GamesSmasher

Gameplay:
Hitman: Absolution is a Hitman game, in case any longtime fans were wondering about this sequel and whether or not it can actually live up to the experiences of previous games in the series.

During his adventure, 47 will have to eliminate all sorts of seedy individuals, while navigating certain environments and trying to remain as stealthy as possible. This is easier said than done, as while the stealth mechanics work pretty well in many cases, sometimes you’ll be inexplicably spotted by NPCs and have your cover blown.

You explore all sorts of areas during Absolution’s story, ranging from crowded sections like Chinatown or night clubs, to zones where there aren’t a lot of people, like derelict buildings. Every area is filled with different items and rewards players with a score when exiting it. This score is affected by how stealthy you were and just what characters you killed. As always, 47 can disguise himself with various uniforms and costumes in order to blend in and freely walk around certain areas, instead of sticking to cover or crawling around in vents. There’s a catch to these disguises, however, as the hero can be spotted by others who are wearing the same type of costume.

As such, if 47 is dressed as a cop and walks near other police officers, they’ll start to get suspicious. While this is definitely realistic, it can get a bit annoying at times, as dressing like a street vendor in Chinatown will make all other street vendors suspicious of you, which doesn’t seem that plausible.

Thankfully, in order to get past these tricky situations, Agent 47 now has a special ability called Instinct, that gets consumed every time players “tap into 47’s special powers.” This allows him to see through walls and spot objects with which he can interact. What’s more, when you’re disguised and approaching a similar individual, you can spend Instinct to make 47 act less suspicious.

Using Instinct depletes it, but you earn some of it back by performing different actions, like subduing enemies and then hiding their bodies. If you’re playing on Easy, then the Instinct automatically recharges after a certain time.

Speaking of difficulty levels, Absolution has a variety of challenges for all sorts of players, ranging from new ones who are just starting out with the series, to veterans that don’t want any help or hint from the game.

Longtime fans will certainly appreciate the array of choices offered by the game in regard to taking out certain targets, while new ones that don’t really like being stealthy will certainly enjoy the improved gunplay and the different tricks that can be pulled by Agent 47, like seemingly surrendering to a character and then taking him out while he’s unaware.

As always, experimentation and level exploration are key, as you can uncover all sorts of alternate methods of taking out a target. Sadly, there aren’t a lot of checkpoints in these levels, so you’ll often be deterred from experimenting with a target because you’ll have to do a lot of work all over again in case you fail.