Okay I really can’t be the only one left who still plays Hitman Absolution. That’s a statistical improbability. So I create this new thread as a gathering place for Hitman Absolution Fans who may still be out there where they can make themselves known to one another and can know who it is okay to discuss Absolution in general with both in this thread and in private messages.
6 Likes
I replay it once a year. It’s a good game, i dont really like the story but thats the case with every hitman game after Blood Money.
5 Likes
I haven’t played it in a while because I’m still focused on WoA, and since it keeps updating, I haven’t gotten it fully complete yet. Once I do, I intend to go back and play every game in order. I look forward to getting to Absolution again.
3 Likes
The writing is total shite and the disguise system is busted. Other than that, decent game.
8 Likes
The writing was excellent, and the disguise system, while frustrating, makes sense more than any other in the series - obviously any members of a group you’re wearing a disguise of are going to realize they don’t know you and be suspicious, because the idea is to fool people who will only recognize what outfit you’re wearing and not who is in it and ignore you as a result, so just stay away from others who wear what you wear. Simple.
3 Likes
So I guess every police officer in Chicago knows all other officers or a criminal can recognise someone that has a hockey mask / pantyhose over their face.
15 Likes
No, but every police officer at a particular scene is probably going to be more aware of who all from their area should be there, especially when there’s been reports of some bald guy with a tattoo on his head, hey, I don’t recognize that clearly hairless fellow officer with a bandaid on his head in the spot that some folks are saying a tattoo is, maybe I should check on this. And a criminal in a mask who is partnered with specific people to search a specific area of a shot-up orphanage, with strong indications that they have all worked together pretty regularly, is probably going to wonder why that one guy isn’t searching the place he was told to search and why he doesn’t move or speak the way he knows the rest of these guys do. You know, just consider the story possibilities rather than reject it out of hand simply because it’s frustrating.
3 Likes
Well I consider the story possibilities from C47 H2SA, Contracts, BM and WoA and a couple of other games with a disguise system such as Death to Spies that managed not to be frustrating 
But I’ll respect your opinion of the game and wait to hear from ya once you finished to replay it 
3 Likes
Absolution was kind of the bridge between Old Hitman and New Hitman, so I appreciate it for that. It came out at an unfortunate time, right at the end of the lifespan of a console generation, and it felt a bit restrained by the hardware. I think it did a lot of things better than the previous games, but did some things worse. The characters were very memorable and performed with over the top zealousness but the actual writing and story was full of holes and stuff that just felt stupid. And there was a lot of straight up misogyny in the game. lol
But I have a lot of fond memories of playing the game, I do have a soft spot for it.
14 Likes
To be fair, the misogyny was placed there deliberately, to show how awful these characters are and this world is. When your playable character is a paid murderer, and he’s not even being paid to kill in the story at hand, you probably want his victims to be as heinous as you can get for moral reasons, and showing a bunch of rich white dudes with small country town mentality in regards to women and minorities helps sell that. If you’re in a game where you’re hunting Nazis, and the Nazis are the ones whose actions are what move the plot forward, you expect to run into some blatant anti-semitism, right? So I don’t necessarily fault Absolution for its treatment of women like I know others do, because it was supposed to be presented that way specifically because of that.
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What does rich white dudes and small town country mentality have to do with killer sexy nuns though? 
4 Likes
Not he country part, but Travis, we’ll…
The nuns part is their disguise, which the trailer shows they use when entering a new place; they didn’t use it on 47 because they knew there was no point. The parts underneath are tactical; form-fitting so they don’t get in the way and allow for better range of motion. The fact that they look sexy is incidental, or at the very least, deliberately intended to distract male targets, if even for a moment, which could make all the difference in life or death situations. It can also be seen as a metaphoric shedding of patriarchal expectations; the well-behaved nuns who follow the rules and such are shed to reveal the fighters underneath who look how they look because they want to and will deal out death to those who object. There are multiple ways to interpret the Saints beyond just adding in a sex-factor. And certainly 47’s killing of them is justified on multiple levels.
1 Like
I don’t really agree, it wasn’t just depictions of misogyny from the antagonists - It was kind of ingrained in the way female characters were treated and represented overall within the narrative. I mean, we are introduced to Diana as a fully faced character for the first time in the series and she’s naked and in the shower before immediately being shot. Then there’s the helpless schoolgirl character. Then there’s the Evil Slutty Secretary who loves money. Then there’s the maid who exists to get murdered. Then everyone else is basically a sexy nun assassin or a Stripper. LOL.
Vidya Games have made pretty good progress in recent years with stuff like this, gotta say.
11 Likes
That’s my point though. It’s in there throughout to let you know that the world is still this way. It’s all over the top. Abusive and murderous strip club owners, and teenage girl being passed around from group of men to group of men, Diana first being seen in a shower murder scene, likely meant to invoke a bit of Psycho while at it. The way the police and security people talk about their wives and things. Even the stripper in the cake for the scientist’s birthday party. The whole thing shows an over-the-top yet real, in your face presentation of, hey, this is how the world still is. We’re playing it up to what seems like ridiculous levels because you don’t usually see this in games now, but there are a lot of places in the real world, right now, that this is what women still really see as far as their place in it, and you, likely young male gamer playing this, are only now starting to get an idea with how we’re shoving it at you here. It makes you feel uncomfortable? Offended? Good. Now you’re getting it. And that’s exactly why it doesn’t offend me, as far as being part of the game, because I understood that that was the reason for it. Same with its hints of racism toward Sanchez and Birdie and Jade, and hints of homophobia and ableism regarding Lenny.
2 Likes
I enjoyed Hitman Absolution when I played it. It’s a fair game but shows different flaws when compared to other Hitman games.
The cons:
- Missions with no targets.
- No possibility to select a loadout. The mission starts with a preconfigured loadout.
- I found the scenario somehow bad and full of clichés.
However, once the game is finished, I replayed generally the missions with targets (I really appreciate the “Shaving Lenny” mission). And for the scenario, how many video games are excellent with a boring scenario? Just look at Resident Evil (on ps1): the game is a classic even though its story is completely crap and basic.
Absolution has also pros:
- A very good gameplay. It improves a lot the gameplay from Blood Money, making it more consistent and more easy to get.
- The reflection of 47 as a hitman is more pronounced in this game. 47 can interact with the environment and use many objects as weapons.
Hitman WoA is a very good “sequel” to Hitman Absolution. Not in terms of story, but about improvements in gameplay. And to be honest, I play and enjoy Hitman WoA not for its scenario, but for the variability of gameplay the game proposes.
Finally, Hitman WoA puts the accent on stealth (silent assassin and discourages killing spree), while Absolution changed the rules, offering the choice between stealth and rampage.
8 Likes
It’s an interesting game, bringing Hitman to modern era with new gameplay and graphics.
However it fails to bring what’s the core elements of a Hitman game, and that’s why it failed.
Still playable and somehow entertaining, but the WoA is what most players expected rather than this failed experiment 
Full review here: [Fan Review]Dear Hitman Absolution Developers...[CLOSED]
3 Likes
I have it for PS3. The point-shooting mechanic was cool but difficult with analog sticks. I did try to play it again at some point a year or 2 ago, but the frame rate seemed so slow/choppy to what I had gotten used to playing H1&2. It’s like it had a different feel to it, and I was not comfortable playing it.
I’m curious if I were to play it in a PS3 emulator if there’d be a higher frame rate.
Almost all of the gameplay mechanics I liked… A couple, I think a lot of us miss. The point shooting, and hostage-taking. Oh yeah! Punching a vehicle as a distraction.
Who am I kidding? I even wish I could put my hand up by my forehead when passing some enforcer guards. But I suppose that’d defeat the purpose of enforcers. 
The story… Part rescue mission, part revenge.
I’ve said it before… (might as well quote myself)
One on hand I get what they were going for with some of the negative situations the NPCs were in. But also think they went a tad overboard with some of the other stuff.
If you think about it there are some (sort of) mirroring of events…
Dominic Osmond. Dominatrix Nuns.
There’s way too much to wrap my head around going down this rabbit hole (drawing parallels). So I’ll not bother…
Lenny accidentally kills Sister Mary. 47 leaving him out in the desert was far more cruel than just ending him mercifully. But he’d still potentially have a chance to survive. In a way 47 was washing his hands of Lenny and leaving his fate up to a higher power. Maybe…
Here’s something to ponder… Would Sister Mary have forgiven Lenny?
Not sure what else to say. It’s not perfect, but the gameplay/mechanic aspects were a near-perfect foundation for the WoA. Even if some elements were left behind.
3 Likes
Checkpoints definitely most annoying since enemies respawn however they are good if you wanted to overhear as much NPC dialogue as possible.
It is regrettable that Hope wasn’t set in Texas like it was originally intended. Definitely would’ve made me feel more at home. Oh well.
2 Likes
Absolution was my first game so I’m kind of obliged to have a soft spot for it. Never finished the story though, I think I got to the big underground facility thing & just started playing contracts. Maybe I’ll give it another shot one day.
3 Likes
And this is why almost nobody plays Absolution anymore.
