Obi-Wan is full of shit; that statement was an absolute.
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Yeah inevitably everyone deals with absolutes at some point – does that mean we’re all Sith?
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Go finish it. They story is not fantastic but it’s entertaining and the journal thing at the pause memo of each level is wonderful. Bateson has so much more voice acting in this one.
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I am here
Yipee hooray
Okay this is unironically a really good review…People say Absolution was terrible and that the newer games were better. But I disagree. Blood Money was obviously superb, and while Absolution was a bit of a black sheep with it’s non-free roam/linear gameplay and dodgy story…I t was a game from my childhood and I adore this game still. Could’ve been far better but, for a Hitman story? Far better than the new ones.
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Absolution fan here, it was my first game in the series so I have a soft spot for it. I don’t entirely hate the game and still like it till this day. To be honest I see it as a good game that was severely misled and I believe the game could’ve been really great if it was executed better.
–The Disguise System–
Now I understand why they wanted to do this style of disguises again as I get why people would be suspicious of someone they’ve never seen before suddenly being amongst their group but what made it terrible was tying it to the new instinct system which made no sense as why should blending in be a consumable? They should’ve just done a better and improved version of ‘Silent Assassin’s’ system where you have to be careful of not standing too close to another person wearing the same outfit as you for too long before they make you out and see through your disguise.
–Levels & Replayability–
The level design in this game is really beautifully done. Now it does suck that it’s mainly set in the US (with the exception of one level in England) as when we think of Hitman we think of diverse levels set in different countries, well while we don’t get different countries we still do get well diverse levels thanks to the game being set in two different states that are in different regions of the US. Chicago, Illinois and Hope, South Dakota.
I love the opposite vibe and atmosphere both levels give off. Chicago is set mainly during the night where it sometimes rains giving you that ‘Contracts’ feeling and what enhances that feeling are the levels, they can be either very luxurious and beautiful like we see in ‘A Personal Contract’ and ‘Blackwater Park’ or urban and rundown like we see in ‘Terminus’ and ‘Hunter And Hunted’.
Hope nicely contrasts Chicago with it being mainly set during the day with the sun nicely shining down on the town, the levels themselves are really nice where we’re either roaming around the town as we see in ‘Shaving Lenny’ and ‘Skurky’s Law’ or the outskirts of the town as we see in ‘Attack of the Saints’ and ‘Dexter Industries’.
The amount of details they put into these levels is really nice and the various NPC conversations you can listen to also adds some really good world building, the best example of this is definitely during ‘Hunter And Hunted’ when you’re making your way through the Vixen Club where you hear from the cops that girls from the club are going missing and the guards are trying to suppress what happening until you finally hear from the strippers about the disturbing truth of what goes on behind the scenes of the club.
So while almost everything about the levels are good there are three main problems that plague the levels. Cutting them up into small sections, some of them just getting from point A to B, and the lack of replayability.
Cutting the levels into smaller sections really goes against the Hitman formula, it really takes away from the fun factor and freedom of being able to go anywhere on one single map and deciding who you wanna assassinate in which order, also anything you do in a previous section will not affect the next section, for example if you get into a huge gunfight in the lower levels of ‘Terminus’ the guards on the upper levels will not be alerted making you question of what’s the point of being stealthy when you can just treat the whole game as a shooting gallery with no consequences.
The levels where you just have to get from point A to B are really disappointing, again the levels are really nicely designed but they have nothing to offer with no targets to kill and it’s really frustrating because levels like ‘Birdie’s Gift’ and ‘Skurky’s Law’ have interesting locations that could’ve had so many interesting setups to kill targets but ultimately just wasted.
Lastly is the replayability, it never made sense to me why the contracts mode was the only place where you can choose what your loadout was gonna be for the level and what upgrades you wanted your guns to have. You look at the previous games and the ability to choose what you wanted added so much replayability to them.
–The Story & Tone–
I always found the story to have an interesting premise but was poorly executed. I love the idea of 47 personally helping Diana with Victoria, someone who has a similar background to him, helping her get away from the hands of the ICA and other outside forces to give her a chance of having a peaceful life, something that he never took back in ‘Silent Assassin’, however it was really poorly executed.
I felt like Victoria was taken away from 47 way too soon so they weren’t able to build a proper bond and connection between the two, also I find the twist of 47 and Diana planning this way before the hit was even placed on her to be entirely pointless as it really takes away from 47’s emotional moments in the story and makes no sense for them as he fully knows Diana is still alive and breathing.
The villains were mixed, all of them were well acted and while some are ok, others felt like they were way too wacky for the world of Hitman.
While Dexter was really entertaining, he was way too goofy to take seriously and didn’t really make the smartest decisions in the world which really made him look incompetent and didn’t feel like too much of a threat to 47, for example there’s the moment in the Terminus Hotel where he internally wants to have 47 get captured and framed for the murder of a maid but then quickly changes his mind and wants to kill him within the span of a few seconds? I still don’t get why he changed his mind so quickly or why he didn’t just kill him any other way quicker.
Then there’s also the moment where he meets Travis & Jade to do the trade but when the deal looks it won’t be going his way he shoots “Victoria” but quickly revivals that it was Mrs. Cooper he actually shot and did it to show them what would happen if he didn’t get his full amount of money he demanded, now this has to be the dumbest thing to do in front of the people you’re not only negotiating with but who also work for an organization that specializes in killing people, this legit could’ve gone wrong very quickly for him.
Lastly his whole motive of wanting to ransom a clone who’s really good at killing doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense as he already has a successful business that’s doing extremely well and basically runs a whole town but you could chuck this up to him being extremely greedy so I don’t really see too much of a problem with it.
The ICA were really bizarre in this game. Travis was an ok villain but the way he ran things was way too loud and public compared to what we saw back in the older and even newer games, now yes the ICA we see and interact with in this game is a rogue separate faction of the company but still they’re ICA and should be more discreet than how they are in the game.
Now I don’t really have a problem with Troops being a thing as it really wouldn’t be out of the question for the ICA to have these guys for special assignments but how they’re used and what they do is where I have a problem with them, them attacking a whole town was way too fucking crazy to see and just unbelievable from what we’ve seen from the previous games of how the ICA operates and somehow they managed to cover the whole thing up is just baffling.
Lastly The Saints, now I don’t have a problem with them existing as this is the same universe where we had a gang of assassins dressed up as crows back in Blood Money but the difference between the two is that The Crows were discreet with killing their target while The Saints were open with killing their target, now yes the motel was isolated from the rest of the town where it wouldn’t have a lot of eyes on it and the only nearby place was a farm so them covering the whole thing up is slightly more believable but still these girls are suppose to be apart of the ICA and should’ve been way more quiet and discreet with killing 47.
Finally for the side characters they were mostly alright but some had wasted potential.
•Birdie was pretty cool for the most part being someone who was playing multiple sides for his own gain and benefits but sadly you don’t see him much after act 1 and was basically left on this cliffhanger for a game that never happened.
•The Detective was interesting but ultimately had so many things cut from him that he’s merely just there and you can literally cut him out from the game and nothing will change.
•Layla was good for the most part but she had this weird inconsistency with her character where she went from being outright disgusted with Dexter murdering an innocent maid to initially frame 47 for to being entirely ok and going along with using Mrs. Cooper, another seemingly innocent woman, to use as a fake body double if the deal didn’t go their way.
•Sanchez was pretty cool and I like the story of him being this guy they experimented on.
•Lenny was ok for the most part and was really more of a pushover, I did really like the little subplot of his gang wanting to kidnap Victoria for themselves and already had a plan set in stone and ready before we stopped them.
•Wade and his gang were pretty cool, I love how he was this brutal person who killed anyone and everyone to complete his goal but his whole “I got wood” speech during his death was really out there.
•Skurky was ok being this incompetent corrupt sheriff who’s under Dexter’s paycheck and pretty clearly the sole reason why he’s the sheriff of the town in the first place and basically does whatever he wants under his control. Also I found Mr. Cooper to be a wasted character as I always felt she was supposed to be a target you were supposed to take out during ‘Skurky’s Law’ but ultimately she just appears in 3 cutscenes and also was somehow kidnapped by Dexter and Layla.
•Jade was interesting being someone who was constantly against Travis and 47 even mentions that she could’ve been a potential ally in his notebook when she has to be taken out but ultimately nothing comes of which really sucks cause I left she could’ve been a more interesting character.
Well that’s what I had to say about the game, I can go on and on more about the game but I feel like this is the perfect place to stop.
Again I really like the game and it definitely could’ve been way more better if it was executed properly.
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I have recently completed Absolution after 9 years again. Theres a few pro’s and cons I’ve noticed during my replay. First of all the positive things:
Gritty and edgy tone
The raw and blunt voilence in eliminations
Gunplay, weapon designs and gunsounds
47’s design and signature weapons design
Authentic 47 behaviour, despite all things
Now for the things that are bad:
Bullshit story, feels like you’re playing through the movie adaptations
Dumb characters which are made more important than they really are
Linear level design. I’m convinced that some level could be really solid if they didn’t have checkpoints, but were instead a sandbox map.
Target-less maps. This is Hitman, I want to kill people. Not run from the police.
Although it’s linear design, Hitman Absolution really did a good job on playing out scripted events. Some levels benefit from linear design since they can give the player a more cinematic experience in gameplay. However, there is not a chance this beats the sandboxes from the other Hitman games. I cursed this game for being a piece of shit (certainly not because it corrupted my savefile halfway through. ahem), but from Shaving Lenny omwards, the game becomes kinda decent. 47 was great, but this is not a good Hitman game. Just a fine stealth game.
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I am playing Absolution right now. Occasionally 2 times a year I give it a run from start to finish and while it could had been a lot better, story speaking, I still love it.
I love it not for the gameplay or the story that much but I love it because this is what 47 should be. Brutal, serious, experienced looking and scary.
They gave us the best looking 47, the absolute best looking Silverballers and that atmosphere was so on point with the criminal world.
The npc conversations are still ones of my favorite. They talked shit a lot, they were offensive. A thing that I seriously doubt it can make a come back in this times.
One of the biggest issues I had with the new Hitman besides the absence of the Blackballer os the real Silverballer is how soft and cringe the dialog were and they still are. I just got used to it.
Unfortunately Absolution failed because one, it was too linear and two they changed a lot the story from my point.
You notice in the cut scenes that some are misplaced or for example they took out some lines and you can see the lips and jaw still moving while there is silence (first time 47 meets Victoria in Diana’s mansion. While he stares outside the window you can see he is talking).
Dexter was supposed to cut 47’s barcode off but the director said he tough this was too much for the players.
Travis was supposed to have his hand and 47 shoots it at some point in the story, he becomes amputated and is given a prosthetic arm.
47 meets again with Victoria. In the cutscene where he burns the car when 47 turns to Victoria pointing the gun at her you can see in a split second he has the plaster on the barcode. The white one he uses in the final missions after getting the new suit from the tailor.
And there might be more. Right now I just remember these.
But they did right Contracts mode. I personally don’t play it but I read comments in here that in Absolution it was a whole lot better than in HITMAN.
Leaving my 2 cents, when I follow something to replicate from the franchise I always look up to the models in Absolution. Recently I made a post about replicating the exact size of the barcode.
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Also the Barcode looks best with the numbers.
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47 also looks menacing in Absolution. Compared to the 12 year old boy body he’s “rocking” lately. Those calf muscles are as thin as a toothpick.
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Another thing me and 47 have in common 
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In the WoA he doesn’t look like the kind of chump who would get merked by sub-60 IQ rubes on multiple occasions like he did back in those days, so I guess the biomass transferred from his legs to his brain. Fair trade.
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Are you suggesting that there is a correlation between muscular physique and low IQ? 
Personally I find 47 current physique unimpressive compared to the more beefy physique of BM and Absolution. Luckily he’s a fictional character and can be as big as a steroid mass freak and as smart as Stephen Hopkins. Non of 47’s cognitive abilities have declined through out the years, but he’s surely been skipping the gym.
Which is stupid, since maintaining the muscle mass is pretty easy and doesn’t require as much work as it does building it.
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Nah, I’m just dunking on Absolution, as is my wont. Moreso than you feel about Blood Money (and recognising the engine modernisation improvements that it brought to the franchise), the writing / characters / vibe of Absolution just totally repels me on every level and I never miss a chance to have a go at it. Standard. 
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Actually 47 was a lot bigger in Contracts.
When I first saw this scene it inspired me even more into bodybuilding. I used to take screens from various angles and fantasies how I want to become like that.
I just remember how immensely happy I was to see 47 torso naked. I was 
13 years old or 14
Absolution has the body of a 50 year old construction worker which is actually a good thing. Those guys are very strong.
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You are absolutely right, he’s is bigger in Contracts. Both his pectoral and the deltoids are a lot more developed. He’s more yoked in Absolution though. That might have more to do with 9 years that separate the two titles. I must admit I never caught that, probably due to me never comparing them side by side.
This is peak 47, bring back this look.
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