Pages

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Hitman Absolution




By: Robert Murphy

Over the years gamers have seen many secret agent type characters in games and today I’m going to dig into a game that stars one of my favorite highly trained agents in “Hitman Absolution,” that’s right, it has been a long time since we’ve seen a “Hitman” game and I cannot wait to take control of Agent 47 once  more. The last time we saw our bald and barcoded assassin was six and a half years ago, leaving a lot of time and anticipation for fans of the franchise to wait, hopefully our patience is rewarded in kind with our foray back into the franchise.

 "Not to be messed with" look

Trial and error is a big thing that I must say comes with this game, but it is not meant to be a frustrating aspect to the game, no its intent is for players to use their heads and learn the various different ways to play through “Absolution.” Now what I mean by all of this is that like the last “Hitman” game, “Hitman: Blood Money,” players have various different ways to put an end to their targets miserable lives, and boy, are they enjoyable. Not only this, but with each level there are times where you can search the entire area you are confined to, to find weapons or documents that will allow you a different way to complete your objective or make it easier for you to complete an objective. As ever, the “Hitman” games are for the patient, so if you’re not one of those trial and error types or a player who wants to play a mission over and over and see the many different ways your enemies can be taken out, then you will not find a game you want here. Some of the deaths for your enemies are quick and clean, while others are long, but oh so worth it, as you see some of your targets gasp at their last shreds of life before they go down…..by the way these kills are also gruesome at times, if you couldn’t tell by that description alone.

Using the new cover system

Now moving on to the task of getting to your targets, 47 has been given new upgrades from previous games from his shooting skills to stealth and more. This time around 47’s extensive combat skills come into play against all of your targets groupies that get in the way of taking them down, where before you had sedatives for taking down your opponents and keeping them down, now you can just sneak up on an unaware enemy and grapple them to the ground. From here you can either take your enemy down peacefully or just knock your enemy unconscious or you can choose to snap his neck for being a bad guy or you just didn’t like his face. Also, as you are supposed to be sneaky, there is a very smooth and enjoyable cover system for players to use as they move quietly through levels and it works great as you can silently maneuver and easily pop out to take down an enemy or grab them and pull them behind cover with you as well. But if you are above all the hand to hand combat and silent takedowns, 47 is always packing some sort of weapon and in “Absolution” we are introduced to an ability known as Point Shooting. This ability allows you to use your instinct meter to enter a slow motion state where you can lock onto your enemies, shooting them in their vital points or just unload rounds of bullets into their bodies but I went for the vital organs myself. Along with this there is Precision Shot where you lightly squeeze your trigger to steady your aim, making your kills cleaner and effective if you feel the need to shoot at all.

YOU OVER COOKED THE ROAST!!!!

Now I mentioned in the previous paragraph that there is a feature in “Absolution” called “Instinct,” this is a meter that is filled by preforming various tasks in the game like collecting evidence or silently taking down enemies. Players can use instinct for various different things in the game, the main aspect to using instinct is when you are using a disguise and an NPC that has the same disguise recognizes you, you can use instinct to sneak by them without your disguise being blown and you having to take down an innocent by standard. Instinct can also be used to identify enemies in relation to where 47 is and see what path they will take so you can ambush them, also instinct identifies various objects/collectables in the game that you can use and can help you complete your objective.

 Instinct Mode in action

“Absolution” however isn’t all about the single player story anymore, and the game breaks into multiplayer elements with Contracts mode which is a sandbox style element where you can create your own custom hits within the game’s levels, choosing whatever NPCs, weapons or disguises you want. You can challenge your friends to complete your contracts faster and more efficiently than you and vice versa with you being able to play contracts that your friends make as well. Pausing a level in story mode will also present you with an opportunity to play a user-created Contract instead if you aren’t feeling challenged enough.

Overall, I am very satisfied with the new addition of “Absolution” to the “Hitman” franchise, the game does start to pander to more of a less stealthy aspect for players that choose not to be stealthy but at the same time is still the same sneaky and stealth heavy game fans have played before. Games today have begun to start to let players choose their own paths and their own ways to play in a multiple different ways and while “Hitman” game have always done this “Hitman Absolution” stepped up its game to the new standard of multiple ways to play and I was truly pleased by it. Also 47’s upgrades from previous games in things like hand to hand combat and stealth were very enjoyable as well and makes being stealthy fun and easy. The only thing that I can really say I wasn’t impressed with in “Absolution” is the story which was lack luster and really didn’t pull me in but with all to do and see in the game, I found myself enjoying playing the game and not really thinking about it too much.

Good:

-Incredible replay factor

-Plenty of collectables and in game goodies

-Multiple ways to play a level and take down your targets

-47 receives new and enjoyable upgrades

Bad:

-Lack luster story

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10

No comments:

Post a Comment