Hitman:Absolution

[Dowly]

Angry Joe's Review:

[the_tyrant]

Originally Posted by Dowly

That ****ing Library level...

I rethought my opinion on disguises. You see, with Blood money, the disguises system is extremely unrealistic, and would destroy all of the "escape" missions. Since all you had to do in that level was to get a policeman disguise, and walk away.

However, the Absolution style also has quite a few problems. Since after all, you are forced to playing the game as Splinter Cell, I want to play as 47 not Sam Fisher goddamnit!

[Dowly]

I wouldnt mind the fact that everyone of profession X knows their collagues if the range would be a tad shorter.
Makes it pretty frustrating as I play on Expert without using the instinct crap.

And they could've gone with a bit better pacing with the sneaky missions.
You got the 4 sneaky levels in "Run for your life", followed by one at the beginning
of "Hunter and Hunted", one assasination level and then again at least two sneaky levels.

But, the assasination levels have been very fun so far.

[Spike88]

You know, I'm most interested in where they will take the story now.

While I haven't finished the game, I doubt ICA will take him back after the events in the game. After he went AWOL the first time he was actually supposed to be killed off but they chose to bring him back in. On top of that 47 will no longer have the iconic barcode, but will instead have the iconic barcode with a scar at the bottom.

[Dowly]

One thing I really dont like is how when you select a level, it starts you off
with the disguise you had when you entered that level for the first time.
For example, if I want to play "Chinese New Year", it starts me wearing the
street vendor disguise.

But it's good otherwise, 16 hours in and I'm about half-way through it on Expert+no instinct.

[Spike88]

Originally Posted by Dowly

One thing I really dont like is how when you select a level, it starts you off
with the disguise you had when you entered that level for the first time.
For example, if I want to play "Chinese New Year", it starts me wearing the
street vendor disguise.

But it's good otherwise, 16 hours in and I'm about half-way through it on Expert+no instinct.

I dislike how certain levels have 47 loosing his disguise between them, despite the fact they're in the same place. This is most noticeable when in the Dexter Industries missions. Although Hitman 2 had this same issue at certain points.

Originally Posted by Spike88

I can understand your opinion on the QTE, they probable made the decision so you weren't sitting there with no "control" during disarms. But it's one of those hit and miss things. Some people like that you're still in control during the hand-to-hand, others hate QTE.

As for the Instinct mode, I can't find it as a flaw at all. It's up to you to actually use it. If you want to find things out on your own don't use it. It's the same functionality as the map(showing you points of interest), juts overlayed ontop of the map. No one is forcing you to use it, and you can turn it off if you feel the need to.



I agree with your thoughts on the disguise system. It needs to be a bit more refined. I can't remember the name, but there is a Hitman like game set in WWII that has a disguise system that is pretty well done. The disguises go by rank, if you disguise as a private, other privates wont notice you, while higher ranks will. Certain units like the Gestapo can tell your disguise no matter what(if I remember correctly) and there are certain disguises that are pointless to use(these are usually targets, or really important people).

I'd like to see a system like the one you described where smaller groups would see through your disguise more than bigger groups, but throw in "bosses" that can tell the difference. If you dress up as a bellboy, other bellboys shouldn't care, but if you were to dress up as a security guard for a small and tight security firm, the others would be suspicious. It should also depend on distance, if you are farther away or can't see your face, they leave you along, if you get closer is when they get suspicious. Although it gets tricky with police officers, as most police officers tend to know most local police officers(even if they work for different agencies). Again, it should be by distance, if you get within 10 feet they can start to tell the difference.
To make the system more complex there should be "bosses" that can tell who are you. If you dress up as a waiter inside a restaurant and bump into the head chef responsible for hiring up close, he should start to detect you. There is a great example of this in the Hitman: Damnation novel where 47's disguise is blown by the person responsible for hiring new bellboys in a hotel.



A complaint of mine is the weapon system. I honestly prefer the one from Blood Money or previous games(which while a bit clunky, make more sense than Absolutions). While you could carry a lot of crap in previous games(almost an infinite amount of small firearms) you couldn't put away long guns. In Absolution you are limited in what you can carry. You can carry one side arm, your AMT hardballers, one melee weapon(previous games let you carry many more), your fiberwire, and then two long guns. If you "holster" a long gun, it magically disappears. Also, at no point do you get frisked, which is a good thing since it's impossible to drop a weapon once it's picked up.

You can acquire DLC weapons through pre-orders or the CE. Other than the fact you can use them in contracts, I found this pointless as you can't choose your loadout before a mission. Although the one light in the tunnel is the fact that these weapons and any other pre-order dlc was made available on launch as DLC. You can buy what you want for .99c a piece or buy all of it for 5.99. You may be thinking what's good about that? 90% of the time these pre-order/Collectors Edition "exclusives" are never made available, making you feel like you missed something neat(this is generally true when it's extra levels).


Now for some more good things:
The small touches in the game are really superb. These range from the fact that 47's tie isn't static(it moves with your posture), to gum stuck on the inside of that closet your hiding in.

There are plenty more accidental deaths.
If you kill someone using an "accident" and there body is discovered it doesn't penalize you, and the guards don't go into "alert". Which I feel is the way it should be. I think it's more suspicious for someone killed by an accident to be hid, rather than found out in the open.

If a guard finds a body that was killed by an accidental death, they'll rush over and kneel by its side. In previous games, they find the body, inspect it and then go back as if nothing happened.

Another nice aspect is that standing stationary in large crowds of NPC's blends you in Assassin's Creed style.


I can see why they made the decisions for this game(focusing more on a dramatic story over typical Hitman gameplay), while it's not perfect it's a pretty good game.

I'm hoping the sequel will be a pleasant mix of Blood Money and Absolution. Ideally I'd like to return to Blood Money type missions where you were put into the map and set free, and where you can choose your equipment. However I'd like to see the accident mechanics, crowd system, and reinforcement system to return from Absolution.

I'd also like the weapon system with customization to return from BM.

As for the more linear "escape" missions, I'm in favor of them to return if their done correctly. If you pull a smooth hit and get out without an alarm, you wouldn't have to do them. However if you do a shoot out, you'd have to do an extra mission where you escape. For example, if you go into a hotel, get into a shoot out, you'd have to do an extra mission where you have to get out of the hotel after S.W.A.T and police officers have closed down the nearby areas.

These three paragraphs sum it up.

On the disguises though, there needs to be a fine line, just like you said, something like being a low level bellboy or mechanic should be hard to be noticed. Another thing I hate though is that no matter how far you are from someone dressed like you, the notice meter goes up just as fast, same if you turn your back, if you're a distance away, they shouldn't be able to notice you as quick. As well as if you grab a disguise with a mask (say S.W.A.T. or the Wades guys who shoot the orphanage up) it should be extremely hard to spot you. I think its dumb having to cover your face all the time, makes it almost impossible to get around guys, and that is on Hard, I cant even relish the thought of expert or purist.

On top of that, the QTE suck, I hate that when Im sneaking up on a guy to subdue him and he turns around JUUUUUST as I press x (Like halfway) it goes into QTE and I knock him out without anyone hearing, but I lose my "don't be spotted" rating. Id like it to be more like if you alert more than one guy (say you take out one guy in a obscure room and no one notices) THEN you lose that rating.

Theres more, but overall, I enjoy the game, a very diverse set of levels.

And Contracts is quite fun, I extremely enjoy it so far.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by USNSRCaseySmith

I think its dumb having to cover your face all the time, makes it almost impossible to get around guys, and that is on Hard, I cant even relish the thought of expert or purist.

I'm playing it on expert without using instinct. It's definitely harder that way,
but finishing a level is also much more rewarding. The disguises are more of
a boost to your stealth, you get that 1-2 extra seconds to be in the open before
being spotted.

Originally Posted by Dowly

I'm playing it on expert without using instinct. It's definitely harder that way,
but finishing a level is also much more rewarding. The disguises are more of
a boost to your stealth, you get that 1-2 extra seconds to be in the open before
being spotted.

Yeah but still. I feel like there are disguises which should take much longer to be spotted. It definately need perfected, but its much better than before.

[the_tyrant]

Originally Posted by USNSRCaseySmith

Yeah but still. I feel like there are disguises which should take much longer to be spotted. It definately need perfected, but its much better than before.

Yeah, why can cops spot me nearly instantly?

make hitman more realistic I say:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...ago-police-boy

[BossMark]

Just put this on my Christmas list, hope its as good as they say