The game is at its best when you’re tantalisingly on the cusp of being discovered, and something as seemingly straightforward as confidently walking towards the exit can be almost unbearably tense, particularly if you have to pick the lock once you get there.Īs for the story, it’s an obligatorily preposterous affair, taking you from the mean streets of Chicago to the badlands of South Dakota, where you’ll encounter all manner of unsavoury characters and witness countless unspeakable actions.
Getting through each level is often a case of trial and error, and with fairly sparse checkpoints you’ll find yourself repeating sections multiple times until either superior firepower wins out, or you discover an often ludicrously simple solution. It also activates the so-called “point shooting”, a pseudo bullet-time affair whereby you can tag multiple enemies and murder them in cinematic slow motion. You can befuddle them momentarily with the all-new “instinct mode”, which replaces the old mini-map and enables you to “see the world through the eyes of Agent 47.” What it actually does is enable you to see the world through the eyes of Batman, a direct steal from that game that highlights every hidden enemy, climbable ledge and accessible vent. On the stealth front, disguise is his primary ally, the more unusual the better, the reason being that if you’re dressed as a policeman, for instance, other policeman will become suspicious. Garrotting and throat-slashing are also in his repertoire, and it’s an ultra-violent business that easily warrants the 18 rating.
He’s also a master of improvisation, as happy to crack someone about the temple with a hammer as he is to smack them upside the head with a fire extinguisher, or leave a friendly proximity mine in their path. It’s just that while you’re looking for the elegant solution, you get sidetracked by ten-minute gun battles - replete with multiple costume changes - which generally end with you face down in a pool of blood.Īgent 47 is certainly equipped with the tools for the job, with 19 unique firearms, including the iconic dual Silverballers - which, perversely, are fairly ineffective. And while you can shoot your way through the early stages, you do eventually have to take a more inventive approach. It’s a schizophrenic affair, swinging wildly between moments of sphincter-tightening tension and ludicrously frenetic action, as the blood flies and the bodies pile up. In practice, what generally happens is that someone sees you, an orgy of bloodletting ensues, and then you hide in a wardrobe for 20 seconds until it all dies down.
A master of disguise, he hides in plain sight, gets the job done, and disappears into the shadows. Hitman is after all, in theory at least, a stealth game, and the mysterious Agent 47 returns after a six-year absence, replete with trademark black suit, red tie, and barcode-bearing slaphead. No doubt as you read these words, somebody, somewhere, is painstakingly working their way through Absolution without firing a shot in anger. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of coppers, rednecks, truckers, miners, construction workers, security guards, strippers, sexy killer nuns, and a pig all mercilessly slaughtered in the name of plot development. (Pocket-lint) - “How many lives will you take to save one?” asks the back of the box.