Hitman: Absolution

It's still a bit rough around some edges, but there's no denying the scope, intelligence and passion poured into Hitman: Absolution. IO has made quite possibly the best game in the series and easily one of the best games on PS3.

Crucially, it's great fun, and you'll want to play Absolution through more than once. [Christmas 2012, p.90]

Stealth is my genre, and from sneaky signature kills to spectacularly horrifying 'accidents', nobody does it quite like Agent 47.

After several years of increasingly totalitarian games where you're very much following a pre-determined path, it's nice to have a game that doesn't just encourage improvisation; it requires it.

This is a fantastic package - a dark, witty tale of death and retribution that can be whatever you want it to. It captures the ebb and flow of tension that stealth games forgot about years ago, but presents it in a way that feels utterly contemporary. [Dec 2012, p.88]

Hitman: Absolution absolutely nails the modern gaming trope of presenting oodles of gameplay choice. It would be an insult to polarise Absolution into 'stealth' or 'action', where the real beauty of the game is found in the fertile grey area in between. [December 2012, p66]

Absolution has a good longevity and it's a great challenge for the most expert players too. At the same time it has several flaws, starting from the savegame system to the lack of a proper artificial intelligence. However it remains an extremely good stealth game.

The levels are sprawling, gorgeous, multifaceted playgrounds to hunt down and kill your targets in, and feature some of the most impressive crowds seen this generation. [Dec 2012, p.98]

Despite being a strictly single-player experience, Absolution packs more replay value into its two game modes than most games would do with five. It has its fair share of deficiencies-a goofy narrative, okay gunplay, a few bugs here and there-but overall, Absolution is a game that demands you explore its nuances over and over again.

Hitman: Absolution proves to be another notable entry in the series. It may house a ho-hum plot, and you'll hate just about every character you come across, but the open nature of the approach is good enough that you'll overlook those blemishes.

The deadliest bald man in the videogame universe is back in a new episode which strikes hard. Hitman Absolution doesn't revolutionize the roots of the series' concept, but it manages to rejuvenate the method. Beautiful and clearly cinematic, Io Interactive's game gives to the player a great amount of freedom despite some A.I flaws. Thanks to its impressive lifespan and its entertaining multiplayer mode, Hitman Absolution is a member of the end-of-year greatest games.

Hitman is back and we couldn't be happier. The lack of a competitive mutiplayer is regrettable because of the high gameplay potential, but overall this is a great continuation of 2006's Blood Money with improvements all over the board. Welcome back, Agent 47. We sure as hell missed you.

When the AI fails, the world loses its credibility and that's a shame. Because this is a world so beautiful you'll want to believe in it. Thanks to the Glacier 2 engine, you'll be drooling all over your controller when you're standing in the middle of a gorgeous desert plain. [December 2012, p.48]

The set pieces are fantastic, the audio features some of the best highlights you'll hear this year, and there's plenty of player choice/freedom available in most missions. The difficulty is just about right (even though Agent 47 is a little too resilient, in my opinion) and fans of the series should be happy.

Hitman: Absolution is a good game, and a proposal that will satisfy players who prefer a good dose of strategy and observation, but it has some flaws in terms of artificial intelligence.

Hitman: Absolution represents a stellar return for Agent 47, incorporating the best elements from previous titles, while also experimenting with plenty of new ideas. Some of the additions are a little rough around the edges – the narrative stumbles over its ridiculous characters, and the checkpoint system discourages experimentation – but it's still a refreshing experience that challenges your thinking and rewards perfection.

Even with trial and error style gameplay falling out of style, Hitman: Absolution makes absorbing and learning every last detail attractive and engaging. This point of entry is technically more flawed, but it's potentially more interesting for skilled and patient players. You try, you fail, and in time you maniacally celebrate the payoff when it all finally falls into place. It's easy to forgive Absolution's flaws when that process works so well.

It's not perfectly executed, but it comes damn close.

A great stealth game that suffers from a few annoying flaws. The 20 rather long missions it offers are inconsistent quality-wise, making the fan constantly switching from frustration to utter delight. But these moments are so delicious that we eventually want to forget about the game shortcomings (odd difficulty balancing, perfectible AI, sequences that can't be dealt with without gunfights). In the end, we are particularly pleased to reconnect with this subtle and original gameplay from past Hitman games, the many different ways to kill a single target, and of course all these humor-filled dialogues and situations. You have to play it if you like stealth games.

In many ways Absolution is as effective a franchise reboot as we've ever seen, retaining almost everything that was good about the originals and while making the game more accessible for new players. It also has most of the same problems, or at least swaps them out for new ones, but maybe that at least will convince sceptics that IO hasn't sold out.

In essence Hitman: Absolution is still the stealthy murderous game you know. As usual there are dozens of ways to take out your targets, lots of disguises to wear and the environment can be scaled and used the way you want to. It's also as hard as you remember it, but doesn't linger in the past mostly due to an increased focus on action and it being easier to play and. Graphically the game looks wonderfully dark, the interface has been completely redone and Agent 47 is easier to control than ever. The artificial intelligence leaves something to be desired, but aside from that Absolution is a fine Hitman-game.

A fun approach to the assassin genre that gives players plenty of options to progress through levels, dodge the police, and eliminate targets.

Hitman: Absolution features plenty of smart new features and tweaks that modernize the franchise without abandoning the essence of what made it great-but the new save system is awful enough to undo a lot of that good.

The sheer number of unlockables and challenges adds tons of replayability to a game that already demands multiple playthroughs. [Holiday 2012, p.74]

When playing to its strengths, Hitman: Absolution is a genuinely great game. Overall, though, it feels slightly disappointing, simply because it doesn't spend enough time playing to those strengths.

It's easy to recommend Hitman Absolution, a game that provides chills and emotion although lacks the charisma and polish that you expect from this kind of production.

An enjoyable addition to the series, Absolution is a complex mix of the old-school series with modern gaming. A few of the changes are hit & miss and some are plain broken, but in the end it manages to offer an entertaining experience for both old fans and younger gamers alike.

At times, Hitman: Absolution shines: a perfectly planned and executed assassination provides genuine player satisfaction, an overheard conversation at a train station makes the player feel part of a larger world, or a moment of frantic improvisation when discovered to evade pursuers or silence a witness can be generally thrilling. It's just a shame then that a hefty chunk of the game is padded out with material that isn't nearly as enjoyable.