Picking up the story where Blood Money left off, Absolution weaves its narrative closely around each hit, always providing motivation for your actions and a drive to find out what happens next. Veteran murderers will be glad to know that Instinct can be crippled or disable completely in the range of five difficulty modes, but fair warning: Normal mode itself can be challenging enough for new players, especially if you’re aiming for the higher rankings, and the brutal Purist mode is strictly for the absolute perfectionists and those who like to reload a whole lot.
#HITMAN ABSOLUTION PS3 REVIEW SERIES#
This mode effectively replaces a larger overhead mini-map, and has to be recharged by completing objectives or colourful kills so that it doesn’t make things too easy, an especially important point considering that 47 can also use it to line up a series of slow-mo executions called Point Shooting when things go pear-shaped.
The main change to the game’s mechanics comes in the form of Instinct, a kind of “assassin vision” that highlights enemies, patrol paths and items of interest thanks to (as the game explains to you) 47’s naturally superior instincts and training. Death by electrocution, falling chandeliers, exploding safes and flaming barbeques are all as gruesome as they are darkly hilarious, and the ever elusive Silent Assassin rank, a series trademark, can only be obtained by those willing to constantly explore more exciting ways to exterminate. While most levels offer rewards for finding collectibles stashed around or completing an area without using disguises, there are numerous extra points to be found through sneaky environment kills and player cunning. If the impressive number of varied levels isn’t enough, obsessive players will revel in the new Challenges aspect of Absolution, a series of over 250 optional tasks that affect your score multiplier for each stage. Whether you snipe him from an overlooking apartment window, drop a pallet of crates while he relieves himself in an alleyway, push him down a manhole, disguise yourself as his drug dealer to get closer to him, sabotage his car, run ‘n gun both him and his bodyguards, or poison him one of three different ways, you always feel like a clever and well-trained killer thanks to a remarkably open-ended game world. Things haven’t changed too much since we last strangled unfortunate enemies with our trusty fibre wire in Blood Money, but developer IO Interactive have really embraced the idea of choice and multiple paths so prevalent in today’s gaming zeitgeist.Ībsolution’s first level, after a short tutorial prologue, asks you to dispose of an evil underworld kingpin in a small, seemingly straightforward mission in Chinatown, but even this tiny level set in an enclosed courtyard market offers almost a dozen different ways to exterminate the target. Combining traditional measured stealth with Splinter Cell-style action and even some Uncharted-esque set pieces, this orgy of assassination shines as an addictive and massively replayable adventure, and the addition of several new features alongside a familiar core experience makes Hitman: Absolution a welcome and long overdue return for Agent 47. Except it’s R18, packed with dark humour, and every single choice you make ends in murder.Īnd boy, is it a real page-turner.
The latest entry into the Hitman franchise is ostensibly a really long “Choose Your Own Adventure” book.