10 Video Games That Were One Critical Flaw Away From Greatness

9. Hitman: Absolution

Critical Flaw: A broken disguise system. When Agent 47 made his return to consoles in what was actually one of the best-looking entries in the entire series, developer IO somehow thought their previously award-winning and fan-pleasing systems needed a bit of a shakeup. Whereas before one of the key gameplay elements - and signature features of what made the Hitman games so enjoyable - was that you could steal the disguise of any character in any level, assuming their role within said level to get closer to your target. In Absolution however, IO made it so that disguises were of a particular 'type' that all the rest in that level would then recognise. So say you try and masquerade as a waiter, all the other waiters in that level would know their once-buddy had been replaced. A good idea on paper, but in practice enemies were becoming suspicious from across entire levels, not to mention the only way around wearing a disguise next to someone of the same 'type' was to hold a button that drained a meter on-screen. Every time that meter expired you were instantly seen again, which took away the whole 'behind enemy lines' nature of slipping through an enemies' ranks undetected that made the previous titles so endlessly replayable.