401 replies to this topic

[Symbiote]

Where?

My bad, he didn't actually confirm it but he did say this:

Two things - the dead woman in the shower is, in fact, Diana.

in reference to the VGA trailer which was uploaded with the following description

Having just killed his ICA handler Diana Burnwood, the Original Assassin accepts her dying wish and takes on a very personal contract. This leads Agent 47 to the Rosewood Orphanage in Chicago, where he finds himself in the midst of a brutal raid by a gang of vicious criminals all after the same person.

[Watson]

IGN video also confirms it.

[sgg847]

in reference to the VGA trailer which was uploaded with the following description

Having just killed his ICA handler Diana Burnwood, the Original Assassin accepts her dying wish and takes on a very personal contract. This leads Agent 47 to the Rosewood Orphanage in Chicago, where he finds himself in the midst of a brutal raid by a gang of vicious criminals all after the same person.

Because their PR department can outwit you but not me.

[libindi]

Totaly agree with you,hitman used to be so unique,but now it looks like a copy cat of deus ex and splinter cell conviction,what happened?

Edited by libindi, 12 January 2012 - 04:56 AM.

[Sbriggs]

IGN video also confirms it.

I stand corrected. I'm guessing the entire game is based around a dying wish then hence the name absolution. He's seeking forgiveness for being a cock and shooting his old contact. Which still doesn't sit with me.

[Cold Shadow]

^Do you know how the story develops in order for 47 to kill Diana? I don't think so. So please before you judge, play the story and understand the events because at this point we have no idea what happened and what led to 47 killing Diana. If done well, it would be an interesting plot.

[JaRDoS]

Guys, you need to hold a meeting and discuss something to a conclusion.

You need to sort out whether Hitman Absolution looks like Arkahm Asylum or Splinter Cell Conviction.

'cause this bouncing back and forth between two games that look very different is confusing me.

[Maziv]

Ok I am really going to have to spell this fucking out aren't I because Habit and Watson are clearly not understanding me.

Hitman is a social stealth game. You in a social environment where not ever NPC is a guard, but that's not what these two play-troughs show. These so the kind of action-stealth missions which are akin to most third person shooters. Neither run for your life or the orphanage showed any creative of the other Hitman levels. Where are all the non guard NPCs to dress up as, where are all the obliterate ways of killing your targets etc

Jardos stop using the odd mission to defy what I am saying, Hitman has never been about mass homicide, sure theres the odd mission that contains it but that's like saying GTA is about racing cars because it has a few race missions. Also by showing ONE yeah read that ONE sandbox mission they aren't exactly showing the entire game, there just proving that they actually exists.

Jardos, its really not hard to see why its being compared to the two, or are you oblivious to those two games. Don't worry I'll help you out, the Arkham Asylum comes from Hitman's new god vision and the splinter cell comparison comes from all this hiding in the shadows and sneak kills bullshit.

Edited by Maziv, 12 January 2012 - 05:20 AM.

[Cold Shadow]

Ok I am really going to have to spell this fucking out aren't I because Habit and Watson are clearly not understanding me.

Hitman is a social stealth game. You in a social environment where not ever NPC is a guard, but that's not what these two play-troughs show. These so the kind of action-stealth missions which are akin to most third person shooters. Neither run for your life or the orphanage showed any creative of the other Hitman levels. Where are all the non guard NPCs to dress up as, where are all the obliterate ways of killing your targets etc

Yeah that's what Hitman is. BUT how do you know how Absolution will be? Run for your life and the orphanage missions only showed you 1 POSSIBLE PLAYTHROUGH. IO confirmed that there are more ways to complete these missions. Get it now. That's what the others are trying to point out. Those 2 missions happened to be 2 missions from the game that didn't involve a specific target. Happened with other Hitman games aswell.

Jardos stop using the odd mission to defy what I am saying, Hitman has never been about mass homicide, sure theres the odd mission that contains it but that's like saying GTA is about racing cars because it has a few race missions. Also by showing ONE yeah read that ONE sandbox mission they aren't exactly showing the entire game, there just proving that they actually exists.

Stop there. It hasn;t been about mass homicide? Yes to a point but TRY TO REMEMBER DEEPER.
Redemption at Gontranno from H2 ended violently with 47 killing everyone.
Meet your brothers from C47, where 47 killed all his brother clones and Ortmeyer
And Requiem from your Blood money which ended super violently with 47 killing every living thing.

Yes those missions are few compared to those missions with a specific target. But get this in your head. We haven't seen the other missions from Absolution. You based everything around 2 videos that only showed 1 possible playthrough of that mission.

Jardos, its really not hard to see why its being compared to the two, or are you oblivious to those two games. Don't worry I'll help you out, the Arkham Asylum comes from Hitman's new god vision and the splinter cell comparison comes from all this hiding in the shadows and sneak kills bullshit.

Instinct is actually a real time map replacement (not the map it self, but the map's additional info) and when you think about it, Instinct is not god mode. Everyone has them. It's just that we all develop something with them and 47's instinct thought him him to be the best killer out there. So when using instinct, we are actually in 47's mind. It's simple to understand yet hated by some members who cannot and will not try to understand how simple the explanation actually is.

About the other gameplay features like Red dead slo mo. IF 47 TRULY IS THE BEST OUT THERE AND IS TRULY BETTER THAN ANY HUMAN ALIVE, he must show it and that is 1 way to show it in a game.

Edited by Cold Shadow, 12 January 2012 - 05:35 AM.

[Sbriggs]

^Do you know how the story develops in order for 47 to kill Diana? I don't think so. So please before you judge, play the story and understand the events because at this point we have no idea what happened and what led to 47 killing Diana. If done well, it would be an interesting plot.

I'm not judging the game when I said it doesn't sit well. I'm more saying it doesn't sit well with me because Diana was the main voice of the Hitman series and you probably heard her voice more than anyone else in the game. I probably became attached to her about the same as playing 47 and she routed for 47 more than I did. But now she's dead in the first part of the game, by the hands of 47. I've read the blurb that - "betrayed by those he trusted most" - and if she's involved with that then Blood Money makes no sense. Why go to all that trouble of keeping him alive, giving him half the money and then betray him? Plus he's also fulfilling her dying wish, probably for old times sake.

Sounds like cleaning the slate of the previous games and tying in a story.

[Watson]

You in a social environment where not ever NPC is a guard

No, it's not an obligatory part of Hitman's “experience” for there to be non-guard (civilian) NPCs in a level. Many of the NPCs in C47, SA and Contracts were guards. It was only in Blood Money that we saw the majority of NPCs as civilians. 47 has formerly infiltrated numerous enemy strongholds that were not public areas.

but that's not what these two play-troughs show.

That's right. The playthroughs focus on 47 infiltrating levels with a heavy police/guard presence. A Hitman level does not have to be set in a public place, as aforementioned the Hitman games have had many levels in private and secluded areas, Hayamoto’s castle from SA is one such example.

These so the kind of action-stealth missions which are akin to most third person shooters. Neither run for your life or the orphanage showed any creative of the other Hitman levels. Where are all the non guard NPCs to dress up as, where are all the obliterate ways of killing your targets etc

So in order for it to be a "real" Hitman level, it must have civilian NPCs?

Also by showing ONE yeah read that ONE sandbox mission they aren't exactly showing the entire game, there just proving that they actually exists.

Exactly. Then why judge the entire game based on a small selection of gameplay that's been shown for a specific purpose?

the Arkham Asylum comes from Hitman's new god vision

I find Instinct to be a much more intelligent mechanic that Detective Mode. Instinct is not just Instinct-"vision", seeing NPCs through walls is just one part of this overarching mechanic.

and the splinter cell comparison comes from all this hiding in the shadows and sneak kills bullshit.

Right... any game where you sneak and hide “must” be like Splinter Cell. You do realise that those things are optional? Absolution isn't going to vigorously force you to do that, it's your decision how you want to play.
You also have to realise that Blood Money is not the “pinnacle” of the Hitman experience, or whatever you want to call it. BM has its positive traits and negative ones, but using it as an authority for perfection while disregarding what the previous games established would be careless. Each game is different with a common "core", so far I haven't seen that "core" extinguished simply because there are checkpoints or that we have Instinct.
Absolution won't have the newspaper reports at the end of each mission, nor does it appear to have the weapons upgrade system from Blood Money. Does that mean the game is further “ruined”? I don't think so.

[Sbriggs]

To be honest, what we've seen so far is probably negative to some hardcore hitman players as it all seems to be some type of cover based shooter with a hint of stealth. IMO this is down to developing studios bending over for the PR machine. I read somewhere that the PR department wanted nothing but explosions and kills which helps sales and stealth makes a boring promo video. Which I can kind of grasp in this day and age. Also Splinter Cell was stated of keeping it's core idea for loyal fans but didn't

The one thing that is keeping me from being negative is the statement that you can get the top ranking if you make the hit look like an accident. Now this alone makes me believe it won't be all guns blazing on all levels. You couldn't really make people believe that after gunning down a hundred goons that at the very end you're going to make the hit look like an accident! If so the main achievement shouldn't be 'silent assassin' but 'make one guy look an idiot'.

Imagine the scene of the aftermath - Cop 1: Jesus! Hundreds dead from either gun or knife wounds and many other objects.... Oh, and one who looks like he's tripped and fallen down the stairs.

Edit to stop double posting --

Personally, I'm not bothered about the instinct mode even though I probably won't use it. As the game wasn't made for my sole use, if I feel not using it will improve my gaming experience then I won't use it. If others do, it was worth putting in.

Edited by Sbriggs, 12 January 2012 - 06:23 AM.

[Symbiote]

To be honest, what we've seen so far is probably negative to some hardcore hitman players as it all seems to be some type of cover based shooter with a hint of stealth. IMO this is down to developing studios bending over for the PR machine. I read somewhere that the PR department wanted nothing but explosions and kills which helps sales and stealth makes a boring promo video. Which I can kind of grasp in this day and age. Also Splinter Cell was stated of keeping it's core idea for loyal fans but didn't

This really isn't something new for IOI, just take a look at some of their previous trailers for the Hitman games.

The one thing that is keeping me from being negative is the statement that you can get the top ranking if you make the hit look like an accident. Now this alone makes me believe it won't be all guns blazing on all levels. You couldn't really make people believe that after gunning down a hundred goons that at the very end you're going to make the hit look like an accident! If so the main achievement shouldn't 'silent assassin' but 'make one guy look an idiot'.

Have a link for that statement? I don't remember reading/hearing anything about the accident system returning.

Edited by Symbiote, 12 January 2012 - 06:36 AM.

[Sbriggs]

Have a link for that statement? I don't remember reading/hearing anything about the accident system returning.

I read it in the first sticky post in this forum, "Information gathered so far" under header "Update (07/6)" I just assumed if it was there, a statement had been made. Otherwise the entire topic is pointless

EDIT:

Actual quote from E3 - Instinct is awarded in the E3 demo for bashing a cop's brains out, but in the final game it'll be awarded for more subtle actions. As Blystad explains, "We reward both the purist Silent Assassin stealth, which is remaining unseen, and the action stealth, which is silent takedowns and cleaning up the mess.

So maybe not accident in truth

EDIT 2 - But with this quote, also from E 3 - "We've made Absolution the hardest Hitman game when it comes to purist, hardcore play style. We're planning some fiendishly hard challenges for them with rewards that'll match the effort. This is Hitman. Silent Assassin is still the most sought after rating you can get as a hardcore Hitman player, and the perfect playthrough is when nobody even knew you were there."

So this could hint towards accidental deaths. Otherwise people would know you were there.

In fact - Who knows?

Edited by Sbriggs, 12 January 2012 - 06:58 AM.

[Nitro]

Ok I am really going to have to spell this fucking out aren't I because Habit and Watson are clearly not understanding me.

Hitman is a social stealth game. You in a social environment where not ever NPC is a guard, but that's not what these two play-troughs show. These so the kind of action-stealth missions which are akin to most third person shooters. Neither run for your life or the orphanage showed any creative of the other Hitman levels. Where are all the non guard NPCs to dress up as, where are all the obliterate ways of killing your targets etc

Jardos stop using the odd mission to defy what I am saying, Hitman has never been about mass homicide, sure theres the odd mission that contains it but that's like saying GTA is about racing cars because it has a few race missions. Also by showing ONE yeah read that ONE sandbox mission they aren't exactly showing the entire game, there just proving that they actually exists.

Jardos, its really not hard to see why its being compared to the two, or are you oblivious to those two games. Don't worry I'll help you out, the Arkham Asylum comes from Hitman's new god vision and the splinter cell comparison comes from all this hiding in the shadows and sneak kills bullshit.

Remember the end of RFYL video, with the teeming mass of civilians at the train station? And how we've been told this is just a "teaser" of the crowds to come? I'm confident that the social stealth will be there. I also remember reading somewhere a while ago (sorry don't have time right now to find source) an interview where either Tore or Christian was specifically asked if there will be missions that start with 47 in an environment where the target has no idea he's there... as in, start in a neutral state, and he confirmed that there would be several of those missions. Finally, what was shown of the Rosewood level to press this week was only one portion of the level between two checkpoints, not the entire level. So everything you heard about, everything you read, that's all *one* checkpoint. Seems like there's a few different paths and opportunities in that one checkpoint, which seems to lead to an elevator being activated to bring you to the next floor of the building, which will be the next checkpoint of the level, and may open up an area where there's multiple ways to get to Victoria or whatever. Finally, whatever happened in the mission before this part had 47 disguise himself as a priest for some reason... given that the thugs were killing nuns/everyone in the orphanage, the priest disguise wouldn't do anything for getting past them; I think what that tells us is the first part of the level involves getting access to the orphanage through a more social stealth-type area.

There's a long, long way to release of this game (unfortunately), and there's a whole lot we have not yet seen. Have some patience. I'm surprised you're even a Hitman player given your apparent lack of this.

[Johnny Drama]

About 6 month before release is not that much for me. I have been waiting since 2006. I think this game will be released in Q2.

[Habit]

Ok I am really going to have to spell this fucking out aren't I because Habit and Watson are clearly not understanding me.

Hitman is a social stealth game. You in a social environment where not ever NPC is a guard, but that's not what these two play-troughs show. These so the kind of action-stealth missions which are akin to most third person shooters. Neither run for your life or the orphanage showed any creative of the other Hitman levels. Where are all the non guard NPCs to dress up as, where are all the obliterate ways of killing your targets etc

You clearly don't spell good because all you did was rehash the same winey complaint that holds no value. Just because I don't agree with you doesn't mean I didn't understand you. You want just can't admit you want Blood money 2.0. anyway i know your new to the forum so perhaps you haven't had a chance to read all the questions and subsequent answers on the questions thread so here are a few that can hopefully put you at ease.

bold = question unbold Nick@IO's answer

Will there be rewards for players that play stealthy and achieve Silent Assassin?
Yes. Stealth is still the primary way to play Hitman.

Could Glacier 2 handle the same amount of same sized levels as Hitman 2: Silent Assassin?
Glacier 2 is far superior to G1 so it can do everything the old engine could and more on top!

Will there be any daytime missions ? all the artwork and screenshots posted are at night while its raining.
Yes, there will.

The checkpoint system. Are the checkpoints just going to be used to tie in larger areas together? Say, if you were to remake some H2:SA missions with this forumula, Hidden Valley, At the Gates and Shogun Showdown could be just one larger level in which the old three levels were just areas separated by checkpoints. Something like that.
Yeah, something like that. We’ll talk about it more later on (holy mama, I get to say that a lot today).

Will it, theoretically, be possible to beat the game without ever firing a gun?
Well, honestly, the game isn’t done yet so I don’t really know. I know that the ambition is that you should be able to get through all levels without taking out anyone but your intended target.

Any hard, ultra-hard, insanely hard to get achievements/secrets/rewards planned?
Oh yes. You don’t get to be a Silent Assassin by playing this casually

Will there be more maps than in Blood Money? It was so short game.
The game is pretty long. I’d say it’s about the average length of other Hitman games but since we’re not done with the game yet, it’s tough to estimate exactly. Replay also plays a large part in terms of how much time you spend with the game.

Will there be missions large enough for using a sniper Rifle like previous Hitman installments?
I think it’s safe to say that the sniper rifle will be making a lovely comeback.

All of the missions take place in the United States which at first I was annoyed about but if it comes out looking good then I don't mind, my third question is how much variety will there be in the missions? I for one loved 'A New Life' because it was a simple hit in a guy's house which for me was a lot more realistic than going into the White House and killing somebody.
The team is going for a lot of variety, which was also what was demonstrated at E3 – going from a quiet stealth element in the library to a more high-paced chopper scene, back to stealth with the hippies and finally some tense disguise gameplay with the cops. The ambition is to create a lot of variety like that so that there is a good flow of different experiences throughout the game. Mind you, within those scenes, options are available for you to play differently than what we showed.

Will the enemies know 47 is in there in most of the levels? In previous Hitman games the enemies (Requiem and some others being exceptions) didn't have a clue he was there... Until it was too late and 47 was far away. So can we just walk in the suit like any other person without cops shooting us in other levels than what was shown in the e3 demo? To me part of the charm has been just walking in the suit, scanning the area, at my own pace, before finding a disguise and getting the job done.
That depends on the level. The E3 demo showed a level where Hitman was on the run – it’s not going to be like that all the time, of course. There will be levels where you will go in and nobody will know you and you can go totally old-school Hitman on those.


I don't see how the main core of a hitman game is gone based off these questions and answers. All I see is a Hitman game brought into this generation.

Instinct is actually a real time map replacement (not the map it self, but the map's additional info) and when you think about it, Instinct is not god mode. Everyone has them. It's just that we all develop something with them and 47's instinct thought him him to be the best killer out there. So when using instinct, we are actually in 47's mind. It's simple to understand yet hated by some members who cannot and will not try to understand how simple the explanation actually is.

About the other gameplay features like Red dead slo mo. IF 47 TRULY IS THE BEST OUT THERE AND IS TRULY BETTER THAN ANY HUMAN ALIVE, he must show it and that is 1 way to show it in a game.

this is a good explination. I've also thought of it like this but couldn't find the words to explain. I've also thought that detecting enemies through walls could also come from the sence of hearing which it hard to visually represent in a video game. so instict sord of pokes at that a little. Personally though i think it needs to be dialed way back from what we saw in RFYL. maybe only a room or two away.

Edited by Habit, 12 January 2012 - 10:38 AM.

[sgg847]

Hitman is a social stealth game. You in a social environment where not ever NPC is a guard, but that's not what these two play-troughs show.

How many innocent NPCs were in HC47? "Social" means disguise amidst enemies.

[scourged]

a) Bateson and Mckee are gone
Bb) Kyd is gone
c) Diana is gone
d) Kane and lynch guys are making this title
e) Bullet time
f) Instinct
g) Linear gameplay
h) oh I forgot, your map is gone
i) forced shootouts
j) ....


Basically a big "F you" to the fan base

Edited by scourged, 12 January 2012 - 12:06 PM.

[Cold Shadow]

^Big facepalm there. You're another one with a set mindset to make Absolution fail, or at least you make it look like that. I don't mean to offend but that's what you just looked like. You are welcomed to have an opinion, but your concerns are over the top and most of them do have a solid explanation that you will never hear and the others are straight up assumptions.

Linear gameplay and forced shootouts? Where in hell did you get those? IO and the developers claimed in the interviews that Hitman is still the same game it always was and that the freedom is still there. Run for your life was just 1 possible playthrough and IO confirmed multiple times that there are other routes to take.
And forced shootouts? Where did you learn that?
Don't tell me. The orphanage level.

That's a baseless assumption there if you're going that route. Why?
Because Hitman had other similar levels where you had to kill everyone.
Redemption at gontranno, meet your brothers and Requiem were the ones.

The reason Kyd is gone is solid and you can't accept it so you just voice it as a concern when you know that Kyd is with Ubisoft. That's nonsense.

Instinct? Have you played with it? Do you know that you can turn it off completely and not use it at all?
Another concern of yours that you keep bringing up without actually knowing how it works when you play it.

Bullet time. Now this is the only thing that we need to see how it works because there isn't a single footage of it yet or maybe I forgot about it.
But is it that bad? I mean why wouldn't the best assassin, a person who is portrayed as someone above the human norm have better reflexes? I mean, slow down time is the only way to showcase this in the game.

Diana gone is actually part of a story that we haven't even seen happening. I believe it's a turning point for ABSOLUTION'S STORY. If done well, it would fit very well and with Diana gone, it still is Hitman because even though Diana played a big role, it wasn't the main point of Hitman. She was a strong character, but 47 is the protagonist here.

Edited by Cold Shadow, 12 January 2012 - 12:38 PM.