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

5. 'Instinct Vision' Abilities Are Being Scaled Back

The feature that really made Absolution barely worthy of calling itself a Hitman game was Instinct Mode - the aforementioned ability that conveniently allowed Hitman to see through walls, and even colour-coded people it detected, telling you whether they were civilians, enemies, or indeed your target. Part of the magic of older Hitman games was working out just who your target was in the first place. It was usually pretty obvious, but it still felt empowering for the player to know that they were working things out for themselves, rather than the game telling them "Look, there's the shiny one you want to kill!" There was some logic to Instinct in Absolution. Several levels in the game had big crowds, which could get a bit confusing (and God forbid the silly little gamer gets confused about who he has to kill!). However, using Instinct in the more thinly-populated parts of the game to master your surroundings killed off huge chunks of the suspense. It's telling that one of the big things Square Enix is highlighting about Hitman (2016) is reining in and simplifying this mode. During the gameplay footage, the narrator said that it will "only highlight useful elements", so no more omniscient mega-vision for Agent 47. As far as we're aware, it'll only highlight climbable objects, switches, levers, and potentially fun ways to kill your target. Is all that still a bit too handy-holdy for you? No problem, because you'll be able to go old-school and switch the feature off altogether.