Hitman Absolution X Marks The Spot
Trinidad Baltzell
Hitman: Absolution is the fifth game in the Hitman series and was developed by IO Interactive and Nixxes Software. The game was published by Square Enix and Eidos, and released on November 20, 2012 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Absolution features a more personal story about Agent 47, who has been betrayed and must uncover a conspiracy. 47's ultimate mission is to assassinate Diana Burnwood, his former employer and friend who provided him his missions in the previous games.
The game centers around Agent 47 assassinating targets. As in previous games, 47 can use the environment to his advantage. He can choke an enemy with a power cable, for example, or knock them out with a statuette. Also, 47 can disguise himself and the game world reacts to what disguise you are wearing. For instance, by wearing a police uniform and passing through a street full of drug addicts, 47 will cause all of the NPCs to react by fleeing in fear; many other reactions may occur, depending on the situation. However, once you enter the police station, a single wrong move or a prolonged exposure to the surrounding police NPCs will blow your disguise. This can either happen gradually, or suddenly, depending on the situation and surrounding NPCs.
All these actions build up the "Instinct" meter. This gives 47 an advantage; as his Instinct tells him where enemies are, the best routes to take, where enemies routinely patrol, and even highlights important objects in the world.
Hitman: Absolution marks the first game in the series to not feature Jesper Kyd as the game's composer. IO Interactive producer Hakan Abrak said in an interview that Kyd was unable to work on Absolution due to his involvement with Assassin's Creed games and that the original soundtrack will be composed by Peter Peter and Peter Kyed.
47 uses both non-lethal and lethal take-downs to accomplish his objectives. The player can approach an enemy from behind and choose to subdue them instead of snapping their neck. Using guns and knives will result in killing the enemy, while some thrown weapons will just annoy or distract a target. There are also non-lethal and lethal take-downs involving special tools or opportunities in the environment. When a warning triangle (yellow with an exclamation mark) is displayed with the button to perform an action, it is an indicator that your action is going to be taken as suspicious or hostile by any witnesses. Certain areas will be restricted to people dressed a certain way, and others will just be off-limits entirely. When the player has entered a restricted area you will see a "Trespassing" message on the HUD with the warning triangle.
The disguises system is back from the previous games, but has one major modification. Agent 47 can take the clothes from most killed or incapacitated enemies and leave his current clothes there. While in a disguise, anyone in similar clothing will become suspicious of 47 if he is in their line-of-sight. Crowds can be used to break a line-of-sight. The closer 47 gets, the easier and sooner they will spot him, and once spotted, they will attempt to apprehend him. At that point, the player can either fight or flee, but if the player flees they will become openly hostile until he changes into another disguise. If the player decides to fight them they must kill everyone that was involved in spotting them in order to no longer be suspicious.
Agent 47 can use the new Instinct system to get the advantage over his enemies. Instinct will naturally regenerate on the easier difficulties and will be replenished by certain player actions. Instinct can be used to highlight enemies, their patrol routes, and objects of interest throughout the world. While using instinct, people that have the same disguise are highlighted yellow, enemies and targets are highlighted red, and points/objects of interested are marked by three concentric circles. Patrol routes of NPCs are marked by a line of small flames on the ground, also any crowd that you are currently using to break line-of-sight will be highlighted in blue. It can also be used to delay discovery by NPCs that are in the same group of your current disguise, this drains instinct very quickly.
Player performance on mission sections is represented by a score. Various actions throughout the section will increase or decrease the score. For example, the player will get a heavy score penalty for killing a non-target civilian. Pacifying a non-target NPC will also decrease the player's score, but they can earn it back if the body is hidden. Going completely undetected and only killing the target will give the player a "Silent Assassin Bonus" and the highest possible score. The average score for the player's respective country and the world is displayed prior to starting an area.
Contracts is a separate, meta-multiplayer like, mode from the story which is based on developer and player generated "contracts" that assign a bounty to the assassination of certain non-standard targets throughout levels.
A player can create a contract by playing through any level present in the normal game and may choose up to three NPC's to become the new targets. The creator of the contract must play through the contract in order to set certain rules for the contract. Such as which disguise to use, which weapon to use, to even never being seen. Other players who take up the contract get a greater score for imitating the method in which the targets are killed, disguise included, and then for speed of completion.
The greatest assassin in the world. Unlike previous games where 47 mostly assassinated targets purely for money, in Absolution he takes on the role of protector. After killing Diana he takes an agency asset Victoria to a safe place and looks after her. Once she is taken he begins tracking her captors and taking them, as well as anyone who stands in his way, out.
Diana Burnwood, 47's former handler that occupies a high level role within ICA. In the events preceding Absolution, according to Benjamin Travis, she betrayed the Agency by rescuing Victoria, taking Agency funds and destroying sensitive research materials. In truth she found some incriminating documents on The Agency, and the higher ups deemed her a threat. Which is why 47, under orders from his new handler, Benjamin Travis, was sent to eliminate Diana. As he does she asks him to take care of Victoria.
Victoria is a high value Agency asset, she was rescued by Diana, and once she was killed by 47 he took care of her. Unfortunately, Blake Dexter has an eye on her and wishes to kidnap her and ransom her off to the Agency. He eventually manages to kidnap her with the help of Lenny, his son and Wade, a partner. 47 finally rescues her from Blake Dexter after killing him. Through out the events of Absolution it is revealed that Victoria is a genetically modified 14 year old girl, who was supposed to be the next generation of assassins, perhaps even better than Hitman himself. For years Agency doctors and scientists preformed painful experiments and tests on her. And she was described as "more than perfect" by a scientist employee of Dexter Industries.
The head of Dexter Industries and along with Travis, the primary antagonist of Hitman Absolution. Blake is a businessman from Hope, South Dakota. He desires to kidnap Victoria and ransom her off to the Agency. He eventually manages to do so, but in doing so he makes an enemy in Agent 47. Blake owns Hope so to speak, due to his vast amount of wealth and large company that employs half of the town. This allows him to get away with many illegal activities.
A high level ICA employee, 47's new handler. Benjamin Travis is the one who offered 47 the contract on Diana, due to her rescuing Victoria which he views as theft and betrayal. Once he discovers that Hitman has gone AWOL he begins hunting for both him and Victoria. He uses large amounts of ICA resources to try and eliminate 47 as well as reacquire Victoria. These attempts include offering 47 the contract on Diana, sending The Saints after Hitman, taking over the town of Hope in hopes of finding Victoria and Hitman, paying Blake Dexter 10.000.000 dollars ransom for Victoria and going to England to find the grave of Diana Burnwood.
Birdie is an ex ICA employee. He now deals primarily in information. In Absolution he helps 47 by finding information regarding Victoria and ICA. He finds that a man named Blake Dexter is interested in her and points 47 in his direction. For his services he asked for 47's tools (his silverballers) as well as an assassination of his rival. Eventually, Wade who is employed by Dexter comes looking for Birdie seeking information on 47 and Victoria. At this point Birdie chooses to betray 47 and reveal Victoria's location in exchange for his own life. After this event Birdie tries to play all sides against each other, informing the Agency and Chicago PD that he has information on 47, and informing 47 that he knows something about Blake Dexter.
Wade is an acquaintance of Blake Dexter. He works as a freelance mercenary offering his services to anyone for the right price. In Absolution he is hired by Blake to find Victoria's whereabouts. His first stop in Chicago is Birdie, from whom he finds that Victoria is in the Rosewood orphanage. There he orders his men to shoot everyone on site (mostly nuns and some security guards). He manages to find Victoria but is eventually killed by 47.
Lenny Dexter is the son of Blake Dexter. He has a rather severe limp and isn't much suited for the lifestyle he chose. He is cowardly, and isn't suited to the life of a criminal as shown when he accidentally shoots a nun due to Wade harassing him. He does however kidnap Victoria and brings her back to his father. After which he takes all the credit for doing so. He is also the leader of a group of delinquents known as Hope Cougars. Lenny is eventually kidnapped by 47 and is brought to a desert where he presumably dies, either by 47's hand or the fact that he is left in the middle of a desert by 47.
c80f0f1006