Back in November 2012, the eagerly anticipated Hitman series was jump started by Square Enix to compensate for it's lack of mojo over the years—giving credence that Agent 47 may have contracted cancer and had to get a dose of Chemotherapy. That said, it wasn't entirely a good idea as the new team that developed it took too much creative license to make a turgid and long winded game which tested the nerve of players.
Now the game isn't that bad. It's just that it isn't that good. First, let's pick out the good points. The Glacier 2 graphics engine is pretty cool. Gives you that film like 24 frame look and it is buttery smooth. The playing environments are beautiful, and there are lots of things to admire besides the scenery. Much more has been given to flesh out the characters, along with a in-depth story line, making this third person shooter feel almost like a RPG game.
Therein lies the problem. Hitman is a shooter and by turning it on its toes, the developers lost it.
WTF Gameplay
There is nothing really new about the game. Pick out weapons, kill the targets and hopefully stay saintly as Karma will come back to haunt you....but it doesn't.
The new "instinct" capability is similar to that of the "sonar" or "tracking" ability of other well known games and thanks to its slow pace of play the problem is further compounded with long cutscenes in between levels. These developers were thinking of making it more like a movie, but the dialogue isn't one bit interesting to listen to. There are no witty clips or characters to begin with and even though the story is strong, the effort to create character depth just fails. Game designers got carried away with making a holier Hitman with a heart of Gold.
The biggest issue I have so far is the AI engagement. It is plain stupid. The AI will for instance catch you unaware or ignores you totally even if you are fully armed and standing within 20 feet of Agent 47. Myopic characters? You bet.
Then there is the sneaking around. Apparently, you are encouraged NOT to face up to danger and be a Gandhi like Hitman, scoring only points for people you are suppose to kill. If you get blasted by a bodyguard with a gun, you are suppose to sneak away and hide like a mouse. Killing him will earn you negative points.
Then there are times when you just want to go in and take them out. But the game resets your ammo stash to the number of digits on your hands and even prevents you from choosing guns which you have picked up on a previous level. WTF? All a sudden, the game is to be played on rails judging from the melee option. You have to follow a fixed set of buttons to melee instead of a one swipe whack. This slows the gameplay down with slo-mo sequences which could be best used in a documentary about life on Mars.
The next WTF moment is that you have no control over the arms you have in your stash. You are only allowed to pick up pistols for pistols and can't swap a pistol for a machine gun. What is the point of picking up small funny pistol when the gameplay could be enjoyed with a sub-machine gun?
The lack of signature weapons is also another problem. Agent 47's Silver Ball silenced shooter is only available to you at a gun shop. I got so frustrated playing Gandhi (nice guy) to get it that I blew my top and KILLED everyone there just to progress to the next level—earning myself enough negative points that would be the hallmark of my world score.
On other levels, when the Cops are alerted, they seem to be able to shoot through crowds of people and hitting you while you can't hit them unless you kill the bystanders. Since when do cops fire with bystanders as human shields? And to make matters worst, there are numerous levels where you end up killing more cops than bad guys once your cover is blown. WTF? Are they thinking along the lines of GTA now??
Throughout the game, you are given loads of places to hide in like Garbage Bins, trunks and closets. God sakes, this is not Agent 47's guide to Hide & Seek you're creating. But somehow the developers got carried away and added useless and inane stuff. And what about picking up objects, which at best could be flung at people. What good is that beyond trying to mislead the AI of your true intentions?
Conclusion
The real weakness of the game is that too much has been added to the story without paying sufficient notice to the gameplay. Even though it is a massive game spanning hours if you had the time to sit through it all and play the Contracts level, you don't get a new high with every accomplishment, like for example the ability to unlock some cool new weapons instead of picking up the standard fare—pistols made for pigeon shooting. The lack of firepower is what hampers this game and that's not what you want in a shooter like the Hitman.
There is also no real difference between stalking and staying stealth versus taking out the entire troupe before they discover your unholy intentions. The game is actually much easier to play if you did the latter. If you loved snucking around, dangling from rooftops and hiding dead corpses, you're better off with a copy of Splinter Cell than Hitman.
People play shooters because they want to have a fun time doing stuff that they can't do in real life but the game gets off on the wrong foot by allowing so many levels to be played via killing Cops. Then you have the storyline that is suppose to make him take an almost apologetic stand on a teenage girl.
Hitman in all essence is a cold hearted killer. There is no two ways around it. If you made him anymore human, he won't be known simply as Agent 47. Gautama 47 perhaps?
Hitman Absolution
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