Hitman: Absolution

Hitman: Absolution
Developer(s)	IO Interactive Nixxes Software (PC)
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Director(s)	Tore Blystad
Artist(s)	Visual Works (CGI)
Series	Hitman
Engine	Glacier 2
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Cloud (OnLive)
Release	20 November 2012
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, stealth
Mode(s)	Single-player, asynchronous multiplayer, (third-person view)

Hitman: Absolution is an action-adventure stealth game developed by IO Interactive and published by Square Enix. It is the fifth entry in the Hitman game series, and runs on IO Interactive's proprietary Glacier 2 game engine. Before release, the developers stated that Absolution would be easier to play and more accessible, while still retaining hardcore aspects of the franchise. The game was released on 20 November 2012, which is in the 47th week of the year (in reference to the protagonist, Agent 47). The game was a commercial success, selling 2.7 million copies as of January 2013.

Gameplay

The game takes place in the United States, and features an online option. In addition, the game features "instinct mode" which allows 47 to predict enemy patrol routes, much like the "sonar vision" that was featured in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction, "eagle vision" in Assassin's Creed, "tracker mode" in Crysis 2, and "Detective mode" in Batman: Arkham Asylum. The game has also been improved in all aspects to provide a more console-like third person shooter experience along with the classic stealth elements the series is known for.

Synopsis

Plot

In the aftermath of Hitman: Blood Money, Diana Burnwood, Agent 47's handler with the International Contract Agency, suddenly goes rogue, carrying out a catastrophic sabotage that includes publicly exposing the Agency. The Agency reforms under agent Benjamin Travis; Travis contracts a kill order on Diana, assigning 47 to make the hit and bring Victoria, a teenage girl in her care, to the Agency. Shooting and wounding Diana in her home, 47 hesitates before killing her, and she asks 47 to take a letter she wrote and keep Victoria from the Agency.

47 hides Victoria at a Catholic orphanage and contacts an informant named Birdie; 47 is told of Blake Dexter, head of Dexter Industries, who may have more information on Victoria. Eavesdropping on Dexter, 47 learns that he plans to kidnap and auction Victoria to the highest bidder. Sanchez, Dexter's enormous associate, then proceeds to knock him unconscious. Framed by Dexter for the murder of an innocent bystander, 47 evades the police, only to learn Birdie is being hunted by Dexter's ally, Wade; despite 47's intervention, Birdie still sells Victoria's location to Wade.

47 reaches Victoria, only to find Wade and his men attacking the orphanage and many of the staff dead. 47 mortally wounds Wade, but Victoria is kidnapped and taken hostage by Lenny, Dexter's son. 47 follows him to Hope, South Dakota, where 47 kills Lenny's gang, before interrogating Lenny, then leaving him to die (or killing him). Lenny tells 47 that Victoria is at Dexter Industries HQ, 47 destroys their research data on the girl and assassinates its head scientists; at the lab he learns that Victoria is in fact a genetically engineered clone, bred to be a super assassin like 47. 47 kills Sanchez in an underground cage fight after learning from him Victoria was taken back to Hope. Recuperating at a hotel, he routs an ICA attack lead by the elite all-girl hit team "The Saints."

Infiltrating Hope Courthouse Jail, 47 reaches Victoria but is subdued by the Sheriff, Clive Skurky, who is working with Dexter. The ICA, led by Travis, takes over the town in an attempt to get Victoria back, but is not able to find her. 47 escapes the prison, evades the ICA, and kills Skurky. Travis pays a ransom for Victoria, but 47 arrives at Dexter's penthouse and kills Dexter's assistant, Layla, and finally Dexter himself, before escaping with Victoria.

The player is shown Diana's letter, confirming that Travis created Victoria without the Agency's knowledge; the letter also requests 47 kill Travis to protect Victoria. Pursuing him to England, 47 finds the ICA exhuming the Burnwood family graves, believing Diana's death to have been faked. Killing Travis' assistant Jade and then his personal guards, 47 detonates the building Travis is hiding in, severely injuring him. Approached by 47, Travis asks 47 if Diana is dead; 47 refuses to say, and kills Travis. During a closing cutscene, 47 watches Diana and Victoria, before a message from Diana welcomes him back to the Agency, revealing 47 spared her. Another cutscene then shows Birdie offering information on 47 to Cosmo Faulkner, a detective investigating 47's case.

Voice cast

The barcode logo for Hitman: Absolution

• David Bateson as Agent 47. William Mapother provided the motion capture work for 47.
• Keith Carradine as Blake Dexter, the main antagonist.
• Marsha Thomason as Diana Burnwood (previously voiced by Vivienne McKee), Agent 47's former handler.
• Powers Boothe as Benjamin Travis, the head of ICA. He was later stated to be the secondary antagonist.
• Shannyn Sossamon as Jade Nguyen, Travis' personal secretary.
• Vivica Fox as Lasandra Dixon, head assassin of "The Saints", ICA's elite hit team.
• Jonathan Adams as Cosmo Faulkner, a police detective.
• Traci Lords as Layla Stockton, an associate of Blake Dexter.
• Steven Bauer as Birdie, 47's informant.
• Isabelle Fuhrman as Victoria, a young girl whom Diana sent 47 to rescue.
• Larry Cedar as Wade, a mercenary working for Dexter.
• Jon Gries as Sheriff Clive Skurky, a perverted sheriff in Hope.
• Isaac Singleton as Sanchez, Blake Dexter's bodyguard.
• Shane Stevens as Lenny 'The Limp' Dexter, Blake Dexter's mistreated son and Wade's associate.
• Phoebe Dorin as Sister Mary, a nun who helps Agent 47.

Development

System requirements

	Minimum	Recommended
Windows
Operating system	Windows Vista (Sp2) / Windows 7	Windows 8
CPU	2GHz Dual Core (Intel Core 2 Duo or better / AMD Athlon X2 or better)	Intel Core i7 (1st gen)3.0Ghz or better / AMD Athlon II X4 or better
Memory	2 GB	4 GB
Free space	24 GB of free hard disk space
Graphics hardware	NVIDIA GeForce GT 210 512 MB or AMD HD2600 XT 512 MB	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896 MB or ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 GB
Sound hardware	DirectX 10.1-compliant sound card
Input device(s)	Mouse and keyboard / Xbox 360 controller

Though plans to continue the Hitman franchise were first announced in 2007, it was not until May 2009 that Eidos confirmed the game was in development. Certain plot details for the game were rumored in 2009, stating that the game's story would lead Agent 47 to a low point from which he would have to rebuild himself. On 20 April 2011, Square Enix filed the trademark for the name Hitman: Absolution in Europe, leading sites to speculate that it would be the name of the fifth Hitman game. On 6 May 2011, a teaser trailer was released, confirming the title Hitman: Absolution. The trailer briefly showed Agent 47 attaching a suppressor and a rattlesnake coiled around his signature Silverballer pistol. It has been reported the game will be a "familiar and yet significantly different experience from other Hitman games." On 9 October 2011, a full gameplay trailer entitled "Run for Your Life" was released. Hitman: Absolution is a shooter/stealth game said the team on gametrailers.com. David Bateson will reprise the role of Agent 47 in Hitman Absolution, after it was revealed last year that IO Interactive dropped the long-serving voice actor. Square Enix confirmed the news, shortly after the above video of Bateson announcing his return found its way online. The video was on a USB key given to a fan by IO Interactive community manager Nick Price.

Bateson's return was a struggle, with IO Interactive initially asking him to audition for a role he'd served since 2000 and Codename 47. Then, around this time last year, the developer confirmed Bateson's absence from Absolution. This sparked a number of online petitions pleading for him to be reinstated as 47, including one that received over 3,500 signatures.

IO Interactive's brand director Jon Brooke revealed the developer brought back Bateson after a change of heart, saying that on reflection the developer was "just playing hard to get."

Soundtrack

The original soundtrack for the game is composed by Thomas Bärtschi with additional music written by Peter Kyed, Peter Peter and Dynamedion, replacing the series's previous composer, Jesper Kyd.

Marketing

The Professional Edition of Hitman Absolution features Professional Clamshell packaging for the game, a Hitman art book, making of DVD and the "Agency Gun Pack" DLC.

Hitman: Sniper Challenge, a standalone experience is available to people who pre-order the game at selected retailers. A code supplied at the time of pre-order will be redeemable via PSN Store, Xbox Live and PC. While the console version launched worldwide on 15 May 2012, the PC version was released on 1 August 2012.

Pre-order bonuses

Square Enix announced special Hitman: Absolution pre-order bonuses for selected retailers:

• High Tech Suit and Bartoli Custom Pistol – The advanced High Tech suit provides Agent 47 with 50% increased armor paired with the Bartoli Custom, an engineered precision weapon, complete with sight and silencer.
• Public Enemy Suit and the Bronson M1928 submachine gun – The Original Assassin can dress in a stylish Public Enemy gangster suit armed with the Bronson M1928, a classic submachine gun with high fire rate and deadly stopping power.
• Agency Kazo TRG sniper rifle – This weapon is fully upgradeable with both scope and silencer.
• High Roller Suit and the Krugermeier 2-2 Pistol – The High Roller suit dresses Agent 47 in a fancy tuxedo discreetly outfitted with the Krugermeier, an accurate, reliable stealth weapon with a built-in silencer.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	(PS3) 84.83% (X360) 79.36% (PC) 76.13%
Metacritic	(PS3) 83/100 (X360) 79/100 (PC) 79/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
Edge	7/10
Eurogamer	7/10
Game Informer	8.75/10
GameSpot	7.5/10
GamesRadar+
GameTrailers	6.9/10
IGN	9/10
PC Gamer (US)	66/100
VideoGamer.com	5/10
The Daily Mail
VentureBeat	7.5/10
Giant Bomb
Joystiq
Destructoid	8.5/10
GameArena	3/10

Hitman: Absolution received positive reviews with most criticism stemming from the inordinate difference in gameplay from previous entries. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 84.83% and 83/100, the Xbox 360 version 79.36% and 79/100 and the PC version 76.13% and 79/100. GamesRadar gave the game 4.5/5, saying "Hitman’s temporary hiatus did worlds of good for the franchise, and Absolution is one of the strongest entries in the series to date." Game Informer gave the game an 8.5/10 saying "Devising a strategy, using the environment and disguises to your advantage, and leaving before anyone knows you’re there are the hallmarks of a perfect hit, and Absolution proves Agent 47 is still gaming's premier hitman." The Daily Mail gave the game a 4/5 saying "Whether it's walking along the sun-kissed balcony of a beach-side villa, or exploring the dank, underground sewers below a nightclub, Absolution brings each world to life with remarkable aplomb." Edge gave it 7/10 saying "The game has taken a unique formula and diluted it." VentureBeat gave it 7.5/10 saying "Absolution aims high but misses the mark." Eurogamer gave it 7/10 saying "Agent 47 doesn't begin Hitman: Absolution with amnesia, but the six years that have passed since we last took control of him in Blood Money do seem to have dulled his creators' recollections of what made him so popular in the first place." GameSpot gave it 7.5/10 saying "Hitman: Absolution's vivid world and enjoyable stealth-action gameplay overshadow its few notable inconsistencies." IGN gave it 9/10 saying "It’s nice to have a game that doesn’t just encourage improvisation; it requires it." Forbes and Kotaku both gave Absolution positive reviews. Giant Bomb gave it 4/5, as did Joystiq. Destructoid gave it 8.5/10. GameArena gave the game a 3/10 saying "IO Interactive needs to restart from the Blood Money checkpoint and try again - they screwed up this run spectacularly."

The Daily Telegraph gave the game a 2/5 saying "Despite the fact that Absolution is a hugely disappointing entry into the canon, Hitman is still a fabulous series." IBITimes gave the game a 5/10 saying "An unremarkable, derivative clone of a game that's barely a shadow of what Hitman used to be." Videogamer.com gave it 5/10 saying "The problem with Absolution is that its new custodians from the Kane and Lynch team seem to have fundamentally misunderstood what made Hitman great." Blogcritics.org gave the game a 3/5 saying "There are definitely good things about it, but all too often the game's failures shine through more clearly than its successes." PC Gamer gave it 66% saying "A passable stealth game, but one that betrays almost everything that, until now, has made Hitman great." GameTrailers gave it 6.9/10 saying "It’s clear that a good deal of effort was put into crafting Hitman: Absolution’s world. This makes its flaws all the more unfortunate." New Statesman gave no rating but said "If developers want to win back fans when they revisit established franchises maybe they should look to what made those games popular in the first place and by doing so maybe they’d avoid stepping on a rake or two." GamerSyndrome gave no rating but said "Hitman Absolution tries to be a jack of all trades but ends up being a master of none." The Irish Times gave no score but said "The move away from the completely open world may leave some hardcore fans of Hitman disappointed." Gaming Age rated the game a 'C' and said "It feels like I’m playing a low rent, knockoff Metal Gear title as opposed to traditional Hitman"The Daily Record gave the game 3/5 saying "While it’s more accessible than previous Hitman games, Absolution loses a lot of the freedom that fans of the franchise love, and perhaps doesn’t necessarily fit the Hitman name any longer" TheEscapist gave no score but said "Hitman Absolution is not the best nor the worst Hitman." Whatculture gave the game a 3/5 saying "Not Quite the expected hit" The Guardian gave it 3/5 saying "The game may look better and play better than any Hitman game before it, but one can only marvel at how IO managed to lose sight of their IP's most appealing aspects so often"

Technical errors

Shortly after launch, scores of complaints came in about the game crashing, freezing and corrupting file saves on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, rendering many of the games unplayable. On 26 November 2012, IO Interactive stated that they were working around the clock to try and fix these technical errors, but also stated that they did not know what exactly was causing the errors, so a patch may take some time. As of 24 January, the issue still remains unresolved.

Controversy

On 29 May 2012, a cinematic teaser trailer, produced by Square Enix's CGI studio Visual Works, titled "Attack of the Saints" was released. The trailer's depiction of "gun-toting, PVC and latex-clad nuns being killed in a hail of bullets" sparked controversy over the allegedly sexist portrayal of women. IO Interactive's Tore Blystad, the game's director, later apologized, stating they're "sorry that we offended people" and that it "was truly not the intention of the trailer."

References

External links

• Official website