Not every method of murder is as satisfying as you'd want, but Absolution plays well and looks sumptuous.

While Hitman is still slower than most games, it's also smarter. Devising a strategy, using the environment and disguises to your advantage, and leaving before anyone knows you're there are the hallmarks of a perfect hit, and Absolution proves Agent 47 is still gaming's premier hitman. [Dec 2012, p.98]

Absolution is a slick, responsive and mechanically confident game - and on occasions it's one of the most satisfying stealth games in a year that already includes Dishonored - but a range of compromises to Hitman tradition mean it's still going to rub some people up the wrong way.

I loved and hated Hitman: Absolution. It wraps its stealthy assassinations within a slim and challenging margin of comfort. Often, that's due to clunky mechanics that don't share the same kind of experimental freedom as other sandbox games, especially when unexpected glitches can ruin a half-hour of careful exploration. You can expect many hours of gameplay against a detailed backdrop of revenge, murder, and deliciously unsavory characters and comic book-styled villainy. It's not as beautiful a kill as it could have been, but the lengthy contract can still make a compelling argument for giving this wetwork collection a second look.

I can't really consider Absolution to be a must buy sort of title, but it's worth checking out as a curiosity rental at least. There are elements here that I like, and things that do harken back to the traditional Hitman experience, but this is about as far off the rails as the series has managed to get. Hopefully the next entry tries to reign in the foreign concepts a little more, because this hardly feels like the right direction to take the series in.

If you're new to the series, there's plenty of warm water here to sink into, but franchise stalwarts need not worry. Agent 47 is as cunning, deadly, and silent as you want him to be; it just so happens that purist players will also be the most rewarded. Regardless your level of experience, Hitman: Absolution scratches a very specific itch, one that involves a butterfly knife or possibly an accidental electrocution.

Hitman's temporary hiatus did worlds of good for the franchise, and Absolution is one of the strongest entries in the series to date. It shows true evolution, moving Agent 47 forward and playing up his enhanced abilities well, both when it comes to hitting a well-placed shot to the head of a scummy target or stealthily moving through a building full of police.

Hitman: Absolution is a triumph, top to bottom. Fans of the series can look forward to the best entry yet, without question.

On the right difficulty setting Absolution is Hitman at its cleverest, funniest, twisted best. [Christmas 2012, p.63]

Absolution is a fantastic addition to a series that defined a genre last generation, and I can't wait to see what they come up with for our favorite bald assassin moving forward.

Absolution has the pacing and exotic set-piece locations of a James Bond film, which seems appropriate given that 47 is essentially Bond stripped of his smirk, gadgets, and vices.

Contracts redeems Absolution, but it doesn't absolve it. The game has taken a unique formula and diluted it, allowing the fashionable trappings of other stealth titles to intrude upon a series that has always confidently eschewed convention.

Occasionally you'll witness flashes of brilliance, glimpses that suggest Io could yet salvage something from this wreckage for its next Hitman game. And then you finish a stage with a tedious quick-time event, snapping the neck of a morbidly obese Danny Trejo-alike in a wrestling match watched by hundreds - astonishingly earning yourself a Silent Assassin rating in the process - and you shake your head sadly and wonder how it all went so badly wrong.

It's a compelling return to form, featuring some of the series' most well crafted, inviting and testing stages, and while much has changed in the six-year interim, you'll be pleased to hear that Agent 47 hasn't.

For new players, the systems in Hitman can take some getting used to. Once acclimated, my only real problem was deciding how I wanted to take out my target. With the incredible number of options, it's possible to play the same level multiple times, in a completely different way each time. Add to that the user created challenges, and the result is a fun game that has tons of replay value. With five difficulty settings, the game will appeal to both hardcore stealth fans and casual gamers alike, and it's a terrific package that anyone can enjoy.

Hitman: Absolution is an enjoyable and unique stealth-action game with amazing visuals.

Hitman: Absolution is an intelligent and finely-crafted game that remains faithful to the series.

Offers refinement of a beloved series in many ways, boasting more visual pizzazz than most anything releasing this year and a well-paced story which features a good share of weirdness without attempting a scope beyond its means.

Rather than encourage you to engage this striking world as a real place with coherent rules and consequences, you're asked to internalize its shortcomings and game them mercilessly. When it truly makes good on the open-world stealth thing, it certainly has its moments, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Contracts mode. But even in these cases, its flaws are merely papered-over. If you mean to accept this contract, bear in mind the numerous potential complications.

Hitman: Absolution is compelling to passionate fans as well as new players. It is the assassination game everyone was waiting for. Move over Corvo and Connor, it is Agent 47's time to stand on top.

One of the best stealth experiences in this generation. Great freedom comes from a sandbox structure that allows the player to decide how to take out his targets. Multiplayer gives a boost to duration and add some extra flavor challenge.

Hitman: Absolution is not a masterpiece, a game without flaws, but is still one of the greatest stealth games of the year, an excellent mixture of the classic Hitman formula plus brand new mechanics. And the Contracts Mode is really funny, especially for the hardcore fans who need a higher level of challenge.

Overall, Hitman isn't a bad game, in fact it it is hard to find fault. The main issue is that it is a Hitman game and the main new mechanics and the structure of the story mode take away that feeling you had when playing an earlier Hitman game. If you are new to the series then you will love what is on offer, but fans will be left with a bit of a bitter taste in their mouth.

While there are a few sequences that thrill the way a proper Hitman should, like stalking a dark cornfield or combing Chinatown without being dressed as a chef, these brief glimpses of 47's predatory roots are outnumbered three-to-one by kludgey segments more about duckwalking towards exits than they are about killing professionally. I would imagine that the goal of Hitman: Absolution was to take Agent 47's detailed, methodical gameplay and make it appeal to players more familiar with modern action/stealth hybrids, but all the devs have done is eviscerate their unique franchise with poorly-implemented mechanics and left him to die an awkward, humiliating death.

Everything about the world revolves around entertaining you, whether it's the wide scope of murder-options or the amazing dialogue in between. Whatever kind of killer you decide you want to be, Absolution is an unmissable hit. [Dec 2012, p.68]

Hitman Absolution is one of the best stealth games in last years. Great campaign, full of content and superb graphics in the return of Agent 47.

A study in pure, unadulterated excellence.

To be honest, Absolution is a bit of a weird game in general – if you take various components individually, there are a lot of fun and unique elements to the game. Start to look at it as a whole product though, and you can't help but feel as emotionally detached as the people you end up killing. It's way more narrative driven than any of the previous games, and that has a natural effect on where you go, and what you do when you get there.