After almost a decade, Mr. 47 is back again to silently kill his targets in this new game Hitman: Absolution. The story started after the events of Blood Money where his contractor, Diana Burnwood, betrayed the Agency and now is in hiding. And the new top brass in the Agency hired 47 to kill his former contractor and retrieve the Agency's greatest creation that Diana took with her during her escape.
Now enough spoilers. This game is a break from all of the high-octane, adrenaline fueled, explosive action games. Because Hitman: Absolution is the opposite of that.
Gameplay
Hitman: Absolution plays like the old Hitman games. It's slow and yet, rewarding, because this is a stealth game where you must stay hidden and patiently wait while calculating your plan to dispatch your assigned target. And the cool part is that it depends on you on how and where to kill your target. If you don't want to get spotted by guards or any potential witness, you must get a disguise to blend in. But the problem in the disguise mechanic is that if you wear the same type of clothes that the others wear, those others will notice you and get suspicious quick if you're not careful. This is where the Instinct feature comes in. Use Instinct to blend in while wearing your disguise, be careful though the Instinct meter depletes when you use it (and this feature is completely useless in Purist difficulty). If you get spotted, gunfight starts, Hitman: Absolution now have a cover mechanic like the modern third person shooters. You can also use Instinct then go to in Point Shooting mode to slow time, mark your target's weak spots (their heads) then execute. Oh and the AI's are bullet wasters, they don't stop shooting at you and doesn't know how to flank or flush you out using a grenade while you're on cover.
This is a linear game compared to older Hitman games (because of the story), still, every section is somewhat non-linear, It's wide, buildings have lots of entry points and full of items that you can use to distract/kill people, yes you use the items in the game world now because the game doesn't have a briefing section where you select some items/weapons that you want to use to complete your mission.
Skills, weapons and disguises can be unlocked after completing a chapter in the story and can only be used in Contracts mode. Contracts mode is where you can find other player's custom made contracts to kill their marked targets. If you want to create a contract you must select a map, mark your targets and execute them, create while you play to be specific. Then save the contract and let the people online to try out your contract and compare scores.
Graphics/Audio
This game is beautiful. The Glacier 2 engine provides very detailed character models, lighting and environments and can handle lots of NPC's as in noisy crowds without slowing down, making the game look real. And when you're around these NPCs you can hear their random speaches for example you can hear the girl talking on her cellphone while some guys nearby are talking to each other about stuff. Every audio quality from environment, crowd, guns, vehicles, ambient noise and music are top notch. Voice acting is great too and the script very well written making almost all of the characters likable and memorable.
Lasting Appeal
The game clocks at 16 to 18 hours on a first blind playthrough. I finished my first playthrough around 17 hours, Repeating playthroughs is encouraged if you want to do something different in the story mode. And there's Contracts mode to spend more gaming time.
Conclussion
I highly recommend this game to the fans of the series, to people who are new to the series and those who like Stealth and action games... and perfectionists like Mr. 47. By the way this is my first Hitman game.
This game is available for PC, PS3 and XBOX 360
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