Being an assassin is most likely a pretty cool job. Sure, it’s tactical beyond belief, as you need to be perfect in the art of killing and, in some ways, even make the job look like an accident so that no one would ever suspect you, but just being able to wipe some greaseball off the face of the earth with something as simple as a knife stab to the throat…just wow. We already experienced the medieval art of that with the Assassin’s Creed series, and now Agent 47 is bringing his contemporary touch back to the surface later this year with Hitman: Absolution. This time around, the long-time, bar coded assassin has a mountain-sized task ahead of him, as he’s asked to take out his long-time handler, a person he’s been working with for years. If the conflict over personal choice wasn’t enough, she’s actually asked him to do a little hunting for her own sake, including a few unfavorable characters who may have been the reason she’s become a target. So, with Agent 47 doing what he does best, he sets out to make things right, no matter how bloody it gets. IO Interactive, who hit a bit of a skid with its last project, the over-the-top Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days, have settled down quite a bit here, though action fans will still be right at home with Agent 47’s skill set.
However, this time around, you actually have a choice in how you play, either being able to show off your assassin skills at their very best, or blowing through the whole thing like the gun-toting madman you are. Both have consequences and extra perks that carry throughout the entire game, so there’s no negative route to take. And action fans are sure to like being able to go nuts with Agent 47, rather than playing the careful and cautious route. IO showed us one particular stage in the game, played on a PlayStation 3 (but it’ll be similar to the Xbox 360 build), taking place in a near-abandoned Chicago orphanage. A group of hired guns is called upon to hunt down a little girl in the orphanage, but they decide to take the hunt a little bit casual, shooting down nuns and interrogating guards in the process. Dressed as a priest, Agent 47 finds himself infiltrating the same orphanage, called upon to save the girl by any means necessary, as a request from his handler. Now, how he does it…this is where things get interesting. The reps for the game played through it two different times just to give us an idea of which way we could go with the gameplay. The first was the silent, cautious route. Using his creeping abilities to get around object and occasionally throwing things to distract enemies and move them out of the way, Agent 47 is able to work his way through the orphanage with minimal damage.
He occasionally puts a guy to sleep and casually hides the body, to avoid detection by others, using either a containment unit or, in a rather humorous sequence, a nearby ball pit, normally set aside for the kids. He also hides behind walls and keeps an eye on where enemies are placed, using a special heat-tracking “assassin sense” for a few seconds, which highlights silhouettes and objects. In addition, Agent 47 can also don other people’s costumes, pretending to be a fellow gunman behind a mask (which the enemies foolishly believe) as he works his way around them, eventually reaching a switch and going to another part of the level. Now let’s flip that around. Same level, but this time around, Agent 47 takes the more gung-ho route, snapping necks on everyone he grabs and prepping himself for a few proper kills, either by headshot or using something in the environment – such as the ever-present drum that explodes when you shoot it. This style is definitely more the speed of traditional action fans, as Agent 47 packs a whole lot of firepower and can regain any lost health by staying in cover for a few seconds at a time. What’s more, he still has the “assassin sense” (letting him see where enemies are) and can also activate a dead-on accuracy ability, which stops time for a few seconds while he sets up key shots.
This is similar to the “Dead Eye” system, but a lot more effective in combat. Once your shots are set up, you can activate the ability and watch Agent 47 unfurl his damage, to ferocious effect. No matter which way you play, Hitman: Absolution promises to be the best game in the series to date. IO Interactive is putting a heaping amount of work into the game’s presentation, with vivid locales to kill your way through, excellent lighting, a sure-fire use of Agent 47’s abilities, and cool little animations, especially bad guys who collapse to the ground after you kill them. (Our favorite kill: launching a fire hatchet into someone’s face. OUCH!) The audio is equally impressive, with lots of gritty dialogue (when the bad guys argue with each other, it’s pretty damn funny) and little musical cues that pick up as the aggression between Agent 47 and his target escalates. We still have much more of the game to see, and we have a feeling that Square Enix will invite us back at GDC and E3 with a glimpse at future levels and possibly even more of Agent 47’s killing abilities. But for now, we’re thoroughly impressed, and eagerly awaiting the return of the true Hitman for our age. Look for more information on Absolution over the next few months here at PlanetXbox360, as we anticipate its fall 2012 release.
