I absolutely love stealth games. Where others balk at the idea of trial and error, I find exhilaration in the thrill of perfectly executed maneuvers. I count the Metal Gear Solid games amongst some of my favorite fiction of all time. I think that the first three Splinter Cell games helped define a generation of consoles. And with all of that, you’d think that I would have played, at one point or another, a Hitman game.
After seeing Hitman: Absolution, I think it’s about time that I rectified that.
Our off-hands demo opened up with the titular assassin, Agent 47, disguised as a priest. Before you ask yourself where he acquired his costume, know that the highly enthusiastic IO Interactive developer showing the game made it clear that nothing lethal was involved. Our hero, the hitman himself, had been tasked with rescuing a kidnapped girl from a bawdy gang of masked assailants that were shooting up the place.
As the developer began his walkthrough, he gave us a glimpse of some of the sneakier elements of the game.
As you might expect, old time favorite stealth moves like neck breaks, choke-holds and the dragging of bodies make prominent appearances. More Hitman-specific standbys like being able to steal an enemies outfit to disguise yourself haven’t been forgotten either. These techniques seemed to blend well together to form a sort of murderous pattern; an almost puzzle-like method of dispatching foes. This is exactly the sort of precise, complex method of gameplay that makes me love stealth games. The thrill of watching each piece fall into place as you make your way to your objective is absolutely joyful.
It was during these moments that the new vision mode (which no one at the demo actually referred to by name, so I which I will henceforth to refer to it as ‘silly vision’) becomes really useful. Silly vision (TM) is the Hitman equivalent of Batman’s own patented Detective Vision. Or Assassin’s Creed‘s Eagle Vision. Or Spider-Man Noir’s… Spider Vision. I guess?
Suffice it to say that silly vision allows America’s favorite killer to do things such as see through walls or an enemy guard’s patrol pattern. This basically means that it looks like it’s pretty easy for 47 to plan his actions accordingly. Need to dump a pesky corpse in a children’s ball pit? Now you’ll know exactly when and if Angry Thug #4 will stick his oh-so fragile neck in to take a peek ahead of time.
The stealth portion of Hitman: Absolution looks to be in fine form. Fans of the stealth genre like me should already know what to expect, but should also know that those expectations look to be exceptionally well polished.
As for action fans, well, it seems that their covered too.
According to the dev, previous Hitman games enacted a harsh penalty for straying down a more action-oriented path. IO interactive has decided to alter this by allowing gunplay to be a legitimate a method of gameplay.
And so we were shown what the demo would look like should the players decide to forgo stealth altogether.
Things started off pretty strong with the developer bursting into a previously avoided room, tearing apart multiple guards with a fire-axe (you can pick up items in the environment; either to augment your kills or distract enemies) and throwing it into the face of another. Agent 47 was actually rewarded for his actions in the form of information given to him by a bound security guard that the thugs had been torturing. The rent-a-cop informed his savior about the location of a shotgun later on in the level. A fitting reward for a man that has just proven that he has no problem with axe murder.
From here, things played like a fairly standard cover-based, third-person shooter. Crouching, shooting, walking, shooting, taking cover and shooting all featured prominently. As did exploding barrels and all manner of expected shooter tropes.
The one interesting twist to all of this was a target painting feature that looked very cool. Clearly borrowed from fellow stealth-action title Splinter Cell: Conviction, the targeting feature allows Agent 47 to enter a heavy state of slow motion as he marks specific parts of enemy bodies. Once he’s finished selecting his victims, the game enters a cinematic montage of flying bullets and falling bodies as 47 automatically extinguishes the various villains.
The more action-oriented technique seemed to take significantly less time than the stealth option. Other than that, it seemed actually to diminish the experience of the game overall by making the previously imposing enemies appear to be less of a threat. After all, if you know that you don’t have to sneak around the bad guys, then what’s the point?
That being said, I can see myself and others having a lot of fun with either option, depending on their play style. Personally, I’d have to recommend stealth (referred to by the developer representative as the “professional” style) over the alternative. If it’s as fun as it looks, I can see Hitman: Absolution being the absolute stealth game of this generation.
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