Remachinate
Member
Just finished that mission today on Suit Only/Infiltrator/Expert after probably investing 8 hours. It's doable, but brutal. The
fuses
for all four fuses
-
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Hitman: Absolution |OT| Police do not suspect Blood Money is involved.
- Thread starter Interfectum
- Start date
Just finished that mission today on Suit Only/Infiltrator/Expert after probably investing 8 hours. It's doable, but brutal. The
CheesecakeRecipe
Stormy Grey
Finished a few days ago, gave myself some time to process all of my thoughts on the game.
I'm really torn on Absolution as a whole, and I find that I like smaller parts of it far more than the game itself. There's no denying that it's a looker, stunningly sculpted on PC. Seeing things like the detail of the hair follicles on 47's head when crawling into vents really goes a long way, and that's not the only place that got such attention. Texture work, modeling (mostly), lighting (again mostly) special effects all come together to form an incredibly high quality image and the consistent art style makes the world not only pretty, but realistic. I could use way less nuclear glow though.
Unfortunately a byproduct of such fidelity is that the game's maps had to suffer being cut up for the consoles. Even the open ended maps (Chinatown, and much much later
) feel downright claustrophobic compared to anything from Blood Money and even some of the older titles. I could never shake the feeling that everything was so small and compact, when I really just wanted a playground of madness. The linearity of a good chunk of the levels was also offputting, not least of when I was being forced to hide in a level filled with cops.
Said levels highlighted one of the game's biggest failures/weaknesses, which had the potential to be awesome but was clumsily executed: The detection system. The very idea of Hitman's unique social stealth having some added pressure put onto it by similar characters being able to recognize that you aren't who you say you are had me really excited. On paper it sounds intense in a good way. Unfortunately due to detection ranges being so absurd and on the higher difficulties detection rates being so fast that you don't even have time to get the instinct mechanic to go off properly before you're in a firefight, it's more of a chore. I know there has been a trainer floating around and IO themselves has promised to look into it but neither of those had any effect on my playthrough, in which it was a broken and shitty mess.
The game balance is also not very well playtested on anything above Hard. My first run was being done on Expert, and Suit Only since I found the disguise system to be rather useless. This seemed to be working out for me until I hit Run For Your Life, where the game began to throw too many choke points than I could deal with on expert with only my suit. I spent several hours loading up multiple checkpoints on expert to find them impossible to pass the way I wanted to play, and felt I was being unfairly penalized. I had to use a costume, I had to use instinct. It all pushed me further in the direction of Claustrophobia, and I hated it. The biggest example of the system's inability to perform in a fun and functional way is the train station. There's a pretty well seen GIF around these parts that accurately sums up the problem with that stage. I will admit that selecting Expert to start with and pushing it as hard as I did before I gave in and kicked the difficulty down colored my perception of the rest of the game negatively.
That's not to say Absolution failed in all of its gameplay elements. Shooting is much more satisfying and being given fun tools like melee takedowns, throwing axes etc all made murderous sprees a blast. A turning point for me with Absolution came during the
, where I felt that no man involved deserved any kind of mercy. After having bumped the difficulty down and allowing myself to let loose and carry on, I found I was liking the game a lot more. But therein lies the problem that pushes it away from being a fun Hitman game to me and more of a decent stealth title. There were only a handful of genuine Hitman hits that offered a good amount of ways to approach that felt clever and inventive, while the rest of the game forced my hand too much. All too often I found myself saying at the end of a stage "Man, I'm glad I never have to play that level again." If you're a Hitman game and you have me saying that more often than not, there's a problem.
Story was dumb as hell, even with the reverse Leon: The Professional setup. Bateson, Boothe and Carradine offer excellent performances but the script just doesn't hold up very well under them. Everyone else who is plot relevant sounds shoehorned in. I also didn't care for how the game painted 47, I understand some character development was required but this was the wrong direction I felt. I was very impressed with the incidental world dialog, IO did a commendable job making conversations fit and give the world flavor and extra life. Some places really felt lived in. Feel-good cameos for fans
as well as various other throwbacks gave me a smile. IO had some fun with the game, it's just a shame that I didn't for a good chunk of it.
Contracts mode is where the real game is at for most of us Hitman fans. Letting players set up challenges for other players to try and tackle was a stroke of genius and the best way to introduce a multiplayer aspect. The level size problem is still apparent here as many of the stages usable for Contracts mode are no bigger than a dime, but there has been some very creative and hilarious hits put up so far and I can't wait to see the future of the mode. I will most likely be returning to the game semi-frequently to partake.
Boiling it all down to condensed chicken noodle soup, Hitman: Absolution failed to deliver my expectations through cramped levels, broken difficulty/mechanics and a story so soggy it makes cereal left to break apart in milk look solidly constructed. But it is not a bad game, and I feel that there are a lot of people who will be able to enjoy it as a more murdery-stealth type game. I'm excited for the future of the series as we move to a new generation of consoles which will hopefully give them more leg room to create more expansive vistas with the jaw dropping tech foundation IO has gilded with Glacier2.
I'm really torn on Absolution as a whole, and I find that I like smaller parts of it far more than the game itself. There's no denying that it's a looker, stunningly sculpted on PC. Seeing things like the detail of the hair follicles on 47's head when crawling into vents really goes a long way, and that's not the only place that got such attention. Texture work, modeling (mostly), lighting (again mostly) special effects all come together to form an incredibly high quality image and the consistent art style makes the world not only pretty, but realistic. I could use way less nuclear glow though.
Unfortunately a byproduct of such fidelity is that the game's maps had to suffer being cut up for the consoles. Even the open ended maps (Chinatown, and much much later
Blackwater Park
Said levels highlighted one of the game's biggest failures/weaknesses, which had the potential to be awesome but was clumsily executed: The detection system. The very idea of Hitman's unique social stealth having some added pressure put onto it by similar characters being able to recognize that you aren't who you say you are had me really excited. On paper it sounds intense in a good way. Unfortunately due to detection ranges being so absurd and on the higher difficulties detection rates being so fast that you don't even have time to get the instinct mechanic to go off properly before you're in a firefight, it's more of a chore. I know there has been a trainer floating around and IO themselves has promised to look into it but neither of those had any effect on my playthrough, in which it was a broken and shitty mess.
The game balance is also not very well playtested on anything above Hard. My first run was being done on Expert, and Suit Only since I found the disguise system to be rather useless. This seemed to be working out for me until I hit Run For Your Life, where the game began to throw too many choke points than I could deal with on expert with only my suit. I spent several hours loading up multiple checkpoints on expert to find them impossible to pass the way I wanted to play, and felt I was being unfairly penalized. I had to use a costume, I had to use instinct. It all pushed me further in the direction of Claustrophobia, and I hated it. The biggest example of the system's inability to perform in a fun and functional way is the train station. There's a pretty well seen GIF around these parts that accurately sums up the problem with that stage. I will admit that selecting Expert to start with and pushing it as hard as I did before I gave in and kicked the difficulty down colored my perception of the rest of the game negatively.
That's not to say Absolution failed in all of its gameplay elements. Shooting is much more satisfying and being given fun tools like melee takedowns, throwing axes etc all made murderous sprees a blast. A turning point for me with Absolution came during the
Orphanage
Story was dumb as hell, even with the reverse Leon: The Professional setup. Bateson, Boothe and Carradine offer excellent performances but the script just doesn't hold up very well under them. Everyone else who is plot relevant sounds shoehorned in. I also didn't care for how the game painted 47, I understand some character development was required but this was the wrong direction I felt. I was very impressed with the incidental world dialog, IO did a commendable job making conversations fit and give the world flavor and extra life. Some places really felt lived in. Feel-good cameos for fans
Kane & Lynch
Contracts mode is where the real game is at for most of us Hitman fans. Letting players set up challenges for other players to try and tackle was a stroke of genius and the best way to introduce a multiplayer aspect. The level size problem is still apparent here as many of the stages usable for Contracts mode are no bigger than a dime, but there has been some very creative and hilarious hits put up so far and I can't wait to see the future of the mode. I will most likely be returning to the game semi-frequently to partake.
Boiling it all down to condensed chicken noodle soup, Hitman: Absolution failed to deliver my expectations through cramped levels, broken difficulty/mechanics and a story so soggy it makes cereal left to break apart in milk look solidly constructed. But it is not a bad game, and I feel that there are a lot of people who will be able to enjoy it as a more murdery-stealth type game. I'm excited for the future of the series as we move to a new generation of consoles which will hopefully give them more leg room to create more expansive vistas with the jaw dropping tech foundation IO has gilded with Glacier2.
The fuse locations are different depending on your difficulty, the harder you are playing on, the trickier they are to get.
aries_71
Junior Member
Problem is, Chinatown is the exception not the norm. Probably the best mission. It goes downhill from there.
chickdigger802
Banned
speaking of the rosewood mission.
Is there anyway to help out that security guard without alerting the whole place?
I notice there is a robot and a piano and a fire ax nearby...
Is there anyway to help out that security guard without alerting the whole place?
I notice there is a robot and a piano and a fire ax nearby...
MrCompletely
Member
Makes sense. Finally beat it on hard with no spots and taking out two guards. Syringe kill is my favorite.
This really felt like Hitman The Movie: The Game to me. Lots of action and shootouts with some Hitman assassinations mixed in.
I really dislike most stealth games. I enjoyed Deus Ex: HR and Batman: AA because they made me fee like a predator who could easily overcome a stronger force with some patience and exploration. Most stealth games end up just being trial and error hide and seek. Playing the linear levels in this game were like that, but with twice as many enemies as usual. The disguise system in these sections felt completely useless. There'd usually be exactly one disguise option and the only people on the map were those who could see through it in their peripheral vision from 100 yards.
About 1/3 of the way through the game I gave up on trying to play the linear parts with stealth and turned it into a third person shooter. That was a lot more fun, and the controls for doing so were fine, but it's not the game I was looking for.
Speaking of the disguise system, what is up with that? I won't rehash all of the complaints that have been made, but in the penthouse mission I was playing on hard (I think. I went back and forth between it and normal during the linear levels) and was able to walk around the most prevalent enemy type with the the other type of enemy's disguise. I went back to try some more assassinations on normal and suddenly all enemies saw through that disguise. It made it nearly impossible to do a couple of the signature kills without somehow taking out every guard without spooking the target, so I imagine that wasn't supposed to happen. It made me stop playing and I think I'll need to give it some time before I return.
I really dislike most stealth games. I enjoyed Deus Ex: HR and Batman: AA because they made me fee like a predator who could easily overcome a stronger force with some patience and exploration. Most stealth games end up just being trial and error hide and seek. Playing the linear levels in this game were like that, but with twice as many enemies as usual. The disguise system in these sections felt completely useless. There'd usually be exactly one disguise option and the only people on the map were those who could see through it in their peripheral vision from 100 yards.
About 1/3 of the way through the game I gave up on trying to play the linear parts with stealth and turned it into a third person shooter. That was a lot more fun, and the controls for doing so were fine, but it's not the game I was looking for.
Speaking of the disguise system, what is up with that? I won't rehash all of the complaints that have been made, but in the penthouse mission I was playing on hard (I think. I went back and forth between it and normal during the linear levels) and was able to walk around the most prevalent enemy type with the the other type of enemy's disguise. I went back to try some more assassinations on normal and suddenly all enemies saw through that disguise. It made it nearly impossible to do a couple of the signature kills without somehow taking out every guard without spooking the target, so I imagine that wasn't supposed to happen. It made me stop playing and I think I'll need to give it some time before I return.
chickdigger802
Banned
Anyone actually use throwing items for distractions?
Been just stealthing around with instinct on, getting a bit bored lol. Can you kill folks without them calling reinforcements?
Where are my silenced silverballers
Been just stealthing around with instinct on, getting a bit bored lol. Can you kill folks without them calling reinforcements?
Where are my silenced silverballers
use the piano to create a distraction. but first took out the goon who came from the elevator, the use the piano, hide and wait for the first one to look around then kill him. the other one will still be in front of the guard waiting to be killed.
chickdigger802
Banned
hmmm... would stuff like knife throwing be considered a 'silent' kill? I'm just not a fan of shooting cuz it alerts the whole god damn stage :/
And for a super hitman, you'd think 47 would be able to do a low profile stab in a crucial organ against baddies in a crowd.
And for a super hitman, you'd think 47 would be able to do a low profile stab in a crucial organ against baddies in a crowd.
rosaceadude2112
Member
Are these guards in Blackwater Park respawning? Is this a damn thing? I figured I'd just say fuck it on trying to get silent assassin and go to town with the samurai sword 'cause I'm kinda sick of this game but this same guy keeps coming down the stairs no matter how many times I kill him.
Get headshots to build up your instinct meter, use point shooting when multiple targets pop up. Use just about any weapon, it should be fairly easy.
Subdue makes noise, which makes sense for gameplay balance. Garrote is silent, and blunt objects also make noise.
TheSpoiler
Member
It may be late in saying this but their position is based on game difficulty.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Seriously in a strip club with the music blasting thats a stretch.
ezekielpacman
Member
I'm pretty sure they do respawn on difficulties above normal. I found a few times that I was mowing down a seemingly infinite amount of people.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
One thing I've noticed where the game feels last-gen is the cutscenes. You can "see" characters spawning in. You see weird twitches when camera angle or location changes, there are those cloth animation blurps i.e. when angle/location changes, you see everything with cloth physics rupture for a second. It got pretty annoying to my OCD eyes once I started noticing it. Not sure if it's the limitation in the engine or is it the learning curve.
LeadenStride
Member
I used the sniper rifle that can be found behind the shooting range. Always went for +20 hits and did not use point shooting at all.
Just finished the
mission, and, sick of the one-guard setup, rendering the disguise system fucking useless on higher difficulties, I decided to slaughter everyone in the level. I justfied this because, you know, they were merdering innocent nuns, so fuck those guys.
Had a surprising amount of fun, too. Game makes for a decent third person shooter. I hope South Dakota/Chapter II is better than Chicago/Chapter I.
orphanage
Had a surprising amount of fun, too. Game makes for a decent third person shooter. I hope South Dakota/Chapter II is better than Chicago/Chapter I.
Just finished the
mission last night as well. Thought it was a great level, but playing it on a high difficulty brought it down a couple notches for me. I guess I can see why IO altered the disguise system to make it a little more challenging, but merry it with a ridiculously smart AI and you have a system that's slightly broken. I'll admit that I was playing on a high difficulty, but I had to restart to checkpoint for at least 10 times before beating with a stealthy play style that I preferred.
Haven't beaten it yet, but I'm totally excited for the possibilities of a Hitman on Glacier 2 for next gen. I just hope they retool the disguise system and alter the AI's method of noticing your disguise every single damn time.
Orphanage
Haven't beaten it yet, but I'm totally excited for the possibilities of a Hitman on Glacier 2 for next gen. I just hope they retool the disguise system and alter the AI's method of noticing your disguise every single damn time.
sphinx 3000s have very little recoil. Dual wield to double your ammo cap.
PC Gamer - 62/100
Quote:
A passable stealth game, but one that betrays almost everything that, until now, has made Hitman great.
Videogamer - 5/10
Quote:
The problem with Absolution is that its new custodians from the Kane and Lynch team seem to have fundamentally misunderstood what made Hitman great.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Quote:
Although the reliance on the weak story is in some ways the core of the problem, there’s also the fact that Absolution has become a stealth game rather than a Hitman game. It’s mostly about avoidance rather than blending in or surveying, and the execution of the conceptual shift is lacking.
Kotaku
Quote:
a good deal of Absolution's story involves a man named Dexter.
Conan O'Brian Reviews Hitman
Originally Posted by Youtube Comment:
fuck IGN, GTTV, Gamespot.
Basically what i think about it.. There where some good levels, but they didnt last very long, and blood money had more fun thought out levels. I know there where paths to go if you wanted Silent Assassin and stuff in blood money, but if you have a set of paths to go, and you take the one that suits your style than that results in you actually doing it how you wanted to do it. And not a bunch of improv and end up with a score thats way worse than you wanted cause of silly scripted NPCs and no real path to go. Also if you are following a created path, i feel like this is how 47 would have done it him self. And not me, who is clearly not a master assassin.
When it comes to the Nuns and every other silly thing that people complain about.. This is just a hitman thing. There are jokes hidden within every hitman game that you wouldnt think has anything to do with hitman. But the story sucked big balls, with the leader of ICA being a classy class A idiot. What does he do?
The thing that killed absolution for me was all the levels which where basically: Hide from the cops. Give me a level with a bunch of routs and possibilities which is actually accomplishable, and a target or two who needs killing. Hitman game done. You might also sneak a story in there for good measure, but dont let it ruin/drive the game. The game sould be about killing targets.
And a advice for people who havent finished the game yet. Play it on normal.. I played over half way through it on Hard, and seriously every time a cop sees a cop he hasnt seen before, its obviously a hitman.. Not just a new guy. On normal you actually get some time to walk past without getting spotted. I just think it got a bit to ridiculous on hard.
Quote:
A passable stealth game, but one that betrays almost everything that, until now, has made Hitman great.
Videogamer - 5/10
Quote:
The problem with Absolution is that its new custodians from the Kane and Lynch team seem to have fundamentally misunderstood what made Hitman great.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Quote:
Although the reliance on the weak story is in some ways the core of the problem, there’s also the fact that Absolution has become a stealth game rather than a Hitman game. It’s mostly about avoidance rather than blending in or surveying, and the execution of the conceptual shift is lacking.
Kotaku
Quote:
a good deal of Absolution's story involves a man named Dexter.
Conan O'Brian Reviews Hitman
Originally Posted by Youtube Comment:
fuck IGN, GTTV, Gamespot.
Basically what i think about it.. There where some good levels, but they didnt last very long, and blood money had more fun thought out levels. I know there where paths to go if you wanted Silent Assassin and stuff in blood money, but if you have a set of paths to go, and you take the one that suits your style than that results in you actually doing it how you wanted to do it. And not a bunch of improv and end up with a score thats way worse than you wanted cause of silly scripted NPCs and no real path to go. Also if you are following a created path, i feel like this is how 47 would have done it him self. And not me, who is clearly not a master assassin.
When it comes to the Nuns and every other silly thing that people complain about.. This is just a hitman thing. There are jokes hidden within every hitman game that you wouldnt think has anything to do with hitman. But the story sucked big balls, with the leader of ICA being a classy class A idiot. What does he do?
get the girl from the idiot dexter, or kill 47 which (in my case) killed every squad he sent after him
The thing that killed absolution for me was all the levels which where basically: Hide from the cops. Give me a level with a bunch of routs and possibilities which is actually accomplishable, and a target or two who needs killing. Hitman game done. You might also sneak a story in there for good measure, but dont let it ruin/drive the game. The game sould be about killing targets.
And a advice for people who havent finished the game yet. Play it on normal.. I played over half way through it on Hard, and seriously every time a cop sees a cop he hasnt seen before, its obviously a hitman.. Not just a new guy. On normal you actually get some time to walk past without getting spotted. I just think it got a bit to ridiculous on hard.
I grabbed one of the 10 round pistols sitting around the shop as that's my preferred weapon type in the game, but there's a weapon you have to do some work for in the level that made it a lot easier and fun.
I also found the most rewarding way to finish the level, at least for me in the Hitman mindset, was to not even bother with the shooting range competition.
chickdigger802
Banned
is there a finite amount of reenforcements? I'm kinda bored with stealth for the non hit missions. Most of these guys are assholes anyways and the game freaking teases you with all these crazy murder objects around.
Just finished it...I like it in the way I like Batman's style of stealth, but not in the way I like Hitman for the most part.
The Penthouse part of Blackwater was probably my favorite section of the game. Least favorites were the city and the epilogue.
Dear Io, your villains are not interesting enough to ape Batman's villain shit talking post death scenes. Just load up my damn checkpoint.
The Penthouse part of Blackwater was probably my favorite section of the game. Least favorites were the city and the epilogue.
Dear Io, your villains are not interesting enough to ape Batman's villain shit talking post death scenes. Just load up my damn checkpoint.
Batman stealth was way more fun too because he had this crazy range of takedown options and the levels were all designed really interestingly. In this it was pretty much "Hide behind door, fling object, corner takedown erryday"
Granted I don't see 47 being all hang upside down from a gargoyle... but if he did, that would be awesome.
Granted I don't see 47 being all hang upside down from a gargoyle... but if he did, that would be awesome.
It's so clear they just wanted to make an Arkham Asylum game, copying the villains gloating screens was embarrassing. I'm glad somebody else will be getting a shot at the franchise.
LeadenStride
Member
Seems like the patch for consoles is coming next week. Can't wait for it. The game crashed again yesterday, but luckily the save file was ok this time.
Interfectum
Member
Oh yeah... almost forgot about that. So bad.
VitalNerve
Member
Not only do they notice you, they notice you from like 20 ft away, it was absurd. This game was really disappointing
Hank Scorpio
Member
Ok, just got to Blackwater Park. Is it ever explained who the woman is
who Dexters kills during the ransom handover? I've seen her a couple of times in the game and have no idea who she is. She is wearing a skin tight suit and headgear. She's not one of the Saints. She was in an earlier cutscene torturing some guy I think. You can't really miss her with her huge tits.
I'm really enjoying this game so far. Note: although I'm a die hard hitman fan, I'm playing on normal first, and saving the harder difficulties for when I've learnt the level already and am going for a high score. This has been working well. When I don't know the layout/patterns at all, normal is certainly hard enough. It means I can keep blundering through. Then, I do a more refined second pass, then third, and so on, until I feel like moving onto the next level. I dunno about you all, but my first couple of runs through a level in previous games were usually pretty disastrous, the whole point being to learn the layout. Playing this way, Absolution feels just as much a hitman game as previous ones did.
And I'm loving the challenge system and point multiplier - the game's basically telling me to try out all the options in a level first, and then decide which one is best. It makes it even better than just always going for silent assassin for me.
And I'm loving the challenge system and point multiplier - the game's basically telling me to try out all the options in a level first, and then decide which one is best. It makes it even better than just always going for silent assassin for me.
rosaceadude2112
Member
Jesus, this last level is awful.
Pop On Arrival
Banned
Pretty disappointed in the game overall. Why they decided to make the story more prominent in this game I have no idea, but I can definitely say it didn't pay off. I want just huge bloodmoney-esque levels to fuck around in, and playing hideseek for more than half of the game was just not for me at all.
I did like the ambience of the game overall, though. NPC chatter was amusing, really gave them some personality and made sorta made them feel like real people populating the world.
Really hope they take a look at what the people playing the game are goddamn saying and fix this shit for the next game. I really do like this franchise, but if the next game is gonna be like Absolution, then I think I'm out. Quite depressing really as there's no other franchise out there to replace it as of now.
I did like the ambience of the game overall, though. NPC chatter was amusing, really gave them some personality and made sorta made them feel like real people populating the world.
Really hope they take a look at what the people playing the game are goddamn saying and fix this shit for the next game. I really do like this franchise, but if the next game is gonna be like Absolution, then I think I'm out. Quite depressing really as there's no other franchise out there to replace it as of now.
CosmicGroinPull
Member
Just got this game. I played the older games ages ago, so don't remember much about it.
Passed the first level, loving the high production value so far. Everything's so polished. One thing about the story was an instant WTF moment for me though:
Passed the first level, loving the high production value so far. Everything's so polished. One thing about the story was an instant WTF moment for me though:
Why kill Diana when the next instant he turns his back on the agency to help the girl? What the hell? That was dumb.
rosaceadude2112
Member
With how much emphasis there is on the story in this game, it sure is boring and pointless. It goes absolutely nowhere, most of the characters serve no purpose, Agent 47 orders a bottle of "something brown", there's no way a hotel with its own damn mini golf course is gonna let you stay the night for a hundred dollars, the fucking Saints, 47 somehow has less characterization with 10 times the dialogue,
you make a handicapped guy dig his own grave in the desert, an evil Texan says yeehaw and then frames you for murder AND then immediately burns down the hotel yet the cops know about the dead maid somehow(???), a little girl kung fus a bunch of guys to death in front of the evil Texan but doesn't kung fu him, the evil Texan's last words are "My money..."
Not to mention that the evil texan seems to own an entire town and a cyclopean arms factory, yet seems to getting super excited over 10 million dollars. You'd assume 10 million wouldn't be a big deal to someone like that...
Interfectum
Member
There was a line before you see him at the hotel (outside of his room where you go through the vent) where he's telling that woman that they 'need money' or some shit. Maybe he's going broke?
SonicVolcano
Member
The 'human' side of 47 is nothing new, though. He saved a priest in Hitman 2