PREVIEW: Sing for Absolution.
The Hitman series has been around for a long, long time, and it's unique formula offering sandboxy levels populated with incidental figures and a target to assassinate have proved a draw for gamers for many years. The demo level on offer see's agent 47 venturing into a Chinatown market street to take down a crime boss who likes to hang out at the pagoda in the centre of town. His sole mission is to kill the target, any way possible. Naturally, he's guarded by a platoon of bent cops, so getting close enough to do the deed will be trickier than it sounds.
James' Take
The Hitman games have always been a bit of an engima to me - it's a series I've just never quite been able to get into - so I was eager to give the latest offering, which is making a concerted effort to return to the series roots, a try. First thing's first: It looks stunning. The chinatown market scene is bustling with life, with a thick throng of people crowding the streets.
For my first attempt - yes, it took me several - I tried to get my bearings. The target was easy to spot at the centre of the market, and a prompt came up to try a marked takedown. So, picking a nice quiet spot away from the crowd, I marked my target - just the crime boss - and took the shot with a silenced pistol. Turns out I hadn't been anywhere near as stealthy as I'd thought, and within seconds I had a team of police bearing down on me, riddling me with bullets. So, I tried again.
For my second attempt, I decided to check out the scenery a bit more, and found a suspiciously quiet alley being guarded by a lone bent cop. I snuck up to him, bashed his head against my elbow to knock him out, stole his uniform, and stuffed his body into a locker. Result. I then went to check out what he was guarding, which turned out to be a nice apartment overlooking the square housing a sniper rifle. I opted not to question bounteous providence, grabbed the gun, and took the shot.
The first one, amazingly, missed, but the second bullet hit home. I then turned tail and ran, only to find a trio of police right outside the building - apparently someone had found the body. I tried to fight my way out, but by the time the SWAT team arrived, I knew I was done for.
My final attempt was my scrappiest, but was at least successful. I decided to hang back and watch the target, and when he left the pagoda to go and meet someone I decided to take my chance, creeping up behind him in the busy throng of people and taking out my garotte. I thought I'd be able to do a neat takedown whilst in the midst of the crowd, hoping the body would be lost in the throng. This didn't work out - I garotted him in probably the most blatant way imaginable, and surprisingly enough, everyone saw me. Cue another gunfight, but this time I managed to race to grab an assault rifle that I'd spotted earlier. I gunned my way out of immediate danger, headed straight to the exit, and switched clothes with one of the target's guards. Then, knowing the SWAT team would be here any second, I leapt into a nearby dumpster, and waited. Eventually the hubbub died down, and I snuck out and through the exit. Messy, yes, but I got the job done at least.
I came away with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the plethora of options available is truly impressive - there's a multitude of ways in which you can take out the target, and you can read a few more in Sean's account below. But on the other hand, Hitman: Absolution never seems to be quite as natural as you'd like it to be. The game takes great pains to point out objects you can use, rather than letting you discover them on your own, and you're constantly brought back to the fact that this is an enclosed game world. Whereas the likes of Dishonored excels at really making you feel like you can do anything within it's sandbox levels, in Absolution you're always aware that this is a game environment. That's not a bad thing, necessarily, but it may take some effort to get into the mindset of the game. There's promise here, but it could use a little work on how the player can interact with the world.
Sean's Take
My attempts for Hitman weren't as successful as I'd anticipated. As I'd waited in the queue I was watching various people go about the various ways you can approach the demo, and I figured I'd try a number of things too.
My first attempt as I stalked through the crowd casually was to take out the police presence using the bustle of the crowd as cover. Choosing my first one I took him down and out brutally, I was thinking this was going to go every bit as well as Tom Cruise did it in the nightclub in Collateral.
Sadly however as soon as the police office hit the floor, every other police officer was alerted and the mission went badly, leading into a lengthy gun fight which ultimately ended up with my demise.
Attempt two occurred and this time I thought I'd find a quiet alley with no-one around, and try a long range shot with a silenced pistol - hoping that by the time anyone had realised what had happened, I could disappear into the crowd. I fired and shot - and every police officer was alerted leading into a lengthy gun fight which ultimately ended up with my demise.
Attempt three, I found a cop on his own and thought i'd try and subdue him, and disguise myself as a cop and take it from there. As I tackled him to the floor, every police officer was alerted leading into a lengthy gun fight which ultimately ended up with my demise.
By this point I was at my wits end, so I took it extremely carefully, didn't try to be clever and used the hint button that had continued to pop up while I walked around, I was told that a certain type of fish can be used as poison so I quickly grabbed it, and continued to walk around. I found another nook and the hint button popped up again. "This looks like where the target would eat a meal". So I simply poisoned the food, and watched as the target died and I casually left the area without a shot fired.
It's a shame that the most successful run of them all was the one I felt the least satisfied with. Whether it was my timing or just bad choices literally everytime I tried to be smarter than the game it caused a chain reaction which ultimately led to the same outcome, which was me being shot to death. The one time I found success was because the game quite honestly told me everything I needed to do. Which was a massive shame and a huge disappointment.
There's a huge amount of ambition inside Hitman Absolution. I just really hope it can be truly realised before the games release, because the atmosphere is excellent, it looks superb and Hitman has always maintained a feeling of being quite fresh. If the game just freed itself up a bit, and really allowed the player to experiment within its sandbox, this could be a real game to look out for. For now? It sadly, like I did several times, missed the mark.
