Hitman: Absolution

[Sir Legendhead]

Spent almost 6 hours playing and it may be time for bed. I like it a lot, but if you go in expecting another Blood Money you will be disappointed. It has elements of a old Splinter Cell and has some elements of Hitman, they definitely wanted to make a new game and that game is pretty damn good. But again, it's not Blood Money 2.

It'd be kind of boring if they just repeated what they did right earlier. My doubts were laid to rest after reading that paragraph I quoted from the Joystiq review. Plus, if you went at it for a six hour stretch it must be good. Keeping my copy of Blood Money now, as well -- I had previously thought of "trading up" but no. Sounds like both are worth having.

[lizzardKing]

I really want to play this game, I've only played Hitman 2, I played a little of Contracts or Blood Money (can't remember which) but the only one I completed was 2, might try and play Blood Money, before I buy Absolution (I'll be waiting on getting it at a lower price on PC)

[Sir Legendhead]

Just finished the prologue level and oh my god I love this game. One of the new stealth moves is sublime. It allows you to temporarily cover your face by tipping your hat or scratching the back of your head. I also had a great big ol' schadenfreude lol at that one guy in the window.

Spoiler!

"You mean it's not prostate cancer? Oh man! Doc, nothing could piss on this day!" XD

[Sir Legendhead]

Hey guys look who I found!

[Arttemis]

Sweet!

[lizzardKing]

Ahaha a toy robot! Do you have to kill a ghostbot in the game?

[arglactable]

I have been playing this a ridiculous amount since I got it on Tuesday. Despite the fact that a lot of old school Hitman fans are butt hurt that this game isn't designed and doesn't play exactly like Hitman Blood Money, I think it's the most polished and consistently enjoyable game in the series to date. I've enjoyed the narrative focus, the level variety, the somewhat more clear assassination options, the gunplay is actually worthwhile, the disguise system that you actually have to use strategically instead of getting a free pass for huge pieces of levels. I feel like it takes many of the best parts of several stealth series and throws it all into one bad-ass package. You can play it like old school Hitman (in the assassination levels), you can play it like Splinter Cell Conviction, you can just play it like a shooter, and it all feels fun. And the Professional Edition is slick as hell.

[Sir Legendhead]

I pulled off the best kill last night. Spoiler tagged because sometimes the best part is finding this stuff for yourself -

Spoiler!

There's a suit of samurai armor on display in one target's lair. I wore it, posed like a statue, and shanked her through the neck when she eventually walked by. Then I went back to just standing there as the guards rushed in, and they did not realize it was me. Talk about hiding in plain sight..! I was literally on display. This game is amazing.

Just to add some more detail, it's a full face samurai helmet, and it makes sense that a guy could be inside it without anyone noticing. This isn't like a thing where I found a gap in their vision cones. There's a context trigger for the statue pose and everything. It is wonderful.

Ahaha a toy robot! Do you have to kill a ghostbot in the game?

You pretty much are the ghostbot in this game.

[Revuhlooshun]

50,000+ points on Shank-o-matic.

Come at me.

[Sir Legendhead]

The set-up is awesome isn't it? The competition thing is just for friends (I think), but anyone can access the contract itself if they search the name. Some guy in the Netherlands was running through within minutes of me putting it up. Contracts mode will keep this game alive for a very long time.

[Revuhlooshun]

This game is great when it's not trying to be Splinter Cell with the long, linear, "get to the other side without being detected" maps. The only problem is that the game is always trying to be Splinter Cell. There are a shockingly scarce amount of pure Hitman-esque sandbox levels with designated targets and the freedom to go about a mission as you please.

What makes matters worse is that the disguise system is irrevocably broken on any difficulty higher than normal. You need intuition to make disguises work, and by hampering or removing intuition altogether on higher difficulties, disguises become useless (unless you've found some godly costume that no one else is dressed in on a particular stage to help you coast by undetected). Rolling from cover to cover and hiding in the shadows end up being better alternatives to pattern observation and methodical planning.

There's a lot of promise and potential here, but they: A.) Did not think some of these ideas through to their logical conclusions, and B.) Did not balance the game with higher difficulties in mind.

Also, most of the stages so far have been pretty meh. Blood Money might have spoiled me in that regard.

Despite all of this, I still look forward to playing it whenever I get a chance. So that says something.

[Sir Legendhead]

Actually, the disguise system was broken in Blood Money. It was completely unrealistic and offered no challenge whatsoever. I remember playing that game when it came out two years after 9/11 and realizing how ridiculously easy it was to infiltrate the White House. As far as the Secret Service goes, it's not like you'd be able to put one of their suits on and walk around like you own the place. I really appreciate the new emphasis on mental focus when trying to fool people with that kind of thing. Haven't tried the harder levels but...well y'know. They're supposed to be hard, right?

As far as old-school Hitman levels where you have designated targets, there are 50,000 of them up now. Like I said, Contracts mode. The story is another thing altogether. I was a little let down by the ending, they Mass Effected it a bit maybe, but overall it's all good. They established kind of a Tarantino roadhouse vibe with most of it, which I enjoyed. The music is pretty awesome too.

[Revuhlooshun]

Hitman: Absolution -- a world where there are never any new people on the job. It couldn't possibly be your first day working when someone dressed like you sees you. A police force entails hundreds of people all across a city, yet every single one of them automatically knows that you're a farce just by looking at you. Hell, even street vendors know you can't possibly be up to any good from across the map when you're dressed like them. You can tell who's a real street vendor by the way they walk.

I'll take Blood Money's disguises any day of the week.

And there are 50,000 Hitman levels in Contracts mode. The vast majority of them are poorly made creations designed by amateurs. Quality, not quantity.

[Sir Legendhead]

Oh so you've played the vast majority of them. Please, tell us more! And don't be afraid to go into detail.

Then we can go walk around the White House later. You have a black suit right?

[Revuhlooshun]

The contracts are regurgitations of existing maps and targets. You present it as if there are 50,000 unique stages and missions when there only a dozen or two lackluster single player maps with the same enemies and set pieces -- the only thing which differentiates them from their contract counterparts are the kill parameters. And given the fact that they are mostly designed by amateurs by definition (since I doubt a high number of people playing the game have extensive work experience in level design on a Hitman project), many of them boil down to either redoing what the mission originally was in single player or "Kill this guy wearing this outfit with this weapon" and nothing more (despite having a plethora of other parameters to choose from).

Not very elaborate or challenging.

On the subject of Blood Money: Pointing to another game and saying "But it had problems!" doesn't wash away the problems which hinder this one, one of which is where a core game mechanic is rendered useless when you either don't have intuition, don't like using intuition based on principle, or are playing in a mode which has neutered intuition entirely. Disguises and intuition were designed to be played with hand-in-hand in this game. When one hand is broken, the other one has nothing to latch onto. This becomes troublesome when higher difficulties ratchet up their challenge by only focusing on how badly they can break said hand.

There are flaws in this game. We should be able to admit them while also being able to enjoy the game.

[Sir Legendhead]

The contracts are regurgitations of existing maps and targets. You present it as if there are 50,000 unique stages and missions

False. I presented a number. What you read into it is all you.

And pointing to another game and saying, "But it had problems!" doesn't wash away the problems which hinder this one

Except that I used the previous game's failures to point out this one's improvements.

Gotta be honest here. I'm not really enthusiastic about typing any of what I'm typing right now, because I seriously question if it's worth my time to defend this game to this community. I'm also looking at the C-blogs coming out, full of complaints, and none of them want to focus on what the game does right. I'd like to write a blog about it myself but the thought of posting it here stops me. Don't take this personally, it's not just you, but Dtoid will shit on this game simply because that's what Dtoid does. Going against public opinion in this place is like trying to ice skate up a motherfuckin' hill.

(I also went out of my way to quote Blade there, just to show I'm not mad or anything)

[Revuhlooshun]

You're not being consistent with your criticisms. You cite Blood Money's "failure" for asking you to suspend your disbelief and believe that a hitman could dress up as a Secret Service agent and just waltz into the White House post-9/11, but then you glaze over Absolution asking you to suspend your disbelief and believe that all 12,000+ police officers of the Chicago Police Department recognize each other. Which one is more absurd?

You're marking down one game for asking you to suspend your disbelief and then holding up another for asking you to do the same thing in a different, though equally implausible, manner. The only difference is that Absolution ends up breaking a core game mechanic when it asks for this favor, which is a much graver sin than playing fast and loose with White House security protocols.

[Sir Legendhead]

Ok, so now we're doing that thing where we recontextualize each other's statements, blah blah blah...I'm just not feeling it man. Sorry.

I had this exact same conversation on the C-blogs, so I'm just gonna copy and paste my comment from there.

It makes sense to me, although I'm not sure I can articulate how. What I'm impressed with is how well they incorporate human instinct as a gameplay mechanic. Knowing cops like I do it's totally believable to me that they would recognize one of their own, whether they're in uniform or not. And when they see a guy who doesn't belong in said uniform -- well, it's like they just know somehow. It's a nebulous thing to try to explain over the internet, yet I'm pretty sure everyone is familiar with the concept on some level.

Something else I wanted to point out; "when you've found so what seems like the biggest weed farm in the city would you really drop everything else to pursue someone who you think might not be a cop?" A cop would definitely be interested in that, yes. That much contraband and they see a guy impersonating an officer? That guy is done, lol.

link for context

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put on my policeman's outfit and liberate some sticky green from the evidence room. If any of the other cops stop me Imma call haxx0rz!

[TheRemedy]

You're not being consistent with your criticisms. You cite Blood Money's "failure" for asking you to suspend your disbelief and believe that a hitman could dress up as a Secret Service agent and just waltz into the White House post-9/11, but then you glaze over Absolution asking you to suspend your disbelief and believe that all 12,000+ police officers of the Chicago Police Department recognize each other. Which one is more absurd?

So you're saying they wouldn't be able to spot someone who doesn't know anything about being a police officer, looks exactly like they guy they are hunting, and trying to not be noticed by hiding behind things?

[Sir Legendhead]

You know what interests me about this conversation, if I can be so meta as to come right out and say it -- are we really trying to understand one another's POV here, or are we just getting caught up in the gamer mentality where we're trying to win the conversation like it's some kind of contest?

I can't speak about Purist difficulty because I haven't played it. I'm sure it's a frustrating experience that would make Gandhi want to throw bows on a bitch. All I'm saying is, is that I can see how guys like that know one of their own. And I can appreciate the sheer force of will it takes to get past a cop, because I've done it myself.

Like when I was fifteen, I used to walk around town at four in the morning drinking beer out of a thermos. Sometimes I'd run into cops. Now you best believe I used my instinct meter when this happened. It's not like I could run behind a bush and wait for them to stop looking for me. What I would do is walk right past them in plain sight and be like, hey guys what's up?

A situation like that is survived by sheer force of will. You show any sign of nervousness, any apprehension, and they will be on you like guard dogs because that is what they are. Those men can smell your fear. Yet if you manage to keep your confidence up, you can get away with anything. So I'd just say hi to them. With no fear. They'd look at me kinda weird for a minute, be like oh hey, and then go right back to what they had been doing.

I also like how adrenaline builds dude's instinct. It builds confidence doesn't it? I thought that was a really nice touch. Maybe they should have called it a confidence meter. That would make even more sense.