Hitman: Absolution

[PVarck31]

Re: Hitman: Absolution

What the hell man? Great reviews, mediocre reviews. Has any of these mediums played a Hitman game before?

I'm not sure what happened here. This is the same development team as the previous games right? Why couldn't they make this game like those? Why do these companies keep trying to re-invent the damn wheel?

[goh]

Re: Hitman: Absolution

Yes it's the same developer as the others. Maybe that's it,people that have played the other games aren't liking it and those that haven't do like it.

[goh]

Re: Hitman: Absolution

Can pre-load the PC version. Almost 14 gigs.

[CC]

Re: Hitman: Absolution

These impressions lead me to believe that this is worth a rent then, seeing as I've never played a Hitman game before. Will redbox tomorrow.

[Splitter77]

Re: Hitman: Absolution

im still kinda pumped to try it out tomorrow.just because its been so long since the lastr game.
i'll let you guys know what i think of it.

im the type of hitman fan that like to roam around the levels, so i dont have high hopes for this game.

blood money was probably the best hitman game for myself, followed by hitman 2 silent assasin, and i didnt really like hitman 3 contracts.

[thedudedominick]

Re: Hitman: Absolution

Gamefly just shipped this game. I'll play through it at somepoint this week and get some impressions out there.

[bakan723]

Re: Hitman: Absolution

What the hell man? Great reviews, mediocre reviews. Has any of these mediums played a Hitman game before?

I'm not sure what happened here. This is the same development team as the previous games right? Why couldn't they make this game like those? Why do these companies keep trying to re-invent the damn wheel?

It's called trying to make mopre $$$ and appeal to a wider demographic (the AWESOME ACTSHUN crowd)

Where have you been ? It's been happening across all different genres for years now and known as the

[goh]

Re: Hitman: Absolution

Just to confuse everyone even more...

Scoring a 5/10 here...

In other words, you get all the hard work - the mistakes, the experiments, the restarts, the contingency plans, and the lengthy waits through interminable NPC conversations - without the gratification of the execution. This happens far, far too often.

But with AI this sharp-eyed and aggressive it's very difficult. There's nothing wrong with enemies providing a challenge, of course, but their sheer numbers make certain tactics very restrictive.

It makes utter nonsense out of the disguise system, for starters. Wear an outfit that should allow you to blend in with others – a SWAT vest, staff uniform, guard fatigues - and you'll find venturing too close to one of your pretend peers will instantly arouse suspicion. You've then got perhaps a second to escape their eyeline before they'll start tailing you, at which point the idea is to lure them to a safe place and dispose of them by lethal or non-lethal means. There's an understandable logic to that, but safe places are rare. NPCs constantly patrol the playspace, and even if they're not the type to alert others to your presence then your cover is considered 'blown', meaning everyone on the level will react to you unless you find a fresh disguise.

Occasionally you'll witness flashes of brilliance, glimpses that suggest Io could yet salvage something from this wreckage for its next Hitman game. And then you finish a stage with a tedious quick-time event, snapping the neck of a morbidly obese Danny Trejo-alike in a wrestling match watched by hundreds - astonishingly earning yourself a Silent Assassin rating in the process - and you shake your head sadly and wonder how it all went so badly wrong.

http://www.videogamer.com/reviews/hitman_absolution_review.html

6.9/10 from GT...

The best levels in the game are the wide-open ones where you have a measure of choice as to how you’ll take out your targets. These usually involve a surreptitious and exhilarating casing of the joint in order to identify where specific designer-designated “accidents” can befall your quarry. Levels with more prescribed paths are much less enjoyable. Apart from downplaying the elements of exploration and improvisation that make for Absolution’s strongest moments, they often put you on a collision course with the game’s incoherent AI.

What separates him from other videogame hatchet men is his ability to disguise himself as the enemies he offs. Most of the time--though significantly not always--dropping an enemy allows you to don their outfit. While using a disguise, you’re effectively invisible to any character not wearing the same outfit--so if you’re dressed as a cop, the grease monkeys working in the garage you’re pretending to patrol won’t pay you mind. Conversely, if you’re masquerading as a cop at a police station, you’re going to attract some heat. The scheme makes sense, except when it doesn’t. In one stage, you can easily acquire a street vendor disguise. If you don it, though, you’re instantly looked upon with suspicion by every other street vendor in the level--which happens to be set in a densely-inhabited urban environment, with multiple food stands seemingly on every block. Guess the disguise didn’t come with a union card.

It’s during moments like this that you come to a disheartening realization: rather than encourage you to find clever ways to utilize your tools in a way that jibes with the game world, success in Absolution generally comes down to gaming the rigid AI. The mechanics reinforce this idea. Getting past characters who are dressed the same as you requires that you spend “instinct,” a finite resource that you also use to scope out clues in the environment and track enemy patrol patterns. It’s replenished by doing Hitman-like things--stealth takedowns, headshots, completing mission objectives, and the like. When activating instinct to fool enemies, 47 puts his hand to his face, as if trying to avoid an undesirable acquaintance. It works as long as you instinct in your pool, but frankly, it feels like cheating.

Meanwhile, things that you’d feel ought to land you in hot water often have zero repercussions. When playing on normal difficulty, brazen take-downs done in what seems like plain view of enemies will frequently go unnoticed. Hurling an item to distract a guard, in a trajectory that has the object whizzing past their head, will result in them investigating the spot where it landed rather than its obvious source. Playing on higher settings makes things more challenging, though not any more natural. Due to accelerated enemy reaction times, merely exiting cover for a split second is often enough to bring Armageddon down upon you.

The scattershot distribution of checkpoints actively discourages experimentation in a game that simply cries out for it. Especially in the more open levels, it’s quite likely that course you choose will cause you to miss what few checkpoints exist. Failure in these cases means a tedious retread, particularly if you’ve completed any mission objectives prior to death. Getting a truly satisfying “signature” kill in Absolution inevitably involves a whole lot of waiting, and having to redo something that you feel like you aced the first time is immensely deflating.

http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/6yb19l/hitman--absolution-review

Finally a 5/5 from G4

The Pros

Elaborate environments overflow with murderous possibilities
Huge amount of content
One of the best-looking games of this generation
Contracts forces you to approach the same locales from different perspectives

The Cons

Too-limited field of view when hiding inside of containers
Contracts would be stronger with more specific kill requirement possibilities

http://www.g4tv.com/games/xbox-360/65250/hitman-absolution/review/

PC Gamer changed their score to a 6.6

http://www.pcgamer.com/review/hitman-absolution-review/3/

A note from Tom: At the time I reviewed it for the print edition of PC Gamer, the PC version of Hitman: Absolution suffered from serious performance problems. These have since been fixed, and I’ve had the chance to verify that on our own machines. Since it’s still not out, there doesn’t seem much point in dinging it for a problem you won’t have. So in this online version, I’ve amended the bit that was no longer accurate.

To give you an idea, on a 2.8 GHz quad core with a Radeon HD 4800, it now runs at about 30-40 FPS on medium settings. It used to be 15 even on minimum.

The previously awful performance contributed to it feeling like a shonky PC port to me, and I took it into account in the score. Now that it runs decently, the game feels approximately 4% less shonky, and I’ve adjusted the score accordingly. This is about as scientific as the initial scoring process.

[Kevin26385]

Re: Hitman: Absolution

Wow, I wish the reviewers prefaced if they enjoyed the Hitman series before.

Like I said previously, it seems like people who love the franchise will be disappointed.

I think I am going to get this one for Christmas. Looks solid and I think contract mode is going to be sweet.

[mrprice33]

Wow, I wish the reviewers prefaced if they enjoyed the Hitman series before.

Like I said previously, it seems like people who love the franchise will be disappointed.

I think I am going to get this one for Christmas. Looks solid and I think contract mode is going to be sweet.

Arthur of Polygon is a huge Hitman fan and gave it a pretty good score.

[bakan723]

Re: Hitman: Absolution

Video game journalism is a joke.

If you're gonna look at reviews at all from sites, look at ones that specialize in that particular genre.


And if you're gonna look at users opinions, look to ones that have similar tastes in games that you do.

[mrprice33]

Video game journalism is a joke.

If you're gonna look at reviews at all from sites, look at ones that specialize in that particular genre.


And if you're gonna look at users opinions, look to ones that have similar tastes in games that you do.

Why, because people disagree with each other?

[Armor and Sword]

Re: Hitman: Absolution

im still kinda pumped to try it out tomorrow.just because its been so long since the lastr game.
i'll let you guys know what i think of it.

im the type of hitman fan that like to roam around the levels, so i dont have high hopes for this game.

blood money was probably the best hitman game for myself, followed by hitman 2 silent assasin, and i didnt really like hitman 3 contracts.

Same here. Loved Blood Money and I really enjoyed Silent Assasin (in fact I popped it in yesterday on my XBOX and played a few missions).

I will be picking up Absolution tomorrow.

[LionsFanNJ]

I don't know I mean I liked all the hitmans equally (favorite level being the hotel and you have to make three hits) but they keep repeating stuff that doesn't make it sound like Hitman anymore. I just don't know if I sh ould get it

[bakan723]

Re: Hitman: Absolution

Why, because people disagree with each other?

See if you can figure it out from these pics...





http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=S2keHyS_Ooo#!

Video game journalism is the WWF of journalism.