Hitman 6: 10 Essential Things It Must Fix From Absolution

10. Scale Back The Story

Hitman: Absolution opens with Agent 47 assigned to eliminate his former handler, Diana Burnwood, for leaking sensitive information. In her last moments Diana demands that 47 protect a young girl who is being hunted by the Agency, and thus begins our game. 47 is on the run, hunted by his former employers and cut off from any and all Agency contact and while this sounds like a fantastic idea on paper, the gameplay ultimately suffers. You're no longer quite carrying out assassinations so much as simply hopping from one shadow to another, skulking in alleyways and dispatching whoever happens to cross your path. The series was built on a foundation of multi-tiered strategical gameplay, and the rogue element of the plot doesn't translate well to level design when you're the hunted rather than the hunter. Disregarding the killer-for-hire theme of the series unfortunately branded the title as just another run-of-the-mill stealth title, and this was reflected with the over-emphasis on 'stop and hide' gameplay. Hitman works far better as a story when it's scaled back to focus on the central idea of a ghostly figure assassinating targets for a shadowy organisation. Forget the helicopter chases, sometimes minimal is better.