Hitman: Absolution Catch-All

Got into this some last night, having a lot of fun, and while i do feel a little pinned in, that's nothing new to the series so i didn't expect a lot different. It's very much hitman...so if you really enjoyed blood money, you'll love this one.

There's a lot i really don't "get" yet, but i'm sure it'll gel soon enough for me. The tutorial is frackin terrific.

Here's the biggest thing i dont get that i really need help with. The game launcher asks us to sign in with the square enix site and register i guess. Well i don't see a CD key on steam to do that with.

How does the whole contracts and friends thing work? Does the steam version just use steam friends? Or is there some way i have to register this with the site?

I watched the quick look. I was impressed. I would suggest you watch the last 5 mins of it to see some really messed up shenanigans. They are messing around in a contract mission.

The challenge level is pretty dang high. And the levels are pretty damn big though split into multiple smaller parts, many of which have a checkpoint. Saving is not an issue at all a few missions in.

I remember in blood money i'd leave massive trails of corpses behind me most of the time as hard as i tried...but in this game, i'm actually able to realistically work around that a lot it seems.

The scoring mechanism really prompts you to up your own challenge level by being as careful as possible. Love it or hate it, it does effect the way you play.

And for some reason we cannot even play the contracts portion of the game right now because "the hitman contracts server is temporarily offline, see www.hitman.com for more information".

And massive fail....whole major portion of the game relies on square enix hitman servers to be up and working....FAIL FAIL FAIL? FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL!

Really wanted to try somethin diff after spending a few hours dealing with a story mission.

Grubber788 wrote:
Spron wrote:

Graphics-wise, etc. it looks and runs just fine on medium-high settings (yes tessellation but only medium shadows and depth of field) with my GTX 460.

What resolution are you running? I'm excited to get home and play--want to know what to expect :D

I'm just doing the standard old 1920x1080. Granted, I just finished the Chinatown mission, so if later missions are more demanding on the system, it might slow down. But things are running just fine, no noticeable slowdown.

mr_n00b wrote:

For most of the levels I'm not sure the game would benefit much from a "save anywhere" system. The levels are divided into small digestible chunks that take anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes to get through, all of which are accessible from the level select. It's not bothering me in the slightest.

I'm comforted by this. If I can at least restart at the most recent "chunk" after exiting the game, that's OK. I haven't made it very far, so I was more worried "for the future" when the missions actually get a little more involved.

And, you know, I actually regretted making the "console" statement...it was unfair and elitist.

Really don't care about not being able to save anywhere because I never really did. The previous games high difficulties only allowed you a few saves if any.

I bought Hitman: Absolution from gamestop for 360. If you buy it within 48 hours of launch, you get a code to download Hitman 2, Blood money, and Codename 47 for free on pc

I'm really bad at this game but I like what I've played so far.

I pre-ordered the game through Steam and it said I get a copy of Blood Money that I was going to gift because I already have it, but it isn't available. Frowny-face.

Anyone know when/if I'll be able to pick my disguises and/or weapon loadout, or is that just for the Contracts mode or something?

It's just in contracts. >.<

1/10.

I'm also starting to suspect there are triggers in the level that affect enemy behaviour. On the first level I noticed that one guard wouldn't come down the stairs until I passed a threshold. Also I could have sworn in the next level that the target would hang around a certain area depending on where YOU are. Not sure but was not a good feeling.

Desram wrote:

I'm also starting to suspect there are triggers in the level that affect enemy behaviour. On the first level I noticed that one guard wouldn't come down the stairs until I passed a threshold. Also I could have sworn in the next level that the target would hang around a certain area depending on where YOU are. Not sure but was not a good feeling.

There are definitely triggers. I think a lot of it is based on unique dialogue/conversations the devs want you to overhear.

I've found myself shooting my way through levels quite a bit rather than being stealthy. I think this is partly because the shooting has definitely improved, along with the fact that there is now a cover system. The other reason is frustration (the same frustration I get from any stealth game).

It's too bad there's a lack of continuity between some missions (losing weapons and disguises), even when each mission is part of the same area. I especially find this jarring in cut scenes, when I'm suddenly back in my trademark suit instead of whatever disguise I had been in.

As with any Hitman game, I do love the variety of ways you can take down your targets. The accidental deaths and those committed by others are especially satisfying. I've also enjoyed the few times when you can complete a level in completely different ways:

Spoiler:

e.g., Getting your guns back in Hope.

Overall, I'm having fun with the game and I think I'll enjoy it (even) more when the Contracts part of the game opens up.

Desram wrote:

I'm also starting to suspect there are triggers in the level that affect enemy behaviour. On the first level I noticed that one guard wouldn't come down the stairs until I passed a threshold. Also I could have sworn in the next level that the target would hang around a certain area depending on where YOU are. Not sure but was not a good feeling.

There are definitely triggers, but they've been coming in handy for me. I remember in Blood Money, you would have to wait for a long time before the target would enter a specific area. Now you can just trigger it in some cases.

I'm having a lot of fun in the orphanage/hospital level. I am trying to kill everyone in cool ways.

ebarstad wrote:

Overall, I'm having fun with the game and I think I'll enjoy it (even) more when the Contracts part of the game opens up.

Contracts started working for me last night. I'm on the 360. I just played the tutorial, but they seem pretty awesome. Specifically because they can be shorter than in game missions, so if you don't have the time for a long play session you can atill jump in and mess around. Also, I think they will help highlight creative ways to kill people.

If anyone is on the 360 friend me up or post in here and I'll friend you up.

I played a few contracts last night. I didn't expect to find them frustrating and difficult beyond the actual story missions, lol.

Interestingly, they're often brutal to impossible from what i can find unless you somehow know exactly where to go on said level to find the one little item they say to use for the kill.

I'm definitely gonna finish the story i think before doing many contracts at this point since they take place on the same levels, i'd rather see and interact with the sets the first time in story mode, then i'll know more of the layout and places where things are for the contracts too.

That said, on the single player loadouts or lack therof of yer shiny silverballers folks complainin about:

Spoiler:

For the night club mission you can find a silenced gun when you go in via the second floor. So you have one there, but aside from that, you do get yer silenced pistols back, just around mission 7, and it's pretty entertaining getting them back.

The ability to take loadout as you like is cool and all but actually of limited usefulness on contracts. Very few of the contracts allow you to kill the targets however you want for a decent reward. Most require use of crazy isolated tools located somewhere in the level or an accident etc. Also i havn't figured out how to shoot someone long distance with a ranged weapon without being instantly spotted by everyone between us on the map yet.

I love restarting in this game. I find that smoking a target guns blazing initially helps me find some secrets in a level whilst running from the cops. Then I get to check those places out while I still have anonymity. I love this game so far.

Grenn wrote:

I love restarting in this game. I find that smoking a target guns blazing initially helps me find some secrets in a level whilst running from the cops. Then I get to check those places out while I still have anonymity. I love this game so far.

Precisely my strategy, though I usually feel like a terrible person for racking up such a kill streak. Usually.

mr_n00b wrote:
Grenn wrote:

I love restarting in this game. I find that smoking a target guns blazing initially helps me find some secrets in a level whilst running from the cops. Then I get to check those places out while I still have anonymity. I love this game so far.

Precisely my strategy, though I usually feel like a terrible person for racking up such a kill streak. Usually.

Yeah, a casual glance at the stats has me at 4 hours played and already 109 cops killed. In Chicago. Daley will eat my spleen if he finds out.

Man this game makes my PC feel really old. Started on Ultra and did fine and then chugged. Changed to medium and got half way into the mansion and slowed down. All the way down to lowest and now is playing fine.

It's looking like this game is going to be way too long. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to finish the game let alone replay missions multiple times.

I don't get the bashing this game gets in media. The whole process of moving/stalking/killing feels fluid and dynamic now, unlike in earlier games which I loved but they seemed more like puzzle games with very strict paths to victory. I`m not fan of the story which has dragged 47 out of his cold, workman-like contracting and into a B-movie road trip but I can live with it.

The Kane and Lynch references in this game are really weird.

I'm comfortable saying that I'll finish the game, getting through it by any means necessary. Once that happy occurrence takes place, I'll gladly go back and do a few of the more open-ended levels again and try a few contracts. I'll be satisfied with my price/gameplay ratio, since I bought the game for $29 when Green Man Gaming had its pre-order special.

This game is like a Quentin Tarantino movie.

Ok, I understand that this game is about stalking your victim and finding the best and most silent/innocuous way to kill them. I get that. But there is something so inherently cool about equipping a shotgun and walking down the streets of Hope and seeing how long you can last. I replayed that level so often just because when things went to sh*t I just kept playing and killing dirty cops.

Grenn, I know what you mean. I`m playing as a quiet professional who does not like attention, gets the job done and gets out with as little ruckus as he can get away with. Yet, whenever things go south, I keep on playing for some five-ten minutes, going nuclear. And then stop and restart the checkpoint to retry the dry, stealthy approach once again.
Orphanage though.. everybody dies there. No silent tiptoeing there, no sir.

The Hitman: Absolution plot makes me feel like this.

IMAGE(http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/2108/tumblrmdr45ygcsb1rlxhs7.gif)

Yeah. Story is just weird glimpses of story hacked together, like in any other Hitman game, really. It's still better than that awful Hitman movie, though. That one was just plain cringe-fest all the way.