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Critic Reviews
"Hitman: Absolution is a triumph, top to bottom. Fans of the series can look forward to the best entry yet, without question."
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"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."
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Hyper Magazine
"A meticulous, engaging game and accomplished sequel that improves upon its predecessors in an organic way series fans will appreciate. [Jan 2013, p.55]"
CD-Action
"Absolution throws down the gauntlet –it's difficult but extremely rewarding and never malicious or unfair. It offers great freedom, looks terrific and is packed with huge number of optional tasks and challenges. I spent 15 hours with Hitman but that's just a beginning – I'll be definitely coming back for more. [13/2012, p.30]"
"Hitman is back and is in great shape. Io Interactive delivered a game suitable to both hardcore fans looking for a challenging experience and new players, thanks to the many options in difficulty and features set; this adds to an highly cinematic experience with a mature story and interesting social features. Probably the best game in the series and one of this gen's best stealth games."
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"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."
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"Contracts is a huge addition, and one that'll add months of replay value long after you complete the single player mode. Throw in a "killer" presentation and you've got one of the year's most surprising sequels."
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"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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"Like Dishonored before it, it's actually a true pleasure to play a game that lets you tackle it from multiple angles."
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Games Master UK
"On the right difficulty setting Absolution is Hitman at its cleverest, funniest, twisted best. [Christmas 2012, p.63]"
"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]"
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"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."
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Game Informer
"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]"
"In closing go and pick this game up. With the flood of FPS's we have seen and the huge amount of titles launched before Christmas, Agent 47's return should not be overlooked. There are two games I would recommend this year and Hitman: Absolution is one of them. A really enjoyable game that offers hours and hours of replayability whether through leaderboards and challenges in the campaign, or through the very awesome and cleverly conceived Contracts mode."
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"Absolution is not flawless as the AI has some occasional odd issues and portions of the mission design can be questionable. The narrative also struggles a bit at the end too, leaving some storyline gaps that could use some conclusion. All in all however, Hitman: Absolution is a technically sound title that brings back what players fell in love with in the first place, while simultaneously bringing forward new mechanics that work in harmony with the old."
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"Hitman: Absolution reaches out to a broader audience with some new features, but manages to stay true to its nature. Some new features, like badly placed checkpoints and mission structure, sometimes ruin the game, but the mission offers an amazing amount of killing options you'll be surprised in a positive way more often than in a negative."
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"There is definitely a different kind of fun to be had in Hitman, and it's one I highly recommend."
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"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. "
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"It's not as cerebral as Hitman: Blood Money. But that doesn't stop Hitman: Absolution from being a smart, unique action title, and a hell of a lot of fun."
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"Hitman: Absolution is an enjoyable and unique stealth-action game with amazing visuals."
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"Hitman: Absolution is an intelligent and finely-crafted game that remains faithful to the series."
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"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."
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"Hitman: Absolution is the sequel to Blood Money that fans have been itching for. In terms of game mechanics it's the best Hitman that IO Interactive has ever created, although the lack of inherently unique settings is a disappointment. That said, IO has more than made up for that with the brilliant asynchronous Contracts mode, adding replayability to a single-player game in the most smart and stylish way."
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"Ultimately, Hitman: Absolution marks a faithful, gorgeous and only occasionally maddening return for a series that’s been gone far too long. It may have trouble finding fans among twitchy gamers with short attention spans, but guns and brains should never be mutually exclusive. And those kids can get off my damn lawn."
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"An enjoyable rarity among games these days: it rewards patience and, rather than tacking on a standard online multiplayer mode, it instead encourages replay through steadily ramping difficulty levels that are themselves increasingly more satisfying."
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"Longtime Hitman fans will undoubtedly be put off by some of the changes Io has made here, but if you're willing to dig a little deeper, you'll find a game that's as rewarding as any Hitman prior."
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"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."
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"Hitman: Absolution does have a few flaws, but these certainly don't take away from what is a polished and in-depth package that turns killing into a fine art. Hitman purists may decry the latest title, but in our opinion the balance between stealth and action is just right. Most importantly, you feel that you always have the freedom to bring death in any way you choose. The world is your oyster; now go kill in it. "
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"There are some bugs and the story is disappointing, but it says a lot about the experience that I was able to quickly shake those things off and keep replaying levels or building contracts again and again."
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"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."
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"With all its fancy visuals and some properly directed cinematic moments, in addition to all the features packed into the solo mode and multiplayer mode, Hitman: Absolution can still get tedious. "
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"This may sound like Absolution is a bad game. It isn't – it's just a bad Hitman game. Features bleed from other games and the bizarre need to position Agent 47 as an action man with feelings and a rough moral code has diluted its identity. That said, there is deep replay value, both in the single-player and Contracts modes."
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"Drifts too far from the franchise's sweet spot. A lengthy campaign offers plenty of opportunities for diabolical fun, but the stealth mechanics feel like a string of bad decisions, and a lack of pure assassination missions - exactly what the franchise built its fame on - doesn't help. Most telling, this isn't the Hitman I'll revisit for years to dig out all its secrets."
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"Not every method of murder is as satisfying as you'd want, but Absolution plays well and looks sumptuous."
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"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."
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"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."
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"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. "
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"A game with an identity crisis trying to be too many things to too many people. It's more successful than it should be but ultimately the entire package is brought down by being pulled in these two polarizing directions."
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"Hitman: Absolution provides a varied and sometimes stellar experience. The joy of creating brilliant accidents is hard to match, but the game can also be very frustrating. Using disguises can be a frustrating experience, and at times you feel very limited in the choices you can make."
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"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."
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"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."
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GameTrailers
"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."
"The best thing one can say about Absolution is that it's impossible to feel ambivalent about it; players will love and loathe aspects of this game in equal measure. In Absolution, terrible ideas rub up against great ones almost on a moment-to-moment basis, and the end result is a title which is impossible to consider with the same clinical detachment that it's protagonist is known for."
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"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."
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"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."
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"Hitman Absolution is a fascinating case of an error of judgment costing a game its heart. For Absolution, that mistake was placing a focus on a story that didn't need to be told and nobody wanted to hear."
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"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. "
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