Whenever a game is given the title of black sheep by its fan base it is usually with a negative connotation, Hitman: Absolution being no exception. While personally I think the term doesn’t deserve or inherently equate to that notion, I struggle to make an argument for it in the case of this game. As my previous reviews of the four Hitman games up until this point have documented, the series has had such a strong uphill momentum with its advancement and expiration of its ideas and mechanics, culminating with Blood Money being an absolute masterclass in that field of design. But with this peak in design came the immortal dilemma of every long running series; do the developers stick with their guns and what they know, risking being labeled as monotonous and safe? Or do they stake out in a new, bold direction, potentially alienating fans by delivering a product that is different from what those fans have come to expect? I don’t believe there is a definitive answer to this, because there is hard evidence to the pros and cons to both paths. In the case of Absolution, however, it is very clear that Io Interactive went with the latter, and in the process, have become the textbook example of the subsequent negative outcome. That being said, there are some new additions that I feel would be great features in a game that more resembled the older games, rather than this more linear direction.
As mentioned, Io’s answer to their dilemma was to try something new, something more palatable. In interviews leading up to the games release, and in interviews since, they made it clear that their intention was to move away from the old Hitman formula that they felt was to abstract and could leave players confused, and instead implemented a design philosophy that more resembled popular games from that time like Gears of War or Call of Duty, that being linear experience that focused heavily on cinematics and set pieces. As well, while I can’t confirm this, I would assume the remaining developers who did work on Blood Money prior probably had some feeling like they had done all they could with the old style, contributing to the desire to move forward with the new. The result is a game that feels like it is eating itself from the inside out. Every design choice directly contradicts another and either makes it irrelevant, or breaks the gameplay flow in some way. One of the games newest features that it relies on heavily is the instinct system, this system is a consumable resource that the player can activate by pressing the bumper on the controller. The instinct ability lets the player utilize the disguises in each of the missions; this time around, if the player is wearing a disguise that other NPCs are wearing they will immediately become suspicious, the player must then use instinct to be able to walk past them without triggering alarms. This new change completely destroys any interest the player has in the disguise mechanic. The disguises in the older games worked because the player would put them on and then become near invisible to all NPCs, so long as they weren’t actually doing anything obviously suspicious; here though, the player must use instinct or else the disguise will flat out not work. On top of that, the only way to gain back instinct once it is used is to either complete objectives or challenges, or by just killing people. Challenges far to cryptic to be able to be done on a first playthrough, objectives complete themselves most of the time but are too far between each other, and killing random people goes entirely against the core idea behind this series; this leaves the entire instinct mechanic as a unnecessary hindrance on the overall experience, and the disguise practically forgotten about because the player quickly realizes they are more trouble than they are worth. The levels that suffer the most from this are definitely the three or so that take place in the Dead Factory. These missions are sprawling with guards, and almost nothing but guards, meaning the player just has to pray to god that they have enough instinct to get past all the security checkpoints. As well, the game's whole level structure is entirely upside down and makes zero sense half the time.
The best way I can describe this Aboslution’s levels is that they resemble shitty Splinter Cell levels. Again, they are extremely linear and are split up into checkpointed sections, which is not bad by any means, many games use this structure very well, Splinter Cell being one of them. The problem is that this is not a format the Hitman formula can fit in. Hitman thrives off having its levels be independent ecosystems that function without any player input, that way the player can study and exploit their patterns. Absolution has maybe one or two levels that I can think of that even somewhat resemble this idea, that being the opening sections of both Shaving Lenny and Skurky’s Law, outside of these two small parts the game is entirely reactive to the player. The example of this that pissed me off the most was that some enemies just straight up didn’t have patrol patterns and were completely static, only moving if the player did something to move them. While this was sometimes present in the older games, there was always a way to get around them by interacting with the level in some way, or they were at least isolated enough that the player could distract them with a coin or silenced gunshot to draw them away. In Absolution that is just not an option, these guards are often in highly populated areas and are directly in front of some important thing like a checkpoint exit or mission vital interable thing, meaning there is no clever way of getting around them without using instinct, which the player will probably not have much of because of how fast it drains. Additionally, there are plethora of new combat mechanics and skills 47 can do, such as a mark and execute mechanic straight out of Splinter Cell or Max Payne 3, but combat is still practically a death sentence, just like in the old games, once again highly discouraging the use of the new mechanics. Not to mention that the before mentioned mark and execute bullet time thing eats up a lot of instinct, further discouraging the use of it. These are only two examples of the many ways this game shoots itself in the foot, but despite that are a few things I enjoyed about, and that I think could be great implementations in future entries.
Firstly, the Glacier 2 engine looks fantastic, while I am not a fan of the weird grainy filter they put over the game, when it’s not noticeable, the game looks great. The guns also actually feel good to use for once, to the point that I almost wish the game took a more Max Payne direction with its design, leaning more into action rather than stealth. While the story wasn’t great and was full of so many plot holes and questionable decisions, the performances from the cast and the overall presentation was very enjoyable. The game's villain, Dexter, was a particular delight every time he was on screen, despite being dumb as all hell. Finally, the ability to lean against walls and ledges was a fantastic choice and really made stealth feel a lot smoother and slightly more cinematic somehow. I hope this feature returns in 2016. With that, Absolution ends the original Hitman run with a whimper, it is a game I can only really recommend out of pure morbid curiosity; I can’t even recommend the online mode as the servers were shut down years ago. It is a game only worth playing for the sheer fact that you can say you did.
As mentioned, Io’s answer to their dilemma was to try something new, something more palatable. In interviews leading up to the games release, and in interviews since, they made it clear that their intention was to move away from the old Hitman formula that they felt was to abstract and could leave players confused, and instead implemented a design philosophy that more resembled popular games from that time like Gears of War or Call of Duty, that being linear experience that focused heavily on cinematics and set pieces. As well, while I can’t confirm this, I would assume the remaining developers who did work on Blood Money prior probably had some feeling like they had done all they could with the old style, contributing to the desire to move forward with the new. The result is a game that feels like it is eating itself from the inside out. Every design choice directly contradicts another and either makes it irrelevant, or breaks the gameplay flow in some way. One of the games newest features that it relies on heavily is the instinct system, this system is a consumable resource that the player can activate by pressing the bumper on the controller. The instinct ability lets the player utilize the disguises in each of the missions; this time around, if the player is wearing a disguise that other NPCs are wearing they will immediately become suspicious, the player must then use instinct to be able to walk past them without triggering alarms. This new change completely destroys any interest the player has in the disguise mechanic. The disguises in the older games worked because the player would put them on and then become near invisible to all NPCs, so long as they weren’t actually doing anything obviously suspicious; here though, the player must use instinct or else the disguise will flat out not work. On top of that, the only way to gain back instinct once it is used is to either complete objectives or challenges, or by just killing people. Challenges far to cryptic to be able to be done on a first playthrough, objectives complete themselves most of the time but are too far between each other, and killing random people goes entirely against the core idea behind this series; this leaves the entire instinct mechanic as a unnecessary hindrance on the overall experience, and the disguise practically forgotten about because the player quickly realizes they are more trouble than they are worth. The levels that suffer the most from this are definitely the three or so that take place in the Dead Factory. These missions are sprawling with guards, and almost nothing but guards, meaning the player just has to pray to god that they have enough instinct to get past all the security checkpoints. As well, the game's whole level structure is entirely upside down and makes zero sense half the time.
The best way I can describe this Aboslution’s levels is that they resemble shitty Splinter Cell levels. Again, they are extremely linear and are split up into checkpointed sections, which is not bad by any means, many games use this structure very well, Splinter Cell being one of them. The problem is that this is not a format the Hitman formula can fit in. Hitman thrives off having its levels be independent ecosystems that function without any player input, that way the player can study and exploit their patterns. Absolution has maybe one or two levels that I can think of that even somewhat resemble this idea, that being the opening sections of both Shaving Lenny and Skurky’s Law, outside of these two small parts the game is entirely reactive to the player. The example of this that pissed me off the most was that some enemies just straight up didn’t have patrol patterns and were completely static, only moving if the player did something to move them. While this was sometimes present in the older games, there was always a way to get around them by interacting with the level in some way, or they were at least isolated enough that the player could distract them with a coin or silenced gunshot to draw them away. In Absolution that is just not an option, these guards are often in highly populated areas and are directly in front of some important thing like a checkpoint exit or mission vital interable thing, meaning there is no clever way of getting around them without using instinct, which the player will probably not have much of because of how fast it drains. Additionally, there are plethora of new combat mechanics and skills 47 can do, such as a mark and execute mechanic straight out of Splinter Cell or Max Payne 3, but combat is still practically a death sentence, just like in the old games, once again highly discouraging the use of the new mechanics. Not to mention that the before mentioned mark and execute bullet time thing eats up a lot of instinct, further discouraging the use of it. These are only two examples of the many ways this game shoots itself in the foot, but despite that are a few things I enjoyed about, and that I think could be great implementations in future entries.
Firstly, the Glacier 2 engine looks fantastic, while I am not a fan of the weird grainy filter they put over the game, when it’s not noticeable, the game looks great. The guns also actually feel good to use for once, to the point that I almost wish the game took a more Max Payne direction with its design, leaning more into action rather than stealth. While the story wasn’t great and was full of so many plot holes and questionable decisions, the performances from the cast and the overall presentation was very enjoyable. The game's villain, Dexter, was a particular delight every time he was on screen, despite being dumb as all hell. Finally, the ability to lean against walls and ledges was a fantastic choice and really made stealth feel a lot smoother and slightly more cinematic somehow. I hope this feature returns in 2016. With that, Absolution ends the original Hitman run with a whimper, it is a game I can only really recommend out of pure morbid curiosity; I can’t even recommend the online mode as the servers were shut down years ago. It is a game only worth playing for the sheer fact that you can say you did.