3/5 ★ – fez219's review of Hitman: Absolution.

Hitman: Absolution feels very much like RE6 to me. Like RE6, Absolution takes the core identity of the series and tries to smash it together with Michael Bay-esque cinematic, explosive action in an effort to follow early 2010s video game trends. Like RE6, the result is a fun action game that fails to tap into what people love about the series, and that doesn't really stand out against the better action game contemporaries. And, also like RE6, I still had a good time because I played it years after their release, with the hindsight that these games were abberations and that their respective franchises would right the ship with a fantastic series of subsequent games. Absolution's predecessor, Blood Money, clearly understood its assignment: make a number of large social stealth assassination sandbox missions, with in-depth mission briefings, maps, and loadout customization that made planning feel as important as the hit. Blood Money was perfect. IO decided to abandon this to make a cinematic linear action game that constantly throws you right into the action, and where assassinations are only sometimes the goal. It is of course a massive step back for the series. But it's still a fun game in its own right, and bits of Hitman's core genius occasionally shine through to keep you going. This Hitman is very story-centric, so expect a lot of cutscenes. They aren't great. The core narrative — 47 going rogue to save a child similar to him — had a lot of potential. But the story instead devolves into a gritty mess of extrtemely poorly written redneck characters. It's this weird grindhouse thing and it's just bad. It can be fun at times. Blake Dexter's voice actor gave everything he had, and David Bateson's delivery of 47's lines is great as always. But the story is just an absolute mess full of cringey characters doing cringey things. It feels like an edgelord 12 year old wrote it, with ill-advised missions like infiltrating a strip club and fighting a squad of nuns in latex. It's silly at best and simply painful at worst. And it never goes to any real effort to emotionally develop 47 or its entourage, despite the potential of its premise. The child, Victoria, just serves as a plot device for 47 to alternate between protecting and chasing. The mission structure is also completely different than any Hitman game before it. After the first hit that puts things in motion, you're on a narrative track mostly about getting from point A to point B, with the occasional assassination on the way. This is obviously a huge step back. The draw of Hitman is executing perfect or silly plans in large sandboxes, not sneaking through set tracks. People don't play Hitman for a chopper chase sequence. This was clearly the wrong direction for the franchise to move in. The assassinations often feel shoehorned in, and are in smaller environments than anything from Blood Money. But there's some really fun and clever options to get kills, and a smart challenge system gives players hints on all the different ways to go about your business. Bits of Hitman greatness occasionally shine in. This gives the game a good amount of replay value (at least in the assassination missions), and I could see myself eventually coming back. One thing I really disliked was the new score system. You need to get a certain score in each section for character upgrades. Completing objectives, especially signature hits, adds to score, while killing or pacifying non-targets penalizes your score. This made me feel like I had to execute each hit perfectly, or I might be underpowered at the end of the game. But at the end of the game, after acquiring all these upgrades, I didn't feel any stronger! You have all the tools you need at the start of the game. This whole system hampered my enjoyment of the game and it didn't feel like it added anything of value. That said, since I've done the unlocks now, I think it would be fun to eventually go back and experiment more with guns and such. I think the scoring system (but not notoriety!) from Blood Money would have been more than adequate; Silent Assassin would be there if you want it, but letting players make a few mistakes along with the way or go in guns blazing would be fine too. The gameplay is actually... mostly great! But the disguise mechanic — the one mechanic Hitman is most known for — is unfortunately botched this time around, which has a very negative impact on the otherwise smooth gameplay. To Absolution's credit, its new cover system, the stealth mechanics, and shooting are all by far the best they've been in Hitman to date. Everything feels good, and new stuff like lock-on for throwing sharp objects are all good additions to the sandbox. Stealth is intuitive and fun, and the shooting holds up against its contemporaries. Both of these systems are bolstered by the cover system. Everything feels good and works as intended. There’s also quite a bit of random fully voiced discussions you’ll find that flesh out the world, which is cool — even if some of the dialogue is pretty objectionable. But all of this is sabotaged by the simply awful instinct system. Instinct completely changes how disguises work, and it in effect replaces your map and mission briefing/planning from prior games. 47 now has a sort of detective vision (because every post 2010 game needs detective vision!!), where he can see NPCs and certain objects. Objects of interest like disguises or items that set up assassinations — like poison and a dish your target will eat from — get special markings in instinct mode that are visible from anywhere in the level. There is no map this time, so it effectively replaces the map. And I HATE it. It's extremely forced, so you'll be using it constantly since you're lacking 47's usual tools. And it's just unnecessary. I'd much rather get a layout of the map and try to navigate organically than use x-ray vision and beeline for a glowing yellow thingy. Instinct is also critical to disguises in a truly awful way. The disguise system is back, but it's severely nerfed this time around. Any NPC wearing the same disguise as you will see through you. So something like a barber outfit unique to a single NPC is extremely useful like past disguises, but something like a guard outfit is nearly useless because all the other guards will see you. Disguises ranged from extremely to somewhat finnicky until Blood Money, but I thought Blood Money nailed it. This system, while predictable (you won't be randomly busted across the map like in the first couple games), completely takes the steam out of the mechanic. To make disguises somewhat useful, you have an instinct meter that replenishes when you take out NPCs or complete objectives. You can burn this meter to blend in with like NPCs. But having to rely on a meter for this... just sucks. It's not fun, and it actively incentivizes you to play less cleanly to replenish your meter, which goes against the core Hitman gameplay. I get that the system in Blood Money was very silly. Of course it's ridiculous that you wouldn't be recognized as a suddenly new guard when the guard's partner disappears. But the solution of making disguises often useless simply is not fun. I cannot overstate how poor of a decision this was. Plus, I think the premise of a giant, robotic bald man with a tattoo on his back blending in is inherently hilarious. This sort of silliness is something the series is often self-aware of, and it's what makes the games so fun. The disguise system may be ridiculous, but it's a part of what makes the games special and nerfing it like this was a stab to the heart of this game. Another misstep here is that Absolution ditches the save system from prior games in exchange for a checkpoint system. Levels are at least much more compartmentalized, so this is never a huge deal. But in the longer missions, it's still a pain to rely on the extremely inconsistent checkpoint placements. Worse, checkpoints reset NPC and equipment — meaning that much of what you've done may be effectively saved over. Again, most missions are short enough where this doesn't matter. But the checkpoint system just isn't good. You're also thrown right into each successive mission — often without 47's signature equipment — which I didn't love. 47 being caught without his equipment is a cool premise we've seen in other Hitman games, and it can work. But when it's stretched over the majority of a game, it gets old fast. Plus the game lacks one of the core components of prior games, where after studying the map and briefing, you could choose to go in with your Silverballers, or an SMG, or a sniper, and so on, and completely change the dynamic of the mission. While you can sometimes find equipment like snipers that allow you to play differently, I'd much rather choose how to play a mission from the get-go. The game launched with a contracts mode where players could create their own custom hits for other players, which sounds like fun! But its servers have since shut down. So I'm not going to address other than mentioning that it once existed. With its linear nature of relatively tiny levels and botched disguise system, this feels more like an action game with a Hitman gloss than a Hitman game with an action gloss. If I was a fan of the series when this dropped, I would have been extremely upset. It's baffling that Hitman would go from Blood Money, where the game is built around what makes Hitman great, to this. But it's ok. Current Hitman is great. With the benefit of hindsight, it's easy to take this for what it is — a solid action game — and still find enjoyment. I don't recommend it by any means, but if you want a campy mess with some Hitman flavor, you could do worse.