Hitman 2016: 10 Signs It'll Make The Series Great Again

7. Less Story-Focus, More On Assassinations

Because of the developers' ham-fisted attempts to give 47 a soul in Hitman Absolution, there were too many extraneous objectives in the game beyond the simple act of killing your target - or story missions that entailed him fleeing some goons or finding out irrelevant details about his life. The new Hitman will go back to focusing more on the hits themselves, while keeping other kinds of objectives optional. There'll still be side-missions and challenges for you to complete - if you wish - but the thrust of missions will be "Here is your target. Now go and find one of a few hundred creative ways of killing them". There will be fewer 'set-piece' missions in the new Hitman too, so don't expect the same kind of Uncharted-style helicopter chase stuff you saw in Absolution. That's not to say that the game won't have its spectacular moments. In the Showstopper gameplay footage, we see 47 walk away from the fashion show while the ceiling above the catwalk caves in behind him; maybe not the most precise way to pull off a hit, given at least 10 people must've died when that happened, but the option is there if you fancy some more pizazz in your killings.