First of all, the casual mode. It's called "Instinct" and can be turned off on higher difficulties.
Advantages the "Instinct" mode will bring:
- X-Ray vision
- Orange glow highlights position and routes of nearby NPC's
- Highlights usable objects, special actions
- Enhances certain abilities (for example makes it harder for enemies to see through disguises)
- (the german authors speculating) maybe bullettime during shootouts
Using Instinct costs energy that can be replenished by performing "Hitman" actions like stealth killing foes.
Details on game mechanics:
- 47 is more agile and easier to control, for example he can grab on ledges and balance around edges
- Cover system integrated, human shields
- Hiding in dark corners
- Still possible to kill target only, optimally by accident
- Film-noir flair
- Dynamic music
- Using the environmental objects to dispatch enemies; examples: strangulation with electrical cords, the good old chandelier, a Bong (!)
- Glacier-2 engine again using a crowd system with dozens, if not hundreds of people on screen
- Detailed graphics, fantastic lighting, fluid indoor/outdoor transitions
Then they describe a mission and possible ways to solve it. They note that it felt old-school but rather linear, this might be because it was the presentation level. (I guess its the tutorial level, like the funfair in Hitman 4)
The Situation:
Agent 47 is an unarmed fugitive, chased by the police. He takes refuge in an abandoned library that is soon surrounded and stormed by armed forces.
Now they list three possible ways of solving the mission:
A) 47 takes the cable of a desk lamp and chokes one of the officers to death. He takes his gun, sneaks up to another officer and takes him as human shield. He then proceeds to the roof emergency exit. As soon as the armed forces open fire, 47 takes cover behind book shelves. After eliminating everyone from behind the cover, the escape route has been cleared.
B ) 47 takes the cable of a desk lamp and chokes one of the officers to death. He takes his clothing and carefully gets past the armed forces through the emergency exit on the roof.
C) 47 sneaks past the guards using all kinds of environmental cover and climbing around. He then manipulates a fuse box, disabling the electricity. In the dark he manages to sneak out over the roof undetected.
Those three possibilities culminate in a Helicopter chase sequence that is described as follows:
A linear roof chase sequence, the helicopter opens fire on 47.
They mention that such linear sequences "quicken the pace" from time to time, I don't know what to make of that.
- 47 then takes cover in an apartment building and uses his disguising skills to get to the finish.
May 10, 2011
IO INTERACTIVE UNVEILS HITMAN ABSOLUTION
The Fifth Game in the Multi–Million Selling Franchise Showcasing IO’s New Glacier 2 Game Engine
COPENHAGEN (May 10, 2011) — IO Interactive A/S, part of Square Enix Europe, is pleased to announce HITMAN® ABSOLUTION™, a new game for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and Windows PC.
HITMAN ABSOLUTION follows Agent 47™, a cold–blooded assassin, who takes on his most dangerous contract to date. Betrayed by those he once trusted — and now hunted by the police — he suddenly finds himself at the center of a dark conspiracy and must embark on a personal journey through a corrupt and twisted world.
“For the first time we are taking Agent 47 on a personal journey which allows us to explore other parts of the Hitman® fantasy,” said Tore Blystad, game director, IO Interactive. “This is both a familiar and yet significantly different experience from other Hitman games; something our silent assassins will relish, as will all those new to the Hitman world.”
Scheduled for release in 2012, HITMAN ABSOLUTION will be showcased by invitation only at the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles from June 7–9.
HITMAN ABSOLUTION is not yet rated. Please visit the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) website at www.esrb.org for more information about ratings.
For more information and updates about HITMAN ABSOLUTION, please visit the official website: www.Hitman.com
Posts
I cannot wait for a new HITMAN. Cannot wait. This is fairly exciting, although nothing will be as exciting as them quitting the flip flopping and just finally saying "Alright guys here's the new Hitman."
It has been far too fucking long.
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
I sure do love killing guys in a suit
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
I have it on PC already, but I feel like giving it another playthrough, and why not do so on my HD TV from my sofa. Probably pretty cheap now too... any reason not to get it on 360?
Speaking of which, I really hope sniping is a LOT more precise in this coming title--including the ability to use bipods or at least rest a rifle on a ledge. Sniping seems like kind of a waste if the guy is only twenty meters away anyway. Come on, IO Interactive, give me awesome long-range sniper shots between skyscrapers, Saito-style!
I haven't lethally violated OSHA regulations in far too long
As far as I can remember, the two versions are all but identical. Maybe some graphical bonuses on the PC end, but not enough that I can remember any difference between the two.
So stoked
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
But if you did do it perfectly it was brilliant. It was something to aim for, to ghost through the level with not a single soul batting an eyelid.
Here is hoping that the next one manages to do that again.
Fewer (or no) saves for challenge difficulties aside, if you make a moment awesome enough that I want to relive it again and again, though not necessarily the whole mission, please let me just load it up.
On the other hand, keep dancing 47. Too good to give up.
"What do you mean, I'm not allowed to attach remote mines to a giant room-spanning chandelier? And why can't I throw a bomb into a glass-bottomed hot tub perched precariously over a 500-foot drop? THIS IS AN ATTACK ON MY PERSONAL FREEDOMS!"
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
This sounds particularly boss in David Bateson's voice.
The 360 version won't play if you are using a HDMI cable but aside from that all the versions are the pretty much the same
That's...very strange.
Well it happened to me and some other people I found on google so I guess so
I dunno, limiting saves is one of the only ways to to up the difficulty of the game without doing dumb things like upping enemy health or making them crazy aware.
I could live with that being reserved for the higher difficulties, though. Unlimited on normal, 3 on hard, and none on the hardest setting. To me, setting Blood Money's difficulty to max and just having to deal with your mistakes makes for much better play than just kicking back to a previous save for every mistake. No telling when a slight mistake turns into a full-on bloodbath and you have to make a side trip to go snag that security footage. Then you end up walking away from the mission scot-free since there are no witnesses.
Not to mention it's damn awesome when you ace a mission on hardest and nobody has the slightest clue you were there.
This isn't true at all.
e: Apparently it is a thing but I've never had an issue with mine.
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
Cardboard Tube did discover the most intense way of playing Blood Money.
One try at each level, one life to live, no restarting because it went wrong. You screw it up, you roll with it and try to do the best you can. You don't buy out your notoriety. If you want to remain anonymous you take out the witnesses and the tapes. Can't stomach it? Look forward to your next mission with the guards knowing a bit more about what you look like.
It is amazing stuff, every decision takes on new importance. That mission you can get Silent Assassin on 10 out of 10 times becomes much more terrifying when that guard recognises you and wanders over for a closer look. Do you play it Bogart and walk off casually? Do you just draw your gun and shoot him before he makes a scene?
See how far you can get, it is great.
Making a no-reload permadeth pledge to yourself's a great way to add a new level of anxiety to any shooter you've otherwise mastered and feel bored of, I've found, but it's especially true of Blood Money.
I'm one of those people who thinks save limitations aren't the designers to implement, but should depend on the willpower of the player, but I can understand the tendency to limit a number of saves for a difficulty challenge (anything but normal, of course), right down to no saves at all.
I've done my own no-saves playthrough, and while I enjoy it, I'm something of a perfectionist--I would only do a no-save playthrough after I'd analyzed every likely approach, and done everyhthing to the point I was sufficiently satisfied.
Of course, doing it DID add a new dimension of fun. Don't get me wrong.
But that's kind of beside the point. Earlier games before Blood Money were full of little unexpected moments, many of them not intended to be in a "normal" playthrough, that were great, but not necessarily great too. Sniping the armored car from an entirely different building. Falling into an otherwise inaccessible spot. Saves are a good way to replicate this, if you just want to play that.
If you don't, hey, just don't use them,
Hitman 2
I have a really funny story concerning this, but I think telling it might be a infraction-worthy.
Which is terribly ironic, given the nature of the story.
Oh boy.
As long as they keep to the usual Hitman gameplay and don't try too hard to make Agent 47 into some redeemed figure, ala Hitman 2, I think the game should at least be good nonetheless. Sometimes characters just don't need to be deep or complex.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Killing the entire nation of Japan was not my cup of tea.
Because that's what I keep having to do in the Japan segment!
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
Hide in the truck, and then run for it like you're there to kill somebody who's not there at the moment.
Once you get to the fortress--actually, it's not that hard, once you get the right threads.
That finale:
Also, my memory is faint but I remember that villain in the wheelchair rolling up a hill with his handgun, taking him out with a well placed shot felt like a very powerful ending moment for me, especially compared to your typical final boss fights in games.
So yeah, here's hoping for Hitman 5.