Hitman: Absolution - Review

Feral Interactive surprised many when they revealed that Hitman: Blood Money was coming to Nintendo Switch, and it was a really good port. So there was always hope that older games in the series might make the jump as well, but I was not expecting Absolution to be the next game. This was the last game before IO rebooted the series, does it hold up as the last example of what Hitman was, or does it fail its attempt at absolution?

The story of Absolution takes place after the events of Blood Money, though you won’t need to have played that one, in order to understand what is going on here. Agent 47 is tasked with a mission in the prologue, the mission, kill his former handler who went rogue and exposed the Agency to the world. Tracking her down takes time and by the time the reformed Agency does, she has barricaded herself into a nice house. Sadly 47 is an elite assassin for a reason and he gets the drop on her and shoots her, her last request, take the girl with him. The girl in question is Victoria, someone who admits to being experimented on and sensing a familiar tale, 47 plants the girl in an orphanage, while he seeks answers. Eventually those answers lead to the girl getting taken and 47 having to take her back and dealing with any who would stand in his way. The stories biggest selling point is the mystery of what is going on and who is pulling what strings, it is also helped by the pretty decent cast that brings everything together. Of course, if you have already played the game, then you will know how things play out, so there are no new surprises here.

With all Hitman games, the gameplay is the star and here is no different. Absolution when it first released was the most divisive of the series, as a lot of the freedom was stripped away from the experience, there is still quite a lot of it, but just no where near what players had come to expect. That is still the case here, with each location having options just perhaps not as many as you had in Blood Money. In a sense, there really isn’t a lot that is new, much of the same mechanics are present as past titles, except for Instinct. You can use instinct to highlight things in the world, weapons to grab, hiding places to use and so on. You can also use it to slip by more suspicious persons, if you want to try and walk in a front door. The big catch with this is that with each use the amount you have goes down and the more important the use case, the more you use up. Highlighting things in the world is nothing, but trying to walk past security, that uses a lot and once its gone you need to refill it.

If this sounds a lot different from the Hitman reboot and subsequent titles, that is because in the newer games, it is unlimited. Here, there is only a finite amount of it and how you behave in the game impacts what you get back. Each time you complete an action that is more assassin-y, you earn a lot back, do something silly, you only get a little back. This mechanic is fine, but if you are coming back to the game from the World of Assassination series, then it’s going to take some adjusting. Those actions also impact your status as an assassin, not like in the world rankings or such, but the more authentic you are the more points you earn, which can unlock bonuses. If you take down a civilian, that will lose you points, but stuff them into a chest to hide them away, you get those back. This adds a nice level of replayability to each of the stages, because you can always task yourself to get a better score.

It also means you get a chance to revisit locations and discover new things maybe you missed the first time around. For example, one mission requires you to get the iconic Silverballer, you can win it in a shooting contest, or you can steal it.  The choice is yours and that is perhaps the biggest selling point of the game and the series as a whole, every decision you make is entirely on you. Being a bad ass and taking down every guard in your way is an option, or you can use walls, objects and uniforms to blend in and sneak past. The series strength has always been in player creativity and that still shines here.

For those coming into the series on Switch for the first time, there are some fun additions with gyro aiming. Now this is not the gyro aiming that you might find in something like Splatoon, but it is a great option. At least when you have a gun in your hand, I found that if you have a throwable item, like a vase or such, it does not enable the gyro. Outside of the gyro, there are no additional features that take advantage of the Switch hardware, though when the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition arrives, maybe that will do more.

As far as presentation goes, the game looks nice, it has moments where it encounters some issues, but it is mostly a good-looking game. When I was playing Blood Money, something that I noted was just how often character models repeated, especially when in New Orleans, but here there is more variety to character models, which in turn makes things feel better. One of the earlier missions requires you to navigate around a fairly crowded market and while it did run a little slow at times, with the number of people on the screen, I did not see two of the same person standing next to each other, so that is a win. The game does run at 30fps if that matters to you, however given the traditionally slow-paced nature of the series, unless you really screw up, I think it fits.

I did encounter a few weird issues, textures that flickered and such, but those were minor. The weirdest issue that popped up for me was when I loaded into some levels like Termimus, the camera just flew out of the map. It did it while the level was beginning each time it happened, not like in the middle of a fight or such, but it was still weird.

Hitman: Absolution may not be everyone’s favourite title in the series, but this Switch release is a great reason to revisit it once more. The story is the same as before, but given the number of ways you can complete the 20 missions, there is a lot of replayability here. The addition of motion control is nice, but it not working when throwing things feels out of place. A few weird graphical issues mar an otherwise wonderful presentation, proving that once again Feral Interactive know how to port a game to Switch.

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Feral Interactive

The Pros

The games great levels have been maintained, giving players plenty of replayability

Motion aiming feels great, being able to line up that perfect shot when needed…

The Cons

… but it not working for throwing feels weird

There are some weird visual issues that pop up from time to time