I have to admit, that PC Gamer review slowed down my hype train quite a bit. Still, I think that there might be some bullshitting going on on both sides of the fence.
After reading the PC Gamer review a few times, it sounds to me like the reviewer was either exaggerating on many points or skewing information to support a predetermined conclusion.
Regarding two specific points, PC performance and "cutscene" assassinations, I've yet to see any other source complain about performance (He mentions they're using machines that can run Skyrim at one point. Just by looking at the two I think it's obvious that Absolution would require a more robust machine.), and if 10% of the game's assassinations are cutscenes like I recall him mentioning, that would only equate to a single cutscene assassination if the game has a meager ten targets. He says that 64% of the game involves getting to doors, so by his math I'd say that 10 assassinations is generous. I personally expect somewhere in the area of 12-15 assassinations spread across the 20 missions, which means I should still only expect one or two cutscene assassinations. I don't expect an assassination every mission, because five or six "padding" missions to move the story forward and break up assassinations sounds about right. Even if all 20 missions have an assassination, that would still mean only two assassinations take place in a cutscene. Given this, it seems more than a little ridiculous that he'd complain as much as he did about this point, especially since much of the score seems to be based on this point.
Most of his other complaints seem off base as well, given a bit of thought. I don't ever recall compelling stories or sophisticated AI in the Hitman games, the art style seems consistent with what's already been established by previous games, and there seems to be a clear score system in place that discourages unnecessary violence. As for weapons not carrying over, Agent 47 no longer has ICA support, so I feel it's justified that he wouldn't have a massive arsenal of equipment to choose from at the start of each mission. One of the trailers showed that 47's stockpile is basically just the trunk of his car. The checkpoint system sounds like a valid complaint, but it's been mentioned that checkpoints only exist on easy or normal. His complaint about door objectives would be the most condemning if it didn't also sound fishy; I wonder if he's counting overall mission objectives or "level" objectives. Someone mentioned that the game is split into ~50 "levels" split across the 20 missions, so it seems to me that a good number of those "levels" would involve actually getting to the area your target is in. If each of the 20 missions ends in an assassination, and the rest of the level is getting to the area where your target is, then 20/50 "levels" would have assassination objectives. This would mean that 40% of the objectives are assassination objectives and 60% are "door" objectives, given that you count objectives for each "level" and there's an assassination each mission. His numbers are oddly close to this. To me, it sounds like he's complaining more about what the objectives literally say than what you're actually doing each mission. You have to get to your target somehow. Finally, I don't feel I can say anything about his comments on level design other than others have mentioned that while levels are smaller, they're more detailed; a fair compromise in my book.
From my perspective, the review seems like it could be the product of some pretty harsh bias. I feel it's likely that the reviewer couldn't get past his personal expectations and scored the game poorly as a result. Most of the numbers he based his review on seem irrelevant or misguided, and he does little to convince me that the complaints he expresses really are what he claims them to be.
On the contrary, I'm still a bit skeptical of a lot of the information coming out contradicting the review; a lot of it seems to either be too good to be true or from questionable sources. It's still possible that the PC Gamer review is completely valid and I'm underestimating the severity of the alleged issues due to the fact that I only know what pre-release media has shown me. Either way, I'll find out for myself whether or not the game is good in a week.