For some reason I didn’t really keep track of Hitman: Absolution that much. I saw it a couple of times at preview events, and it seemed like it could be a great game both times, but it never really sunk its hooks into me. However, enough of you cared about the game to vote for it for this week’s WeView, so here we go.
Released at the tail end of last year, Absolution once again follows the adventures of Agent 47 and his attempts to keep a little girl safe by killing a lot of people. Some of the new mechanics, such as the game’s Instinct system, are quite interesting, and feel like they make the game more accessible for novice players, such as myself.
Unfortunately we never got around to reviewing the game, so it’s one of those weeks where we’ll have to reach out to the rest of the gaming media. Metacritic rates the game reasonably highly, with a 79 on PC and Xbox 360, and an 83 on PS3.
Console Monster were amongst those rating the game highly, praising the game’s leaderboards and contract mode for giving you a reason to play through the title multiple times. They also highlighted the game’s voice acting for the way that it helped you to connect with the game’s great characters, picking out David Bateson’s performance as Agent 47 as being particularly good.
OPM joined in with that praise, calling the game “A dark and witty tale of murder and retribution that can be whatever you want,” although felt that the gameplay was perhaps a little bit familiar. However, despite that they still found the gameplay enjoyable, praising the variety of options and flexibility the game gives you when it comes to taking out a target.
At the other end of the scale was VideoGamer, who were less impressed by the game. One of their core complaints was the frequency with which control was taken away from you during an assassination, often leading to you failing to take out your target.
They actually went as far as saying “it’s not really a Hitman game,” and found that it was more like Splinter Cell Conviction. Although I haven’t played through the full version of the game, this is a vibe that came across when I previewed the game. However, I always felt like it had a strong Hitman feeling to it, that it never really lost its core essence. VideoGamer also felt that the game’s story “would be offensive if it wasn’t so preposterous,” which is pretty damning.
Now, though, we come to the most important question; what do you think? Did you take VideoGamer’s stance that the game had lost its way, or were you more in line with Console Monster and OPM? Of course it’s perfectly possible that you disagreed with all three, an equally valid opinion. It doesn’t matter what you felt about the game though, we simply want to hear your thoughts.
All you need to do to share your view is to drop a comment below and a verdict from the Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It, Avoid It scale. As always, if you want to see your verdict in Monday’s Verdict then you’ll need to get your comment in by Sunday afternoon.
BULLofDOOM
Great game! Buy it!
Platinum on this and enjoyed every second getting there! Same 47 but better underlying story and some fun challenges.
Perhaps a little to linear with AI paths etc but that is something next gen hardware could sort….I mean how many times does a guy need to pee? Many targets are serious chain smokers too. Which ultimately made the game a little easy even on professional.
sabbat7001
I was pretty much obsessed with Hitman:Blood Money on the PS2 and probably sank over 150 hours into it by playing each mission over and over and over just to see how many ways I could approach a hit. To say I was excited for Absolution is an understatement so when I bought it I was dismayed to find that while I enjoyed the game, once I’d finished the story I just didn’t have the drive to keep going back like I did with Blood Money.
It went on my shelf and sat there for 2 months and for whatever reason I put it back in for something to do one day and found myself totally hooked again. The drive to keep going back again and again just suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks and kept me going for the platinum. Even once I got it the contracts mode gives you countless more options outside the main story to go at hits in whatever way you see fit so I still play it regularly even post-platinum which doesn’t happen often for me. This and Skyrim I think are the only ones that kep me coming back.
I have no idea why it didn’t draw me in at first but I’m so glad I went back to it. Buy It.
element666
Buy it from me. I’ve not long finished it,and it’s definitely worth going back through levels and trying out different ways of getting rid of your targets.
gazzagb
Awesome game, lots of fun and lot’s of replayability = BUY IT. The best part is you can play it however you want, you don’t have to be stealthy and only kill the main targets, you can go guns blazing with your silverballers and still complete the mission, albeit you won’t get a very high score. I love playing it stealthy, the amount of times I’ve restarted a checkpoint though is ridiculous, just to get the highest score against my Steam friends! It also looks superb on PC.
Lyts1985
Thoroughly enjoyed this game and is one of my few platinums that didn’t feel like a chore or grind towards the end, and that I even played beyond the platinum. BUY IT. Definitely.
cam_manutd
What is exactly Squeenix putting in the water? Sleeping Dogs, Deus Ex, Tomb Raider and now Hitman. I’m new to the series but I have sampled earlier titles briefly so I am aware of the complaints surrounding the game.
The narrative and story are surplus really..it does the job but nothing on MGS, AC etc. However the game encourages exploration of options as to how to assassinate targets. There is no right or wrong way although playing the game as a generic third person shooter isn’t all that recommended (or fun). One of the amusing options was poisoning a fish that the target was about to eat.
Graphically the game is lush in its detail. Character models are on the bland side slightly but its a good looking game. The game controls like a standard third person shooter yet the game does not reward gung-ho tactics.
There is also the asynchronous online contracts mode which is ingenious. Creating your own stylized hits is great fun.
I can sympathise with those criticising the game as much freedom has been stripped. However the ambition and scale of Absolution is solid. I really really like the game-great price, fun and also presents a challenge. Buy it now (£15 on Amazon xD).
Airiaen
Eidos <3
Matt2013
This was the most disappointing game in gaming history (And i’ve been gaming since 1984) Go to Metacritic and read the FANS reviews of the game, it got terrible reviews all round. IO Interactive CLEARLY paid much of the mainstream gaming media for high reviews. All the less well known gaming media gave it a low score like all the fans did. It simply wasn’t a Hitman game, it was Splintercell Conviction with Agent 47 in it. Previous Hitmans were big open sandbox levels for the player to do as they wish and work it out for themselves, it was gameplay over story, Absolution was story over gameplay, and they got rid of the big open sandbox levels. Ok Absolution had 2 open sanbox levels, ‘King of China Town’ twice and ‘New Hope’ (Notice how newbies to the franchise said those 2 levels were their favourite?) well these 2 levels were the only 2 levels that even barely resembled a Hitman game, then those 2 levels were much smaller and watered down compared to previous Hitmans. It was so bad on DAY OF LAUNCH ebay was full of second hand copies, plus 11 days after launch it was under half price in the bargain bin. It was also a very broken game. You could disguise yourself as a bad guy wearing a full face mask, yet they would still discover you! Then you could turn to read a leaflet (no mask on) and this made you totally invisible to the enemy. The whole thing was just broken, not to mention the bugs that caused many Xbox 360’s and Playstation 3’s to crash (and IO Interactive had no idea what caused it or how to fix it) seriously, Google all the problems and check the Hitman Absolution Wikipedia page. My brand new version won’t even install to my 360’s harddrive.
sabbat7001
“Go to Metacritic and read the FANS reviews of the game, it got terrible reviews all round.”
Out of surprised curiosity I did just that and as of this moment it’s got 7.4 out of 10 based on 291 fan reviews on the PS3 and 7.0 out of 10 based on 282 fan reviews. If this is what constitutes your idea of a terrible review all round then you seem to have standards above and beyond reasonable expectation.
Now I’m not here to tell you that your opnion doesn’t count. Your feelings about the game are yours to have and your free to have them but if your going to throw around statements that are clearly not true I’d respectfully as you to keep them to yourself.
Matt2013
sabbat7001, you need to wise up a bit. Many reviews on this very article are people working for IO Interactive. Games companies pay people to give their games good reviews, IO clearly paid all the mainstream gaming media to give Absolution great reviews. How else can you explain 99% of the the major gaming media rating the game so high, then the lesser known gaming media rated it low. One major reviewer righted the game off totally and said the whole game was a major disaster, fans were all over it shocked that Absolution was a train wreck of a game….the next day the review mysteriously changed and had a higher rating (Many people picked up on this) Without a shadow of a doubt IO Interactive paid for good reviews. Just last week the ‘user’ score on Metacritic stood at 5.8 out of 10. Also if you look at Absolution videos on Youtube, the vast majority of comments really righting the game off saying it’s terrible and that they wished it was more like Blood Money. Also on day of release IO Interactive tweeted “So Absolution is out, what do you all think?” many fans reacted badly saying the game was basically terrible and were shocked how bad it was and that it wasn’t a Hitman game, IO Interactive blocked all the people who said they didn’t like it (me included) all i tweeted was “What on earth have you done to Hitman, Absolution is a big disappointed” and they blocked me and many others who said they did’t like it. Many fans were very anxious about Absolution before it’s release, anxious it would be linear and more story driven (so was the gaming media) IO Interactive lied through their teeth to make sure Hitman fans bought the game. “Don’t worry guys it’s a TRUE Hitman game, you have nothing to worry about, trust us” It clearly wasn’t a Hitman game, it was 20% Hitman 80% Splintercell Conviction. How can a game so drastically different to it’s roots, with a broken disguise system, console crashing bugs, broken game saves etc etc etc get high reviews!!!! Not possible unless you pay for them. IO Interactive fooled fans once, they won’t be able to do it twice. When they announce the next Hitman game in the series, if fans get even the slightest whiff that it will be like Absolution, they won’t buy it.
Alex C
Hi.
Whilst open discussion is encouraged without evidence of these payoffs I’d maybe not make such bold claims.
Thanks.
Matt2013
There is 100% evidence that the gaming industry pays for good reviews.
Right here: http://kotaku.com/5893785/yes-a-games-writer-was-fired-over-review-scores
“Back in 2007, GameSpot writer Jeff Gerstmann left the site under suspicious circumstances. It was heavily rumoured at the time that his departure was the result of pressure from a games publisher over a negative review of Kane & Lynch.” (Funny IO Interactive were involved huh)
The Jeff Gestmann clears everything up for the record….
“To make things clear, Gerstmann emphasises that the blame for the whole mess did not lie with GameSpot’s editorial management (as he was fired by more senior people up the ownership chain), nor with Kane & Lynch developers IO Interactive. It’s also important to note that the management responsible for his firing are now no longer involved with GameSpot.
Interestingly, he mentions some other less-than-savoury episodes going on at the time, such as pressure from Sony and threats of pulling ad money over a less-than-perfect review for Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. This took place before the Kane & Lynch review, and thus (along with a change to the site’s review system, which brought the average of scores down) contributed to the conflict between ownership and editorial over review scores, meaning Eidos’ game shouldn’t be blamed as the sole offender.”
Also comments under the article from people who work in the gaming industry further prove how corrupt the industry is.
Matt2013
IO Interactive themselves saying they don’t like the mainstream gaming media giving them low review scores as it hurts business.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/09/11/io-on-kane-lynch-scandal-scores/