Just once, Agent 47 wanted someone to laugh. Just once. It wasn't much to ask.
Hitman isn't so much a series about murdering for money, as it is about the joy of professionalism. As Agent 47 -- a bald, bar-coded clone -- it's possible to walk into many situations with guns blazing and escape by the skin of your teeth. That's amateur hour. The satisfaction I take from it is in stepping into a living world and figuring out how to use it to your advantage. A little rat poison in a cup of coffee. A loud, gunshot obscuring firework. A quick tap on a car to sound the alarm that draws nearby police to investigate, and enabling my quiet getaway. With disguises, stealth and ingenuity, I do my job and nobody even knows I was there.
Hitman and Hmmm...
The preview version of Absolution I'm playing still offers this, but its approach to it is very different. The scale, for instance, is much smaller. Previously, you were simply dropped into a world that could be anything from Mardi Gras to a wedding and simply left to get on with business. By Blood Money, levels were effectively designed as one-act plays with as much adventure game in their DNA as third-person shooter. Now, that's gone. Levels are carved into discrete chunks -- the ground floor of a building for instance, and the office above it, treated as two micro-stages. You do one. If nobody's chasing you, you move on, with no backtracking afterwards.
I sure hope that cougar is a fake.
This has definite advantages. It's easier to focus on specific objectives and find alternate solutions, allows for natural checkpoints (though there are extra in-game ones too on most difficulty settings) and stops an AI frenzy screwing up the whole level. The more restricted environments also mean much more glitz and environmental detail, though almost all of it purely there to walk past rather than use. This is a very pretty game indeed, even if the levels I'm able to play in this version are mostly set in places like grimy street markets and strip clubs. Crowd scenes especially are excellent, with Absolution wheeling out armies of NPC extras to fill space. A scene set on Chinese New Year is especially impressive.
A Shot in the Dark
The catch though is that while anyone coming to these stages from something like Max Payne 3 or Kane and Lynch will find Absolution's freedom a breath of fresh air, it's a big step back from Blood Money. It's tough to go from whole worlds to isolated areas, even if they do still play in the same freeform style and offer enough rooms, characters, and ways to go about murder to make exploration and experimentation worth doing.
Bad guys sure like leaving their weapons lying around.
At least, most do. Unfortunately, some levels just skip that completely, swapping the freedom for a pure stealth bit or chase. They seem pointless -- there's no shortage of games that let you flee a burning building, but essentially nothing else has ever tried to beat Hitman at its own game. Adding more of a plot is fine, even more cinematic missions, but so far I can't say it's a good trade-off. When it kicks in, too much control is lost.
47 does at least one spectacularly stupid thing during the first act that no Hitman player would even dream of.
Worse, it's lost in the name of a story that, so far, feels like it was
written by a 14-year-old whose mommy will be very disappointed by all
the naughty words. 47 does at least one spectacularly stupid thing
during the first act that no Hitman player would even dream of, and the
big set pieces in the preview code are often seriously dumb. The first
mission is especially awkward, with 47 hunting his former handler Diana
and opting to shoot her in the shower for maximum fan-service points.
Much naked exposition follows, somehow avoiding her last words being
"Thanks. I'd really hate to have died with dignity."A Knife to the Back
If it's not obvious, I'm a bit down on Absolution. I didn't want to be. I really wanted it to be the instant, natural successor to Blood Money, and so far I don't see that happening. It is, however, still definitely a Hitman game rather than some pretender wearing the name, even if it makes a number of changes that are more simplification than refinement.
"Didn't the janitor have hair a minute ago?"
That's not necessarily a big deal though, or even a bad thing given how glitchy and unforgiving the original games can be. It's now much easier to read the environment for instance, and know at once when a disguise will fail. The new system is that like knows like -- if you're dressed as a guard, other guards will make you if you get close, while chefs will be oblivious. A chef with a gun, however, will draw everyone's attention. It's an easy system to track, with far fewer grey areas to trip up on.
Being
told you can use poison detracts from the entertainment of finding out,
and I'd rather it was just a blank box until you found it out for
yourself.
Absolution also offers a wide range of five difficulty levels that
affect more than just how tough the enemies are. Those five levels can
be broken down into two categories of game: one for newer players who
want assistance, and one for older ones who want to play a bit more
realistically. Both give Agent 47 psychic senses, which is a little
silly, but you can only really abuse them on the easier modes where
everything is switched on and your Instinct bar regenerates.Other changes, like the Notebook offering specific suggestions of how to kill targets, also have ups and downs. Being told you can use poison detracts from the entertainment of finding out, and I'd rather it was just a blank box until you found it out for yourself. The descriptions are pointers rather than instructions though, and it's up to you to figure out how to turn a general hint like "Private Dance -- it's how he would have wanted to go" into a battle plan. Or, you can ignore them and just do your own thing. So far at least, Absolution only cares that you complete your missions, not how.
Contract Killers
One new feature I'm very much looking forward to though, with no real reservation, is the new Contracts mode. Using the basic levels, any player can build custom assignments (unlocking game elements with in-game credits) and challenge the world to complete them. 47 can start with any disguise and weapon, with his trusty suit and Silver Baller as the default loadout. Successfully completing one to spec earns in-game cash.
"Someone stole a cushon from this couch. Find them!"
To begin, you go into an unlocked map like normal, and mark up to three targets for assassination -- the ones whose kills Absolution will remember. Instead of then saying "kill that guy with a knife," though, you play it out yourself and your method becomes the requirement. If you use a disguise, disguises are allowed. If you hide the body after the hit, anyone who plays the contracts will need to as well, at least for full completion points. Most importantly though, you need to get to an exit. Contracts are only valid if you complete them yourself. It's an interesting system for player-generated content, even if it would be nice to be able to quickly change a few minor details afterwards.
Before the Saints Go Marching In
So, back to that original question: different better, or different worse? First, it's worth noting the levels in this preview are from the start of the campaign, so there's plenty of potential for later levels to get bigger and more ambitious. Overall though, it feels that what Absolution is shooting for and what I as a Hitman fan want are very different, and that straight comparisons to the last game won't ultimately end up in its favor.
Not the best hiding place in the world, but it'll do.
Taken on its own terms though, there is a fair amount to be optimistic about. Absolution's straight stealth and chase bits seem a waste of everyone's time, but the core assassinations and settings have promise. Against the odds, I am actually looking forward to playing more at release on November 20th... even if I can't promise it won't be through slightly gritted teeth, wishing it was the sequel I was hoping to see after the Blood Money's credits finally rolled.
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