Hitman: Absolution review

A tawdry narrative and lack of focus makes Hitman: Absolution a rare misstep for an excellent video game series.

Formats Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Developer Io Interactive
Publisher Square Enix
Released 20 November 2012

Hitman Absolution is a fascinating case of an error of judgment costing a game its heart. For Absolution, that mistake was placing a focus on a story that didn't need to be told and nobody wanted to hear. The Hitman
games have always had narrative, but it existed mainly in vignettes. Tall tales of an assassin ghosting through a theatre, a festival, a sicilian winery, wordlessly dispatching the targets given to him without question. Sometimes the only mark he left were a few bullet cases, sometimes there was nothing at all. Just a terrible accident and when people were asked if they saw anything suspicious that day, they might say "well, there was this bald bloke in a suit..."
Absolution makes the error of giving the ghost a conscience. Agent 47 has been sent to kill Diana Burnwood, his former handler at the agency and the closest thing he has to a friend. But after 47 pulls the trigger, a dying Diana asks him one favour: to take care of Victoria, a girl she freed from the agency that the shady organisation are desperate to get back. 47 obliges, turning his back on the agency, the job and the silent ruthlessness that made him such a great character.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with pushing narrative in video games. Nor is it wrong for a developer to take risks with a beloved series. But you feel Absolution does so for the wrong reasons, to ride on the coat-tails of successful narrative-driven games; to have an excuse to incorporate Uncharted style set-pieces and bombast. But wrong reasons or right reasons, there's little to disguise that Absolution's narrative ultimately fails because it's trash. A grubby and incoherent yarn where the men are vile perverts and all the women are daftly proportioned sex objects. The only exceptions are 47 and Victoria, but she might as well have been named Little Miss MacGuffin, such is the respect and character development she is afforded. No-one expects the underworld of an assassin to be sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, but the boorish, pointless, constant nastiness and dreadful characters are incredibly tiresome. Simply ignoring the story isn't an option, as it infects every inch of Absolution.
The issue for the game itself is that the linear narrative drive causes enormous friction with Hitman's trademark open creativity. The series legacy was built on you being dropped in a large, open, often public area and tasked with eliminating your target (or targets) as you saw fit. It would be a case of canvassing the area, tailing your targets, figuring out their routines and keeping an eye out for accidents waiting to happen. Absolution does make an attempt to recreate similar thrills, with some levels opening up as areas to explore with targets to knock off. These areas are undoubtedly when Absolution is at its best, such as an early level set in a bustling Chinatown with multiple kills options and escape routes, but it struggles to offer the playful, dark invention the series is famous for.Hitman Absolution is released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on 20 November

source:telegraph