Each location has an outfit that makes it easier to get around and explore but, in front of similarly dressed people, you’re more likely to stand out as suspicious. The opportunity to use outfits from other NPCs to hide in plain sight comes early and often, but actually presents one of the most interesting aspects of the experience. Coyote when the Road Runner quietly sidesteps a carefully orchestrated plan.Ībsolution offers players a refreshing amount of freedom and choice, but social camouflage also plays a significant role in IO Interactive’s stealth game as well. In the few instances where my plan backfired, I felt as silly as Wile E. If a carefully executed plan led to the target’s demise, I felt compelled to replay the mission at the end and search for alternative solutions.
Ultimately, the process of discovering and utilizing the best approach leads to some unique experiences. IO Interactive teaches a very important lesson early on in Absolution: For all intents and purposes, a wise hitman should carefully examine his options and slowly uncover the best method to make each murder look like an accident. Regardless of what you decide, improvisation becomes a core element of Absolution and always needs to be taken into consideration. Of course, you could bypass all the exploration, locate the target, and take the obvious trigger-happy approach, but doing so comes with its own set of consequences - in this case, a dangerous shootout against the local police and SWAT.
In the end, you decide how to best handle the murder, but Absolution tends to reward the one that looks least incriminating and injures the fewest bystanders - i.e., poison, construction accidents, or some other natural-looking phenomenon. Carefully searching through the environment reveals a variety of different approaches to take out the target, from poisoning his meals to blowing him up along with his exotic sports car. Undoubtedly you’ve heard of the Chinatown level, as Square Enix has used it as their go-to for public demos at events like E3 2012, and for good reason: It’s possibly the single best example of Absolution’s freedom and the surprising number of ways protagonist Agent 47 can MacGuyer his way though any scenario. Using a careful mix of environmental distractions, social camouflage, and intuition to maneuver around enemies, players can carefully creep through Hitman’s heavily guarded areas without a lot of the guesswork that typically comes up in stealth games.
Unfortunately, as much as Absolution nails this core concept, the story and characters present the silliest and most unlikeable cast of folks you’ve every pointed a gun at.Ībsolution’s stealth mechanics may seem difficult to wrap your brain around at first, but developer IO Interactive gets things rolling quickly and confidently tosses the player into a fairly open second mission, titled “King of Chinatown,” with nothing more than a pair of silenced pistols and intuition - a feature that slows down events in the world and highlights enemies though objects to show their intended patrol routes. In line with prior games in the Hitman series, Absolution tailors its stealth experience around fun, flexible game mechanics that empower players to experiment with different approaches - offering dozens of options and opportunities in order to complete a given task.
Naturally, the thrill in stealth games comes from staying hidden - much like playing hide-and-go-seek many, many years ago - and from the art of carefully bypassing a series of obstacles in order to reach a heavily guarded destination. A cast of crass, exaggerated characters can’t hold back Hitman’s best ideas.Īs someone who adores stealth action games, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised how quickly I’ve warmed up to Hitman Absolution.