[E3 2012] Hitman: Absolution

[Psykoboy2]

I haven’t seen the latest trailer for Hitman: Absolution. I’ve heard plenty about it while out at E3 and on twitter, but I never did get around to seeing it. I figured something that brought about that much conversation on both sides didn’t need my attention and probably wasn’t doing a whole lot on selling the game as much as it was just trying to get people to talk.

That or I was just lazy and never got around to watching the trailer. Still, I did get around to watching about 15 minutes of gameplay from the show floor while being told about the game itself.

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These days games seem to enjoy tracking everything you do and making a leaderboard out of it for competition. The next installment of the Hitman series is no different in this. Everything you do in the game is tracked and kept up with so your friends can see how well you’re doing and attempt to beat your score or time, and, or course, so you can attempt to beat theirs. For instance, if your mission requires taking out two people and you can do that without being detected or suspected of anything you’ll get quite a bit of points, but if you’re spotted or cause a lot of commotion with the kill, points will be docked and you’ll have a lower score. It all depends on the rules of the contract.

The demo we were shown required Agent 47 to take out 5 people. In doing so, we were shown many different ways of going about the tasks and the use of many of the different mechanics that are now at your disposal in your missions. The first kill wasn’t too difficult. Using your “instinct” (think eagle vision from Assassin’s Creed), you could easily track your targets, their path, as well as NPC’s in the area. Agent 47 could see that his target was in a general store, so he took the back entrance and stayed hidden. Once the target moved to an upstairs part of the store, he had to distract the store employee in order to get access to the stairs. He did this by turning on a radio conviently in the back of the store. Then he easily went up the stairs and took out the first contract. On his way back down, the store owner was back in position, blocking the exit for Agent 47. When he pulled his gun, I really figured that yeah, he’ll just take out the worker and be on his way. While that is allowed on this mission, you’d still take a hit to the overall score, so he instead shot a car outside the store that triggered the car’s alarm causing the store worker to go out and check on things, thus providing an exit for Agent 47.

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The player used all manner of methods when taking out the rest of the contracts, including choking out an NPC and taking their clothes as a disguise. Disguises work somewhat logically in Hitman: Absolution, in the sense that to most everyone else you look like who you are supposed to look like in a disguise, but if you happen to pass by someone else wearing the same outfit as you they’re going to be pretty suspicious of you if you hang around too long with them. Also shown off was an ability called “point shooting”, where gameplay pauses while you mark your targets. When gameplay resumes, Agent 47 takes out the targets without breaking a sweat. This ability is something you have to earn and build up to so it won’t always be available and if it isn’t full, you might not be able to target everyone around you.

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There wasn’t anything visually stunning about the game. It didn’t look mediocre, by any means, but it wasn’t wowing anyone either. Still, I was more impressed by the ability of choice than anything else. Being able to tackle a mission in any way I wanted gave me a very huge Deus Ex: Human Revolution feel. And I enjoyed that. It means variation and options and it means when I talk about the game with someone else who played it there’s a very good chance they’ll have a totally different experience than I did in taking on the same contract.

Hitman: Absolution is scheduled for release on November 20th of this year on 360, PS3, and PC.

[Reverant]

Sounds great. I never got into the previous games, but this one has perked my interest.

Also, because of the Hitman movie, it took me several years to take Timothy Olyphant seriously. That movie was so bad I feel physical discomfort just remembering it.

[muddi900]

Those screens have to be shopped!

[menage]

i reckon a massive pc could pull it off, not the consoles though.

[muddi900]

No the lighting is unusually vibrant. It just looks off. I doubt the final game looks like that, aesthetically.

[menage]

Ah, ok I agree. It does look like an illustration instead of a render.

[TheKeck]

Psykoboy, I get the impression you've never played a Hitman game before. Is that right?

[Psykoboy2]

I think I played the second one and some of Blood Money, but not much.

[TheKeck]

Gotcha. Sounds like this game might be more similar to the others than some had feared. Here's hoping that's the case (personally).

[Psykoboy2]

Here's the video I was shown at E3 that my write-up is based on.