Gameplay-
The game is played from a third-person perspective and takes place primarily in the United States, mainly around the city of Chicago, Illinois, and the fictional town of Hope in South Dakota. The player controls Agent 47, a master hitman.Gameplay is very similar to past Hitman games; as such, it is a stealth game that incorporates action gunplay. Players choose how to complete each level, taking branching paths to get to a target or location. Players may use pistols, bottles or bricks, assault rifles, shotguns, fiber-wire, or steel pipes, against enemies if opting for the action oriented approach, or avoid enemies all together, not being seen, using disguises, blending in the environment, and only attacking the set target(s), if using the stealth oriented approach. Agent 47 also has the 'Instinct' ability that lets the player monitor enemies more easily.There are also environmental ways to kill or distract individuals; players can use poison to spike coffee, pull switches to make a disco ball fall and break, cause a massive explosion at a gas station, pull a switch to cause scaffolding to fall down, cause fires, or set off fireworks. Players complete chapters in order to progress through the story. The player journeys to a mansion, library, strip club, gun store, wrestling arena, courthouse, and hotel, during the story.
The game introduces an online option to the series, 'Contracts', where players can create their own missions for other players to complete. Players choose one of the areas in the game and modify it to create a different level. Players change the location of items, remove items, or add items, choose an objective or add a target, add a time limit, or choose which areas of the location are inaccessible and vice versa.
Methods of Assassination-
The Hitman series permits the player to kill targets (or non-targets) in a variety of ways, using firearms, melee weapons, or even conventional objects that 47 picks up (such as shovels, fireplace pokers, pool cues, etc.). In Hitman: 'Contracts', melee weapons such as knives can be used to kill in more than one method, including forward stabs, horizontal throat slitting, frontal slashes, repeated stabs under the ribcage, or thrusting the blade into the carotid artery.
47 also has a garrote, or 'fiber wire'. The fiber wire is specially made for strangulation, with reinforced handles. He carries it with him on every mission, even those in which he is stripped of all other weaponry. It is also one of the few weapons which can bypass metal detectors.
To achieve the ideal 'Silent Assassin' rank, it is required that 47 only kill his assigned targets, and no one else. The sedative syringes, or chloroform in 'Hitman 2: Silent Assassin' (which only has a temporary, dose-dependent effect, unlike syringes), exist for this purpose, so that 47 may incapacitate an innocent person to take items or clothing from their body without harming them, so it does not count against the player in the final ranking. In Blood Money, the ability to add sedatives to food and drink was added, to avoid direct confrontation. Blood Money also introduced the option to hold any NPC hostage using smaller arms and use them as a human shield, and allows the player to knock the hostage unconscious with the gun, saving the player sedatives for food items or any impeding characters that are seated in chairs. In some missions, if a murder can be made to look like accidental death (using the accident system introduced in Blood Money), some kills will not be counted as hits, but as accidents. Any civilians or armed personnel who witness a kill will count as witnesses, and will harm the player's rank if they remain alive or alert nearby guards. If however, someone (target or civilian) dies because of an accident, it will not matter if there are witnesses. 47 has the option of killing witnesses before they reach a guard, but the unnecessary murder will still count against his rank, unless he kills them with an accident. Witnesses also include anybody who sees 47 changing disguises or holding a weapon. In the games prior to Blood Money, the only consequence of having witnesses to a crime is that they will seek out police/guards and trigger an alert.
There are mission-specific options for killing a target in certain levels. Notable examples include locking a target in a sauna to stimulate a heart condition and cause cardiac arrest, poisoning a target's meal (this becomes more widespread in Blood Money), disguising 47 as a doctor and sabotaging a surgical operation, replacing a prop Mauser C96 handgun with a real one at an opera rehearsal, causing an actor to unwittingly kill the target, and causing stage pyrotechnics to explode and set the target on fire.
In most cases, it is required that 47 also hide the body of killed or unconscious victims, in order to avoid any unwanted alarm or if this is the desired effect 47 can leave the victims body in a wide open space for all to see.
Plot-
In the aftermath of Hitman: Blood Money, Diana Burnwood, Agent 47's handler with the International Contract Agency, suddenly goes rogue, carrying out a catastrophic sabotage that includes publicly exposing the Agency. The Agency reforms under Agent Benjamin Travis; Travis assigns 47 to kill Diana and bring Victoria, a teenage girl in her care, to the Agency. Shooting and wounding Diana in her home in Chicago, 47, rather than executing her, comforts the dying Diana, who gives him a letter and asks him to keep Victoria safe from the Agency.
47 hides Victoria at a Catholic orphanage somewhere in Chicago and contacts an International Contracts Agency (ICA) informant named Birdie, who asks him to kill a wealthy gangster nicknamed The King of Chinatown, in order for him to play ball. After eliminating him, 47 meets with Birdie, who briefs him about Blake Dexter, the CEO of Dexter Industries, who may have more information on Victoria. As payment, 47 is forced to give his signature Silverballers to Birdie. 47 learns that Dexter is in the "Terminus" hotel and after evading Dexter's henchmen, eavesdrops on him. 47 learns from Dexter's conversation with his secretary Layla that he plans to kidnap and auction Victoria to the highest bidder. 47 attempts to strangle Sanchez, Dexter's enormous bodyguard, who proceeds to knock 47 unconscious. After Dexter discovers who he is, he almost kills him, but decides as he doesn't want that kind of attention. Just then, a hotel maid comes in and discovers 47, thinking he is dead. Dexter kills her, plants the weapon with 47, douses the room in alcohol, ignites it, and leaves with Layla and Sanchez. Framed by Dexter for the murder, 47 escapes the hotel and evades the police. 47 contacts Birdie, who tells him to go to a local strip club and kill the owner, Dom Osmond, who works as an informant for Blake Dexter, so that he can protect Victoria. 47 kills Osmond and learns from a phone message in his office that Birdie is being hunted by Wade—–a sociopathic mercenary, who is a close friend of Dexter and is under his employ. Despite killing henchmen that were looking for Birdie, Birdie still sells Victoria's location to Wade so that he can save his life. 47 reaches Victoria and learns that the necklace Victoria has keeps her alive. Wade and his henchmen raid the orphanage and massacre most of the nuns. 47 is forced to pick up fuse boxes that are scattered across the orphanage, since the elevator to the basement breaks down. After finding them all, 47 installs the fuse boxes and starts the elevator. Despite 47 's efforts, Victoria is still kidnapped by Wade. 47 manages to shoot Wade, but Victoria is then taken hostage by Lenny, Dexter's son. 47 interrogates Wade to reveal Victoria 's location—–Hope, South Dakota—–and leaves him to die of his injuries. Meanwhile, Birdie approaches Dexter, offering to broker the ransom of Victoria back to the Agency, but he is rejected. In anger, Birdie secretly provides information about 47's location to Travis's assistant, Jade Nguyen, and information about Dexter to 47, hoping to profit off the situation. After arriving in Hope, 47 retrieves his Silverballers after Birdie informs him of their location at a gun store. Later, 47 kills Lenny's gang and interrogates Lenny himself. The player then drives him to the desert, and the player can either kill him or leave him in the desert. Learning from Lenny that Victoria is at the Dexter Industries HQ, 47 infiltrates the facility and destroys their research data on her while assassinating its scientists, and discovers that Victoria is in fact agenetically engineered clone bred to be a top-class assassin like him; however she can only use the skills of an assassin when she wears her necklace. 47 kills Sanchez in an underground cage fight after learning from him that Victoria was taken back to Hope. Recuperating at a motel, 47 survives an ICA attack led by The Saints—–elite nuns in leather outfits and kills them.
Infiltrating Hope Courthouse Jail, 47 reaches Victoria but is subdued by the corrupt local sheriff Clive Skurky, who is working with Dexter. The ICA, led by Travis, take over the town in an attempt to get Victoria back and kill 47; but she is nowhere to be found, while 47 escapes the jail and the 'Agency. He then confronts a wounded Skurky in a church, demanding Victoria 's location. Skurky tells 47 she is at Blackwater Park, then dies from his wounds. Travis pays a ransom of ten million dollars for Victoria, but Dexter doesn't keep his side of the bargain and keeps both Victoria and the money. 47 arrives at Dexter 's penthouse and kills Layla after she tries to seduce him (and fails). Dexter, not knowing that Layla has been killed, threatens to destroy the hotel's roof if she doesn't meet him there within five minutes. As Dexter is about to leave the hotel with Victoria and the money by helicopter, 47 mortally wounds him. 47 saves Victoria, while Dexter, with his dying words, apologizes to hisLenny, and asks for his money. Victoria, who is disgusted by Dexter 's words, opens the briefcase containing the ransom and throws the money onto his dying body. 47 and Victoria then leave the hotel. 47 learns from the letter Diana gave to him that Travis created Victoria without the Agency 's knowledge; in the letter, she also requests that 47 kill Travis to protect Victoria. Pursuing him to England, 47 finds the ICA exhuming the Burnwood family graves, believing Diana's death to have been faked. After killing Jade, and then Travis' personal guards, the Preatorians, 47 corners Travis, who asks him if Diana is dead. 47 refuses to answer and kills Travis. During a closing cutscene, 47 watches Diana and Victoria from afar before a message from Diana welcomes him back to the Agency, revealing that the shot 47 fired at her was non-lethal. Victoria also considers disposing of her necklace to prevent her from hurting anyone, with Diana telling her to do what she has to. Another cutscene then shows Birdie offering information on 47 to Cosmo Faulkner, a detective investigating his case.
Story Overview-
The first game starts when 47 escapes from a sanitarium where he has seemingly been imprisoned, being guided by a mysterious overseer. After a year, he is shown to be working for the covert International Contract Agency, or ICA, under his handler Diana Burnwood. He is sent on a mission to eliminate four crime bosses across the world, before being hired to kill a fifth target, Doctor Kovacs, at the sanitarium where 47 was imprisoned. As events transpire, 47 finds out that all his targets were part of an advanced cloning experiment, with him as the result; the perfect assassin. Professor Ort-Meyer, himself the scientific head of the experiments, is revealed to be the client who ordered the hits and, to protect himself, sends a squad of docile, highly trained '48' clones against 47. With help from a fellow agent, 47 defeats the clones and kills Ort-Meyer. In the aftermath of this revelation, 47 tries to leave his assassin past behind (in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin), seeking peace in a Sicilian monastery, but is forced to become an assassin once more when his mentor and friend, Father Vittorio, is kidnapped. Getting back in contact with the ICA, he arranges with Diana that he will work for them if they help trace Father Vittorio. Eventually, it is revealed that Father Vittorio's kidnapping was orchestrated by Sergei Zavorotko, the brother of one of the men whose DNA helped create 47, to bring 47 out of retirement and kill everyone who was in on a deal by Zavorotko to purchase a nuclear warhead. 47 successfully infiltrates Father Vittorio's monastery, killing Zavorotko and all his men. Though Father Vittorio begs 47 to lead a good life, the assassin decides to return to the ICA full-time.
A few years later, by the time of Hitman: Blood Money, 47's reputation has spread far and wide, with a large list of clients requesting his services. During the course of the game, it becomes clear that the ICA is under attack from a rival agency called the 'Franchise', who are also planting incriminating evidence against 47 through one of their agents, Alexander Leland Cayne. Eventually, the agency is depleted to the point that Diana and 47 are the only ones left. 47 himself is nearly killed in Paris, prompting flashbacks over previous missions. Eventually, 47 kills one of the two top 'Franchise' assassins and is given a final contract by Diana, who has dissolved the ICA, to take down the 'Franchise'. Soon, an old acquaintance of 47, former CIA agent 'Smith', reveals that the 'Franchise', currently planning to assassinate the US president, is merely a puppet organization for Alpha Xerox, a shadowy political organization who wish to monopolize the cloning techniques that gave birth to 47: they wish to kill the President before he can put a halt to their plans. 47 prevents the assassination, but must go into hiding from the 'Franchise' and the police. At his hideout, he is seemingly betrayed and poisoned by Diana, with the 'Franchise' preparing to cremate the assassin so his DNA cannot be used for further cloning experiments. 47's 'death' is later revealed to be a tactic which would bring 47 within killing range of everyone at the funeral, including 'Franchise' agent Cayne. 47, his identity now a secret, then goes into hiding and Diana uses the remains of the 'Franchise' to revive the ICA.
Years later, in Hitman: Absolution, Diana seemingly betrays the ICA, exposing it to the public. When the Agency learns of her betrayal, they send operatives to eliminate her. During a mission, Diana is forced to suddenly abandon 47 when she sees that the Agency operatives are coming for her. Due to her sudden disconnection from him, 47 is nearly killed during the mission and decides to cut contact with the ICA. The Agency is eventually able to locate 47 once again. Benjamin Travis, who is Diana's superior within the Agency, contracts him to kill Diana and bring a girl she has in her care, Victoria, to the Agency. 47 infiltrates Diana's base and wounds her, but promises to keep Victoria safe from the ICA. It is revealed that Victoria is a clone, like 47, created in secret by Travis, whom the ICA would train to be an assassin. Diana did what she did to protect the girl from becoming like 47. The assassin soon comes into conflict with Blake Dexter, the head of Dexter Industries and a top figure in the criminal underworld, who wishes to sell Victoria to the highest bidder. 47 finds himself fighting to keep Victoria safe as she is hunted by Dexter's forces and the ICA. 47 eventually kills Dexter and his conspirators along with Travis and his lieutenants, saving Victoria. At the end, it is revealed that 47 spared Diana and it is implied that she and 47 are once more working for the ICA.
Reception-
Hitman: Absolution received a polarized reception. Aggregating review websitesGameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 84.83% and 83/100, the Xbox 360 version 79.29% and 79/100 and the PC version 76.13% and 79/100,respectively. Positive reviews came fromGamesRadar, calling it "one of the strongest entries in the series to date",and Game Informer, who wrote that "devising a strategy, using the environment and disguises to your advantage, and leaving before anyone knows you’re there are the hallmarks of a perfect hit, and Absolution proves Agent 47 is still gaming's premier hitman."The Daily Mail gave the game a 4/5, with particular praise being given to the game's varied environments, of which they remarked that "whether it's walking along the sun-kissed balcony of a beach-side villa, or exploring the dank, underground sewers below a nightclub, Absolution brings each world to life with remarkable aplomb."
Edge gave it 7/10, saying "the game has taken a unique formula and diluted it". VentureBeat gave it 7.5/10 saying "Absolution aims high but misses the mark." Eurogamer gave it 7/10 saying "Agent 47 doesn't begin Hitman: Absolution with amnesia, but the six years that have passed since we last took control of him in Blood Money do seem to have dulled his creators' recollections of what made him so popular in the first place." GameSpot gave it 7.5/10 saying "Hitman: Absolution's vivid world and enjoyable stealth-action gameplay overshadow its few notable inconsistencies." IGN gave it 9/10 saying "It’s nice to have a game that doesn’t just encourage improvisation; it requires it."Forbes and Kotaku both gave Absolution positive reviews. Giant Bombgave it 4/5, as did Joystiq. Destructoid gave it 8.5/10. GameArena gave the game a 3/10 saying "IO Interactive needs to restart from the Blood Money checkpoint and try again — they screwed up this run spectacularly."
The Daily Telegraph gave the game a 2/5 saying "Despite the fact that Absolution is a hugely disappointing entry into the canon, Hitman is still a fabulous series." IBITimes gave the game a 5/10 saying "An unremarkable, derivative clone of a game that's barely a shadow of what Hitman used to be." Videogamer.com gave it 5/10 saying "The problem with Absolution is that its new custodians from the Kane and Lynch team seem to have fundamentally misunderstood what made Hitman great." Blogcritics.org gave the game a 3/5 saying "There are definitely good things about it, but all too often the game's failures shine through more clearly than its successes." PC Gamer gave it 66% saying "A passable stealth game, but one that betrays almost everything that, until now, has made Hitman great."GameTrailers gave it 6.9/10 saying "It’s clear that a good deal of effort was put into crafting Hitman: Absolution’s world. This makes its flaws all the more unfortunate."New Statesman gave no rating but said "If developers want to win back fans when they revisit established franchises maybe they should look to what made those games popular in the first place and by doing so maybe they’d avoid stepping on a rake or two." GamerSyndrome gave no rating but said "Hitman Absolution tries to be a jack of all trades but ends up being a master of none." The Irish Times gave no score but said "The move away from the completely open world may leave some hardcore fans of Hitman disappointed." Gaming Age rated the game a 'C' and said "It feels like I’m playing a low rent, knockoff Metal Gear title as opposed to traditional Hitman." The Daily Record gave the game 3/5 saying "While it’s more accessible than previous Hitman games, Absolution loses a lot of the freedom that fans of the franchise love, and perhaps doesn’t necessarily fit the Hitman name any longer."TheEscapist gave no score but said "Hitman Absolution is not the best nor the worst Hitman". Whatculture gave the game a 3/5 saying "Not Quite the expected hit". The Guardian gave it 3/5 saying "The game may look better and play better than any Hitman game before it, but one can only marvel at how IO managed to lose sight of their IP's most appealing aspects so often."
On 26 March 2013, Square Enix announced that the game had sold about 3.6 million copies at retail, but has failed to reach predicted sales targets.
Technical issues-
Shortly after launch, scores of complaints came in about the game crashing, freezing and corrupting file saves on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, rendering many of the games unplayable.On 26 November 2012, IO Interactive stated that they were working around the clock to try and fix these technical errors, but also stated that they did not know what exactly was causing the errors, so a patch may take some time.
The patch for the PC and PS3 versions was released on 10 December 2012, while the Xbox 360 patch was released nine days later. However, players have complained about continued crashing and freezing issues even after installing the patch.
On 29 May 2012, a cinematic teaser trailer, produced by Square Enix's CGI studio Visual Works, titled "Attack of the Saints" was released. The trailer's depiction of "gun-toting, PVC and latex-clad nuns being killed in a hail of bullets" sparked controversy over the allegedly portrayal of women. IO Interactive's Tore Blystad, the game's director, later apologized, stating they're "sorry that we offended people" and that it "was truly not the intention of the trailer."
On 4 December 2012, IO Interactive faced heavy criticism for releasing a Hitman: Absolution Facebook app that allowed users to identify and threaten Facebook friends for assassination. Methods of identifying female friends included "her hairy legs", "her muffin top" and "her small tits". Methods of identifying male friends included "his ginger hair", "his shit hair" and "his tiny penis". Users could choose a reason to kill their friend, such as the fact that they "smell bad" or were cheating on their partner. Friends received a personalised video on their Facebook wall identifying them as a target. Signing up to watch the video presented recipients with a mixture of their own photos and Facebook details merged into a video of Hitmancharacter Agent 47 shooting them. IO Interactive admitted the promotional app was in bad taste and removed it the same day.
