Hitman: Absolution – Tore Blystad Unveils New Information

On the run up to the release of Hitman: Absolution, Game Director Tore Blystad has done some recent interviews with game blogs and websites, from which we are able to gather more information on the latest instalment of the game.

With the huge gap between the last Hitman title, and this one, there has been a huge evolution in the mechanics of the game, which has been taken apart by the IO Interactive team and looked at in different lights. Blystad details that due to the focus on the ‘target’ or ‘objective’ in each level of the game, there was not much of a focus on the mechanics or how certain processes worked, for example, how using certain weapons was actually quite difficult due to the played having to slow, or crouch, or run, or get into the right position. We look forward to improved movements which he states should mean “that the difficult comes not from performing the kill but from containing your situation and making sure that no-one catches you”.

There’s also more of a focus on one storyline, which is not only tied across all the levels (which has not been prevalent with previous Hitman titles) with players being rewarded for playing stealthily by hearing far more dialogue (Blystad states that the script for the in-game sections alone is about 2,000 pages!) than if you rush through simply gunning everyone down. Players can still play the game however they see fit, whether it’s going in all guns blazing or being uber stealthy, as Blystad states “we don’t want to give the impression that we’re guiding the player in a specific direction”.

The game features different movements and reactions by guards and enemies, although there remains some consistency involved in the routes they take to ensure that the player is not frustrated by trying the same level out repeatedly but unable to work out what is going wrong. There is a focus on different difficulty levels, which gets harder by focusing on changes in enemy reactions, their movements, they will spot you more easily or take less time to become overly aggressive.

The storyline is also confirmed to take place after Blood Money, but the player is not required to have played any of the previous games (nor have seen the movie) prior to playing Hitman: Absolution.

Hitman: Absolution is set for release in the second half of 2012.

Tags: Hitman: Absolution IO Interactive Tore Blystad