Hitman: Absolution 17 minutes gameplay

[Knusper]

I admit I don't like what I saw. The best part of Blood Money was no one knew you were there and you could get in, stage an accident and out again with no one being any the wiser about an assassin. I also quite liked having funny ways to knock people out, like when you put horse tranquilizer in a girl's underwear in that safehouse level - this seems much more gritty and serious.

 

[Corven]

Jumping to conclusions is all the internet is good for these days it seems, especially on gaming forums. "Oh no it's heavily scripted!" of course its heavily scripted this piece of the gameplay was carefully chosen by the devs to show off the new features in the game to the public, which I may add it is completely up to the player whether or not to use them, I know I sure as hell won't be using the "detective mode" or whatever its called because I like the extra challenge, so of course they would choose a part of the game with a variety of scenarios within to showcase the different situations where they would be useful.

People also should take into account that the devs can manipulate the game into doing certain actions like alerting different phases for the purposes of a gameplay trailer or demo. This may not be the case and I may be proven wrong when the game is released, but maybe instead of being linearly scripted, when we get our hands on the game the video above is one of many different outcomes for this mission which changes by the actions we take, and the scenes we see will look scripted as well.

Who knows, does this game even have a release date yet, what we see now may be vastly different in the months to come. Or maybe not, maybe the game is this heavily scripted and whatnot, I'll be sad to see one of my favorite stealth franchises moving in a different direction, and if this is the case hopefully the devs actually listen to fan feedback after that game is released and any future titles will go back to form, and if they don't listen to the fans they'll surely listen to the low sales figures.

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

after he didn't steal the uniform of the first guy he killed and walk out the front door like it was nothing I stopped believing it was a hitman game.

 

[Michael Hirst]

Warning Purist here.

What did I just watch, I hope this was just some scripted tutorial level and not a mark for the entire game. the X ray vision is very very silly, he's just a hitman, a very good one but he doesn't have psychic powers and stealth games work better when you can't see everything the enemies are going to do before they do it.

I'll also echo a popular opinion, looks very much like Splinter Cell Conviction, an attempt to "Appeal to wider audiences" by turning it into just another cover based shooter. The Hitman series always stood out to me as a niche in gaming to play a type of game I couldn't find anywhere else, naturally I don't want it to lose what makes it a unique series.

very nice graphics I have to say, impressive lighting effects too. I'm not too sure about what everyone is calling AI, they all look scripted to me.

I want to see more levels before completely bringing down the hammer of judgement though, this may just be a tutorial mission to let people learn the mechanics of the game.

 

[setting_son]

I have a question:

Why are the metropolitan (i.e London, England, UK) police speaking with American accents?

 

[BristolBerserker]

I preferred his old voice. It sounded more swathe and sophisticated.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Then again, this level could be a one-off type of thing like the final level in Blood Money*, or there might even be more options than there appears to be, so I'm going to keep my hopes up.

Or, as everyone else has said, the first level of BM. Remember the amusement park? Scripted events and linearity everywhere. That is what I am hoping happens here.

OT: Love that they kept the humor in tack, even if they made the graphics a bit darker and grittier looking. As long as this is just a simple press release tech-demo thing or tutorial mission, a la Blood Money, and they still give you the open levels with a wide variety of ways to complete objectives, I will be fine.

Also, to all the people complaining about the bat-vision thing: Is not using the feature that hard or something?

 

[GothmogII]

I preferred his old voice. It sounded more swathe and sophisticated.

Yeah, it's been a while back now that IO dropped David Bateson as 47's vo. There's a petition to bring him back, but it seems a lost cause at this point.

That said, gameplay didn't look -too- bad, and the music, despite Jesper Kyd not composing was pretty decent from what little I heard. As for 47's voice in general, it's got far too much of an American accent to it. Though, some people are commenting that he was possibly putting the accent on in order to fool that cop at the end.

However, -if- that is his accent, it does kind of make me a little disappointed. 47 being a clone of several different men (yeah combined), he's supposed to be nondescript, including his voice, which in the previous games sounded not American, nor European nor British but kind of a weird amalgamation that you couldn't place. (At least that's how I felt about it.)

 

[LookingGlass]

It looks like a modern console-based stealth-shooter, for better and worse.

The ability to read minds and the x-ray/heat vision thing are strange additions... assuming they're additions. I haven't played a Hitman game since Hitman 1, many years ago. I have Hitman 2 and Blood Money waiting for me on Steam at the moment though... good times are ahead.

 

[Wayneguard]

*As an aside, has anyone ever actually completed that level on the hardest difficulty? I've completed all the levels before it about 5 times, but when I reach that last level I just get shot to pieces in less than 5 seconds, and even when I don't I just run out of ammo and die. Eventually I just decided it was impossible.

If you can make it out of the building, you should be home free. The trick is to run into the little garden shed thing behind the main building and pick the guards off as they come running at you. They can't cross the threshold into the shed and just stand there getting shot. Sure it's an exploit but you'll be thankful for it when you're running for your life with a sliver of health left.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Hey, that looks like fun! A bit like SC: conviction I guess.
Can't wait to see more.

 

[2fish]

My thoughts:

Wall hug could be fine unless it is forced as the only way to stealth.
Why does 47 sound the a bland action hero?

Ok real topics that matter:

Xray vision that not only shows you where people are and where key objects are, but shows you where people are going? I hope this is an easy mode thing because its inclusion worries me.

What was that yellow bar a recognize you meter? If the bar goes empty they see that you are not who you said you are? It could work, but every time it came up he acted so suspicious by shoving his hat down over his face. The action seemed out of place.

Poor pigeons


So not bad, but enough to make me decide not to preorder. I hope this game is good, it needs to be good.

Dear god let this just be the training level.

 

[Zhukov]

I have a question:

Why are the metropolitan (i.e London, England, UK) police speaking with American accents?

Because it's Chicago.

What gave you the idea the were in England?

 

[notebook_holder]

As long as i'm able to go through levels without killing anyone but the target I will be happy. Also I hope on harder difficulties choking someone and having 47 going Shhhh gives you away. All in all I hope they stay true to Hitman, but I welcome the changes.

 

[DustyDrB]

Poor Pazzano...

Why all the hate for wallhugging? Every time a new game comes out, all I read are complaints that want to basically devolve gaming for some reason. And all the things that people ***** about can easily be avoided by, you know, just not pressing the button.

I know, right? It's just a gameplay mechanic like...a jump button. This game looks fantastic.

 

[Lyri]

Wallhugging mechanic, x-rays which point out where the enemy goes... I am not impressed of the beginneng. See ya in 14 minutes.

Edit: I forgot that everything seems to be scripted... Wohooo

Edit 2: Watched the video. Scripted sequence, scripted sequence, wallhugging because player today are too fuckin stupid to use cover without an extra button for it, x-ray BS, more scripted sequences. This game has everything I hated about Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Too bad, I hoped that I'll get to play a good stealth'em up in again but it seems I'll have to replay Thief and the old Hitman games again. The AI seems not so different to older games. Instead of just forgetting that there were other NPCs they mention it once and then forget about it. But this is a problem with AI in general.

Of course it's scripted it's a demo level, it will most likely be in the game possibly as the opener but right now it serves.
Besides the Skyrim demo at e3 was heavily scripted, they even threw in the extra dragons just to show people.

The only thing I don't like about this so far is how there is an action sequence involving running from a helicopter.
I play Hitman for the stealth and assassinations not to jump over roof tops in a bright lights chase.

 

[Hummmy]

Is there a release date for this yet?

I'm like everyone else, I like the open worlds of past Hitman's where you can choose how you approach each situation, I'm hoping this is just a linear level setting the story up a bit.

 

[Dealin Burgers]

[sub]*As an aside, has anyone ever actually completed that level on the hardest difficulty? I've completed all the levels before it about 5 times, but when I reach that last level I just get shot to pieces in less than 5 seconds, and even when I don't I just run out of ammo and die. Eventually I just decided it was impossible.[/sub]

Actually, yes i have beaten the last level on the hardest difficulty.
It is impossible to do without 'dying' and using the slow mo time to kill off all the starting guards, killing the last 3 with headshots to revive yourself, from there its pretty much a frantic 'shoot them before they shoot me' affair

 

[ultrachicken]

The first half looked like the newest Splinter Cell, then they diverged with the disguising, but I'm hoping you get a bit more gameplay freedom. For example, the ability to complete a level without killing. That would be extremely nice in a level where the enemies are cops, because I hate killing cops in any game. Makes me feel like an ultimate jackass.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

OH NO! NOW I HAVE TO LEAN AGAINST A WALL TO LOOK AROUND CORNERS INSTEAD OF JUST MAKING MY CHARACTER FACE THE WALL LIKE HE'S IN TIMEOUT AND TILTING THE CAMERA AROUND!

THIS ISN'T A HITMAN GAME! THE FRANCHISE IS RUINED!