HITMAN: Absolution 📽 Through the Lens

📢 THIS IS NOT A GOOD HITMAN GAME! I REPEAT! THIS IS NOT A GOOD HITMAN GAME 📢

But is it a good game? 🤔

A couple of days back I talked about IO's newest (and in my opinion best) Hitman endeavor - World of Assassination. But all good things come from struggle and trauma, and boooooy did IO have it rough with this one. 😁

I wanna use this piece to also discuss expectations and what makes a good game. Because I think somewhere deep inside this mess is a competent game that just happened to share the Hitman title.

So❗️ In this edition of Through the Lens 🎞, we'll be taking a look at IO Interactive's comeback(?) into the Hitman genre with the most un-hitman Hitman game from 2012: Hitman: Absolution Roll it! 📽

🔶 UP TOP 🔶

Take a gander (or better yet a listen) at the soundtrack while reading. 🎶

This soundtrack is jumbled and all over the place, kind of like the game. It also doesn't help that so many people are credited with it. 😬 It has those trademark Hitman elements but it also has some Spec Ops The Line and Call of Duty stuff in there for good measure.

I've heard worse soundtracks. But I've also heard way better. Take that as you will. 🤷‍♂️

_{Compossed by Peter Peter, Peter Kyed and Thomas Bärtschi}

I played this game when it came out. In fact, I also watched a die-hard Hitman fan that was a friend of mine play it. And our consensus was resounding - this isn't Hitman. I remember hating this game with a passion. More by proxy because all of my Hitman-loving friends hated it. I remember having a so-so time playing it. But the expectations that my friends put upon me hampered my overall experience of the product.

And that's really what I'm trying to say with this article. What is a Hitman game? And does it matter? Let's find out.

🔶 LEGACY KILLER 🔶

People don't really remember the first two Hitman titles. They remember Agent 47 and Blood Money. And for a lot of fans that is the quintessential Hitman experience. 👌

This game has some Hitman elements to it, but it is a very different type of game from the previous entries. It is *way more linear for one thing. Levels rarely have open areas (they are there, but they are few and far between).

The whole thing feels a lot more like a third-person action game than anything else. 💯

The game's marketing campaign also didn't help matters. This blended into the storyline, with over-the-top villains - which actually weren't half bad, pretty funny actually 😁 - and of course, the infamous hot nuns. These nuns became such a meme in 2011 when the marketing was happening for this game.

"Why are sexy nuns going after Agent 47?" - was one of everyone's minds.

"A question for the philosophers." - I would answer.

IO (under the pressures of Square, of course) wanted to bring Hitman to a wider audience. And what does the public like? Guns! Of course! And shooting people! Hitman, while a successful title, never reached the mainstream appeal of all its competitors. Square, and IO by proxy, wanted a flagship title a kin Call of Duty that would set the up for life. Alas, Hitman was never meant to be loved by everyone. It is meticulous and strategic and hard.

Absolution was a lot of things, but it wasn't those things. 😅 Obviously, people were mad. And when you alienate your fanbase - bad things happen.

🔶 THE FALLOUT 🔶

There was a lot to hate about this game:

• Least important was the uneven performance. Even for the time, frame drop like these was still unacceptable;
• The revamp of the costume system. Something no one asked for. Essentially, when you wear a disguise as a cop, other cops will notice you. I don't have to say what a colossal misunderstanding of the disguise system this is;
• A new system exclusive to this game called Instinct. Which is the reason why they changed how disguises work. You had to use up this instinct* in order not to get spotted. And it's a resource like any other. In general? Not a bad idea. For a Hitman game? Yeeeeaaaah, that's a yikes buddy;
• Point shooting - this allowed the player to kill multiple targets in slow motion. Again. Was this a bad idea on its own? No. Was it a Max Payne rip-off? Kinda? Was it good in a Hitman game? Nope. 😅

I could go on but that's not really the point of this piece. What you need to remember is: Hitman Absolution is a linear action game. Hitman as a franchise is non of those things. So naturally people hated it.

Now let's explore if this is fair or not. ⏬

🔶 A GOOD GAME 🔶

The title of this section might seem dumb and on the nose but I find it poignant. More so that the rep this game has received over time has been nothing but terrible, when in fact there is a good game here. Good bones to build upon. But does that matter?

Franchises exist for a reason, right? YOu can't just release a Call of Duty game and it's a third-person shooter. Regardless of how good it is people will be upset, mm? Now, this isn't that big of a departure. It would be if like you released Call of Duty and there were some heavy stealth mechanics now.

😬 Naturally people would get upset. 😬

Whether the game is good or not doesn't matter. We associate these brands with their meaning for a reason. I truly believe that Hitman: Absolution is a good game in the same breath that it doesn't matter. Which honestly is a crazy thing to me. Your intentions and hard work don't matter in the slightest:

🤯 Reading the crowd is more important than telling the joke. 🤯

Is it fair to the hard-working developers? Hell nah! This was an executive decision from the higher-ups that had to be followed. Hitman had to become a more action-oriented, story focussed game. The very concept of these words is bizarre to me but there it is.

I think I'm gonna have an entire article dedicated to this topic but for now, that's enough me thinks. You get my point - a good game with a bad title. If it wasn't a Hitman game, this would be a hit among hits. But alas, it missed the mark when it comes to its franchise basis.

🔶 LEGACY 🔶

The worst Hitman game? It's ironic that I say that after everything I just listed but it is what it is...

Objectively speaking the first 2 Hitman games are worse, but those were at a time when the franchise was still finding its voice.

For many people, Absolution is the game that ruined Hitman. And I can't say I blame them...

Its legacy is it doesn't have any. It will be forgotten like so many misplaced titles over the years. Sad for the people that worked on it but dem's the breaks.

Thank you for reading, you rock! (and maybe roll) 👏👏👏

Shout-out to the 🍕PIZZA🍕 gang, 🤙 gang. 🤙

I have no idea what we'll cover next. usually, I get inspired while writing the article but I think these two Hitman articles are enough for the series.

I got a preview for an unreleased game coming up that I can't wait to share with you guys and gals, but other than that I'm totally clueless about what to write next. 😁 Funzies.

👊 Follow me on my HIVE blog 👊

Hope everyone is having a fantastic day! And if you aren't, no worries! Tomorrow will be better! 🙌🙌🙌