5 Great (And 5 Not So Great) Stealth Video Games
4. Hitman Absolution
Ugh. Just look, look at that header picture. If you could sum up Absolution in one picture, that'd be it.
After the seminal 360 debut of Hitman: Blood Money, the next entry in the series should have been an improvement on the formula.
Except, it wasn't. It was tonally different, it added a scoring element that penalised you for doing standard Hitman things such as knocking a guard out or creating a noisy distraction. Whilst a negative score could be balanced out, it was almost like the game telling you what to do, or suffer the consequences.
It took the freedom out of it, and became more a fussy mother, looking over your shoulder and almost directing you. Fans were not happy.
The story was also loud and bombastic. Hitman, as a series, has always been a bit fantastical, yet grounded in its plausibility. But Absolution threw in super soldier clones with power-activating necklaces, giganto Trejo-esque wrestlers and sexy killer nun squads. No, really. Killer nuns.
The grindhouse, pulpy style of story failed to hit the mark with series fans, and shoehorned linear levels took the creativity out a franchise whose very style was in the varied approach to levels.
It wasn't all bad, though. It gave IO Interactive four years to do their homework...