Hitman Drabsolution. This time it's personal! sort of.

‘Hmm well if half the effort that went into the menu went into the game should be up for a lovely murderous romp.’

Voila, witness my above average Hitman Absolution review, in which Hitman Absolved to murder lots of rednecks…. Huzzah!

Ok intro; can’t say I liked seeing 47 topless, he’s always been a merciless killing machine not really the pretty boy type, to see him sexualized was slightly stomach churning, and I get the distinct feeling that they're trying to crowbar feelings into is stern visage, well onto the game.

First impressions; love the look, lighting, not really a graphics whore but they were nice. The intro was a little square. I think we've reached an opus where some off camera voice just telling you how to play the game just doesn't cut the mustard. I think tutorials should be entirely immersive because they’re sort of your gateway into the game, Alice wasn't told to tap X to enter wonderland, tutorials are important they shouldn't be just tacked on, you should almost not notice them.

What I like about it so far is it seems a lot more plot heavy than the previous games. Whether you’re familiar with the previous games or not it stands to reason that a game about a hired assassin won’t entail much plot as the whole purpose of hiring an assassin is to have a professional who has no connection to the victim so there’s no link to the client. The odd thing about the previous games were that they still worked because they were laden with sub-narrative; every room told a story and then there was an overarching plot happening in the background building until the climactic ending. This game seems a little Hollywood for my tastes, I mean I hate to say it but it’s the basic Mario ‘Save the princess’ plot-line  (in the voice of Morgan Freeman) ‘a plot as old as time’ and the whole game is based around padding that out.

Although the plot is a bit hit and miss there are some really great new game-play features which are mostly ripped off of other games but who cares? 47 has this sort of vats, time stopping shoot everyone power now like fallout 3, but Splinter Cell Conviction already ripped that one off so it’s no big deal, why shouldn't 47 be able to walk into a room and shoot everyone without much input from me, maybe I should just sit this one out and catch up on my word based puzzles.

There’s also a new stealth system, long story short if you dress as a guard all guards are going to be suspicious of you so you have to avoid them, so the trick is to basically find the one person who is meant to be there but that nobody knows and you can wonder around freely. It makes a lot more sense than the previous games and I think it’s very clever… also they ripped off Assassins Creed lacing the game with hiding spots… but who cares?!

As side note, 47 has acquired the ability to hide a sniper rifle up his ass, I liked how in the previous games you couldn't hide two handed weapons unless you had a suitcase because it’s realistic and makes it more of a challenge to smuggle weapons into areas if you can hide a M60 in your pants it takes the sport out of the whole game. Also one thing I loved about the previous games was that there was always people frisking you (not that it’s a fetish of mine) or metal detectors or things like that so improvising or sneaking in weapons was really important. 

Whereas in this game they seem to let any Tom, Dick or Harry in with an AK under his arm. So although this game makes a big thing about improvised weapons, like using a brick or a bottle to kill someone it’s just sort of style over substance really since you can just use a gun or fiber-wire that 47 has all the time or his bare hands which he can do now. I mean I like the idea that you can kill them from the front with a screwdriver but there’s not much point to it.

The levels seem a little less well structured since this game isn’t about him carrying out a series of well orchestrated assassinations it’s just him basically killing anyone he fancies really. I often found myself reading the objective screen because I’d get half way through a mission with no idea why I was strangling and/or dropping things on all these people.

Don’t get me wrong I love Hitman, it’s one of my favourite games series, I've been waiting for this game for ages and I can’t say I was that blown away, I enjoyed it but it just didn't have the same clout as the other games, it was just missing something, it felt a little rushed, like I’m given all these nice set pieces to play with but I don’t get enough time to faff about with them. The systematic nature of the levels just drained the game of fun and to be honest I've always hated the scoring system on Hitman. I just think giving people targets like that destroy the natural flow of a game, to an extent it almost puts the game on rails, taking all the spontaneity away.

When you compare it to something like Max Payne where your jumping around firing two guns prematurely ejaculating bullets all over the place it almost makes murder boring, trying to make it as neat and economic as possible and when did the Hitman series become so xenophobic? In Contracts and Silent assassin 47 went all over the world, in the last game he spent most of his time in the south of America killing hillbillies then he went to Vegas and in this he just splits his time between Chicago and Dakota… killing hillbillies again. All games are set in America, I am seriously bored of America and I get the distinct feeling Hitman hates Americans, especially rednecks.

My only other little niggle is the addition of a cover system, it just destroys me to think that there are people playing this game as a cover shooter chest-high-wallfest and not as the methodical murderfest that it is. Also QTE?!.... in Hitman!? What were they thinking!?.... Nuns?