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Limited Edition:
Hitman Absolution: The baldy bitch-slapping bastard with the big Silver Ballers is back once again!
This time round, it’s been over SIX years since Agent 47 last dispatched the baddies in a ‘silent assassin’ style, such that no-one saw it coming when they were about to meet their maker… or at least that’s the way it *should* be done but, when I cock this up, it’s like when you see such a murder plot go wrong in the movies and the victim-to-be makes good their escape and all you can do is chase them, put that bullet in their brain or inject them with a syringe full of poison and then hide the body in a darkened room so as not to attract suspicion.
However, take note that, while you can do what you want, when you want, without the game being restrictive, unlike the Grand Theft Auto franchise this is not a game where blasting out in all directions will help (although it is funny to do that just once or twice on a new level to see how far you can explore before being taken down).
Chicago is your destination and your first target is Diana herself, the woman who’s helped you with so many missions in the past, but now is a traitor to the cause. She’s also taken with her a girl from the agency called Victoria, who you are to bring back after eliminating Diana. There are 19 more cases to undertake once you’ve completed this initial one which, as you’ll see from the footage, also acts as a training level.
Instinct makes the baddies appear in an X-ray-cum-Ready-Break-glow so you can see where they stand even if they’re behind walls. However, this does sap your instinct meter, something which, in normal mode as I’m playing this for the first time, won’t replenish. That said, you can get additional Instinct by completing small tasks such as distracting guards so you can get past a necessary exit, as will collecting evidence, and all this helps with points. And what do points make? …More points. That’s all.
It can also be used when walking past someone when you don’t want to arouse suspicion and can sneak past unnoticed. Unfortuntely, it doesn’t last forever so you’ll need to take a chance occasionally…
If you’re one to try the more difficult settings, note that normal mode allows you to activate additional checkpoints, and as explained your instinct doesn’t automatically regenerate, and there’s normal enemy presence and reaction times. The harder ones cut down on checkpoints, sometimes to zero, and there may be no help or guides and impossibly difficult baddies to encounter.
The good bits:
Listen to conversations from baddies, as you sneak around, to sometimmes give clues about how or where best to proceed.
Early on, I enjoyed picking up a steak knife and throwing it at a baddie’s head, thus killing him, then taking it out of his skull and deftly hiding the body by tipping it over the railings into the sea… and on to the next baddie. As always, stealing their clothes to use as a disguise in order to progress further.
There’s a helpful map which aids you as to where you should be going, something that’s easy to forget after you’ve just had a heated debate with the bad guys.
I like the neat trick to put up a false surrender when you’re spotted, as you pretend to give yourself up, only to knock them out or use them as a human shield when they come for you. Melees and choke-holds are other options in incapacitating the enemy.
There are also quick reloading times when you die.
The graphics aren’t massively different from before, other than being spruced up for the 360 (yes, can you believe it’s that long? We’re nearly on the 720!) but then they were perfectly fine to begin with. At least this time there are no jaggies. Also there are cool shadows as you move about, plus Very nice lighting and rippling water effects, plus lovely blood effects when you’ve murdered someone and they ooze out all over the floor, to add to the gore and violence that’s already aplenty.
Soundwise, this is also first-rate as the alerts sound out when you’re spotting, the dialogue from characters talking to each other, plus the excellent gunfire – all in superb DD5.1 sound.
Bad points?
There’s always been a big of a niggle with the control system, which takes some getting used to and you can still press the wrong button as you try to get to grips with it. This isn’t a major hassle, though.
The AI of the bad guys isn’t brilliant. For example, in a game where I was losing many points for blasting recklessly about with a shotgun, I was in a room off a corridor, where bad guys would simply walk into shot (literally) and I would blow them away. The fact there was blood and bodies piling up didn’t make them have a second thought about it all…
Worse still, it’s a massive no-no that in the first level, which is essentially a training one, while the majority of it is the usual procedure, the actual killing of Diana sees CGI take over. Okay, so they’re trying to make a point in the fact that she’s a major player in the series, but it’s still at odds with the game overall.
Alas, this isn’t the only time it happens. I’d read that as you near the end of your goal on some levels, the game ‘takes over’ and just plays out a CGI sequences rather than letting you kill the baddie. And it’s true. That is so disappointing and NOT in the true spirit of the game. I know there’s a new team who’ve taken over the franchise, but god knows what they were thinking when they sanctioned this. It’s like getting 10 minutes from the end of a film and then someone spoilers the ending for you…
Overall, Hitman fans like myself will find this a must, but it pains me to accept that someone has ruined the end of the levels AND thought that was a viable change.
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Click on the above image to see what you’ll get with the Limited Professional Edition…
Finally, also note that there is an offshoot of games to play in the form of the Contracts mode, the official description of which follows below. I haven’t played it yet, but note that you do NOT need a Gold subscription in order to play it:
Contracts mode allows the player to play through any level of the game and select up to three NPCs in it to mark as targets and also to establish a set of conditions for the Contract, which include: hiding all bodies, not missing a shot, not being spotted, not changing the starting suit/disguise, and using specific weapons. The player is allowed to pick any suit and starting gear to use in the mission. In order to save the challenge, the player has to clear it themselves. For completing Contracts, players earn in-game currency to spend on disguises, suits, weapons and weapon upgrades.
In order to create a Contract, the player plays through a level (or at least a part of one), selecting up to three different NPCs as targets, eliminates them in any way of their choosing and leaves the level through one of the possible exits (the exit will be also saved, meaning players has to use it as well). The Contract, along with the conditions under which the player completed it such as which disguises and weapons were used, can then be saved (though they can be toggled off, allowing the player to kill the targets any way they like). The available conditions are:
- Do not be spotted
Only kill targets
Hide all bodies
Do not change disguises
Do not miss any shots
Previews also showed a “kill targets in order” condition in which the targets were numbered as they were picked, though it’s not present in the current game.
Contracts mode also features a great deal of online connectivity, as players can upload their own Contracts. Each week, five user-made Contracts are added to the “Featured Contracts” folder for the online community to try and compete.
Access to Contracts Mode requires the free downloading of a “Contracts Pass” and a pass code included with the copy of Absolution.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
10 10 8 6 |
| OVERALL | 8.5 |
Standard Edition:
Limited Edition:
Directors: Tore Blystad, Peter Fleckenstein, Christian Elverdam and James D Mortellaro
Producers: Hakan B Abrak, Markus Friedl, Frederik Fusager, Helle Marijnissen, Mads Prahm and Luke Valentine
Writers: Greg Nagan, Tore Blystad, Michael Vogt, Lars Detlefsen, Kjeld Vejrup, Oliver Antonio Winding, Hans Lucht, William Stahl, Simon Unger, Tore Blystad, Martin Brennan, Michael B Jackson, Morten Brunbjerg, Thomas Riley, Evangelos-Athanassios Mylonas, James D Mortellaro, Michael Vogt, Morten Iversen and Peter Gjellerup Koch
Music: Thomas Bartschi, Peter Kyed and Peter Peter
Cast:
Agent 47: David Bateson
Dexter: Keith Carradine
Travis: Powers Boothe
Layla: Traci Lords
Lenny: Shane Stevens
Wade: Larry Cedar
Sanchez: Isaac Singleton
Skurky: John Gries
Sister Mary: Phoebe Dorin
Victoria: Isabelle Fuhrman
Faulkner: Jonathan Adams
Birdie: Steven Bauer
Diana: Marsha Thomason
Head Nun (The Saints): Vivica A Fox
Jade: Shannyn Sossamon
Mrs. Cooper/Various Characters: Nora Wyman
Mrs. Cooper (mocap)/Various: Coleen Foy
Hotel Manager’s Wife: Adrienne Barbeau
Additional Voices: Aimee Castle
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.