Hitman: Absolution

[Nasser]

Yeah, I enjoyed this game overall, it was quite long and whenever they opened up the map for more free form exploration it really shined for me. Especially because, mechanically speaking, it was a solid improvement over blood money, aside from the whole disguise quirks that many complained about, which I seem to remember was later fixed.

 

One thing that really irritated me though, was the constant feedback of your mission score in the top left hand corner of the screen. That nearly ruined the game for me altogether. I felt constantly pressured to improve my performance, and would restart at even the tiniest mistake. It was tiresome, and frustrating, replaying the same section over and over again (especially when that section was a small, linear one).

[pabosher]

This game is free for PS+ subscribers next month (of which I am one) so look out for that! (I am!)

[CaptainFish]

Still slogging through this game on expert. Got to a part where the melee is basically required, and the QTEs are not only really difficult to time, but sometimes they don't respond. I think my main problem with dealing with guard laden stealth sections is the total lack of options. The only thing that seems to work consistently is throwing an item to make noise, and then killing/subduing that person when he goes to check it out. And that becomes downright impossible to do with the number of guards in some points. I also wish it had saves, having to clear out the top floor that I can do every single time only to die on the actual tough part is just annoying.

 

I really enjoyed the return to Chinatown triple assassination. Really great location and ideas there. The club assassination was pretty good as well. However, the way this game is balanced gameplay-wise I honestly don't understand how you could call it a generally positive experience.

[Tanukitsune]

I got this from PSN+ too and just in time since I just finished the HD Trilogy and... It kinda sucks?

 

The game has many plot points that are ignored after the fact or don't make sense:

-Agent 47 gets sick... for no reason, OK, the reason if for them to have an excuse to capture him and then pin a murder on him... only to set the building on fire? WHAT?! And how did this man know who he was? Isn't part of his legend is that nobody knows what he looks like? And why the fire? And how do the cops know who to hunt if they never got a good look at him?

-The science in the games is relatively believable and explained... 47 is a clone that was aged... so why does in this game he have memories of a childhood where they experimented on him? This expirementation this is new... And probably shoehorned in so he'd have an excuse to play Leon The Professional to this girl.

-Remember how in the end of the last game 47 and Diana were the only people left alive of the Agency? SCREW THAT! The Agency is back! And Diana killed them? You later find out that there was a splinter cell in their foundation doing something shady, but the ending at the last game was pointing at a completely different target.

-When Wade dies... he has "wood"... 47 drives to Hope and... gets horny... What?! The game drops this plot point completely of course.

-The nuns.... Yeah... I'm pretty sure nuns with bazooka are the best at being silent assassins.

-Who is this cop who all of the sudden is obsessed with 47?

-Come on, did they really have to have Birdie blatantly sequelbait like this? I hate Birde, but I'm not sure I want to but up with another game like this to kill him.

 

As for the gameplay... the checkpoint system is ludicrous, even on the easiest setting there are levels where there are NO checkpoints. Then again, the levels are way too small, so it evens out?

 

The game feels dumbed down, I never felt like I deserved the Silent Assassin rankings I got in this game, it's just too... simple?

You find a guard alone and next to a place to hide the body way too easily and the victims are always alone for more than enough time to kill them, in Blood Money even on Easy I could mess up and had to go gun-ho a few times and I only got one silent assassin rank, in this game? I never had to resort to excessive gunfire.

 

They have taken too much and added things that only make it worse... 47 will drop his costume at the beginning of each level, he never keeps his weapons (How is this a Hitman game if you barely have the Silverballers for half the game?) and the game in overall doesn't let you be as creative as any of the other games. You barely use poison, you almost never get a sniper rifle (and yet the game has an upgrade for this), the lockpicking is only kept for the exit of the level, nobody ever searched you for weapons and 47 can now hide a tank in his jacket and yet he can only hold one of each.

[Dinosaursssssss]

The only thing that seems to work consistently is throwing an item to make noise, and then killing/subduing that person when he goes to check it out. And that becomes downright impossible to do with the number of guards in some points. I also wish it had saves, having to clear out the top floor that I can do every single time only to die on the actual tough part is just annoying.

 

I'm finding this to be the case as well. Too often my go-to tactic is to throw a book into a corner, wait for a guard to walk to it, and subdue him. Then pick up the exact same book (because 47 has decided to stop carrying a sack of quarters, and there are often not enough items around) and repeat until I've killed enough fellows to progress. I think a lot of why I've been resorting to this is the astoundingly bad save system, which leads me to play areas using much safer and more consistent tactics just so I don't have to replay them.

 

Something else that's been bothering me is the new disguise system, which I think discourages fully exploring levels. I was playing on Hard, but since I switched to Normal (I'm just trying to push through the back half of the game at this point) I've been having a lot more fun simply because the more interesting kills and useful items (keycards and such) are marked when using instinct. The combination of the new disguise system not allowing me to wander through areas with impunity, and the save system making me replay large chunks of levels on failing, means that fully exploring each area is incredibly frustrating, so I tend to opt for kills that require a lot less setup, which is less satisfying. It really feels to me like the "professional" difficulties are really only intended for people playing the game a second time, who have some idea of the level layouts and don't need to explore as much, which is a shame because on normal I'm finding things really incredibly easy.

 

All that said, I think the game is streamlined in a lot of smaller user experience-y ways, and for the most part from a systemic/mechanic perspective it's a very solid Hitman game, so I do really hope that they make another one and get the format of the missions a bit closer to Blood Money.

[Ben X]

the misogyny is slathered on every available surface

 

Elizabeth Edwards extrapolates not even having to mention the infamous Facebook campaign.

 

(EDIT: a very old blog post but pointed to by RPS this week, and interesting enough to necro-post imo)

[Cordeos]

The sexism was the icing on the cake of my hatred of this game. I have played every Hitman game since Codename 47 and while all the games had some sexual elements, strip club levels and the occasional prostitute, there was nothing even close to the level of what was going on in Absolution.

 

I have seen people talking about how they liked the mechanics in this game more than Blood Money, I agree, but without good levels to use them in they fell flat. 

 

I can only remember a few levels from the previous four games that didn't have an assassination as the primary objective. There were so many levels of Absolution that had you sneak down essentially a hallway. So many levels where you are totally surrounded by guards. This felt like Hitman combined with Splinter Cell Conviction. Instinct mode was a totally unnecessary addition and I only started using it when i got frustrated with the badness of the game and just shot my way through it.

 

The chinatown level is really the only one where I felt like there wasn't one designated path to completion. And they reused the level lol. Hitman levels should be large, multi path levels that give you plenty of options. Your mission objective should always involve assassination.  

 

I need to go back and play Contracts and Blood Money so I can clean Absolution out of my system.

 

/rant