent with the I.C.A, the police and even an arms manufacturing company after him and all because of this mysterious girl Victoria.
The story in this game is a real strong suit for it since I feel there is a lot more depth in it than the previous entries, I think the better graphics have contributed to that but there is more to it. For example I think that there is a proper overarching story to the whole game now than just a series of hits to complete. It has a lot of surprises in it and seeing 47 has a rouge agent now and seeing him dealing with it through the cut scenes.
Has for the gameplay it has many features from the previous games that we know and love and many of them have been improved. For example controlling 47 has never felt easier; I don't know about anyone else but for the other games the controls felt a little bit awkward, as if the games did not make the move from PC to console very well. The movement in this game is a lot more fluid, especially when it comes to the shooting which I will go in to detail about now.
The shooting in the game is still similar to the other ones, where the camera angle is behind 47 and it goes to over the shoulder but there was no need to change this anyway. One great aspect that has been added is instinct mode a kind of sonar like vision which allows 47 to predict enemies movements to a certain degree, it however uses a gauge so you have to be careful how long you use it for, this gauge however change be refilled by taking out enemies and completing objectives. Another new mechanic that uses the gauge is a bullet time mode which lets 47 slow down time; while in this state he can mark targets and then quickly take them out and it was a hell of a fun! This slow down of time however uses a lot of the gauge so it cannot be spammed which I think is a good thing; stops players from relying on it too much.
Now one thing that has always been the main attraction of the Hitman games was it's massive level design and the ingenious ways you can use the environment to your advantage and that is still the case here. The levels in this have been broken down in to different areas, kind of like checkpoints, but each area is still expansive and detailed be it either Chinatown or the hotel. My favourite level is the strip club were, like most of the other levels, there are many ways to kill your target which encourages replay a definite plus for any game.
One thing however that is present in every level is the point system which may or may not be a good thing. On the one hand we can keep track of our scores constantly so we can know how well we are doing and this is a good thing if we are trying to get the high score. However it good be rather off putting sometimes when we see are scores reduced for a small mistake made at the last minute. Made me thing more than once of replying the level to get it right even though everything else was going good.
Another thing that might irk some old players, but like the score this is a matter of preference, is that in this game we cannot chose are weapons and prepare ourselves before hand. This is explained in the story because 47 is a rouge agent and now has to procure weapons on site but some may have wanted to chose their weapons first. This does not bother me but it may bother some other die hard fans of the old system. As for the weapons there is plenty of them from 47's trusted Silverballers to sniper rifles and machine guns and a lot of melee weapons from knife to household items. This once again adds to the many ways you can take out your targets.
With online being a big craze nowadays it would have been weird not for Hitman Absolution to include one and I have to say it is one of most favourite online mode I have played. What you have to do is replay levels you have played but now you can chose the targets and the method in how to take them out and these targets can be anyone; from the enemies you already encountered in the story to civilians you passed. After you have completed the mission you can post it online to see if anyone else can pull it off, it is a compelling and interesting mode for online and I spent hours trying to create the hardest level.
Two things however was a bit of a let down however and first is with the many disguises that 47 can use throughout the game. Even if you change in to a disguise to enter a restricted area the enemies can still spot you regardless if you do anything suspicious or not. For example if you dress like a police officer you can still be spotted by other police officers unless you constantly hold the R1 button to hide your face. This was not in the other games and it felt like unnecessary to add that in here. This makes it hard to enjoy infiltrating places in a disguise like before and holding the R1 constantly drains the gauge which is annoying.
One more thing which was disappointing was the bosses that they have in it; they are no different from ordinary foes. For example I was really looking forward to facing the Saints in the games; a group of leather clad, dominatrix nuns who I thought were really cool. However when their level game they just acted like the other patrols around them which was a shame. I don't know how else the could have done it, I just wanted them to be more unique.
Moving on to the graphics and I have to say that they are stunning! The facial expressions of all the characters are the best they have ever been because for the previous games, like the controls, I found the graphics would have suited a PC more than a console. The same can be said for the levels which look so detailed, I don't think I have a single bad thing to say about the graphic here it suited the game perfectly.
Lastly the characters where all well acting and thought out in this games from David Bateson as the ever awesome 47 to Keith Carradine as the antagonist Blake Dexter, who can be a real ass in some of the cut scenes lol. There are off course many great side characters as well like Powers Boothe as Benjamin Travis the head of ICA, Traci Lords as Layla Stockton, Jon Gries had Sheriff Clive Skurky and many great more.
Overall Absolution is my favourite entry to the series let down only by the disguise and the bosses but despite that this is a most have for anyone's Hitman collection.
SCORE: 8/10
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