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[Common Knowledge]

So I've just started playing Hitman: Absolution today after owning it for about 4 years (I know, I know). It's another game I'm trying to scratch off my backlog list. As someone who's never played a Hitman game before, I am aware this one got a rather mixed reception and is seen as one of the weakest in the series. But I wanted to knock it out of the way before likely buying Hitman 2016 (which I hear is really good).


Anyway, the game right from the start reminded me a lot of Splinter Cell: Conviction, a game I really enjoyed. A lot of the mechanics are similar and there's that choice of stealth or lethal action that's at play. The game's also really good looking for a last-gen game. I enjoyed the tutorial mission and was looking forward to getting into the meat of it.

The next area was the Chinatown area and my goal was to assassinate the "King" in the middle. I explored around a lot and saw multiple possible ways I could probably do it, and I was excited at the prospects of replaying missions just to see different ways to go about them. Anyway, eventually I made use of a vendor disguise to plan out what I was going to do.

And that's where things got kind of iffy. When you're in a certain disguise, people who are of that particular faction will get suspicious of you and eventually confront you and alert guards. Which is a fine mechanic on the surface; it prevents a player from just being able to walk willy-nilly around a level without any consequences as long as the had the correct disguise. I don't mind the premise of this particular mechanic.

But I quickly found that people are a bit too suspicious to really make this an enjoyable and effective check on the power of a disguise. I'm walking around the huge crowds in Chinatown and other vendors will easily notice me with yellow arrows everywhere, forcing me to continuously move around to different hiding spots or activating my "insight" to blend in more. Suddenly, the game got much harder after I decided to disguise myself in something. On top of being frustrating, it also kind of ruins the immersion with this. Why the hell do vendors who are dealing with massive crowds wanting to buy stuff give a crap about a random guy walking in the distance who may or may not be someone they know? And how close-knit are all of them anyway that they are able to pinpoint instantly among a crowd that someone is pretending to be one of them? Maybe with the cops I could see that level of perception, but random street vendors?

Anyway, I completed the Chinatown level and moved on the next, hoping that I'll just get used to and become more skillful with the disguise mechanics and my gripes will just pass away. Unfortunately, I can't say that that happened. The next level was in a hotel and it further cemented my frustrations. There's multiple different types of workers you can disguise yourself as and whenever you do, similar people will be on your ass in seconds if you slip up in anyway. And it made me realize the counter-intuitiveness of the way to most effectively sneak by: you want to disguise yourself as someone completely different from the people that you want to actually be disguised from. It's....weird.


But enough of disguises. I tried to put that aside and just start playing the game like Splinter Cell and crouch, hide, and sneak my way through everything. And I came to enjoy some parts of the game with this. It functions well enough as a stealth/action mix to be a decently enjoyable experience. With that said, though, there are still some other issues with the game that is keeping me from being able to call it "great", and sometimes even "good".

The level design ends up leaving much to be desired. Usually with these types of games I'm expecting multiple routes and little hidden paths to exploit to bypass stuff and feel like a true assassin. And while there are indeed some of these, it's on a whole pretty bare-bones feeling and there's only one general path that you can take through all the levels, with the only choices you have typically amounting to "do you use the window and sneak along the ledge for a bit?" or "do I crawl through this vent here to the next room or use the door?" It functions well as a way to get yourself out of a pinch, but there's really no creativity involved in planning out your route through a level and making your way through as nothing more than a shadow. Perhaps I'm heavily spoiled by the Dishonored games in this regard, but doesn't even par with Splinter Cell: Conviction.


I'm about halfway through the game now and I'll probably push my way through the rest of it, but I can't say I'm too big of fan of it thus far. Share your thoughts on the game below.

 

[MaKTaiL]

HITMAN 2016 fixed the disguise system introduced on Absolution by adding "enforcers" and creating certain rules. If you disguise as a waiter, most of your colleagues won't notice you. But one or two (the ones that would have been in charge of hiring you in real life) will notice you don't belong. They will try to find out who you are but if you manage to run out of their sight in time they will just ignore you and move on.

The rules are simple too. A waiter isn't supposed to go inside a surveillance room or off stage on a concert. Everything is very fluid and really well done on HITMAN 2016. That said, all I can say is this: Absolution is a good game, just not a good Hitman.

 

[InsaneTiger]

2016 is a much better Hitman game. Absolution was more of a standard action stealth game with a completely broken disguise system and useless checkpoint system. I still can't believe how awful the disguise system is in Absolution. I mean, you could spotted by a random dude from way too far away, too quickly.

 

[Jackpot]

There's a mod that removes the faction suspicion mechanic. However you quickly realise that there's still very little to the levels.

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

I'm struggling to think of another game that punished you so much for using it's central mechanic - thankfully Hitman 2016 made things right.

 

[whalleywhat]

Highly segmented levels with a focus on bloated, unnecessary story. But this is the game where they really nailed down the gameplay, some of which regressed in 2016 (gunplay). It's fun, it's just not a good Hitman. And the disguise system is fine, people just complain because they're limited in their ability to obliviously wander around.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

The disguise system in absolution could be best described as

"what's that? Another street vendor? Impossible!! I know every street vendor in the world. You must be an assassin!"

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Absolution really did have some considerable improvements even over Blood Money, but the disguise system was just too borked, some of the more scripted/actiony sequences were too frequent and the linear segments were too frequent with too few traditional levels to capture the appeal of Blood Money.

Would be a markedly better game if the disguise system was fixed. The idea of making them less than 100 percent reliable is great; there were situations in Blood Money that, because of how perfect disguises were, were less intense than they should be.

Having just anyone who's wearing the same outfit as you become suspicious is dumb though — it does make parts of the game challenging, but in a way that doesn't make sense. If a game feature disguises so prominently and has relatively smaller scale levels with finite number of NPCs, it's not unreasonable to create a network of NPCs that know one another in each level. Chinatown chefs who don't even know there's an assassin prowling around shouldn't be suspicious enough of an unrecognizable chef to interrogate that person, let alone suspicious enough to sound an alarm. On the flipside, a small police strike force should know one another better and be harder to fool.

Expanding on ways to blend in (and not tying it to the "instinct" meter) would be much better. Same-clothes NPCs would become suspicious of you unless you were actively doing a non-suspicious gesture (scratching face, looking through pamphlets, Etc.) and there were times where I was surrounded and essentially trapped at a stove pretending to cook, since if I stepped away from it, people would immediately get irreversibly suspicious (on a harder difficulty) and non-suspicious actions outside of certain locations costs instinct that doesn't regenerate on harder difficulties. Having certain disguises require specific series of actions to be non-suspicious would be good, e.g. chefs only have to periodically cook, or be seen near cooking stations to be non-suspicious. Getting a limited number of chances to make up an excuse for suspicious behavior for a single NPC would be nice too — in absolution, having someone come up to you to question you only has two ways to escape.

The game recognizing disguises with masks or helmets would help make that aspect of the game seem more fair too. in short, there's no good reason for this game to have so many flaws and incongruities with one its most prominent aspects of gameplay. I still give the game a bit of a pass because I appreciate how IO was willing to introduce non-traditional situations to the game (being hunted by other assassins/cops), I just think those segments don't require the level of scripting and linearity Absolution had in order to be fun/challenging.

 

[xviper]

absolution is a disgrace to the Hitman series

Hitman 2016 is a perfect hitman game but sadly it's episodic

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

absolution is a disgrace to the Hitman series

Hitman 2016 is a perfect hitman game but sadly it's episodic

I disagree: the episodic, constantly updated aspect of it absolutely worked in its favour after a slightly wonky launch.

 

[Nielm]

I thought this game would be the death of Hitman.

It turned the series into a linear stealth (mostly sneaking) game, taking out most of the sandbox elements and making it overly cinematic. They also decided on including assassin nuns, plus a grindhouse style that seemed out of place, and humanizing Agent 47.

I don't think it's a bad game, but it was a major step back from Blood Money.

Hitman 2016 is 10x better.

 

[Aangster]

The one-dimensional characters really hurt a weak narrative already constrained by content cuts (check out the Full Disclosure app, e.g.

Spoiler

coin and snake symbolism that only briefly appear,

also the

Spoiler

Chicago Detective was meant to have a much larger role, so did Travis

). Out of the specific features/mechanics Absolution introduced, I hope IO get the chance to reimplement :

• Armed targets who'll retaliate to 'loud' approaches
• the Backup guard/merc/police system for players who go down a completely unsubtle route
• being able to switch disguise variations, they made less sense in Absolution but would love to see for 2016 and beyond
• NPCs (sort of like Blood Money, but more directly) harming targets, e.g. 47 being able to spark a gunfight or violent arguments

Fun fact: the tutorial narrator is Hitman 2016's voice actor for Diana with an American accent.

 

[MaKTaiL]

• Armed targets who'll retaliate to 'loud' approaches
• the Backup guard/merc/police system for players who go down a completely unsubtle route
• NPCs (sort of like Blood Money, but more directly) harming targets, e.g. 47 being able to spark a gunfight or violent arguments

These are already featured on HITMAN 2016.

 

[Mutant]

I disagree: the episodic, constantly updated aspect of it absolutely worked in its favour after a slightly wonky launch.

A shame it didn't work in IO's favor. :/

 

[SirMossyBloke]

They need to bring back the suitcase sniper rifle. Unless of course I haven't unlocked it yet in Hitman 2016. Hate having this massive gun on my back.

 

[MaKTaiL]

A shame it didn't work in IO's favor. :/

Square already said they will let IO keep the rights for Hitman and Season 2 was already in production before that decision. Whoever buys IO will get a lot of money with Season 2 IMO. Square selling off IO sparked a lot of interest in the game again specially by people who were reluctant to buy Season 1 in the first place. A lot of friends of mine decided to buy Hitman 2016 after the news.

It's definitely the best Hitman has ever been and dropping the episodic format for future releases would be a terrible mistake. Without Square restricting their creative decisions they can finally drop the always online requirement too (which appears it will happen sooner than we think, there is an update coming this month that they are "Very excited" about).

 

[Aangster]

These are already featured on HITMAN 2016.

That's not been the case:

• all targets cower or flee (whether by escort or alone if the former's been massacred) when threatened, only
  Spoiler

  Pavarti verbally goads you into killing her, the AI target behaviour implemented so far has kinda been jarring on Freedom Fighters since someone like Rose is known to be a violent terrorist
• addtional heavily armed NPCs don't show up if 47 triggers widespread alert. I can't recall if it was director Elversdam or Ellert, but the devs have mentioned that they would like to bring this feature back
• 47 can cause other NPCs to eventually do harm (e.g.
  Spoiler

  Hokkaido's head surgeon on the stationary target
  ), but not in the same manner like
  Spoiler

  Hunter and Hunted's Chinatown part where a police officer shoots and kills a target

 

[MaKTaiL]

That's not been the case:

• 47 can cause other NPCs to eventually do harm (e.g.
  Spoiler

  Hokkaido's head surgeon on the stationary target
  ), but not in the same manner like
  Spoiler

  Hunter and Hunted's Chinatown part where a police officer shoots and kills a target

There is an opportunity in Bangkok to set up a meeting between the two targets you need to kill.

Spoiler

The rockstar will push the other guy out of the window.

In this same mission there is a way to surprise the target inside his own room where

Spoiler

he will beg not to be killed (he won't flee).

But I see your point. These should happen more often. Season 2 has lot of potential.

 

[Aangster]

There is an opportunity in Bangkok to set up a meeting between the two targets you need to kill.

Spoiler

The rockstar will push the other guy out of the window.

In this same mission there is a way to surprise the target inside his own room where

Spoiler

he will beg not to be killed (he won't flee).

But I see your point. These should happen more often. Season 2 has lot of potential.

Yeah, I loved those two opportunities.

Spoiler

Especially, Fade to Black and 47's chilling dialogue; wonderful snapshot of his character.

. I'm keen to see what IO has planned and hoping to see them pull through.

As for Absolution, stick with it OP. It's a decent stealth title that kinda misses a key point of Hitman, namely its signature puzzle sandbox elements. The limited American setting is also really dull: Chicago and Dakota don't hold a candle the range of US missions in Blood Money. The abundance of linear escape/evade missions disappoints too, I think Contracts actually pulled off a much better 'escape' level than all those in Absolution combined.

However, you can see the mechanical foundations for 2016 at work, and most importantly: you're playing towards the return to globe-trotting 47 form.