Great stuff. Really well done. Probably your best video, and it's your longest. So you can keep the quality up over a more complicated look at a game. My guess is that this took a lot of time to make and you still managed to keep the examples/footage relevant. I haven't played the games myself so I can't comment much on the content. Everything you said seemed right on to me though, from the perspective of an outsider on the series. I especially liked the comparison you made to Zelda's garden section. I think it's shocking just how many stealth games don't get any more complex than that, haha.
+Joseph Anderson Hey, thank you! Yeah this one took ages, I think I actually played the game and took notes right after my Gear of War review so it was on the back burner for months. I was really worried about the length and the fact I'd made an hour long video about a 4 year old game that barely anyone liked in the first place, but the response has been fantastic so far, I'm really pleased! I agree that it's surprising just how many games seem to have almost the bare minimum of stealth mechanics these days and developers somehow think that's enough. I remember when, back in the early 3D era, stealth in games felt absolutely revolutionary and it's kinda sad to think that now it's one of the most trite mechanics you can come across in modern games.
I like how in the new game if you’re trespassing, the guards will actually warn you and tell you to leave. They actually give you a chance to walk away... just like in real life
They do that in some areas of hitman absolution. Unless you are in super forbidden areas, npcs will usually warn you first and if you leave, they will leave you alone.
I just sat here listening to the video without looking at the length and when you said that it was over I looked at the time and could not believe that you made an hour feel like 10 minutes. It's truly incredible when you finally find a small UA-cam channel that really deserves more attention. It's a shame that it's so difficult to find smaller channels, but when you do, damn. Keep up the good work, I love your stuff.
Fantastic video. Hitman 2016 has been occupying a lot of my time recently and it was nice watching this after experiencing the newest entry. At this point I've played all of them, completely out of order, and Hitman's two released levels seem to have refined the series down to (almost) perfection. I really liked Absolution when I played it back in 2012, it was the first Hitman I had ever played, but it just looks like a total mess now. This video must have been a huge amount of work. Wonderful stuff.
+Cee Marshall Hey, thanks so much! Yeah it took me absolutely ages to write this review, I actually started writing it a couple of videos ago. There was just so many different aspects of gameplay to talk about which was hard to get my head around because none of them really seemed to gel together to form a cohesive whole, it's just a load of confused ideas jumbled into one big game that looks and feels great to play but just doesn't work at all as a Hitman game. I can't wait to eventually get my hands on the new game though, it looks great!
Just wanted to say, I come back to this video every so often just because I really like it. I think this is one of your best videos. Fun fact though, I actually alpha/beta tested this game at IO interactive offices in Copenhagen back when they were making it.
No not that much. We actually spent a bit of time having the same kind of complaints that you later listed. It was part of a volunteer program that IO runs, so it wasn't the kind of intense internal QA you some times hear about. We saw some levels, but they were pretty buggy at the time, so it was hard to gain a real good sense of how the game was. We did however spend some time complaining about how much more linear the game was, compared to Blood Money.
i loved how in blood money u could just pick up a hammer and bludgeon some poor fool to death, laugh, and move on with ur day. absolution made me feel like i was playing wrong
Brilliant. Excellent production values throughout as well as interesting observations and a very listenable voice performance. Keep up the good work buddy. Hope you get the recognition you deserve for work of this caliber.
10:50 just wanted to point out that people who are wearing the same clothes as you will fill your detection meter, but slower than if you were doing something illegal in your normal suit. disguises in this game work more like camoflauges than disguises if anything. enemies will still see you (and i agree that it makes no sense), but they will see you slower.
I love Absolution, it's my favourite Hitman game so far, not including the games made after this, as I haven't played them yet. I haven't upgraded to a PS4 yet. In my opinion the game is a lot smoother than any that came before it, and the story line is great. The games are challenging, and I know you mentioned that some levels you don't have anyone to kill, but trying to get through each level without being seen is all part of the stealth aspect of Hitman. Nothing better describes the word 'stealth' than trying to remain hidden. As for the disguise element that you mentioned, to me it makes sense that other people wearing the same outfit would recognise you quicker, as you would usually recognise work colleagues. I'm still playing this game 7 years after it's initial release.
Joseph sent me here, as well. Excellent review! I think the main issue with Absolution is that it wants to be a movie, making the gameplay incidental or even detrimental to the overall story. Still, it's awfully nice to look at for a 2012 game. If it had had a more consistent tone and stuck to the classic Hitman mechanics, it could have been the model for darkly funny stealth games. We need more of them. I haven't tried the new Hitman episodes either, but I've heard good things. Have you considered reviewing Dishonored? I personally think it's the greatest story-driven stealth game ever made.
Hey, thanks! Yeah Dishonored is definitely on my list of games to consider reviewing. I'm not sure I'd have that much to say about it that hasn't already been said but that might be a fun challenge to take on one day. Thanks for watching"
actually, the scoring system is very well designed, it doesn't punish killing in general it punishes sloppy killing, whenever you perform a non target kill you get a point deduction, however this point deduction can be ignored by killing with headshots or anything classified as a silent kill, the fiber wire and headshot kills have the same point deduction as if you non lethally subdued a target, then by dumping the body the point deduction is removed altogether the only time that killing is punished regardless of execution is in the case of civilians. my only gripe with it is the fact that it made the syringe overpowered, because it was classified as a silent kill and non lethal takedown you always got a net positive score when dumping the body afterwards. the only playstyle that this punishes is rushing in and killing everything that moves without any care whatsoever.
I finished the game recently and this analysis nailed every nitpick and grievance i had with the game (i played it right after blood money so i was obviously let down). Very thorough, great job!
This was a great video to dig into, well worth an hour, you basically mirrored most of my problems with this game, in particular I liked how you handled the topic of women in the game partially because you didn't fall into any of the inflammatory pitfalls that I see most people commit with this topic, like how you made a point that you weren't trying to frame the game or its developers to have any malicious intent. As you said, the scoring system in this game was abhorrent, but to add to that I think it doesn't help that you don't really start earning points until you reach your target, which makes sense from a broad overall perspective of the level but in the moment to moment game play it's just discouraging you to take any action even if you can round the score back to zero, and blood money's method of ranking players was much more clear for me and added some interesting challenge (such as not leaving your suit or equipment behind as evidence) and I thought the newspapers were a stroke of genius. And while there are advantages to the new detection system, it has lead me to some annoying situations where i'm out in the open dancing back and forth because I'm now juggling multiple line of sights with the enemy (Which you can see in some parts of your video). In the end, this was a sour note to be the last Hitman game I've played in a while, i'm tempted to try the new one but I want to pick it up when it's complete.
About his motivation to save her from being an assassin.. at least at some points, he wanted to stop killing people, for example in hitman2, when starts confessing and shit.. but still, awesome video mate
I can't help but love this game despite all the obvious flaws. I think this game holds a special place in my heart because I played it at a time where I was finally old enough to realize what a brilliant game series Hitman is. and the HD trilogy dropped just months after this released and I was able to revisit those games with a renewed sense of appreciation for them after playing Absolution. While the current world of assassination trilogy is probably the best content they've ever put out for the series, I still think absolution has better gunplay lol The real big issue was just totally screwing up the disguise system on anything aside from lower difficulties. And even then it's still a mess, just not useless. the hidden gem in absolution was contracts mode you would then see where some of the levels that served no real purpose other than to help usher you from point A to point B in the campaign were actually jam packed with environmental/accidental kill opportunities and the trademark IO interactive humor. The courthouse is a great example. Or R&D... That level was ace for contracts mode. It's a real bummer that when they re-released the game there was no contracts mode alongside it
40:45 I'm pretty sure all the locked doors at the end of the levels are just hidden loading screens. Like the infamous elevators in Mass Effect (and others) or the convenient corridors between areas in the mainland of Hyrule in Zelda: Twilight Princess
Regarding the story critique leg of the video: Hitman: Absolution is a grindhouse movie in video game form. It's a 70s exploitation flick with the kind of wacky-ass characters you would expect to find in that era. It's not even subtle about what kind of tone it's going for, considering every mission begins with celluloid being lit on fire. Hell, even the postcards in level select are reminiscent of 70s exploitation movie posters. How this is lost on people, I have no idea. Hitman: Absolution's story is told with tongue firmly planted in cheek. You're meant to revel in how absurd it all is. As for the supposed plot holes; the reason 47 decides to help Diana is because the girl (Victoria) is like him: genetically engineered to be a killing machine. 47 doesn't remember everything before escaping Dr. Ort-Meyer's Romanian asylum, but what he does remember is unpleasant to say the least. You know, like those scenes where a little bald kid is crying because doctors keep pushing needles into him? That's 47 as a kid. 47 never chose to be an Assassin, he was made in a lab to be one. Hell, his resignation to his fate as a killer for hire is the biggest plot point in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. And when Blake Dexter refers to not needing "that kind of attention," he's referring to the ICA that 47 worked for. Dexter is an illegal arms dealer and is plugged into the criminal underworld where 47 is considered an urban legend. Seeing 47 on the floor of his hotel room tells him A) he's onto something with this girl he's looking for and B) that he needs be careful not to incur the wrath of the ICA. He frames 47 for the maid's murder because he doesn't want the ICA thinking that he's making moves against them. Setting the room on fire is a "brilliant idea" and is framed by his wife as him being an idiot. As it turns out, Blake Dexter is kind of an unhinged psychopath. Who knew. As for the religious stuff: 47 is Catholic. At the end of the first game he discovers that he's a clone and not a "real human," and decides to quit the Agency and go into self-imposed exile at a little church in Sicily. There he befriends Father Vittorio and turns to God and gardening, swearing off a life of violence and death. When Vittorio is abducted, 47 gets in contact with the ICA and works for them in order to gain information on who abducted Vittorio, where he is, and why. That's Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. All in all it really seems like Absolution's biggest misstep with the story was assuming that players had been following along all this time. Considering the reviewer in this video is unaware of even the most basic story threads in the series, I'm guessing this was his first rodeo with the series.
The moment I heard your accent loud and clear in describing the story a "shitshow" I started clapping. In truth, I love stealth games, the purer they are the better so far as I'm concerned. Absolution was my first hitman as I'd never been much into the series and I loathed it, there's really no other word for it, absolutely loathed it. The way you're describing blood money makes me want to give that game a try instead to be honest. Great video though, really well made and never boring or dragging along. Kudos to you good sir.
Youve already touched upon how the gameplay and mission progression couldve been improved. I wanted to talk about the story and how it couldve changed, I feel like after killing Diana, instead of keeping her promise, 47 should have kept on working with the agency, sticking to his character of a loyal professional who takes more pride in being the best of the best, and completely forsaking diana. As you continue to keep doing hits for the agency, 47 should find evidence behind the real reason diana had to be killed and so you find out more about victoria. So the agency starts telling you bits and pieces of the truth about her and eventually you should've been told to kill victoria, but contradictory to most other hits, instead of killing drug dealers, murderers or anything of the sort, you have to kill a defenseless child, an easy hit, too easy for someone like 47, and for the first time, without a professional challenge to blind his morality, he realizes that this little girl is in the same position he was as a child, and to see her uncorrupted by years of contract killing, 47 sees what he couldve been without the agency and ortmeier's expirements. Thats when you change sides and start helping remnants of diana's contacts protect victoria by killing guys like dexter and travis who are attempting to use her for their own means. It wouldve been a way to make classic hits present at the beginning of the game and Hits against the agency in a stroke of irony from 47, in the latter half of the game. That's just me brainstorming though, im sure people could expand more on my idea.
I had my issues with Absolution, but overall I appreciate what it did right and respect the developer for trying to do things new. With the 2016 "return to form" I feel like they threw out the baby with the bathwater. Yeah its fun, but I still think Blood money still did it so much better. At the end of the day, Absolution feels like an all out Triple AAA game, where as the new ones feel like some indy developed game. The story cutscenes aren't even animated in the new Hitman 2, just stills with dialogue and just FIVE levels, compared to blood money's 12 levels. come on.
I played the game on Purist. Disguises help a lot with sneaking around,enemies take A LOT MORE TIME to spot you, since they don't get to see your face. Nice video!
19:40 you just described to a T how Hitman 2's suspicion mechanics work. that game also had a similar recognizing mechanic, but instead of enemies being able to instantly see through your disguise, you'd be fine as long as you either kept a distance of 10ft, or made sure you walked away from an enemy within about 10 seconds, kinda funny how Hitman 2 was already doing these mechanics pretty well 10 years prior.
Was sent here from another channel, didn't plan on watching the whole thing, ended up doing so anyway! Really well made, your explanation gives me a feeling for the game. Subscribed!
I think you can gain a lot just by comparing the cemetery in absolution vs. the last mission in blood money. The former has more detail, is larger, more technically advanced, but the latter is thematically, musically, and visually more striking. It also helps that there is no direct cover system in blood money which has plagued more modern shooters.
Absolution was the first Hitman game I played so I don't have much reference as to what makes Hitman games good, and I've seen comparison videos made about Blood money and absolution which to me say that absolution was superior apart from some gameplay mechanics, which I agree were better in Blood Money, like the disguises and the quick save feature which would have made absolution a much more complete experience for me, even being a newcomer to Hitman. And the boss's/villains seem to take a lot of inspiration from Metal Gear Solid in my opinion. At least that's what my immediate thought was when I first played it. The Nuns are so metal gear
8:40 This is wrong. Have you not played Hitman 2? 30:35 this is wrong too. Anytime you refer to "the earlier games" you seem to just mean Blood Money. If that's the case just say "Blood Money".
Your critiques of the story fall flat to me, not because I think it's a good story, but because I don't really think you understand these characters. Agent 47 was genetically engineered and trained since birth to be a badass super assassin by a crazy Romanian doctor in an asylum. It's established in Hitman 2, and reinforced in Contracts, that he really doesn't enjoy his job but does it because he feels like its the only thing he's good at. So for me, it made perfect sense that 47 would try and prevent Victoria from being forced down the same path as him. Of course, the story as a whole is garbage, but the character motivations (47's and Diana's at least) make sense.
Great video dude, we have an almost identical opinion on this game. I do however think that this set up should be mimicked for a third Kane and Lynch title, even the murky narrative would have fitted quite nicely with those two characters at the helm.
This is a fucking outstanding critique. The depth in which you cover points without devolving into the inane is an admirable feat indeed. There's some truly thought provoking dissection of game mechanics (along with story and what have you) but you also posit viable alternatives. You make it seem so effortless, but I know if I were to attempt something similar, I wouldn't be able to say anything half a meaningful as you have here, over an entire hour no less, while keeping it engaging enough I never felt the need to skip forward. I can only imagine the craft and talent over multiple disciplines it must take to make something like this (video editing, critical analysis, writing, etc). As someone who struggles to fill out a page in Microsoft Word, you have my envy. And I don't even _care_ about the Hitman series. My most succinct comment is I am left with the same feeling after watching this video as when having watched a brilliant stand up act: "goddamn I wish I was that gifted". Bra-fucking-vo, mate.
This is one of my dad’s favorite games. He is a very casual gamer, so he doesn’t worry about the story, quality of gameplay or anything like that. He just cares if he has fun. Which is fine, but the weird thing is, this game is hardly fun. He hates story and cutscenes, but he likes this game. He judges a lot of games by their graphics, but he sees 5th gen graphics as “very good.” I see where he comes from, but sometimes I wonder how we get along.
You made some really interesting points here. I would really like for you to review Resident Evil 6. I think you would offer a unique perspective on that game.
+civilwarfare101 Thanks very much! I actually haven't played Resident Evil 6, I never bothered after hearing about how bad it was but maybe I should check it out, it might be good in-depth review material. Thanks for watching!
+thinreaper I've found resi6 to be a decent enough game in and of itself (granted, with a lot of pacing issues), but it really shouldn't have been made as a main line resi game given how big of a departure it is in terms of focus and tone. Even 4 still tried to create a horror atmosphere, 6 was almost always action aside from some more B-movie like horror segments in Leon's campaign.
I loved this Hitman and was flabbergasted that there waa a hate train behind it. I liked how there were trails between each Kill Playground. It made it so you couldn't, say murder an entire opera house full of people and then waltz down the street
I feel the best way to describe Absolution is "an above average/ pretty good game that sacrifices a lot of the series' elements in favour of a more detailed story. The problem is that it doesn't earn, take advantage of or justify those sacrifices "
Right, but if you're out of disguise they instantly shoot at you if you're in a hostile area. If you're in a disguise you have time to find a 'blend in' activity. Do that and the alerted person goes away and leaves you alone and you can repeat that as many times as you want.
Really amazing video. So in depth I love it. A long video shows care and thoughtfulness. I really enjoyed every single part of it. The only thing I would say would be about instinct. I think the reason disguises won't let you roam around the level freely because the levels weren't designed for that. It's a point a to point b kinda game. I mean some assassinations were different but as a whole just a to b. It would just make it a walking game
I find this game gets a bum wrap, and this is coming from someone who holds this series very near to my heart. It was a linear, departure from a lot of the greatness that made the series what it is, but there's still some great things about this game, controls, gun play and overall polish come to mind.
Good review, I agree with most of the things you say. About instinct superpowers though - Im pretty sure the game is meant to be played on a harder difficulty. If you play it on hard mode then your instinct drains a lot more + you cant see paths enemies take. Just sayin'
The game really feels like it was chasing trends way too much rather than just refining what made it great. It took the detective vision from Batman, the point shooting from splinter cell, and the cinematic linearity from so many games being released around then.
Definitely! There was a realwave of homogenisation spreading through the industry at that time and Hitman Absolution was one of the worst offenders. Glad the series found its way back to the right path.
@@thinreaper Great video! I see you're back from a hiatus, glad you are still creating. It wasn't out when this video was made, but one of the IO developers basically said they were trying to jump on the bandwagon in a documentary (worth a watch) . Its at 7:03 here: ua-cam.com/video/_stW6JvB4SI/v-deo.html . Ironically the game took so long to make the trend then swung back to open world player choice driven games like Far Cry by time absolution came out.
50:51 That track absolutely (don't) remind me of Max Payne 2. Just search the track called Mona. By the way, great analysis. Joseph Anderson send me here and are making really good videos. You've won a subscriber.
The get to this place kind of missions don't bother me at all in fact I rather like those. I think with a lot of people are missing here is that you don't have the support of the agency anymore so this is 47 on his own so he has to be resourceful. You don't get just planted into the mission map you have to get to the mission map on your own. They also allow you to pick up certain items to use when you go into the main mission area. You're not provided with gear anymore so there's no real pre-mission setup, again because you don't have the support of the agency. So searching these point A to point b areas can give you some pretty useful items. Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean that it doesn't have a use it just means that you are unaware of how to utilize it. And as for the whole restricted area thing if you unlock the door chances are that you shouldn't be inside that space just saying, I locked door is a pretty good indicator to a restricted area. If you climb in a window and end up in a hallway inside of a building and some guy at the end of the hallway sees you and you're not supposed to be their chances are he's going to run up to you and see what the heck you are doing. That's pretty realistic honestly and I don't think it distracts from the game play at all it just makes you be more cautious.
i personally want to know where he got his suits. after all this clothers serve as tool for his work too, either to appear decent or to hide other "tools". i know that because i used to conceal weapons too, mostly knives.
Probably the best review I've seen of this game. I don't entirely agree with you regarding the female characters, though. Sexuality does not need to be seen as an inherently negative trait, and the nuns are clearly badass and confident. Not just sexual toys, even if they go down too easily. I don't meant to rant. I've just become really bitter about feminist critique becoming so prominent in modern gaming.
+gilgamesh310 Hey, thanks for watching man! I agree that sexuality isn't an inherently bad thing, I just found there to be a huge divide between how women and men were portrayed in this game and I found that interesting and worth thinking about. Have you seen RedLetterMedia's Mr Plinkett review of Star Wars The Phantom Menace? In one of them he does this test where he asks people to describe the new characters without mentioning what they look like or what their job is compared to the older film's characters (They all struggle). I think it's a really good test to apply to anything that can give you an idea of how well written a character is. I think if you did it with Hitman Absolution, you would probably struggle to come up with descriptions for almost all the female characters or, at the very least, find it harder than with the male characters. I also think that, visually, the design of the female characters is very different to the males, they seem to be almost defined by their gender or sexuality in a way the men aren't. I don't think you would be able to make these same sort of observations about the characters in games like The Last of Us or Telltale's The Walking Dead. If I had been reviewing those games, I doubt I would have even brought up gender; I only brought it up in this review because I felt like the game itself placed such a huge emphasis on it. I really tried to think about if there was a narrative or thematic context for this but I couldn't, so ultimately I chalked it up to lazy, cliché riddled writing rather than the idea that the developers were being wilfully or knowingly sexist. Sorry for the huge ass reply, I think a lot of this is aimed not specifically at you but just anyone in general who might be reading, just so I don't have to post about it again because it can be a contentious issue! haha I know people can argue all day about gender politics, about why something is written the way it is, the implications of it, whether either of those things even matter. The knowledge that people are having those arguments definitely made me think quite carefully about how I approached this subject. I wouldn't consider myself an anti-feminist at all but at the same time, I don't want to be dismissed as an "SJW". That Feminist Frequency video about 'Strategic Butt Coverings' is so ASTOUNDINGLY bad I almost used it as a benchmark of what NOT to do. I tried to avoid making generalisations or statements about issues without considering both sides of the argument so I could present a point of view that felt balanced. I hope that by discussing how sex and perversion has always been an underlying theme in the Hitman series and by making reference to the films of Russ Meyer, that I wasn't implying sexuality is an inherently bad thing and that by pointing out how the male characters are subjected to loads of gender stereotypes too, that it isn't exclusive to women. I just felt that there was a difference between how the men and women were written and in the end it lead to less interesting characters which is something I'm sure everyone agrees, games need less of!
thinreaper Fair enough. That's a good explanation. At this point I'd say I am an anti-feminist, or at the very least, an anti-SJW. I've just been exposed to so much bullshit regarding it, to the point where I think it's poison. There's just an astounding amount of stupidity and ignorance, regarding it, that goes around(it's definitely not just Anita), that I can become flustered when I hear complaints of any kind. But I try to be aware of when people make good points regarding the subject material, and not outright dismiss any talk on it.
Hitman absolution is an amazing stealth game, but not a hitman game it took the route of splinter cell and the likes in the process loosing his essence, but still a good game
I dig the video. Ive always loved hitman since I played it, and of course my favorite being the originals on ps2, and even the newest one is the most true to blood money in my opinion. Absolution felt more like a movie, there was more of a linear story to the experience. Now being a big time hitman fan, I'm still muddy on the story. In other words, I play hitman games for the sheer fun I have. I hardly take missions seriously, and if I do it is out of just wanting more of the game itself for replay value. All in all I love hitman, and I never try to hate so hard on any direction they take. I understand there are many ways to have fun with the game, its all about being a fun gamer at the end. I remember whenever I would only play certain games, and now I am able to appreciate different games for different reasons.
I disagree with your argument against the special abilities, although I do think you should be very limited in the frequency you can use them. Once per level would have been balanced, as well as add some strategy to using them. As far as contextualizing them though, I don’t see the issue. You’re playing as a super-experienced essentially superhuman assassin. It would make sense if he could look at someone and predict their movement based on their body language or the layout of the area he’s in, as well as being able to blend in seamlessly with a crowd or knowing where the optimal locations of targets/guards would be inside a building. Besides limiting the use of the Instinct powers, I also think giving them a chance of failure would be fair as well as help to contextualize the inclusion of them as “instincts” instead of “magic get-out-of-jail-free cards”
My 2 Cents on Absolution Gameplay: 1. A huge over-reliance on stealth. 2. Disguises are practically useless; everyone in that uniform becomes suspicious no matter what. There is no way to blend in with disguises 3. Severe lack of a sandbox; Extremely linear gameplay with the one exception being China Town. 4. You have to stealth your way through multiple checkpoints before even being able to assassinate a target. 5. Many of the scenarios feel unrealistic or way too 'hollywood' like which doesn't fit for a Hitman game. 6. One thing that really bugged me is how every single suspicious NPC had the same generic line "Who the fuck are you", regardless of their profession or personality. If you treat it as a narrative driven stealth game with some Hitman elements, it can be pretty fun, even though the whole premise of the story is bonkers, yet alone the whole reason the police go on a big Manhunt without even seeing a crime scene or even the person they are hunting. This is simply not Hitman I loved with Blood Money (my introduction to Hitman), and more recently Hitman 2016. Stealth is a tool for Agent 47, but taking cover is not the ONLY aspect of that tool like this game suggest. Hiding in plain sight such as blending in, is every bit a part of stealth.
You said it yourself, it is a grindhouse exploitation story. Every point you brought up about the esthetic and story are explained by that. After that it's up to subjective enjoyment of the genre, which I love. About the gameplay changes I'm mostly with you. Ps. Agent 47 has been a reluctant killer since the first game. In the first game he wanted to and did destroy the cloning facility to stop them from creating more people like him. I suppose you could argue that he wanted to be the only one of him, but then in the second game he is living in a monastery to make up for his life as an assassin and only takes on a personal mission from the agency to avenge his priest friend. So the argument that 47 doing something personal like protecting Veronica from the agency is not far fetched at all, in the context of the previous games.
+thinreaper Man I would love that so much, just finished playing it and would really like to see your opinion of it. Perhaps you could consider focusing on stealth games in general because you definitely understand the genre more than most critics and I feel that are not many youtubers who talk about them in lenght. But take your time of course, quality content like the one you make must takes ages to write and edit.
I'd argue that it felt a bit more video game-y to put on a disguise and have NO ONE ELSE suspect you, despite the fact that often you're putting on a disguise of someone who's probably worked at a place for a long time and should be easily recognized by his co-workers. But I do agree that Absolution botched it by making it universal. Hitman 2016 splits the difference by allowing you some freedom in a disguise, but still having specific (and logically chosen!) people able to recognize that, hey, you're not Dave, where's Dave? A great review, and very well-considered!
I think the disguise system makes a lot of sense. If you were disguised as a cop, you should expect that every cop in the area knows each other very well. So it wouldn't be unusual if they see a bald guy with a barcode on the back of his head dressed like them and say, "Hey who is this guy?" it just makes a lot more sense if you try to take a look at it from a more realistic standpoint.
While I don't necessarily completely agree with you, I do see your point. It makes sense that a, security guard for example, would recognise an imposter dressed in their uniform, whereas cleaners wouldn't. However I still think this idea was absolutely horrendously implemented in Absolution. There are plenty of moments, as I discussed, where there is only one kind of uniform you can use and you're surrounded by others wearing the same so you still have to try and avoid everyone and stealth past them. It renders the entire point of the disguises pointless. Also there's no internal logic or consistency to how some of the disguises work. How do cops spot you as an imposter when you're wearing a helmet? Why doesn't the gangster immediately spot that you're not the same drug dealer he was just talking to? The next Hitman game took your logic and implemented it in a way that works and so the levels are designed in a way where various different disguises can be used in different places, for different approaches to the target. Absolution's approach to disguises was a mess to begin with and completely fell apart in the linear levels. In my opinion anyway!
@@thinreaper Yeah that's true. One level had a SWAT team where they're all dressed head to toe with armor, as well as in Rosewood where your enemies are all wearing masks. There is absolutely (pun intended) no way you would be recognized immediately as an impostor because of the head covering. So I guess you are right. One thing I couldn't get my head around is the fact that you could disguise yourself as an important figure (drug dealer in Chinatown) and no one would notice. Also, the 'suit only' achievement in Absolution is terribly designed. It is EXTREMELY difficult to finish a level without using a disguise, so I would more likely end up killing all the guards if it means I get to advance to the next level.
Hitman absolution is a stealth game don't said cover based stealth, My God did you play hitman 2016?? Suit only silent assassin,well it play's exactly like absolution, you depend on trowing things to move NPCs to your liking,and for my one of the most satisfying aspect of 2016 is infiltrate with suit only,and it plays exactly like absolution that doesn't mean all is perfect,like yea is a stealth game a la splinter cell not a la hitman if that makes any sence,but still I love absolution,for hitman long time fans is kind like a guilty pleasure, sorry for my horrible English,hope you understand.
What a load of crap, hitman 2016 is miles better and objectively superior to absolution. Fancy gun play unfortunately doesn't make up for the sins of absolution.
I liked Blood Money a lot, so after Absolution got praised I tried it and didn't really like it, it just didn't feel like a Hitman game. So yeah, I agree with most of your points.
Excellent review! You really seem to have thought this all the way through. It definitely held my interest. Do I hear a...northern Welsh accent, perhaps?
Hm... it was one of the first with this surrugate father/daughter story type and is remarkably similar in details to others like Last of Us and especially Logan (different medium, though), yet showed perfectly how it is not done.
Grind house b movie vibe is why the game is fun. Hitman meets hobo with a shotgun. You are looking to far into it lol. It is Grindhouse ! It must be right? This can't be serious storytelling right?
That feeling when you discover another great long-form game analysis channel.
De Jure Claims
Got that feeling right now mate. Just found this channel.
Immediate sub, fantastic content.
Same here
Exactly! 😄
Great stuff. Really well done. Probably your best video, and it's your longest. So you can keep the quality up over a more complicated look at a game. My guess is that this took a lot of time to make and you still managed to keep the examples/footage relevant.
I haven't played the games myself so I can't comment much on the content. Everything you said seemed right on to me though, from the perspective of an outsider on the series. I especially liked the comparison you made to Zelda's garden section. I think it's shocking just how many stealth games don't get any more complex than that, haha.
+Joseph Anderson Hey, thank you! Yeah this one took ages, I think I actually played the game and took notes right after my Gear of War review so it was on the back burner for months. I was really worried about the length and the fact I'd made an hour long video about a 4 year old game that barely anyone liked in the first place, but the response has been fantastic so far, I'm really pleased!
I agree that it's surprising just how many games seem to have almost the bare minimum of stealth mechanics these days and developers somehow think that's enough. I remember when, back in the early 3D era, stealth in games felt absolutely revolutionary and it's kinda sad to think that now it's one of the most trite mechanics you can come across in modern games.
Fancy seing you here Joseph.
Nice seeing you here. Would've never found this video unless you recommended it.
-Ethan 0.
Was this before Joseph Anderson was getting millions of views?
I like how in the new game if you’re trespassing, the guards will actually warn you and tell you to leave. They actually give you a chance to walk away... just like in real life
Or like in Blood Money that released 6 years before Absolution ! This isn't a new Feature.
And they even give responses if you go back out. Like "Glad we speak the same language here"
They do that in some areas of hitman absolution. Unless you are in super forbidden areas, npcs will usually warn you first and if you leave, they will leave you alone.
They also do in Absolution, if you walk away after trespassing they warn you not to do it again.
I just sat here listening to the video without looking at the length and when you said that it was over I looked at the time and could not believe that you made an hour feel like 10 minutes. It's truly incredible when you finally find a small UA-cam channel that really deserves more attention. It's a shame that it's so difficult to find smaller channels, but when you do, damn. Keep up the good work, I love your stuff.
Same here
Well done, sir. Great review.
Thanks man! Appreciate it
Fantastic video. Hitman 2016 has been occupying a lot of my time recently and it was nice watching this after experiencing the newest entry. At this point I've played all of them, completely out of order, and Hitman's two released levels seem to have refined the series down to (almost) perfection. I really liked Absolution when I played it back in 2012, it was the first Hitman I had ever played, but it just looks like a total mess now.
This video must have been a huge amount of work. Wonderful stuff.
+Cee Marshall Hey, thanks so much! Yeah it took me absolutely ages to write this review, I actually started writing it a couple of videos ago. There was just so many different aspects of gameplay to talk about which was hard to get my head around because none of them really seemed to gel together to form a cohesive whole, it's just a load of confused ideas jumbled into one big game that looks and feels great to play but just doesn't work at all as a Hitman game. I can't wait to eventually get my hands on the new game though, it looks great!
hitman absolution had this atmmosphere to it that i don't think the reboot has. it's so amazing.
Just wanted to say, I come back to this video every so often just because I really like it. I think this is one of your best videos. Fun fact though, I actually alpha/beta tested this game at IO interactive offices in Copenhagen back when they were making it.
Oh wow! That's really cool, did the finished product differ much from what you tested? Also, thanks for the kind words!
No not that much. We actually spent a bit of time having the same kind of complaints that you later listed. It was part of a volunteer program that IO runs, so it wasn't the kind of intense internal QA you some times hear about. We saw some levels, but they were pretty buggy at the time, so it was hard to gain a real good sense of how the game was. We did however spend some time complaining about how much more linear the game was, compared to Blood Money.
And what were they response to that? Obviously they gave a fuck or the had a reason for it, what was it?
i loved how in blood money u could just pick up a hammer and bludgeon some poor fool to death, laugh, and move on with ur day. absolution made me feel like i was playing wrong
You can easily do that in Absolution 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
@@morgan0__o Absolution punishes you for pacifying or eliminating non-targets by deducting your score.
Because you kinda were playing wrong...
@@soakyarchive8788once you have all unlocks why does the score matter？
Brilliant. Excellent production values throughout as well as interesting observations and a very listenable voice performance. Keep up the good work buddy. Hope you get the recognition you deserve for work of this caliber.
10:50 just wanted to point out that people who are wearing the same clothes as you will fill your detection meter, but slower than if you were doing something illegal in your normal suit.
disguises in this game work more like camoflauges than disguises if anything. enemies will still see you (and i agree that it makes no sense), but they will see you slower.
How does it not make sense? Like imagine some dude you’ve never seen before shows up at your job, and attempted assassinations are common
I love Absolution, it's my favourite Hitman game so far, not including the games made after this, as I haven't played them yet. I haven't upgraded to a PS4 yet.
In my opinion the game is a lot smoother than any that came before it, and the story line is great. The games are challenging, and I know you mentioned that some levels you don't have anyone to kill, but trying to get through each level without being seen is all part of the stealth aspect of Hitman. Nothing better describes the word 'stealth' than trying to remain hidden.
As for the disguise element that you mentioned, to me it makes sense that other people wearing the same outfit would recognise you quicker, as you would usually recognise work colleagues.
I'm still playing this game 7 years after it's initial release.
The best observed review of the game I've seen. Love the level of detail and the depth of your analysis. Very good stuff!
Joseph sent me here, as well. Excellent review!
I think the main issue with Absolution is that it wants to be a movie, making the gameplay incidental or even detrimental to the overall story. Still, it's awfully nice to look at for a 2012 game. If it had had a more consistent tone and stuck to the classic Hitman mechanics, it could have been the model for darkly funny stealth games. We need more of them. I haven't tried the new Hitman episodes either, but I've heard good things.
Have you considered reviewing Dishonored? I personally think it's the greatest story-driven stealth game ever made.
Hey, thanks! Yeah Dishonored is definitely on my list of games to consider reviewing. I'm not sure I'd have that much to say about it that hasn't already been said but that might be a fun challenge to take on one day. Thanks for watching"
actually, the scoring system is very well designed, it doesn't punish killing in general it punishes sloppy killing, whenever you perform a non target kill you get a point deduction, however this point deduction can be ignored by killing with headshots or anything classified as a silent kill, the fiber wire and headshot kills have the same point deduction as if you non lethally subdued a target, then by dumping the body the point deduction is removed altogether the only time that killing is punished regardless of execution is in the case of civilians. my only gripe with it is the fact that it made the syringe overpowered, because it was classified as a silent kill and non lethal takedown you always got a net positive score when dumping the body afterwards.
the only playstyle that this punishes is rushing in and killing everything that moves without any care whatsoever.
I finished the game recently and this analysis nailed every nitpick and grievance i had with the game (i played it right after blood money so i was obviously let down). Very thorough, great job!
30:55 DRIVING motivation... amirite??
great video, I love these in depth reviews of games I never play. XD
Excellent video dude. Appreciate the effort/depth.
Such a well thought out, quality video. really deserves more recognition. I loved watching this :)
Thanks man! Appreciate it
This was a great video to dig into, well worth an hour, you basically mirrored most of my problems with this game, in particular I liked how you handled the topic of women in the game partially because you didn't fall into any of the inflammatory pitfalls that I see most people commit with this topic, like how you made a point that you weren't trying to frame the game or its developers to have any malicious intent.
As you said, the scoring system in this game was abhorrent, but to add to that I think it doesn't help that you don't really start earning points until you reach your target, which makes sense from a broad overall perspective of the level but in the moment to moment game play it's just discouraging you to take any action even if you can round the score back to zero, and blood money's method of ranking players was much more clear for me and added some interesting challenge (such as not leaving your suit or equipment behind as evidence) and I thought the newspapers were a stroke of genius.
And while there are advantages to the new detection system, it has lead me to some annoying situations where i'm out in the open dancing back and forth because I'm now juggling multiple line of sights with the enemy (Which you can see in some parts of your video).
In the end, this was a sour note to be the last Hitman game I've played in a while, i'm tempted to try the new one but I want to pick it up when it's complete.
This was really well done. Comprehensive and on topic and entertaining to watch. Kudos to you, sir.
Great review man!
It's people like you that deserve a big Channel.
About his motivation to save her from being an assassin.. at least at some points, he wanted to stop killing people, for example in hitman2, when starts confessing and shit..
but still, awesome video mate
I can't help but love this game despite all the obvious flaws.
I think this game holds a special place in my heart because I played it at a time where I was finally old enough to realize what a brilliant game series Hitman is. and the HD trilogy dropped just months after this released and I was able to revisit those games with a renewed sense of appreciation for them after playing Absolution.
While the current world of assassination trilogy is probably the best content they've ever put out for the series, I still think absolution has better gunplay lol
The real big issue was just totally screwing up the disguise system on anything aside from lower difficulties. And even then it's still a mess, just not useless.
the hidden gem in absolution was contracts mode you would then see where some of the levels that served no real purpose other than to help usher you from point A to point B in the campaign were actually jam packed with environmental/accidental kill opportunities and the trademark IO interactive humor. The courthouse is a great example. Or R&D... That level was ace for contracts mode.
It's a real bummer that when they re-released the game there was no contracts mode alongside it
That moment around min 9:17 when you nail everything down in this review that makes me want to listen to the end!
40:45 I'm pretty sure all the locked doors at the end of the levels are just hidden loading screens. Like the infamous elevators in Mass Effect (and others) or the convenient corridors between areas in the mainland of Hyrule in Zelda: Twilight Princess
Regarding the story critique leg of the video:
Hitman: Absolution is a grindhouse movie in video game form. It's a 70s exploitation flick with the kind of wacky-ass characters you would expect to find in that era. It's not even subtle about what kind of tone it's going for, considering every mission begins with celluloid being lit on fire. Hell, even the postcards in level select are reminiscent of 70s exploitation movie posters. How this is lost on people, I have no idea. Hitman: Absolution's story is told with tongue firmly planted in cheek. You're meant to revel in how absurd it all is.
As for the supposed plot holes; the reason 47 decides to help Diana is because the girl (Victoria) is like him: genetically engineered to be a killing machine. 47 doesn't remember everything before escaping Dr. Ort-Meyer's Romanian asylum, but what he does remember is unpleasant to say the least. You know, like those scenes where a little bald kid is crying because doctors keep pushing needles into him? That's 47 as a kid. 47 never chose to be an Assassin, he was made in a lab to be one. Hell, his resignation to his fate as a killer for hire is the biggest plot point in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.
And when Blake Dexter refers to not needing "that kind of attention," he's referring to the ICA that 47 worked for. Dexter is an illegal arms dealer and is plugged into the criminal underworld where 47 is considered an urban legend. Seeing 47 on the floor of his hotel room tells him A) he's onto something with this girl he's looking for and B) that he needs be careful not to incur the wrath of the ICA. He frames 47 for the maid's murder because he doesn't want the ICA thinking that he's making moves against them. Setting the room on fire is a "brilliant idea" and is framed by his wife as him being an idiot. As it turns out, Blake Dexter is kind of an unhinged psychopath. Who knew.
As for the religious stuff: 47 is Catholic. At the end of the first game he discovers that he's a clone and not a "real human," and decides to quit the Agency and go into self-imposed exile at a little church in Sicily. There he befriends Father Vittorio and turns to God and gardening, swearing off a life of violence and death. When Vittorio is abducted, 47 gets in contact with the ICA and works for them in order to gain information on who abducted Vittorio, where he is, and why. That's Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.
All in all it really seems like Absolution's biggest misstep with the story was assuming that players had been following along all this time. Considering the reviewer in this video is unaware of even the most basic story threads in the series, I'm guessing this was his first rodeo with the series.
The moment I heard your accent loud and clear in describing the story a "shitshow" I started clapping.
In truth, I love stealth games, the purer they are the better so far as I'm concerned. Absolution was my first hitman as I'd never been much into the series and I loathed it, there's really no other word for it, absolutely loathed it. The way you're describing blood money makes me want to give that game a try instead to be honest.
Great video though, really well made and never boring or dragging along. Kudos to you good sir.
I hope you tried it. :)
Youve already touched upon how the gameplay and mission progression couldve been improved.
I wanted to talk about the story and how it couldve changed, I feel like after killing Diana, instead of keeping her promise, 47 should have kept on working with the agency, sticking to his character of a loyal professional who takes more pride in being the best of the best, and completely forsaking diana.
As you continue to keep doing hits for the agency, 47 should find evidence behind the real reason diana had to be killed and so you find out more about victoria. So the agency starts telling you bits and pieces of the truth about her and eventually you should've been told to kill victoria, but contradictory to most other hits, instead of killing drug dealers, murderers or anything of the sort, you have to kill a defenseless child, an easy hit, too easy for someone like 47, and for the first time, without a professional challenge to blind his morality, he realizes that this little girl is in the same position he was as a child, and to see her uncorrupted by years of contract killing, 47 sees what he couldve been without the agency and ortmeier's expirements.
Thats when you change sides and start helping remnants of diana's contacts protect victoria by killing guys like dexter and travis who are attempting to use her for their own means. It wouldve been a way to make classic hits present at the beginning of the game and Hits against the agency in a stroke of irony from 47, in the latter half of the game.
That's just me brainstorming though, im sure people could expand more on my idea.
Didn't stumble across this review until March '18 but what a gem. Instant sub.
I had my issues with Absolution, but overall I appreciate what it did right and respect the developer for trying to do things new. With the 2016 "return to form" I feel like they threw out the baby with the bathwater. Yeah its fun, but I still think Blood money still did it so much better. At the end of the day, Absolution feels like an all out Triple AAA game, where as the new ones feel like some indy developed game. The story cutscenes aren't even animated in the new Hitman 2, just stills with dialogue and just FIVE levels, compared to blood money's 12 levels. come on.
it was a really well put together video, buti think that the instinct path halps take away the trial and error problem you talked about before
great video! I skipped this game because of bad word-of-mouth, but you gave me a sense of what I missed
I played the game on Purist. Disguises help a lot with sneaking around,enemies take A LOT MORE TIME to spot you, since they don't get to see your face. Nice video!
19:40 you just described to a T how Hitman 2's suspicion mechanics work. that game also had a similar recognizing mechanic, but instead of enemies being able to instantly see through your disguise, you'd be fine as long as you either kept a distance of 10ft, or made sure you walked away from an enemy within about 10 seconds, kinda funny how Hitman 2 was already doing these mechanics pretty well 10 years prior.
I'd also like to point out that this only applies to guards and police.
I love your documentary on one of my top 5 series of all time 💜
43:40 that level was actually really nice... if you walk to the backroom you can find a lot of stuff from the old games which was really nostalgic.
Great video, really enjoyed your in depth review.
pretty much everything you said is right they should take blood money as a reference for a good hitman game
UNDERRATED. Deserves more attention. Have my like and admiration.
After watching this I realized how much I want a high budget new Manhunt game.
Was sent here from another channel, didn't plan on watching the whole thing, ended up doing so anyway! Really well made, your explanation gives me a feeling for the game. Subscribed!
I think you can gain a lot just by comparing the cemetery in absolution vs. the last mission in blood money.
The former has more detail, is larger, more technically advanced, but the latter is thematically, musically, and visually more striking. It also helps that there is no direct cover system in blood money which has plagued more modern shooters.
Absolution was the first Hitman game I played so I don't have much reference as to what makes Hitman games good, and I've seen comparison videos made about Blood money and absolution which to me say that absolution was superior apart from some gameplay mechanics, which I agree were better in Blood Money, like the disguises and the quick save feature which would have made absolution a much more complete experience for me, even being a newcomer to Hitman. And the boss's/villains seem to take a lot of inspiration from Metal Gear Solid in my opinion. At least that's what my immediate thought was when I first played it. The Nuns are so metal gear
8:40 This is wrong. Have you not played Hitman 2? 30:35 this is wrong too. Anytime you refer to "the earlier games" you seem to just mean Blood Money. If that's the case just say "Blood Money".
The best review of a video game I've ever seen. +1 subscriber.
Wow! High praise indeed! Thanks man, that really means alot
Joseph Anderson sent me here. I'm glad he did. Great video bud.
I'm in the same boat. I asked my patron question and he provided me a link to my Hitman question.
Your critiques of the story fall flat to me, not because I think it's a good story, but because I don't really think you understand these characters. Agent 47 was genetically engineered and trained since birth to be a badass super assassin by a crazy Romanian doctor in an asylum. It's established in Hitman 2, and reinforced in Contracts, that he really doesn't enjoy his job but does it because he feels like its the only thing he's good at. So for me, it made perfect sense that 47 would try and prevent Victoria from being forced down the same path as him. Of course, the story as a whole is garbage, but the character motivations (47's and Diana's at least) make sense.
Great video dude, we have an almost identical opinion on this game. I do however think that this set up should be mimicked for a third Kane and Lynch title, even the murky narrative would have fitted quite nicely with those two characters at the helm.
This is a fucking outstanding critique. The depth in which you cover points without devolving into the inane is an admirable feat indeed. There's some truly thought provoking dissection of game mechanics (along with story and what have you) but you also posit viable alternatives. You make it seem so effortless, but I know if I were to attempt something similar, I wouldn't be able to say anything half a meaningful as you have here, over an entire hour no less, while keeping it engaging enough I never felt the need to skip forward. I can only imagine the craft and talent over multiple disciplines it must take to make something like this (video editing, critical analysis, writing, etc). As someone who struggles to fill out a page in Microsoft Word, you have my envy. And I don't even _care_ about the Hitman series.
My most succinct comment is I am left with the same feeling after watching this video as when having watched a brilliant stand up act: "goddamn I wish I was that gifted". Bra-fucking-vo, mate.
Wow! Thank you so much, those are some really kind words and it's absolutely amazing to get such kind feedback, it really means a lot! Thanks :)
Never really caught onto hitman until absolution and really liked it so I guess I wasn’t subject to its past incarnations.
This is one of my dad’s favorite games. He is a very casual gamer, so he doesn’t worry about the story, quality of gameplay or anything like that. He just cares if he has fun. Which is fine, but the weird thing is, this game is hardly fun. He hates story and cutscenes, but he likes this game. He judges a lot of games by their graphics, but he sees 5th gen graphics as “very good.” I see where he comes from, but sometimes I wonder how we get along.
You made some really interesting points here. I would really like for you to review Resident Evil 6. I think you would offer a unique perspective on that game.
+civilwarfare101 Thanks very much! I actually haven't played Resident Evil 6, I never bothered after hearing about how bad it was but maybe I should check it out, it might be good in-depth review material. Thanks for watching!
+thinreaper I've found resi6 to be a decent enough game in and of itself (granted, with a lot of pacing issues), but it really shouldn't have been made as a main line resi game given how big of a departure it is in terms of focus and tone. Even 4 still tried to create a horror atmosphere, 6 was almost always action aside from some more B-movie like horror segments in Leon's campaign.
@@cruelcumber5317 I reckon RE6 isn't a good action game but maybe that's just because of how it feels on PC.
@@cruelcumber5317
4 was as action focused as it gets.
Great review
I loved this Hitman and was flabbergasted that there waa a hate train behind it. I liked how there were trails between each Kill Playground. It made it so you couldn't, say murder an entire opera house full of people and then waltz down the street
I feel the best way to describe Absolution is "an above average/ pretty good game that sacrifices a lot of the series' elements in favour of a more detailed story. The problem is that it doesn't earn, take advantage of or justify those sacrifices "
Right, but if you're out of disguise they instantly shoot at you if you're in a hostile area. If you're in a disguise you have time to find a 'blend in' activity. Do that and the alerted person goes away and leaves you alone and you can repeat that as many times as you want.
Really amazing video. So in depth I love it. A long video shows care and thoughtfulness. I really enjoyed every single part of it. The only thing I would say would be about instinct. I think the reason disguises won't let you roam around the level freely because the levels weren't designed for that. It's a point a to point b kinda game. I mean some assassinations were different but as a whole just a to b. It would just make it a walking game
Joseph sent me. Great review
Great video. Wish you'd do more!
Watched this video because Joseph Anderson gave you a shout out and subbed because the video was very well done :)
Great review,i played the game and i agree with all your points
I find this game gets a bum wrap, and this is coming from someone who holds this series very near to my heart. It was a linear, departure from a lot of the greatness that made the series what it is, but there's still some great things about this game, controls, gun play and overall polish come to mind.
great video.
even though i do like the game, you were very fair and on point.
Good review, I agree with most of the things you say. About instinct superpowers though - Im pretty sure the game is meant to be played on a harder difficulty. If you play it on hard mode then your instinct drains a lot more + you cant see paths enemies take. Just sayin'
The game really feels like it was chasing trends way too much rather than just refining what made it great. It took the detective vision from Batman, the point shooting from splinter cell, and the cinematic linearity from so many games being released around then.
Definitely! There was a realwave of homogenisation spreading through the industry at that time and Hitman Absolution was one of the worst offenders. Glad the series found its way back to the right path.
@@thinreaper Great video! I see you're back from a hiatus, glad you are still creating.
It wasn't out when this video was made, but one of the IO developers basically said they were trying to jump on the bandwagon in a documentary (worth a watch) . Its at 7:03 here: ua-cam.com/video/_stW6JvB4SI/v-deo.html .
Ironically the game took so long to make the trend then swung back to open world player choice driven games like Far Cry by time absolution came out.
50:51 That track absolutely (don't) remind me of Max Payne 2. Just search the track called Mona. By the way, great analysis. Joseph Anderson send me here and are making really good videos. You've won a subscriber.
Hey man, great video. Really touched on what I felt during this game; not a bad game on it's own but a bad Hitman game
The get to this place kind of missions don't bother me at all in fact I rather like those. I think with a lot of people are missing here is that you don't have the support of the agency anymore so this is 47 on his own so he has to be resourceful.
You don't get just planted into the mission map you have to get to the mission map on your own. They also allow you to pick up certain items to use when you go into the main mission area. You're not provided with gear anymore so there's no real pre-mission setup, again because you don't have the support of the agency. So searching these point A to point b areas can give you some pretty useful items. Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean that it doesn't have a use it just means that you are unaware of how to utilize it.
And as for the whole restricted area thing if you unlock the door chances are that you shouldn't be inside that space just saying, I locked door is a pretty good indicator to a restricted area. If you climb in a window and end up in a hallway inside of a building and some guy at the end of the hallway sees you and you're not supposed to be their chances are he's going to run up to you and see what the heck you are doing. That's pretty realistic honestly and I don't think it distracts from the game play at all it just makes you be more cautious.
Ooh I learned a new thing today! Russ Meyer!
i personally want to know where he got his suits.
after all this clothers serve as tool for his work too, either to appear decent or to hide other "tools".
i know that because i used to conceal weapons too, mostly knives.
Probably the best review I've seen of this game. I don't entirely agree with you regarding the female characters, though. Sexuality does not need to be seen as an inherently negative trait, and the nuns are clearly badass and confident. Not just sexual toys, even if they go down too easily. I don't meant to rant. I've just become really bitter about feminist critique becoming so prominent in modern gaming.
+gilgamesh310 Hey, thanks for watching man! I agree that sexuality isn't an inherently bad thing, I just found there to be a huge divide between how women and men were portrayed in this game and I found that interesting and worth thinking about. Have you seen RedLetterMedia's Mr Plinkett review of Star Wars The Phantom Menace? In one of them he does this test where he asks people to describe the new characters without mentioning what they look like or what their job is compared to the older film's characters (They all struggle). I think it's a really good test to apply to anything that can give you an idea of how well written a character is.
I think if you did it with Hitman Absolution, you would probably struggle to come up with descriptions for almost all the female characters or, at the very least, find it harder than with the male characters. I also think that, visually, the design of the female characters is very different to the males, they seem to be almost defined by their gender or sexuality in a way the men aren't. I don't think you would be able to make these same sort of observations about the characters in games like The Last of Us or Telltale's The Walking Dead. If I had been reviewing those games, I doubt I would have even brought up gender; I only brought it up in this review because I felt like the game itself placed such a huge emphasis on it. I really tried to think about if there was a narrative or thematic context for this but I couldn't, so ultimately I chalked it up to lazy, cliché riddled writing rather than the idea that the developers were being wilfully or knowingly sexist.
Sorry for the huge ass reply, I think a lot of this is aimed not specifically at you but just anyone in general who might be reading, just so I don't have to post about it again because it can be a contentious issue! haha I know people can argue all day about gender politics, about why something is written the way it is, the implications of it, whether either of those things even matter. The knowledge that people are having those arguments definitely made me think quite carefully about how I approached this subject. I wouldn't consider myself an anti-feminist at all but at the same time, I don't want to be dismissed as an "SJW". That Feminist Frequency video about 'Strategic Butt Coverings' is so ASTOUNDINGLY bad I almost used it as a benchmark of what NOT to do. I tried to avoid making generalisations or statements about issues without considering both sides of the argument so I could present a point of view that felt balanced. I hope that by discussing how sex and perversion has always been an underlying theme in the Hitman series and by making reference to the films of Russ Meyer, that I wasn't implying sexuality is an inherently bad thing and that by pointing out how the male characters are subjected to loads of gender stereotypes too, that it isn't exclusive to women. I just felt that there was a difference between how the men and women were written and in the end it lead to less interesting characters which is something I'm sure everyone agrees, games need less of!
thinreaper Fair enough. That's a good explanation. At this point I'd say I am an anti-feminist, or at the very least, an anti-SJW. I've just been exposed to so much bullshit regarding it, to the point where I think it's poison. There's just an astounding amount of stupidity and ignorance, regarding it, that goes around(it's definitely not just Anita), that I can become flustered when I hear complaints of any kind. But I try to be aware of when people make good points regarding the subject material, and not outright dismiss any talk on it.
You should really review the new hitman. I love your reviews, keep up the good work
Wow *claps* subscribed! ;-) Hope for the best for you
impressive video. subbed I am going to start playing this tomorrow... on expert difficulty immediately xD
Hitman absolution is an amazing stealth game, but not a hitman game it took the route of splinter cell and the likes in the process loosing his essence, but still a good game
I would love to hear you talk about Hitman 2016 & 2018
Alas! If only you had made this game, this would have been one of the best hitman games ever
I dig the video. Ive always loved hitman since I played it, and of course my favorite being the originals on ps2, and even the newest one is the most true to blood money in my opinion. Absolution felt more like a movie, there was more of a linear story to the experience. Now being a big time hitman fan, I'm still muddy on the story. In other words, I play hitman games for the sheer fun I have. I hardly take missions seriously, and if I do it is out of just wanting more of the game itself for replay value. All in all I love hitman, and I never try to hate so hard on any direction they take. I understand there are many ways to have fun with the game, its all about being a fun gamer at the end. I remember whenever I would only play certain games, and now I am able to appreciate different games for different reasons.
Fantastic review, which absolutely nailed all the problems I've had with Absolution. I'd really love to know your thoughts about the new Hitman.
I disagree with your argument against the special abilities, although I do think you should be very limited in the frequency you can use them. Once per level would have been balanced, as well as add some strategy to using them.
As far as contextualizing them though, I don’t see the issue. You’re playing as a super-experienced essentially superhuman assassin. It would make sense if he could look at someone and predict their movement based on their body language or the layout of the area he’s in, as well as being able to blend in seamlessly with a crowd or knowing where the optimal locations of targets/guards would be inside a building. Besides limiting the use of the Instinct powers, I also think giving them a chance of failure would be fair as well as help to contextualize the inclusion of them as “instincts” instead of “magic get-out-of-jail-free cards”
Absolution broke my heart, plain and simple.
My 2 Cents on Absolution Gameplay: 1. A huge over-reliance on stealth. 2. Disguises are practically useless; everyone in that uniform becomes suspicious no matter what. There is no way to blend in with disguises 3. Severe lack of a sandbox; Extremely linear gameplay with the one exception being China Town. 4. You have to stealth your way through multiple checkpoints before even being able to assassinate a target. 5. Many of the scenarios feel unrealistic or way too 'hollywood' like which doesn't fit for a Hitman game. 6. One thing that really bugged me is how every single suspicious NPC had the same generic line "Who the fuck are you", regardless of their profession or personality.
If you treat it as a narrative driven stealth game with some Hitman elements, it can be pretty fun, even though the whole premise of the story is bonkers, yet alone the whole reason the police go on a big Manhunt without even seeing a crime scene or even the person they are hunting. This is simply not Hitman I loved with Blood Money (my introduction to Hitman), and more recently Hitman 2016. Stealth is a tool for Agent 47, but taking cover is not the ONLY aspect of that tool like this game suggest. Hiding in plain sight such as blending in, is every bit a part of stealth.
You said it yourself, it is a grindhouse exploitation story.
Every point you brought up about the esthetic and story are explained by that.
After that it's up to subjective enjoyment of the genre, which I love.
About the gameplay changes I'm mostly with you.
Ps. Agent 47 has been a reluctant killer since the first game.
In the first game he wanted to and did destroy the cloning facility to stop them from creating more people like him.
I suppose you could argue that he wanted to be the only one of him, but then in the second game he is living in a monastery to make up for his life as an assassin and only takes on a personal mission from the agency to avenge his priest friend.
So the argument that 47 doing something personal like protecting Veronica from the agency is not far fetched at all, in the context of the previous games.
Great video, could you review deus ex human revolution please, I think your review style suits it perfectly
+James Watford Hey, thanks! Hopefully I'll get round to doing Deus Ex: HR one day, it is on my list!
+thinreaper Man I would love that so much, just finished playing it and would really like to see your opinion of it. Perhaps you could consider focusing on stealth games in general because you definitely understand the genre more than most critics and I feel that are not many youtubers who talk about them in lenght. But take your time of course, quality content like the one you make must takes ages to write and edit.
I'd argue that it felt a bit more video game-y to put on a disguise and have NO ONE ELSE suspect you, despite the fact that often you're putting on a disguise of someone who's probably worked at a place for a long time and should be easily recognized by his co-workers.
But I do agree that Absolution botched it by making it universal. Hitman 2016 splits the difference by allowing you some freedom in a disguise, but still having specific (and logically chosen!) people able to recognize that, hey, you're not Dave, where's Dave?
A great review, and very well-considered!
I used to play this when i was younger, didn't realize how ridiculous it was though, wow
I think the disguise system makes a lot of sense. If you were disguised as a cop, you should expect that every cop in the area knows each other very well. So it wouldn't be unusual if they see a bald guy with a barcode on the back of his head dressed like them and say, "Hey who is this guy?" it just makes a lot more sense if you try to take a look at it from a more realistic standpoint.
While I don't necessarily completely agree with you, I do see your point. It makes sense that a, security guard for example, would recognise an imposter dressed in their uniform, whereas cleaners wouldn't. However I still think this idea was absolutely horrendously implemented in Absolution. There are plenty of moments, as I discussed, where there is only one kind of uniform you can use and you're surrounded by others wearing the same so you still have to try and avoid everyone and stealth past them. It renders the entire point of the disguises pointless. Also there's no internal logic or consistency to how some of the disguises work. How do cops spot you as an imposter when you're wearing a helmet? Why doesn't the gangster immediately spot that you're not the same drug dealer he was just talking to?
The next Hitman game took your logic and implemented it in a way that works and so the levels are designed in a way where various different disguises can be used in different places, for different approaches to the target. Absolution's approach to disguises was a mess to begin with and completely fell apart in the linear levels. In my opinion anyway!
@@thinreaper Yeah that's true. One level had a SWAT team where they're all dressed head to toe with armor, as well as in Rosewood where your enemies are all wearing masks. There is absolutely (pun intended) no way you would be recognized immediately as an impostor because of the head covering. So I guess you are right.
One thing I couldn't get my head around is the fact that you could disguise yourself as an important figure (drug dealer in Chinatown) and no one would notice.
Also, the 'suit only' achievement in Absolution is terribly designed. It is EXTREMELY difficult to finish a level without using a disguise, so I would more likely end up killing all the guards if it means I get to advance to the next level.
Brilliant in depth review. I totally get what you’re saying! What are your thoughts on Hitman 2016?
Is this Jay from the In-betweeners?
Either way, Great video.
Hitman absolution is a stealth game don't said cover based stealth, My God did you play hitman 2016?? Suit only silent assassin,well it play's exactly like absolution, you depend on trowing things to move NPCs to your liking,and for my one of the most satisfying aspect of 2016 is infiltrate with suit only,and it plays exactly like absolution that doesn't mean all is perfect,like yea is a stealth game a la splinter cell not a la hitman if that makes any sence,but still I love absolution,for hitman long time fans is kind like a guilty pleasure, sorry for my horrible English,hope you understand.
Absolution is better than hitman 2016 I hate to say it but absolution just feels better especially the gun play
What a load of crap, hitman 2016 is miles better and objectively superior to absolution. Fancy gun play unfortunately doesn't make up for the sins of absolution.
I liked Blood Money a lot, so after Absolution got praised I tried it and didn't really like it, it just didn't feel like a Hitman game. So yeah, I agree with most of your points.
Excellent review! You really seem to have thought this all the way through. It definitely held my interest. Do I hear a...northern Welsh accent, perhaps?
Hey, thanks! Sorry for the late reply. Definitely not from Wales though!
Brilliant
This video made me realize how shit this game is
Hm... it was one of the first with this surrugate father/daughter story type and is remarkably similar in details to others like Last of Us and especially Logan (different medium, though), yet showed perfectly how it is not done.
There are some people who swear that this game is better than Hitman 2016, and I'll never understand why.....
Grind house b movie vibe is why the game is fun. Hitman meets hobo with a shotgun. You are looking to far into it lol. It is Grindhouse ! It must be right? This can't be serious storytelling right?