Platform: PC

Developer: IO Interactive

Publisher: Square Enix

Release Date: November 20th, 2012

Genre: Stealth

Nerd Rating: 6.5 out of 10!

Agent 47 returns in the fifth and most personal story-driven installment of the Hitman series, but is it as good as the former games? While I would love to be able to give you a straight up answer, I simply can’t. Hitman: Absolution is better then the rest of the franchise in certain ways, but the game is also quite lacking and worse then the rest of the franchise in certain ways. The developers of Hitman: Absolution, IO Interactive, took a risk by changing main functions of the franchise. One example of these changes is the fact that Hitman: Absolution is more story-driven then its predecessors.

Hitman: Absolution takes place in a fictional town called “Hope,” which is located in the real city of Chicago, Illinois. Agent 47’s handler within the agency, Diana, has gone rogue and Agent 47 is sent in to kill her and retrieve the girl she has with her. This mission to kill Diana reveals a huge conspiracy in the agency which makes Agent 47 choose to go rogue as well. The story of Hitman: Absolution is interesting and will definitely make you want to keep playing. However, because the game is more story-driven, the missions are much more linear and not as good as the rest of the Hitman franchise. The characters in Hitman: Absolution are also very stereotypical and controversial depictions in my opinion, and for the most part they are extremely annoying.

One thing I definitely love about Hitman: Absolution is how beautiful and stunning the actual game is. The first mission alone displays the absolute beauty of this game when you are breaking into Diana’s mansion, as well as if you open the window shades of Diana’s mansion. There is no doubt that a lot of time went into the creation of this game and its graphics, and in my opinion it is one of the strongest points of Hitman: Absolution.

Hitman: Absolution introduces a new ability to Agent 47’s repertoire called “instinct.” Instinct allows Agent 47 to see people through walls as well as show him the paths which the NPCs will be taking. I personally feel like instinct caters too much to new players and simply isn’t a good addition to the Hitman gameplay. I feel like I am cheating when using instinct, but at the same time Hitman: Absolution is developed around this new function and for the most part forces you to use it.

While Hitman: Absolution rewards the player for being sneaky and a pacifist, it makes it extremely hard and simply not sensible. One major difference from the predecessors that makes this hard is the fact that guards can see through your disguises if they can see you when you run out of instinct, and they will also follow you if you do anything suspicious (which for some reason includes standing still). This makes being a pacifist and avoiding gunfights extremely difficult, which I personally feel ruins the strong point of the Hitman franchises.

Hitman: Absolution introduces multiplayer to the Hitman universe known as contracts. These contracts are player-made missions that take place on the same maps as the original missions, which is sadly a mistake in development due to the linear trait of the maps. The unlockables and DLC of Hitman: Absolution are also only available for use in the multiplayer version of the game which is rather disappointing.

Hitman: Absolution certainly did cover and gun mechanics correctly. In Hitman: Absolution, you have the option to make Agent 47 go into cover, which is an amazing addition to the Hitman series and is something that I wish more shooting games and stealth games would do. The aiming in the game feels perfectly fine, and the option to throw things to confuse guards is done very nicely. While there is a nice selection of guns in the game, you can’t really use your own selection of guns other then in multiplayer and the attachments of guns is confusing and I still don’t really understand how it is done.

One thing about the campaign that I didn’t necessarily like is how it encourages replaying each level to fully complete it by gaining all the level’s in-game achievements. The levels simply aren’t fun enough to want to replay and you will become rather bored if you decide to try and complete the game fully. Another flaw in this system is that you can’t skip the cut-scenes, which makes replaying levels over and over again even more annoying then they were to start with.

When it comes to Hitman: Absolution, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” fits perfectly. IO Interactive tried too hard to change what Hitman was and ultimately made Hitman: Absolution feel like it simply wasn’t part of the same series. While the game is good as a game, it simply can not be compared to it’s predecessors and I don’t recommend it to hardcore fans of the original game. If you’ve never played the original Hitman games, then you are failing at gaming, but I do recommend this game as well as it’s predecessors (but only if you play this one first so you aren’t disappointed.)

Do you feel like Hitman: Absolution stands up to the rest of the series? Do you agree or disagree with points made in this review? Please feel free to point your agency silverballers at the comment section and fire away!

Written by Nerd Bacon