Hitman Absolution

[rajpoot]

I must confess that when I heard of this last year I wasn't very hopeful because the level they showed was nearly linear and 47 was jumping around like Altair.
Add to that the latest trailer with latex clad nuns wielding rocket launchers and automatic rifles and I almost gave it up on this game, thinking that it had become the latest victim of the streamlining and 'mass-appeal-mania' that has been rife in the gaming industry these past few years.

The E3 demo and it's reviews have reaffirmed my faith to some extent though. Looks like we're getting another good old Hitman game after all.
(Also I think it's also been confirmed that they're doing a second movie, at least the game devs seem to think so)

Nun free demo preview. (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/349919/previews/hitman-absolution-hands-on-with-the-nun-free-e3-demo/)

[Fragony]

If they have the guys who did https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTsj8c-RHM&feature=youtube_gdata_player I will be buying it anyway

[Husar]

I missed the "nuns" trailer but after watching it now, those aren't nuns.

Think about it, nuns wouldn't know martial arty, dress like that or use guns, they have to be other ladies dressed like nuns.

No really.

By the way that's not gameplay anyway so not really bothering me.

[(HG)Mariscal Zhukov]

There is a video of the E3 demo, showing several ways to eliminate the objectives (thankfully):



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_pal859keA


Moves away from what appeared to be another "casualization" of great videogames series :sweatdrop:

[rajpoot]

I missed the "nuns" trailer but after watching it now, those aren't nuns.

Think about it, nuns wouldn't know martial arty, dress like that or use guns, they have to be other ladies dressed like nuns.

No really.

By the way that's not gameplay anyway so not really bothering me.

It is actually what the trailer depicts that bothered me. It wasn't the gratuitous violence or blood, it wasn't even the fact that it was female assassins he was killing or the fact they were dressed in cliched latex swimsuits. What bothered me was the way he killed them.
Hitman has never been about charging right into the foray guns blazing, slaughtering half a dozen people (aside from the last act of Blood Money). The trailer showed none of the finesse and subtlety that's supposed to be 47's most important character trait.

[Greyblades]

Well fortunately (HG)Mariscal Zhukov's video shows a more subtle 47 and I do remember quite afew moments in blood money where I would screw up and have to shoot my way out, the american suburbs and the playboy's penthouse level come to mind, dang spooks allways catching me before I can get a body to a dumpster *grumblegrumble*.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

I wish there would come a Hitman game with multiplayer.

But this here one looks awesome.

[Voigtkampf]

It is actually what the trailer depicts that bothered me. It wasn't the gratuitous violence or blood, it wasn't even the fact that it was female assassins he was killing or the fact they were dressed in cliched latex swimsuits. What bothered me was the way he killed them.
Hitman has never been about charging right into the foray guns blazing, slaughtering half a dozen people (aside from the last act of Blood Money). The trailer showed none of the finesse and subtlety that's supposed to be 47's most important character trait.

All this hostility towards loose women in latex is making me a sad bunny. :on_whine:

That aside, I absolutely disagree with the second part. Hitman should be about your choice on how to play it. When a game gives you a strict approach and forces you to keep up with it, that's BS in my book, regardless on what that approach is.

Where I do prefer going the stealthy, imaginative route with as few secondary victims as only possible, I love the opportunity to just go in guns blazing. If anyone recalls the Meat-Factory-SM-party mission, where you had to kill the "Meat-King", I loved those kinds of missions. I did it the stealthy way, killed the boss only and disappeared out the back door. But then I reloaded and went Leon the Pro on them. There is something about that cool, sly walk the 47 does, not a care in the world, and that pass through stuck in my memory until this very day. I simply called it "Massacre at the Slaughterhouse" and went straight in, walking as cool as a bottle of JD's. At the entrance, there were two guards; 47 pulls two silenced automatics, his trademark, and I simply splattered their brains against the wall. The patrons start screaming and running away, as 47 casually strolls inside. As opponents emerge, they are being swiftly dealt with, and all the time he is walking in this leisurely paste, reloading guns, killing anything that comes in his way. I recall that there was a mission in China Town of approx the same nature and scope, and I preferred to deal with that one as well in this noisy, violent, barbaric fashion.

Tl;dr - Only as long as people have both the violent, guns blazing approach and stealthy ninja approach at their disposal is a Hitman game done right.

[Hooahguy]

I loved Blood Money, now I am very excited for this one!



Hitman has never been about charging right into the foray guns blazing, slaughtering half a dozen people (aside from the last act of Blood Money).
Lol wut?
Clearly you have been playing wrong... :rolleyes:

[rajpoot]

Voigtkampf

But but....that was what I was trying to say. Choice! :sweatdrop:
I was worried we'd be forced onto more action-y paths. Until I saw the E3 demo.


Lol wut?
Clearly you have been playing wrong... :rolleyes:

I know!
I never had my picture in the papers in Blood Money, always ended up getting the Silent Assassin thingy. :on_lie:

[Voigtkampf]

Voigtkampf

But but....that was what I was trying to say. Choice! :sweatdrop:

Good, than we are in agreement and there is no need for me to leave a garrison of Stormtroopers in your fancy cloud city. :on_smoke:

[rajpoot]

Nearly made a new thread when I remembered I'd started one about this game already.
Review (http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/11/18/hitman-absolution-review) on IGN says that while it does have some scenarios where the game forces one to take the violent shoot 'em up path, in general the game is akin to a Hitman Blood Money, but a lot smoother.
However since Mass Effect 3 and Colin Moriarty's comment's on IGN I've been a little skeptical about their reviews, so going to wait for other opinions before I get this one.

[Fragony]

Eurogamer likes it, not as much as Blood Money but enjoyable

[Voigtkampf]

PC Gamer (http://www.pcgamer.com/review/hitman-absolution-review/) dumped all over it. Guess the check got lost in the mail. Activating it tomorrow, didn't get the early version, will be making my own opinion then.

[Sir Moody]

Rock Paper Shotgun (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/11/18/wot-i-think-hitman-absolution/) have not given it a good review either - they seem to think its too narrative driven and not free form enough (ie it forces you down restrictive paths rather than letting you plan and play as you want)

I am still going to play it but this has dampened my mood towards it a little

[Fragony]

I am just going to wait for the price to drop, there have been such a wealth of excellence lately that that probably won't take very long. From what I read it sounds like a good game.

[rajpoot]

Hmm, those reviews are not very encouraging.

Waiting for your take on it Voigtkampf-sama

[Voigtkampf]

Played about an hour last night, didn't get any more time for it, and loved it so far. Will have to get in some more gaming time before I can make the final judgement, but what I've seen in the first missions is very encouraging. Graphics are very pleasant, animations are wonderful (that casual, cool walk with two silenced guns in hands of Agent 47 is once again amazingly done!), possibilities of the gameplay are rich and there is a number of approaches to solving problems. And, what is most important, you can choose how to do it; after a silent approach, I went straight again for the guns blazing entrance, and both worked, albeit with different results!

Of course, I can't give it the final verdict yet, but so far it looks very promising. I can't figure out why there is so much hate out there for this title, how did IO pissed off PCGamer and others? The PCGamer article is filled with such ugly screenshots that it made me wonder if they deliberately went out on a ledge to find the ugliest looking scenes and display them...

But he sure as hell has one shiny, highly reflective head in this sequel... :on_sung:

[Hooahguy]

Ive watched a few gameplay videos and I gotta say that I really like the way this game looks. When the price goes down Im going to get it for sure.

[Greyblades]

Bought it, played it, spent two days on it, getting ready for round two on that hotel mission, best stealth game since blood money.

[Fragony]

Bought it, played it, spent two days on it, getting ready for round two on that hotel mission, best stealth game since blood money.

Never played that one, it's considered the best one by just about everybody :shame:

[spankythehippo]

Never played that one, it's considered the best one by just about everybody :shame:

Definitely. It's soo fun, with so many ways to kill your target.

[Greyblades]

Definitely. It's soo fun, with so many ways to kill your target.

My favourite was the casino/hotel.

Strangle the afrikaner in the toilet, take his room key, go to the elivator and strangle the scientist when he shows, go to the scientist's room, use his phone to call the arab and snipe the sucker as he walks outside to answer, after that is just the matter of collecting the suitcases and leaving.

I kinda miss the ability to climb over most walls in retribution, taking the hard way because 47 forgot how to climb a wire fence is a bit annoying.

[Hooahguy]

I kinda miss the ability to climb over most walls in retribution, taking the hard way because 47 forgot how to climb a wire fence is a bit annoying.

Pretty sure he couldnt in Blood Money either.

[spankythehippo]

Pretty sure he couldnt in Blood Money either.

He could climb in very specific locations, like drain pipes.

[Hooahguy]

He could climb in very specific locations, like drain pipes.

Oh yeah. But I thought it was the same deal in this game too?

[spankythehippo]

Oh yeah. But I thought it was the same deal in this game too?

I don't know. I haven't played Absolution yet. I'll get it when it's on sale. So that's about a year from now. *sigh*

[Hooahguy]

I don't know. I haven't played Absolution yet. I'll get it when it's on sale. So that's about a year from now. *sigh*

Unless you win the lottery. In which case you are expected to buy all of us copies.

[spankythehippo]

Unless you win the lottery. In which case you are expected to buy all of us copies.

If I win the lottery, I'll buy everyone every game that existed on Steam. Even Train Simulator, which amounts to about $2000 for the base game and all the DLC's.

[Voigtkampf]

Got around to review Hitman: Absolution (http://www.strategyprime.net/hitman-absolution-review/) and I must honestly tell you, it is one of the few games I actually will continue playing after replaying them.

Will soon be doing a detailed video walkthrough with all the challenges and unlocks depicted. If you got any questions, feel free to ask!

[Hooahguy]

Good review!

One thing which sort of bothered me as I was watching walkthroughs on youtube was that it seemed like you couldnt set a loadout (guns, tools, etc) before each mission like you could in Blood Money, then I realized that maybe the person doing the walkthrough most likely skipped that part in the video. Can you clarify this for me?

[Voigtkampf]

Thanks for the compliment, and sadly, yeah, you can't set your own loadouts for the campaign missions. Basically, you gather what weapons you found along the way, but you always got your wire and, after a while, you get your dual silverballers with silencers as a starting weapon.

[Hooahguy]

Well, I guess thats all not too bad. Gives some strategy I guess to picking up weapons. Though can you play individual missions after you beat the game, or is it tied to the campaign? And if so, can you pick out weapons beforehand?

One of my favorite things to do in Blood Money is to role-play my 47 to accomplish certain things. Like for instance, I will RP in the pornography tycoon resort mission in Blood Money I would RP that one of the photographers killed my son in a bar fight, so to exact revenge, he must also die. Also I RP that the people at the party with a red heart on them are international criminals and INTERPOL hired me to take them out. Or in the Curtains Down mission, I am the distraught father of one of the little girls that the main target supposedly molested and Im here to exact revenge on everyone. From what it seems, I will be able to do such role playing in this game as well.

[Voigtkampf]

I haven't been playing any contracts; you are supposed to be able to use all your unlocked weapons when playing contracts, and I am still a bit away from the end of the game, but there are a lot of opportunities to RP. There are also a lot of challenges in the game that make that kind of gameplay even more appealing, so that you just as well might try to do some missions over and over until you, for instance, manage to go through without killing or even subduing anyone, or for the super-stealthy assassins out there, there are challenges to go through the mission without being spotted.

[Voigtkampf]

Started the Hitman Absolution complete walkthrough, the intent is to work on a mission every day or two, it is both a video walkthrough as well as written walkthrough. You can check out the video below, all comments and tips are welcome. Here is the first mission walkthrough (http://www.strategyprime.net/strategy-prime-guides/hitman-absolution-complete-walkthrough/prologue-a-personal-contract/).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuXRf5QKWGw

Once again, all comments, tips, suggestion, additions and advice are welcome!

[Hooahguy]

Something which is bothering me about this game is a lack of checkpoints. From the videos I can only assume that you cant save whenever you want, am I correct?

[Greyblades]

You can find checkpoints in several places but mostly unless your standing in one you cant save.

[Hooahguy]

Ugh thats annoying. I remember whenever I was about to do something risky I would always be sure to save right before. Looks like Ill have to be more careful now.

[Voigtkampf]

Checkpoints throughout the game, but not all too often. You can't activate the same checkpoint twice.
Alas, if you mess up, pull out the guns and kill them all. You can always go back for a stealth playthrough.

[Fragony]

Something which is bothering me about this game is a lack of checkpoints. From the videos I can only assume that you cant save whenever you want, am I correct?

That's a good thing imho, quiksave-abuse kills gameplay. For a Hitman-game having just ironman-mode would be even better.

[Hooahguy]

I can get it for $20 on Steam. Dont know if I should get it or wait until the summer sale when it will be cheaper. Also I have a slew of other games to play so not sure if this is a good idea.